Vienna, Spring 2017 @vienna2017-blog - Tumblr Blog

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On Saturday, after eating some breakfast at the hostel, we headed to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We spent a lot more time than we intended walking through all of the ruins, there was so much to see that we ended up spending over 3 hours there. We walked through everything and saw everything there was to see.

After the forum, we grabbed some lunch from a little place nearby. The restaurant we stopped at was definitely not gourmet Italian food, but it was cheap and easy and nearby. After lunch, we headed to the Pantheon. The line was super long because there was some kind of service going on inside so no one could go in, but we decided to stick it out because the service was ending soon and the guard said the line usually moves pretty quickly. We made it inside shortly after that.

The pantheon was really cool, but we didn’t spend very much time there. We walked around for a little bit, but there were lots of people and we didn’t want to to hang around too long. The sun had set while we were inside, but it was still relatively early so we decided to head to the Trevi Fountain. We had planned on going Sunday afternoon, but we weren’t ready to head home yet and it ended up being really beautiful at night. After the fountain, we headed back to our hostel and settled in for the night.

Some snapshots from the Colosseum

Thursday night, we took an overnight train to Rome. The train left around 7:30 and was scheduled to arrive in Rome at 9:22. We thought we had made a reservation for a sleeper car, but they actually put us in a couchette. At first we thought we were the only two in the compartment, which would have been perfect, but three other guys joined us later on. The couchette was weird and not quite what we expected. It took us a while to figure out how to turn the couch into the beds, and we kind of expected someone to come show us, but no one ever did. Overall it was a kind of strange experience but it worked out just fine.

We arrived in Rome the next morning. Our train was over 2 hours late, so as soon as we got there we headed to the hostel and checked in. The owner was very sweet and welcoming of us. Check in was at his restaurant, so he walked us across the street to the hostel. There were four separate doors to unlock before we actually got to our room, so he showed us how to unlock all of the doors and helped us get situated. He even made us espresso while we got settled.

By the time we dropped off our stuff and everything, we were both starving. We had planned on seeing the Colosseum first, so we headed in that direction in search of food. We ended up stopping at an outdoor restaurant right in front of the Colosseum, which was rather touristy but at this point we were so hungry we didn’t care. The pizza was delicious and it was a pretty incredible experience to eat lunch in front of the amphitheater.

After lunch, we headed over to the Colosseum. We were warned by quite a few people on the way in that the lines for regular tickets were terrible and could last for hours, but they were all trying to sell us tickets to their guided tours that would let us “skip the line.” We decided to take our chances with the lines and pass on the guided tour, which ended up being perfectly fine. There were maybe 5 people in front of us in line and probably took us a grand total of 10 minutes to get from the entrance to inside the amphitheater.

The Colosseum was remarkable, and it was amazing just to get to walk around and see how massive everything was. We spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around and exploring the city. We got a little bit lost, having ventured a little too far into the residential area, but we managed to find our way back with the Colosseum as a landmark. The sun had started to set, so we headed back towards our hostel so we wouldn’t have to find our way back in the dark. We ventured out once more for some gelato a couple hours later, but we headed to bed pretty early that night.

We were both feeling pretty much back to normal today, but we decided to take it easy anyway. We stopped by the train station to make a reservation for our trip to Rome this weekend, and then headed to the school for an event. Tonight, Webster Vienna hosted a guest interview with Ela Gandhi. The event was livestreamed, so it should be available to watch on the Webster Vienna page (https://www.facebook.com/webstervienna/). I cannot put into worlds how incredible this experience was, and how powerful it was to hear her speak about her work, as well as her grandfather’s. Ela is an activist, served as a Member of Parliament in South Africa alongside Nelson Mandela, founded the Gandhi Development Trust, developed a 24-hour program for victims of domestic violence, chairs the Mahatma Gandhi Salt March Committee, and so much more. She’s a truly incredible woman and I’m honored to have gotten the opportunity to hear her speak.

Some quotes from the evening that I borrowed from fellow study abroad student:

"If you are angry and someone has wronged you think about what drives that person to do this to me because people can change. When we begin to develop a culture of nonviolence, we can see that people can change."

"Nonviolence is a way of life."

"Liberation requires us to think of class, in terms of race, and gender. " "If you are not ready to suffer, do not participate in liberation."

"You can't have a right without a responsibility. You have to makeup sure all others have a responsibility to make sure others have the same rights."

"Our world needs to release tolerance. We need to learn how to first tolerate and then respect. Tolerate diversity and live in peace and harmony. "

"There are lots of ways in which we can enjoy and preserve nature."

