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A Freudian Trip (Extended Edition): Day 45

In the morning, we headed out of our hotel to go to the Great Market Hall. The Great Market Hall was in a really cool looking building, and was surprisingly not sardined full of people. We popped up to the second floor, which had more souvenir type things and less food type things, but it was way to hot and we had to head down after making it halfway around the building. 

After the Great Market Hall, we began a long hike across the river, along the hillside, then all the way up to the Citadel. In the middle of the day. It was hot. Like really hot. There was possibly no worse time for us to be climbing up a giant hill, and yet there we were. The view ended up being worth it, lucky for us, and a chimney cake filled with ice cream also helped cool us down and perk up our moods.

After our ridiculous journey up the hill, we went back down to head back to the hotel to take a little break. Before we had made it all the way back, we decided to pop into St Stephen’s Basilica now that there wasn’t a wedding ceremony going on. The Basilica is beautiful, and we wandered back to the little chapel where they keep the relic of St Stephen’s right hand. It’s more than a little creepy. 

Yup, that’s the hand. In the little hand box. Now that we were sufficiently overheated and weirded out, we could go back to the hotel and relax until it was time to go on our magical sunset/city lights coming on river cruise (thank you mom, and also inspiration credit to Travel Babbo--we are essentially high class travel bloggers now).

It was a super magical ending to our last night in Budapest that iPhone photos cannot do justice. 

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A Freudian Trip (Extended Edition): Day 44

Today started out with a surprisingly delicious and filling hotel breakfast and we got to hang out with our good friend, Ronald Regan. 

Look at that beautiful Parliament building in the background! We were headed that way to check on where we were supposed to meet for our tour of the Parliament building later today. 

The building itself is beautiful and very elaborate. The view down by the water across the Danube into the “Buda” side of the city was great too! We walked along the water until we found the visitor’s center (literally about as far away from where we started as we could get) and, feeling much more confident about our abilities to make our reservation, we headed out on our journey across the chain bridge. 

Once we were successfully across the bridge (where we would have liked to stay because the breeze coming across the Danube was amazing, it was really hot), we hiked up the hill to the Buda castle to see what there was to see up there. 

We have finally made our way into where I know very little about the significant sites and the history, so I’ll tell you what I know and then what I found out from Wikipedia when I go read that here shortly. The guys at the tourist information center told us Franz Josef built the castle (not super well, they were explaining that this section of ruins was an old part of the castle that had fallen apart) as just sort of a little shack to stay in while in the Hungarian half of their empire. Onto Wikipedia...

...There is a lengthy article for the Buda castle on Wikipedia. The site has been a site for royal buildings since somewhere between 1247 and 1265. Those ruins could have been anything. Even its most modern iteration is comprised of pieces slapped on, expanded, torn down, and “modernized” by every power that has come through Hungary. I stopped reading when I got to the (clearly) most important part of the article: in 2010, Katy Perry filmed the music video for Firework in the Buda Palace courtyard. 

From the Buda castle, we walked across the top of the hill to the Matthias church and the fisherman’s bastion, both of which were gorgeous and very Disney-esque in my opinion.

We took a quick eiskaffee break in the lower level of the fishermans’ bastion to cool off and to fuel up for our trek back across one of the bridges to make our tour of the Parliament building. 

The Parliament tour was super cool and was a great way to see the inside of the building. The two most notable parts of the tour were seeing the holy crown of Hungary, which has been coronating kings since the 12th century, and learning that it had been passed around quite a bit since the 12th century and somehow ended up in the hands of good ol’ US president Jimmy Carter, who politely gifted it back to Hungary (no photos are allowed of really old crowns). The second cool part was standing on the largest hand knotted rug in the world? I don’t know, that fact stuck with us for some reason. 

After our Parliament tour, we went back to our hotel to rest our weary feet. On the way, we picked up gelato roses, which seem to be the most popular form of ice cream around our hotel (and they were delicious too!).

UNTIL DISASTER STRUCK!

Luckily, we were literally right across the street from the hotel and I was able to wash my dress and change into something more suitable for wine and cheese hour. 

After wine and cheese hour, we went to grab dinner, because clearly wine and cheese was not substantial enough, then got some rest before our big day tomorrow. 

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The internet is impossibly slow at our hotel in Prague. After it took 10 minutes to load the Tumblr page and another 5 to get to the draft of my post of Budapest day 2, my patience had run out and I quit my endeavor of catching up and went to bed. Perhaps I will try again tonight.

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A Freudian Trip (Extended Edition): Day 43

Today started with another transportation nightmare. A long time ago when I was buying our tickets I somehow managed to buy us the wrong tickets to get from Vienna to Budapest. They weren’t horribly wrong: they did go from Vienna to Budapest, however, they were tickets for a route that required like 3 transfers and involved little regional trains and was not at all what I had hoped I was buying. This, combined with heading somewhere I had a lot of reservations about and leaving somewhere I loved so much, left me feeling a little overwhelmed and a lot frustrated. There may have been some tears. I’m not proud.

