General Updates and Other Ramblings

Hello Friends.


Yikes. I haven't updated in a while! Life here in Vienna has gotten much busier in the past two weeks. I have had more afternoon sessions with Dr. Friederike Forst-Battaglia and my TA, Gloria Man, has arrived as of May 1st which means even more culture and history lessons. Between my afternoon sessions and my three hour German sessions in the morning, I attempt to soak in so much information!  My German is improving a great deal. However the Viennese have such a strange accent that I cannot use my language much. I am learning "Hoch Deutsch" or "High German." People hear speak with a strong accent far from "Hoch Deutsch" that I cannot understand. I am going to Berlin this weekend though so hopefully I will understand more and practice more.

So for the interesting things I have done...

Graz
Two weekends ago I took a day trip to the city of Graz. Graz is a fairly large city 200km away from Vienna. We started off by hiking up Schlossberg. It used to be a fortress and now is a giant hill in the middle of the city that gives a nice panoramic view. There is a bell tower, a clock tower, and some restaurants up top. It was a good starting point to see what the city looked like.

We walked down into the city and wandered around. We walked by the river cafe (on the bottom right of the photo you can see a portion of it). It is literally a cafe that just sits on/in the river. I think it is a tourist gimmick considering the prices were outrageous. We also walked by the modern art museum which is the building in the picture that looks like an organ. Apparently it lights up at night-- the last train left before dark so we did not get the chance to see it lit up. 

We took the tram to the Eggenberg Palace. The palace itself was nothing incredibly special. The best part of the grounds was the peacocks! Surrounding the gardens were about 30 peacocks. About half were walking around with their feathers up. It was so cool and they were so beautiful. Graz was not too exciting, but it was worth it just for the peacocks!(:

Salzburg

This past weekend my entire group went together to Salzburg with our TA Gloria. I had been there previously for a mere two hours and was excited to return. Unfortunately, rain decided to join us this time. Being a Seattlite I thought it would be a light drizzle and no problem. Rain is just a drizzle in most other places so I spent most of the weekend with wet feet. Forgetting about that, on Saturday we climbed up to the Hohensalzburg Castle. It is the largest undisturbed castle remaining in Europe. We went on a walking audio tour and had an amazing view from the top tower. (My pictures are crummy because I left my SD card for my DSLR in Vienna. Had to make do with my iPhone). 

 The city.

These hills were once alive with the sound of music. (I think Maria might 

have just heard the bell towers and made a mistake).

The rest of the day we walked around the city then visited the house where Mozart was born and the house where he lived. I really enjoy Mozart's music, but his museums were incredibly boring. Enjoying the fresh air of Salzburg and walking around probably would have been more engaging.

Me on the castle because I think it's more interesting than  Mozart's birth house. 

Who knows, maybe I am wrong.

On Sunday, about ten of us ventured to the outskirts of Salzburg to the city of Werfen to visit ice caves. Yes, Salzburg is known for their salt mines, but they also have the world's largest ice caves!

We took a train to Werfen, then a bus to the general location of the caves. We then hiked to the second steepest Gondola in the world. The Swiss won this competition.

I mean, just a little steep.

We hiked to the caves themselves and then waited for the guides to start the tour. No pictures were allowed in the caves + I only had my iPhone. What this means: I still took photos (rebel-I know), but my photo quality is incredibly poor. Anyways, it was 0 degrees.. Celsius in the cave. So cold. But it was worth it. We climbed up 700 stairs into a black abyss. Our only light was our guide's flare and some measly lanterns. Along the way beautiful ice sculptures decorated the cave. It was truly marvelous. I had been in caves before but nothing as grand as this one. Neither my words or pictures will do it justice-- your only option? Go to Austria and visit them yourself. It is settled.