After class on Friday, we started the weekend by heading to Schöbrunn Palace to walk around. It was beautiful and we had a great time looking at the Versailles-inspired architecture that Maria Theresa constructed during her reign. It was quite hot, so after about an hour of walking around the palace grounds, we stopped at an outdoor restaurant right by the zoo and grabbed a late lunch. One of the students was almost charged an extra 2 euro (!!) for extra ketchup, but she was able to get out of it.
During our second weekend in Vienna, myself and some other students tried to beat the heat (and lack of air conditioning) by heading down to the Danube for a swim. Many Viennese like to lay out on the banks of the Danube River when it gets hot and swim in the fresh water. There are various food carts that circulate throughout the area where people can purchase snacks, ice cream, and alcohol. I’ve swam in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as a few bays and lakes, but it was my first-time swimming in a river. I really enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the Danube, to me the area felt a lot more chill and calmer than an American beach in the summer time. We all had a lot of fun and planned to go back at least one more time before the program was over.
On Sunday, some of us headed to the Prater amusement park to go on the famous Vienna Ferris Wheel, which was featured in the twentieth-century film, The Third Man. At first, I was slightly hesitant to go on because it was 12 euros to go around the wheel one time, but then we discovered a student discount so it was only 7 euros, which seemed more reasonable. The views were incredible and sadly my included pictures below just don’t do it justice.
On both Saturday after the Danube and Sunday after the amusement park, we tried some “ethnic” food offerings in Vienna. We were starving after a few hours swimming and sunbathing, and we went to an Indian restaurant. We came to the consensus that the food was okay, but not the kind of Indian food that we were all used to even if the names of items on the menu were the same. Also, compared to the Indian food available in the states, this food had no spice. Similarly, after the amusement park, we tried a “pan Asian” buffet style restaurant right off of the Prater grounds. Again, it was pretty good food, but there was no spice to be found. I think that Americanized Chinese buffet style restaurants offer the same exact food as this restaurant did, but minus any hint of chili or heat. As a lover of spicy food, the fact that this aspect of food is missing from virtually all of the food I’ve tried since I arrived in Vienna is slightly disheartening. I’m already planning what spicy foods I will indulge in once I am back in the states!
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