Luckily, I now had a skilled world adventurer/pilot on my team who had an iPad with data who could help figure out what kind of crazy tickets I had bought us. Eventually, we crawled into our hotel, grateful for air conditioning and the feeling of finally making it. Mom totally hooked us up with a gorgeous hotel--discovered from her favorite travel blog Travel Babbo. Things were seriously looking up. After curling up on the bed and letting the air conditioning sooth my frazzled emotions a little bit (the disappointment that I am not, in fact, the cool, roll-with-the-punches traveler that I hoped I would be was starting to settle in instead), we ventured out to go find some food that was not weird Hungarian train station sandwiches. 

We found somewhere across the little plaza in front of St. Stephan’s Basilica, across the way from our hotel, where we got really good (and, admittedly, American-inspired) food. After dinner, we popped into the Basilica and took a look around some of it, there was a couple getting married in there, so some of the sections were roped off to give their ceremony some privacy. 

It was a beautiful building. After peering in at the ceremony (which looked magical) we wandered back to our hotel lobby for a wine and cheese hour that they host there. We found it rather lovely and felt like we could really support an afternoon wine and cheese snack. Afterwards, still full from our interestingly timed late lunch/early dinner and cheese snacks, we sort of just started wandering around to see what we could see. 

When we went back to the hotel, Mom had had the presence of mind to ask Dad to have the front desk reserve us a table at the rooftop bar at 8. We went up and got to enjoy slightly too-sweet lemonades, all three desserts on the menu (which we split!) and a gorgeous sunset above the city.

The end of the day was much lovelier than the beginning, and Budapest was well worth the hassle to get there, even after just one afternoon. The city definitely deserved a second chance after my school program did not do an excellent job of giving us a true impression of Budapest and I’m excited to see what we will discover tomorrow.

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A Freudian Trip (Extended Edition): Day 42

Today, I woke up and finished packing and cleaning things out of the apartment. After everything was all taken care of, I left my little home away from home and took my gigantic heavy suitcase down to my parent’s hotel where I took a shower because my towel that I brought was clean and packed and I didn’t want to get it wet again. Then, I had a whole day to play tour guide for Mom and Dad. We started with Naschmarkt, the giant outdoor market in Vienna, and I got to wow them with the cute buildings lining the street and the darling little food stands. We got a beautiful breakfast “Frühstruck für zwei” (breakfast for 2) that the three of us split and some coffee (one last melange for me and Arabic coffees for them!).

The food was, as it has been, delicious. We also bought saturn peaches (the round flat ones) and four little pastries. The pastries were round and one was stuffed with poppy seeds, one with apple, one with cheese, and one with cheese and apricot. We stuck these in Dad’s backpack and, having walked through the whole market, got back on the U Bahn to head to the Schönbrunn Palace (Hapsburg’s summer palace).

I had to take the parents to this palace because the grounds at the Belvedere were a little underwhelming (and unkempt? In my defense, I meant for them to go to the museum part) so I really wanted to wow them with the beauty of Vienna’s palaces. I think these gardens did the trick.

Dad bought the classic pass for us again so we were able to enjoy the privy gardens, the maze, and the Gloriette in addition to the tour of the imperial apartments. Since it was a Friday, we had much more luck escaping huge crowds than my friends and I did when we came on a Sunday. It did sprinkle on us a little bit, because apparently I am cursed to get rained on at the Schönbrunn, but it didn’t pour like last time! 

After the palace, we went across town to Prater so we could ride the ferris wheel there and get the grand view of Vienna. We suspect that, since the Risenrad (giant ferris wheel) is so old and famous, it is likely that my great grandmother’s ferris wheel charm on her charm bracelet came from Vienna, so we rode with her in our hearts. 

After Prater, we needed to eat. Somehow we had skipped lunch (except for our Naschmarkt snacks which we ate in some peaceful shade) and so we headed down a little alley off Stephensplatz and had dinner. We got ice cream after, then headed back to our hotel to pack up and get ready to go on our grand Budapest adventure the next day. 

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A Freudian Trip: Day 41

Today, since we didn’t have German, Olivia got up early and got ready to go spend the first half of her day adventuring around Vienna with her mom. I got up, still early but a little later, and worked on my paper until 9, got ready for the day, then went to meet Crystal and Erika for breakfast. Despite some clever meeting point instructions from Crystal, free wifi, scouring the Volkstheater U station, and trying to simply meet at the cafe, Crystal and I could not find Erika. Erika, realizing we were all in two different places, decided to just go to the natural history museum and we decided meeting after class would be best. So, Crystal and I returned to Cafe Ulrich to try the “vegan wake up” breakfast that had appealed to both of us on our respective first trips here.

