Austria

Guten Tag again friends!

So on Sunday, we headed over to St. Stephan’s first thing in the morning for Mass. I don’t know if it was just a tourist thing, but unlike all the churches in Italy, this cathedral was packed for Sunday Mass. We went to the special Cathedral Music Mass, so that we could hear the pipe organ played in all its glory. There was also a wonderful choir assembled. I loved listening to the music, especially when I couldn’t understand a thing that was being said! My favorite part of Mass was when my Dad called on my US cell phone, which I often forget about, and had forgotten to turn off. Suddenly, the song Shake It by Metro Station interrupted the beautiful song being sung by the choir, and echoed through the entire cathedral. I freaked out because all the Austrians were giving me disapproving stares. I don’t think my face has been that embarrassed shade of red in a long time! Overall, the verdict is, I love Cathedral music, it is simply awe-inspiring.

This video, and this piece, don't really give this organist or this organ the justice it deserves. But it's the only chance I had to take a video, so enjoy!

After church, we caught the Metro and went to the outskirts of Vienna to the Schönbrunn Palace. We weren’t allowed to take pictures otherwise I’d probably have a zillion! This palace was way more impressive than Versailles! It was the “summer home” of the Hapsburg dynasty. Most notably, Empress Maria Theresa, and her grandson Emperor Fraz Joseph I and his wife Elizabeth, fondly known as “Sisi.” Maria Theresa was the ultimate power-woman. She ruled the Hapsburg Empire, AND she had 16 children! She made important connections through Europe by making advantageous political matches for her children. For example, Maria Theresa was the mom of Marie Antoinette. Among the really cool rooms in this palace were a walnut room (perhaps the inspiration for the restaurant at Marshall Field’s?), and also a Hall of Mirrors, where Mozart first played a concert for Maria Theresa at the age of 6. The story goes that after his performance, Mozart jumped up onto the empress’s lap, hugged and kissed her. We only took the 35-min. Imperial Tour, so we didn’t get to see the entire palace, but we saw enough to realize how powerful this dynasty was in their prime.

After the Schönbrunn, we headed back into the city for more sight-seeing, but first, we stopped for some more authentic Austrian food. We found this very rustic Austrian pub called Zum Bettelstudent, where we enjoyed house beer, Weiner Schnitzel, Goulash, and Spaetzle! It was so delicious!

The next palace on our list was the Hofburg. The Hofburg is so huge though that it’s really a complex, including famous Imperial stables, and about 6-7 other museums as well. On our visit, we saw the Kaiserappartements, and the Silberkammer (the imperial silver collection!). Once again, no pictures allowed, and such a shame, because it was so cool! I’m not really a person who gets super excited by looking at lots of china, silver, and cutlery, but you wouldn’t believe how extensive their collection was. I can’t even imagine how many thousands, or even millions of dollars these people possessed in dishware alone! Each piece had its own story as well; there were some pretty china plates with green ribbons painted on it that had come as a gift from Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI, in an outreach of political friendship between France and the Hapsburg Empire.

The rest of the apartments we toured focused mainly on the Fraz Joseph I and his wife Sisi. Franz Joseph I took his role as a multi-national ruler very seriously. He woke up every day at about 3:30 am, and spent most of his days at his desk working through important documents. His wife Sisi was an interesting woman in her own right. Apparently she was a “free-spirited” woman, and barely fulfilled her royal duties as wife to the Emperor, much to the chagrin of others. She had this ridiculously long hair that reached all the way to her ankles, and took 2-3 hours to dress in the morning! She was very anxious about her figure: she maintained a 20 inch waist! She had exercise equipment in her dressing room and rarely came to the table for family dinners. She even refused to have any portraits done after she hit age 30. Although the emperor adored Sisi, she didn’t exactly adore him, and most of her later life was spent gallivanting between her estates throughout Europe. Sisi was assassinated (stabbed to death with a file) by an Italian anarchist during her trip to Geneva, Switzerland. Upon the news of her death, the Emperor stated, “You cannot understand how much I loved this woman.” I think it’s obvious that I enjoyed the history and the narrative of these people’s lives the most, their apartments were merely illustrations accompanying their fascinating lives.

After leaving the Hofburg, we headed over to the Staatsoper, the Vienna Opera House. After waiting in a really, really, long line, we bought standing-room only tickets for just 3€. The standing room area was on the awkward sides of the Staatsoper, but who cares when you’re only paying 3€ to see an opera? That night we saw the Russian opera Eugene Onegin which was composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. I’ve loved the music from this opera ever since I played it in the youth orchestra in high school. Speaking of high school, while I was at the opera, I ran into an old acquaintance from high school standing in the row in front of me! Her name is Kara Worthman, and we actually were roommates at Band Camp freshman year of high school. How about that for a small world?! She is a voice performance major, studying in Vienna for eight weeks. It was the coolest coincidence ever!

You mark your spot in the standing-room section by leaving your scarf on the railing!

