On our first full day we had orientation and a walking tour. Me and one of my roommates made the blunder of not picking the closest drugstore as we headed out to a drugstore less than thirty minutes before orientation to grab toilet paper and paper towels for our apartment, so in a way, we already started to accomplish Kathy’s instructions of “get lost in Vienna.” Kathy showed us where our classroom was, how to use the street car method of public transit, and showed us the museum quarter and many of the major sights around the city center. I’m so excited to head back to all the museums she pointed out.
After this walking tour, Kathy and Lawrence allowed us to do whatever we wanted in the city and then find our ways back to the apartment. I got my first taste of a beer garden and the Naschmarkt. I think the concept of a beer garden is one of the things major US cities are missing (apart from better public transit). The beer garden felt like a calm oasis within a busy city where one could get a cold beer and hang out.
The next day we went on a four-hour bus tour. The bus tour allowed us to see lots of areas of Vienna (and surrounding towns) in only a few hours. The tour guide was interesting to say the least, but Kathy artfully corrected some of his mistakes after the tour to make sure we had a clear understanding of the main topics he discussed. We ended the tour at a wine garden in Heurigen with good wine and amazing food. The traditional German/Austrian dinner that I had on the first night wasn’t my favorite, but this meal redeemed the cultural food for me.
On Sunday, Lawrence gave us a tour of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Military History Museum). Military history isn’t my favorite area of history, but I really enjoyed seeing the various weapons, uniforms, bags/backpacks, and other equipment that the museum preserved from different eras of war. Different parts of the museum had very different appearances and atmospheres, partially because of the different eras of history, but also because some parts of the museum had been renovated more recently than others.
After the museum, several of us went to another beer garden, hooray! I tried my first Austrian schnitzel and it did not disappoint. We found our way back to the apartment through the use of Vienna’s amazing, accessible, user friendly public transit system. This will probably be a theme throughout these blog entries, I seriously cannot get over how wonderful the public transportation system is, especially compared to the public transit in Santa Barbara and Goleta area, which I rely on during the school year because I don’t have my car with me at school.
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