There was a hummus under that pile of veggies that must have had beet in it because it was MAGENTA. Everything was delicious, and very healthy! After our breakfast, Crystal went to go shopping one last time and I headed back to the apartment to lay out my clothes that I had washed and grab my school stuff before doing a quick turn around to meet Mom and Dad by St Stephan’s for lunch. We went to Cafe Europa or something of the sort because they had umbrellas with mist sprayers! Misters are very appealing when its 90 and bright and sunny. After lunch, I took them to Mülen Brot for sachertorte, the recommendation of the IES receptionists for the biggest bang for your buck in terms of taste and price. 

Only turned a little earlier than I needed to, so much for showing off...

From there, I sent them to explore the imperial palace while I went to edit, print, and submit my psych paper. Because it is a happy sappy health and wellness psych class, we wrote little postcards to ourselves of things we want to remember and also little certificates of achievement for things we felt we learned and achieved in Vienna. I buy into cheesy things like this and didn’t want to forget things like the route I took to school, how to tie your scarf for standing at the opera, and my new found fearlessness when it comes to sweat stains (used to care a lot, couldn’t care less now). I wrote that I had achieved things like always getting to where I needed to go and rarely getting lost and asking a handsome man with great hair and a leather jacket to dance with me in the Volksgarten club when we went (he did, begrudgingly, then left to go outside). And that was that, my study portion of the study abroad was over. I said goodbye to Crystal’s roommate Catie who had joined a couple of our adventures and then Erika, Crystal, and I went out to get one more eiskaffee/weißwein g’spritzer out on Kärntner Strasse. 

We said our sad goodbyes, Crystal and Erika both head back to the states tomorrow morning. From there, I went home to meet Olivia’s mom, who was helping her by packing up her things while Olivia had her last class (and a final! I was not jealous). I had to pack too, and clean up a bit. Our darling land lady, Helen Kastenhuber, was coming over at 7 to return our key deposits and say goodbye. Olivia came home around 6:45 and my parents made it to the apartment around 6:50, and sure enough our land lady came right at 7. We got our key deposits and our instructions for how to leave properly, then shook hands and said “Auf wiedersehen!” 

From there, we began what would end up being the first of many transportation errors. We all went to our little local U station, Kardinal-Nagl-Platz, and went to the U4, all the way to the very last stop, Heiligenstadt. From there, we were supposed to take the 38A all the way from the beginning of it’s route to the end, but for some reason the bus line was running so that only every 3rd bus or so would take you all the way up the hills surrounding Vienna to Kahlenberg. The rest dumped you out at some random stop and took a u turn to go back to town. The bus schedule said the buses run to the stop at 8:19 and 8:49, so we decided to give it till 8:19 to panic. There was a fashionably dressed woman and her stylish boyfriend (think sweater tied around his shoulders country club style stylish) and her small dog, who knew German and were determined to get answers from each bus driver that turned around. Eventually, the bus came and we got to go up to the dinner spot atop the hill after winding through the Viennese woods. 

The perfect sunset view of the city was well worth it. Luckily, Olivia’s mom and my parents were just impressed enough to agree! We had dinner at the nice restaurant there, and even though it took us almost an hour to get our meal (I swear Olivia and I did this trip so easily before! Kahlenberg was letting us down), the food was delicious and we got to see the city lights.

Apologies for torturing you with poor-quality iPhone photos, I promise it was beautiful.

As it would turn out, the buses stop running a little after 10, and it was 10:30, because of course they do. So, we did what any college kids would do and found free wifi, called an Über, and fit 5 people into 4 seats to go back to our apartment, dropping my parents off at their hotel conveniently on the way. Olivia and I truly gave our parents the college flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experience. At our apartment, Olivia and her mom finished packing up Olivia’s stuff and I said goodbye to my roommate who had helped me navigate Vienna over the past six weeks. It was a sad end to a beautiful summer.

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A Freudian Trip: Day 40

German is over!! The final test was fairly easy--and shorter than our midterm! Today is also a very exciting day because Dad landed at 5ish this morning (sorry Kevin, not fun) and Mom lands around noon! During lunch, Crystal very easily convinced Erika and I to join her in grabbing ice cream together. After psych, which was at the earlier original time because the music program kids had their final performance today, I worked on the final paper in the 30 minute gap between class and the performance. I told Mom and Dad that I would meet them at their hotel, a quick walk across Stadtpark away, at 5, as the music performance was 3-5 and was rumored to end early. 