Monday morning was our last few hours in Vienna. Genevieve and Tom’s family love this coffee they get from Gevalia called Café Sperl, and the original Café Sperl is in Vienna! Vienna is well-known for its café culture. This particular café is over 100 years old! I loved the antique atmosphere inside. It was definitely a place where you could sit back, enjoy some great coffee, and be left alone to spend a few hours reading a favorite book. We ordered the traditional Viennese Melange. It’s like a cappuccino made with special Viennese-blend coffee. We also ordered a slice of Apfelstrudel (Apple Strudel). It was the best apple strudel I think I’ve ever had!

After our delicious café experience, we hopped on a train for a 4.5 hour journey to Prague, Czech Republic!

We got bored on the train, so we decided to photograph all the special sweets made in Vienna, Haribo gummy bears, Mozart chocolates, and Manner choclate-hazelnut wafers!

A last look at the Wombat Hostel & the Trams that run all through Vienna!

Guten Tag!

Welcome along my Spring Break travels! Friday was our first day of Spring Break, and we had a looong day of travel to Vienna, Austria. We had a layover in Cologne, Germany for about 3 hours, and both Genevieve and I were SO impressed with how pristine it was. We almost forgot what modern civilization looked like! Not that Italy’s not modern per se, but compared with other European countries, it really seems like a 2nd world country sometimes. So far our favorite phrase on this trip is Sprechen Sie Englisch?, Do you speak English?. Neither of us knows a lick of German, so we’re relying on that phrase to get us through our travels!

We are staying at Wombat’s City Hostel. There are two in Vienna, and this one is called “The Lounge”. It has a very hip, young vibe, just like our hostel in Paris. It’s perfect for students like us. Our bedroom looks like Ikea furnished it. Our hostel has its own kitchen, where to our delight, there’s lots of free food! We had packed some food along with us since we knew we would be getting into Vienna pretty late in the evening. But we were happy to find boxes of pasta and unopened jars of tomato sauce left behind by other guests and free for the taking. So even though we were in Vienna, we ate Italian style, and spent a whole lot of nothing! Our hostel also comes with a pool table and foosball table, flat screen TVs, and a huge bar in the basement. They’ve definitely got a lot of amenities going for them.

Freshman year, I had this professor for my Romanticism in Art & Music seminar that would always talk about Vienna. Her name was Susan Youens, and she is a musicologist devoted to studying Schubert. Well, ever since I can remember, she told us to write her when we were abroad, and she would send us a list of all the best things to see. Since she is a music scholar, Vienna is like her European home base, she even lived here for part of her life. Susan was nice enough to write my recommendation letter to study abroad in Italy, and Genevieve and I have both had her for classes. We wrote to her that we were coming to Vienna, and she sent us back a two-page letter of things to see!

Saturday morning, we tackled Prof. Youens’ list. We walked down the street outside our hostel to reach the center of town, called the Inner Stadt; we found out that our hostel happens to be located on Vienna’s major shopping street. While walking down the street, I saw a lot of familiar American franchises, but one sign stopped me in my tracks: Aldi. My mom has always told me that Aldi was a German grocery store company, and here was the proof in the pudding! In Germany and Austria, it’s called Hofer, but it looks exactly like any other Aldi you’d see in America, only with more wursts in the refrigerator section! I know my mom and Aunt Bernice would love to hear this news, so I took pictures, and tonight we got our groceries for dinner there. We bought food for two days for only 14.25 €. Split between three people, we’re living like kings on a peasant’s budget! Note: In Austria they check you out even FASTER than they do in America, I was scrambling to throw my stuff in the bag as fast as I could, and the check-out lady was still glaring at me!

Our 45-minute walk ended at the Hofburg palace, which we would be touring on Sunday. From there we took a ride on the Ringstrasse (a street that rings around the city center) on tram #2. We must have the best luck ever, because just like in Siena, we got on the wrong #2 tram, and had to get off and backtrack. Once we got on the right tram, we had a nice little tour of all of Vienna’s most impressive buildings.

We got off at the Vienna Opera House, Staatsoper, to take pictures for Genevieve’s sake.

Then we caught tramline #71 to go out to the largest cemetery in Vienna. In this cemetery were buried some of the world’s most famous composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms. We paid our respects, and then hurried back to the tram, because it was COLD outside!

Once we reached the Inner Stadt again, we were hungry! So we stopped the closest and best place we could find for some Austrian food. We enjoyed Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, and Weiner Schnitzel with potatoes for lunch. We then headed to the Haus der Musik to spend the afternoon.

Vienna is totally the city of music, and the Haus der Musik is an interactive museum highlighting this fact. This museum was so cool! It really paid homage to all kinds of music, new and old. We learned all about sound, how it behaves, etc… After the museum we walked up to Stephansdom, St. Stephan’s Cathedral, in Stephansplatz, St. Stephan’s Square. I’ve seen a lot of churches so far this semester, but this one was so different inside than the one’s I’ve seen before. I think it’s because it was built in a different architectural style. The organ was really impressive! We were going to “Cathedral Music” Mass at Stephansdom on Sunday, so I couldn’t wait to hear it played.

On Saturday, we also added a new friend to our traveling group. Genevieve’s brother Tom, a student at the University of Chicago, flew in from Chicago to join us on Spring Break. Genevieve’s so excited to see her brother, it always so nice to see someone from home!