We’ve spent the past two weekends in Vienna. The first weekend we were back after Prague, we spent a lot of time hanging out and exploring Vienna a bit. We both overspent a little bit in Prague, so it was good for us to have an inexpensive weekend. This past weekend, however, we decided to get the Vienna Pass, which gets you in to the majority of the attractions in Vienna for free, so instead of paying for each thing individually, you pay a lump sum upfront and use the card to get in.

We were well on our way to ensuring that the card more than paid for itself. We went to the mumok, or the museum of modern art, on the first day, which was certainly interesting. Maybe I’m just not cultured enough, but more often then not, modern art doesn’t really make sense to me. It was cool to see nonetheless. We grabbed lunch at a cool little authentic Mexican place, which had great food, but I started getting a migraine so we decided to call it quits for the day after we ate.

Thursday started off at the Theatre Museum, which was definitely NOT what we expected. It was entirely in German, and maybe the exhibits are more interesting at other times, but it had almost nothing to do with theatre. We went to the Albertina next, which was probably my favorite thing we did with the Vienna Pass. We only made it through two floors before it closed, but the exhibits were amazing. There was a floor of Contemporary Art and a Markus Prachensky exhibit, and another with works from Monet and Picasso, as well as a few others. The thing that stood out to me most was a quote I found next to a work by Gottfried Helnwein (who also has some pretty remarkable art), that said “ Kunst ist für mich eine Waffe, mit der ich zurückschlagen kann,” which in English reads “Art is a weapon for me, with which I can strike back.” We finished our evening by stopping at an Austrian cafe for dinner before heading to the English movie theatre to see Jackie.

Friday, we started off at Madame Tussad’s wax museum, which was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It was definitely interesting, especially since a lot of the figures were people from Austrian history or famous people from present day Austria, but it was also somewhat unsettling. I think I enjoyed it but honestly the whole experience was just kind of surreal. I don’t think that it was something I would have paid to do if we hadn’t done the Vienna Pass, but I’m glad we went. After the wax museum, we grabbed a quick lunch from the Billa and headed to Schwedenplatz for the Vienna City Cruise. The cruise was kind of cool, but you didn’t see as much of Vienna from the ship as we thought we were going to, so again, this was something I wouldn’t have done without the Vienna pass, but it was kind of cool. We got some pommes frites (french fries) and a cheese plate, which was literally just slices of cheese on a plate.

Saturday, we both weren’t feeling 100%, so we slept in and went and got lunch from Pickwicks, which is a super cute international cafe that was recommended to us by a local student. After lunch, we headed to the Time Travel Vienna Magical History Tour, which was incredibly cheesy and touristy, but was actually pretty fun. It was interesting to learn about some of Vienna’s history and it was just kind of cute.

We had planned on going to the Zoo first thing on Sunday morning, and if we had time, going to the Schönbrunn Palace, but when we woke up on Sunday, both of us felt pretty awful. We think we both managed to get what we think was the flu, and spent all of Sunday, and the majority of Monday and Tuesday in bed. We’re definitely going to go to the Zoo another time, but I think it was for the best that we spent a few days resting.

The John Lennon wall

Today was our last day in Prague. We woke up and packed up our stuff so we could check out of the room at our hostel. They provide free luggage storage on the day of your check out, which was super convenient and gave us the chance to explore a bit more after we checked out. We stopped at a cute little restaurant that served a lot of traditional Czech food for lunch. We spent most of the rest of our time just walking around the Lesser Town and looking through the souvenir shops. I had decided last week in Bratislava that I wanted to get a patch for my backpack from every country I go to, so I found my Czech Republic patch and a few little gifts for Mollie before we left.

Our last stop before we headed to the bus station was the John Lennon wall, which was absolutely incredible. There was a guy playing guitar and singing Beatles songs right in front of the wall, and it was perfect. We didn’t stay at the wall very long, but I’m super glad that we stopped by before we left.

We headed for the bus station and grabbed a snack from inside before getting on the bus. The bus ride back was pretty easy, we had wifi for the majority of the trip so it went by pretty quickly. I never thought I’d be so relieved to see signs in German.