4:30 rolled around and it was finally intermission. It was a talented group of people we had been studying German with and living alongside here in Vienna but that was a long concert in a very hot room (where you couldn't open the windows because it would be too loud). After sitting in a literal puddle of my on sweat for an hour and a half, it became clear at intermission (4:30) that the performance would not really be wrapping up in a half hour but would still be only partway through the second half. Since I had a date with some important people at 5, I excused myself and worked on my paper for 20 minutes in the cool air of the lobby before heading on my little walk down the street and across Stadtpark to my parent’s hotel. 

I took them to the U bahn station I thought was closest to their hotel but I was wrong. It didn’t matter because after it gets unbearably hot from 4-4:30, it begins to cool down a bit. I demonstrated my infinite knowledge of public transportation and got them the right tickets, showed them how to validate them, then navigated them to Crystal and I’s favorite little cafe: Cafe Merkur. We had dinner there and eiskaffee for dessert, of course. On the way back, I toured them across the lawn behind Rathaus (city hall), in front of my favorite building in Vienna, Parliament, and then to the Maria Theresia Platz where the natural history and art history museums are. 

From there, we could hop on my little 71 tram and I got to show them my beloved route from school to home. I intended to take them to the apartment but I had left my heavy backpack, including my keys, in their hotel room. As we were dejectedly walking to the 74A bus stop that would take us back to their hotel, I saw my roommate Olivia getting off the bus! She walked us back to the apartment and we got to show off our little home away from home. Mom spent the rest of the time figuring out how she (and her trusty friend, Ikea) could make our disjointed little space more functional for a family. From there, I dropped the parents back at their hotel, grabbed my backpack, and key! and went back to the apartment to finish my paper. 

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A Freudian Trip: Day 39

Today was the Fourth of July, but it did not feel like much of an event because we are so far away here. We had review for our German final in class today and I don't think that the test will be awful tomorrow. During lunch, my friend Erika and I both had some churches we wanted to see while we were in Vienna so we looked up and screen shot our directions and headed out into the world (after buying some important caffeine at the neighboring McCafe, the only place in the whole country where you can get iced coffee with ice and not ice cream). We first went to my church pick, Karlskirche, and I had not done my research on the church very well. It is 8 Euro to even get into the building, and while that includes access to the stairs up into the dome/tower, we did not feel like you should have to pay just to get in and look around. So, we up and took our photos we had taken of the outside and left for cheaper churches. 

Erika took over guiding our wandering and we made it to the Dominican Church. This one was simple on the outside and gorgeous on the inside. And it was free, take that Karlskirche. We went in and were the only ones in the building so far as we could tell and it was truly silent as the room had taken our breath away.

We then went around the corner to find the Jesuit Church, which was simply beautiful on the outside and vibrantly beautiful on the inside. 

Look at that column. It is the funkiest most colorful column I have ever seen. I think if the church building had a style of worship it would be all about rejoicing in the love of God. Definitely an emphasis on happiness and love and joy.

I wasn’t even mad that the dome up there was totally just painted on. It had so much other stuff going on it didn’t even matter. 

After our church adventures we headed back to the school to relax and try to sit still to cool off before our class began. Psychology class was good, our instructor is trying to teach us things we expressed interest in on our course evaluation sheets and so the material is sort of random. 

On my way home, I decided to stop by H&M for a last minute souvenir for Ellie. I know there are H&M’s in America, but I don’t think that they had anything like this (yet--hoping to put Ellie ahead of the trend). I walk by H&M every single school day on my way to and from class. Like seemingly everything else in Vienna, it was under construction since we got here. There were big red panels covering up the mess out from that said “H&M” and underneath, in German on one side and English on the other, “Come in, we’re still open!” So, naturally, I looked for the big red panels. I walked back and forth in front of H&M three times and didn’t even see it. They had taken the panels down since the work was almost done and I didn’t even recognize the building without them. Embarrassed and grateful no one in the street would ever recognize me again ever, I went in and successfully found the gift. 

After class, I did not want to finish my paper. So, I cleaned all that I could in our little apartment. Since we are leaving soon (I am not ready!), it was probably a worthwhile task. After Olivia and I made one last dinner together--pesto tortellini--we studied for German and I worked a bit on my paper before we had an early bedtime since our final is at 10 tomorrow (class is usually at 10:45!). 

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A Freudian Trip: Day 38

This morning, I had forgotten to set me alarm. Lucky for me, my alarm goes off 15 minutes before Olivia's so I had enough time to shower and get everything ready for the day. Our month transportation tickets ran out today! Instead of braving the Tabak shop again we opted for ease and went to our U bahn station instead of the tram and bought week long tickets on the little automated kiosk (that you can translate into English!). In Vienna, transportation runs on the honor system. There's no scanning or swiping or showing to get onto the transport, however, they do random checks every once in a while. My month ticket was only made worth it once when I got checked in a station. Olivia's ticket was never checked, so she could've saved the €50 and been fine. This morning we decided to be better safe than sorry so we will see if that was a good call. In German class, we presented our lengthy dialogue and it went alright, our instructor didn't seem to be correcting our grammar too terribly much. She finally taught us how to ask for the check--thank goodness we had already asked Prof Stipsits in the very beginning of the trip. After class, I had lunch with Crystal and Erika and then we parted ways to go on our separate adventures. Crystal needed a book for the plane ride home and came back with a tales about Vienna book and a book of poetry by a Viennese poet. Erika wanted to go to the peace museum and I wanted to go find the Ankeruhr and they happened to be in the same direction so off we went.

The peace museum was cool, it was just a series of pictures and words commemorating and honoring people who had made significant contributions to a more peaceful world in windows lining this cute street and a daring courtyard. It was generally just very inspiring and cute.

After the peace museum, we wandered to the Ankeruhr which I know nothing about except that it looks really cool and it was on someone on Pinterest's top 6 favorite places in Vienna. It would've been cool to see it do a little procession of figures at 12:00, but we were in class at that time so settled for just seeing it as it was.

While we were by the Ankeruhr, we also saw this, another strange monument to I don’t know what but it was impressive and shiny so...

As we were wandering back through the literal swarming hoard of tourists around St Stephen's, I mentioned Peterskirche, the random church I had stumbled upon and we decided to stop in there too so she could see it, which is when I found out the cool statue thing I saw was actually some sort of plague statue/monument? I'm not sure exactly except that it was plague related.

Psych class was good, that paper is looming pretty close though. After class, Crystal and I went back to her apartment where I "helped" finish her RA's (resident Austrian) leftover birthday cake. We hung out for a bit, then I had to go back home to meet Olivia for dinner and some final grocery shopping. I'm on the u bahn writing this right now, and managed to finish right as I got to my stop. (After writing that, I put my headphones in my backpack and got up early, as the Austrians do, and almost fell over. One of the late-high school aged girls around me smiled sympathetic at my falling-over-on-the-U-bahn faces). 

As soon as I got home, Olivia reminded me that we needed to go to our little Billa one last time! We picked up what we hope will be just enough to last us through this crazy week without any leftovers (this also means we are eating large portions of frozen peas so we can get rid of them!). I never knew I could feel nostalgic for a grocery store, but I even know the nice cashier and the mean cashier and where to get everything now! After dinner, it’s time to quit procrastinating by finishing this post and do my homework. 

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A Freudian Trip: Day 37

Happy free museum Sunday!! My very favorite holiday. I woke up this morning and moved into the kitchen for some yogurt, Nutella toast, and to work on this paper, making it a different kind of good breakfast than yesterday. I was planning on hitting the clock museum and the globe museum because they both just sounded really novel and fun honestly. I was thinking I’d go alone but I texted my museum squad (Crystal and Erika) last minute and Erika let me know she and her roommate were hoping to go soon! I hopped up and showered and went to meet them.

Saw this little pink building on my way to the clock museum--maybe it’s just because it matched my pants but I loved it. 

So, I don’t have any sort of data plan here. To get around, I either bank on Olivia being around, finding free wifi, and planning ahead and screenshot-ing directions and maps. Usually, some combination of these things work out and I set out (on time for once in my life) with a couple screen shots of maps with the short route between the U station and the museums. For the first time, though, I had not screenshot well enough and really was not sure where to go from where I was. I had a clue based on my little maps and decided to follow my instincts, which, while they didn’t quite lead me to the Uhrenmuseum (clock museum), led me to a sign that pointed me to the clock museum. It was a little cloudy today, and the streets were relatively quiet as it is Sunday. Everything just looked especially charming today, especially from the little seat I took outside the museum to wait for Ellie and Erika. 

Look at that charm, it’s ridiculous. 

I was sitting and waiting, watching horse-drawn carriage tours trot by when Erika texted on the little Nokia phone I got from my program to let me know she and her roommate would be a little late since her roommate wasn’t back from her run yet. I should’ve know better than to be on time! 

I took off through the streets and made it not even a block before seeing a little cafe and deciding that I wanted a little pastry to help me on my wandering and museum-ing. I was able to pick out and order my little cheese strudel? type thing all in German, a feat I’m still disproportionately proud of. I ate it as I wandered around and the beautiful cloudy lighting convinced me to take some artsy photos, and a selfie or two. 

As you can maybe tell, I have a little thing for the fire hydrants here. I don’t know why. They feel classy and cute somehow. 

This made me really want to park there. 

Erika texted me again not too long after her first text to tell me they were there! I met them at the museum. For some reason, it really was the cutest, most novel thing ever. We enjoyed making time and clock related puns and looking at some of the biggest and smallest and fanciest clocks I’ve ever seen. 