A few of my favorites from the Czech Museum of Music 🎶

Sunday morning we started our day off with breakfast at Bohemia Bagel, a cute little bagel shop not far from our hostel. The coffee was bottomless and the bagels were amazing. After breakfast, we went to the Nárondí Muzeum. We started with an exhibit called When the Emperor is Dying in commemoration of Emperor Charles IV, which was very interesting. I really enjoyed learning more of the history of the Czech lands, and the efforts of Charles IV in Prague specifically. The other part of the museum we went through was the Czech Museum of Music, which was by far my favorite part. The exhibits were incredible, some of which had much older versions of instruments I'm familiar with and others I had never heard of before. I think the best part of the museum was that along with each exhibit, there was a listening station where you could hear recordings of many of the instruments on display. I'm not entirely sure what time we got there, but we spent upwards of two hours there because I stopped to read every single thing and listen to nearly every single song. We had planned on going to see the John Lennon wall that afternoon, but by the time we left the museum it was too dark out. We stopped back at the hostel to chill for a bit and because Katie An needed to charge her phone. We grabbed some street food from the vendors in the Old Town Square before we headed to the meeting point for the Prague Bar Crawl. We hadn't initially planned on going on the bar crawl, but some others in our hostel did it the night before and said it was a blast so we decided to give it a shot. There was supposed to be an 8pm group and a 9pm group, but we ended up being the only two in the 8pm group so we waited for the other group at the first bar. There was a room reserved for us at the first bar, but it was a little strange because it was just the two of us and the guide. Our guide was from Germany, so we talked to him for a while about where we should go when we visit Germany. The second group ended up being just as small at the first, so at about 9:20 the guide came up and talked to us and told us that they had to cancel the crawl since not enough people showed up, so we could stay at the bar until 10 but that was it. They gave us a full refund, so it wasn't too bad, and I guess that's what we get for trying to do a pub crawl on a Sunday night. We walked around for a while looking for another pub, but we ended up just heading back to the hostel after grabbing a coconut McFlurry and went to bed.

From inside the Ice Pub!

Saturday was a pretty full day for us. We started off the morning with pb and j and headed to Choco-Story, which is the museum of chocolate. It was a bit pricey, but it was all you can eat chocolate, we got to see a demonstration of pralines being made, and we did a workshop where we got to make our own chocolate, so it was definitely worth it. We explored the city for a bit after the museum, and happened upon a church that was open. Much to our surprise, there was some sort of concert going on inside, so we stayed and listened to a piece performed by an oboe and two accordions before we headed out. We stopped back at the hostel for a snack and a shower, and made our way to the Ice Pub. We had gotten a voucher at our hostel for a free drink, and it was highly recommended so we decided to check it out. You have to pay a cover charge to get in, but you get a free drink inside the pub. Each group is only allowed inside for like 20 minutes because they have to keep everything so cold. They give you a warm poncho and gloves before you go in and then they shuffle you through the door. Literally everything inside the pub was made of ice, including the bar and all of the cups, so when you finished your drink, you had to smash your glass in a bin. It was super cool and I'm glad we went, but I was definitely cold and ready to get out after our twenty minutes were up. We had gotten tickets to a black light theatre that night, but it was still only 6ish and the show wasn't until 8, so we explored the area and found another bar to hang out and warm up before the show. We went over to the theatre at 7:30 when the doors open so we could check our coats and get good seats. The show was interesting, it was a sort of combination between a mime show and a dance show. There were no words, just music, lights, and performers, and it lasted for about an hour and a half. I'm definitely glad we went, it was really cool to get the chance to see a different style of theatre performance than I'm used to. After the show we were both very hungry, so we walked around and tried to find a pub that was serving food. We ended up at a place called The Pub, which was pretty nice and reasonably priced. We split a few appetizers and headed home. I was definitely ready for bed, and the day we had planned for Sunday was just as busy.

Trdelnik filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chocolate and strawberries

Friday morning we ventured over the bridge into old town square. We started off by getting breakfast at a place called the Food Story, and we attempted to do a walking tour but we were the only two who showed up, so they told us to come back later.

We ended up at the Gallery of Art, which had exhibits from Andy Warhol, Alfons Mucha, and Salvador Dalí. Andy Warhol has been one of my favorite artists since I was probably 7 or 8 years old and we did a pop art project and Summer Arts Camp, so you could say I was pretty excited. The gallery was incredible and it was absolutely worth every penny.

After the gallery, we stopped for coffee at a cute little cafe so we could figure out what we wanted to do next. We ended up heading back towards the hostel, but we stopped at the Toy Museum on the way back, which was small but pretty cool. We got back to the hostel to chill for a bit, and we were planning on just making pb and j for dinner, but we were both super hungry so we decided to go out instead. We went to a restaurant called Meet Burger, which was pretty good but definitely overpriced. We ventured out once more that night to get trdelnik, which is essentially ice cream or some other kind of sweet filling in a donut cone, which was incredible. There was a little shop selling them less than a block from our hostel, so it was super easy to get to. All in all, we had a pretty good first day in Prague.

Just a couple of shots from Prague

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Vienna, Spring 2017