The inner workings of the clock on St Stephen’s Cathedral because every museum ever is just stuff from St Stephan’s. ALL IS ST STEPHEN’S HERE. (It hasn’t stopped being cool yet though)

TINIER THAN MY THUMB CLOCK!! YOU COULD ACCIDENTALLY SWALLOW IT IF YOU WEREN’T CAREFUL!

We then took a short trek to the globe museum. Somehow, it was not included in free museum Sunday even though I swear it was. For 4 Euro, I was able to go to the Globe museum and the Esperanto museum. Erika and Ellie decided to not go as it was not part of free museum Sunday. I almost didn’t go into the Esperanto museum because I had no idea what it was. I can’t even tell you how glad I am that I went in. 

So, nerdy rant time, turns out Esperanto is a planned language, or a constructed language, ya know, like Klingon from Star Trek, except legit. The museum even mentioned Klingon as an example of a planned language. Esperanto was invented (I guess? Developed?) by L.L. Zamenhof in 1887. It was supposed to be a language that one could learn through play, to be sort of a lingua franca, and to "find some means of overcoming the natural indifference of mankind, and disposing them, in the quickest manner possible, and en masse, to learn and use the proposed language as a living one, and not only in last extremities, and with the key at hand." I don't know, all I know is this dude made a language and it caught on enough that Wikipedia says there are one or two thousand native speakers (I don’t know if it’s the same for Klingon...) and also according to Wikipedia, I can learn it on Duolingo. I just find it so cool that you can make up a language. And that a museum acknowledged Klingon as legit. 

The globe museum was also cool, and very whimsical, though less so than the clocks. 

After my museum adventuring, I’ve just been home cooking and working on homework (and catching up on the blog!) and now I’ll be ignoring all of this to learn Esperanto (a Wikipedia chart said it took people 2000 hours studying German, 1500 hours studying English, 1000 hours studying Italian (or any other Romance language), and 150 hours studying Esperanto for French students to gain some sort of proficiency which is so cool)

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A Freudian Trip: Day 36

Today, we decided to try out an American trend in Austria and go out to brunch. Crystal’s RA (Resident Austrian--some apartments have an Austrian student living in them) gave them a list of suggested breakfast places and Crystal passed one of the suggestions on to me. Olivia and I woke up, got ready, and ventured across town to the 7th district to go to Ulrich, a cafe, bar, and restaurant. For some reason, all the names of the dishes were in English (or something we understood as English speakers) but the descriptions were in German. We understood most of it, and ordered the “Tabula Rasa.” It was an excellent decision.

Yes, I ate it all. Including the 3 different pieces of bread. It was delicious and I was full the whole day. I had been dreaming of waffles (foolishly forgetting that literally everywhere else in the world knows that sweet breakfast usually ends up being unfilling and therefore dumb) but I was not at all disappointed. Anything with brie and 3 different breads makes me happy. Teal coffee mugs don’t suck either. ALSO, check out that reasonably sized cup of water: FREE! And we didn't even have to ask for it. The waitress brought it to us right when we sat down.

We took one U stop down to first district to finish any souvenir shopping. Then, we went back to the apartment to recuperate. We were hot, really full, and unsure of our next move. We came back, got water, started to investigate what we wanted to do that afternoon while laying on our beds. We both ended up taking a very nice but very unintentional nap. When we woke up, we decided to hit the Schmetterlinghaus, the butterfly house! It wasn’t too hot today so the risks of being in a humid glass box were low. It was a great time, we both almost held a butterfly, and one of the bigger ones briefly landed on my thigh (before I think I scared it off by flexing in instinctive panic).

After, we came back and made dinner. We have a six minute dialogue due on Monday for German, so Olivia and I sat down and spent two hours writing out the darn thing. There’s no way anyone is memorizing that thing. After, Olivia went out to enjoy her last Saturday in Vienna, whereas I had big plans for tomorrow so I worked on my lengthy paper due Thursday and had a chance to call my boyfriend for a bit before going to bed early.

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A Freudian Trip: Day 35

Today had a slow start. We slept in (a lot) and took our time getting ready for the day, a chore interspersed with some cleaning and a little homework. We made an early dinner, then headed out to Prater! Prater is one of the really really popular places in Vienna that we haven’t had a chance to make it to yet. We thought it would be a little amusement park, but it was actually quite sizable. The land has been used for entertainment purposes, including hosting a world fair, since forever. It looked like rain on the way to the U bahn station, but it ended up being a really pleasant night. 

When we got to Prater, we were a little confused as to what the full protocol was. Free entry amusement parks are disconcerting. We had heard legend of a magic pass that would get you access to all the rides, but where you would buy that was very unclear. So, we wandered in to the heart of Prater and hoped for the best. The situation didn’t become any clearer when we asked one of the ticket sellers for an individual ride where you could buy the pass that got you everything and he said it didn’t exist. Eventually, we had to walk all the way back to the very beginning where we finally were able to determine that we didn’t even want that magic pass but found it to be cheaper to just follow the system and pay per ride. 

We started with the spinny swings? And while we were riding this first ride we saw spinny swings in the distance that were even higher in the air. We knew we had to go there before we were even off the first ride. 

On our way to the taller skinny swing, we decided to try an indoor rollercoaster. It was set up sort of like a spy gimmick, with “lasers” and mirrors inside, but it was so dark we literally could not figure out where doorways and hallways were. We turned on our phone flashlights to figure it out. It was a funky little 6 person car and the rollercoaster was pretty big and fun for being indoors, the room was dark with more lasers and we dropped and jerked and spun around. It ended up being really fun once we were able to find it. 

After this, we made a beeline towards the taller spinny swing ride. I wish I could’ve brought my phone up with me (I understand why not, if I had dropped it and it would hit someone, we were definitely high enough that the result would have not been good at all) because that was my favorite view of Vienna. This, the last weekend of my program, has made me all kinds of nostalgic, so the great view really just made me think how lucky I was to be there, several meters off the ground, sort of freezing, wind in my hair, enjoying a beautiful view filled with memories. 

We were approaching sunset, so we decided to walk back to the beginning of the theme park and ride the famous giant ferris wheel, the Risenrad. We had to wait in a little line then packed on to one of the pretty sizable cars with about 8 other people. The ride lasts about 15 mins and we had picked the best time to go with the sunset. We spent the first few minutes in envy of the couple that was alone in the car next to ours: it had been set up for a little table for two complete with fancy curtains and flowers and candles. We had a bench and front row seats to what was probably the most romantic date ever. You can bet we took creepy, blurry, zoomed in pictures so we can remember to be envious of how much romance exists in the world again. 

Look at them sitting there on the world’s most romantic date. They even stop at the bottom so waiters can bring in another course. 

Perfect sunset hour. Another set of great views that made me realize I am really going to miss adventuring in Vienna. After the ferris wheel, we hopped off and grabbed ice cream from the chocolate museum? There was no actual evidence of a museum or you can bet I’d be there. Instead, they had delicious ice cream (I got chocolate and vanilla swirled) and I spent the best 50 cents I’ve ever spent in my life to add chocolate sauce from a chocolate fountain. It was SO GOOD. I wanted to bathe in it, and to drink a Nalgene full of it, and to name my first born child after it. I’m tempted to go back just to get more. It was really good. 

After eating ice cream and watching bumper cars, we decided that pajamas and a movie sounded nice. On Netflix, we found a movie called “Einmal ist Keinmal” which we translated to “one time is no time” but Google translates to “Once is no time,” whatever that means. What it actually was is the movie adaptation of Janet Evonovich’s One for the Money, which is what the actual title it. It was pretty good, and it was nice to stop and take a little break from exploring. 

[paytonspassport]

I think Olivia and I are both headed towards bed but I couldn’t wait to share some of the photos I took at Prater tonight. I had the very best time and really got to enjoy one of the most fun things Vienna has to offer, and some new views of the city itself! My heart is very happy and full of love for this beautiful city I’ve been so lucky to explore! 

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A Freudian Trip: Day 34

Today was finally Thursday, the last, long day of what felt like a very long week. German class went fine, everyone seems to sort of understand now, although there was still awkward tension and allusions to yesterday... At lunch, Crystal, Erika, and I wandered around and tried to get some souvenir shopping done because we have almost reached the end! One more full week until the program ends. Psych was chill, we had fewer people than usual because of a field trip in the other psych class. After classes, I printed off the tickets for Mom, Dad, and I for when we travel after my program ends--this made me very excited! I feel like I’ve seen and learned so much and I cannot wait to see more (and not have to do any homework!). 

I went back to my apartment after that and did laundry and some cleaning and then tried to work on transcribing our recording (so so tedious, curse my slow typing). Olivia came home and we went made dinner, then went to district 6, over by the Naschmarkt, where a group of six girls live. We met Lauren and Cason there and hung out for the evening! It was very fun to get to meet people I hadn’t been able to interact with much from the trip. At the end of the night, we came home and went to sleep!

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A Freudian Trip: Day 33

Today, German class was a struggle. We are working with two “cases” for pronouns, nominative and accusative, and we are also learning personal and possessive pronouns in each case. Collectively as a class, we got really tripped up on the accusative possessive pronouns, which, in reality, are not that different from the nominative possessive pronouns but the brief introduction she had (or hadn’t, the jury is still out on whether she actually taught this) on the accusative possessive wasn’t enough to stick in our minds. After much exasperation on both ends, class ended. 

I met Crystal after she did the recording portion of our psych final paper and we tried to go to lunch at this place down the street from our school that has pretty reasonable prices (I’m not sure what it’s actually called but it begins with the letters “Wolf” so we call it the wolf place) but they do 3 menu options for lunch and had run out of the vegetarian option. Since Crystal is vegetarian, we just popped a little further to a place where we had bought eiskaffees before. I got some wiener sausages with horseradish, mustard, and a roll, Crystal got a dumpling frittata thing and we both got Melanges, of course. It was really nice to take my time getting ready this morning and to not have had to worry about packing a lunch--this is true luxury. 

After lunch, we returned for our psych class, which was nice, and after, my friend Erika and I worked on our recording for the final psych paper. We have to record one or two (depending on whether or not both people want to be the counselor or not) role play mock counseling sessions, transcribe them, then write a very, very lengthy paper evaluating the session. I feel like both of us did pretty well, and I’m excited to be finished with the whole thing so it was good to start. I went home after classes to transcribe it, but not after a small annoyance of being trapped by a red little crossing sign across the street from my tram, watching it load, and drive off, then crossing to realize the next one wouldn’t come for 38 minutes?? It never takes that long. Needless to say, I took the U Bahn, then a bus that means less walking than just going to the nearest U bahn station, however, the bus was packed! I had to get off and jump back on while it was stopped to move to the back where there was more room, and then it was still crowded! It was not my day for public transport. 

After getting home, tonight was another chill homework night! Busy days are ahead with school work and only single digits left till the end of the program (9)!

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A Freudian Trip: Day 32

Today, no one came to class. Three kids were missing from our German class and we had 5/9 people in my psych section. It was weird. A couple are actually sick, but I know when I woke up at 5:30ish this morning when I woke up from a dream and went to the bathroom, through our paper thin walls and front door, I heard our neighbors (also students in our program) talking in the hall? I later found out they skipped and just took a trip to Salzburg, and honestly why not? With all the German grammar we learned, I was glad to be in class, though. 

During lunch today, I was determined to catch up on my blog, but spent an hour at the end looking for souvenirs and for midi-skirts with Crystal. We were way more successful in souvenirs than in skirt-finding. After classes, Crystal and I ventured back to the Naschmarkt, which is WAY more calm on a Tuesday afternoon than on a Saturday morning, let me tell you. I bought goat cheese and a half kilo of apricots and Crystal bought Hungarian paprika for her dad and some strawberries. It was a very successful afternoon. 

When I got home, I tried really hard to keep catching up on the blog. Olivia was out for dinner, so I tried to class up our leftover rice. I threw a fried egg, some  boiled zucchini, roast tomatoes, and some of my goat cheese on top and I must say, it was pretty delicious. It was worth burning my thumb on the roast tomato pan too (and getting essentially every dish we own dirty). I ate while watching my new favorite YouTube video: Millennials: The Musical which was produced by The Rock and Lin Manuel Miranda (the guy who wrote Hamilton??). It’s about 14 minutes long and I found it both brilliant and hilarious. I got to call some friends from home and finish homework before Olivia got back home safe and we both went to sleep!

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A Freudian Trip: Day 31

Today was a very Monday-y Monday. I think this weekend tired me out with the nonstop adventure. I even said to Olivia on the tram this morning that this program is weird because you do all your stuff during the weekend and then recover during the week, the opposite of how it goes in college in my experience. In German, I think I ended up dropping my phone twice (before and after class) and my pen three times. After German, I quickly scarfed down lunch because my psych class was meeting shortly after for another excursion. We took the U bahn across town to another health center, this one provided information, counseling, and group therapy for the family and friends of people with mental illnesses. A counselor talked to us a while about what they do at the center and let us ask some questions and such. It was very interesting and seemed like an important institution doing a lot of good work. 

On the way home, Erika, Crystal and I jumped off a little before the rest of the group and took the U2 to the Rathouse (City Hall) stop and went to our favorite cafe, Cafe Merkur. Erika and I got lunch and Crystal got an eiskaffee. After our little lunch date, we parted ways to go home. On the tram on the way home, I saw this man who amused me with his religious attire and his baseball cap so I did what anyone would do and took a really creepy photo of him... and I did not envy his long black clothing in the heat and sun.

Back at the apartment, I worked on buying tickets for the trains and buses for when Mom and Dad come to join me on this adventure, and when Olivia came home, we went to go get groceries. At the Billa, we were discussing which pretzels to buy and this boy (who had previously dropped a beer bottle on the ground in the soda aisle) came up and asked us if we were American, and then high five us. He and his friends had just graduated high school and are now traveling Europe together. He will be attending CU Boulder in the fall, because it’s a real small world our there, folks. Now that we finally had food, we made dinner. Then, I had to run to the ATM. The ATM coincidentally is next to the ice cream place by our apartment. You really can’t go to one without the other... You just can’t...

We finished our homework and went to bed early. Even a Monday-y Monday is pretty great when it ends in ice cream!