6-7 April
Joyce took me on a tour of Lausanne before I headed out for Vienna around lunchtime. Joyce has lived in Lausanne for 32 years, so she knows the city very well! She showed me places like where her daughter went to school and an area where the river Lausanne has been totally encased underground. One bridge was a major construction feat, since it was an arch bridge, theough which they later constructed a metro crossing in the bottom part! I wrapped up my visit with Joyce shortly before noon and then headed to the train station. I unfortunately faced issues with my travel home and stayed in Bern at a hostel overnight. The extra time gave me a chance to work on getting caught up on my blog and other school work, so I would start off in a good position after returning home from break. I arrived home on Tuesday night, thoroughly tired out from my trip but looking forward to classes again.
8 April
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| Overlooking Lausanne |
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| On the steps of the university in Lausanne |
My Kulturgeschichte Österreichs class met this morning and enjoyed an excursion to Schloss Belvedere (a palace in Vienna, built by Prince Eugene of Savoy). We visited the upper Belvedere, which is an absolutely breathtaking art museum. Our teacher explained several paintings to us from the Biedermeier period, several decades in the mid-1800s, when censorship was extremely strong in Austria. This led to people promoting culture privately within their homes, by holding concerts, exhibits, and gatherings in their parlors. Many of the paintings from this period reflect this private, "home-grown" culture.
In the early afternoon, I was sitting at IES doing homework, not really sure whether a group of girls planned to meet in the evening for Bible study or not. Turns out the meeting could not happen, so I had the chance to go to the Wagner opera which I knew happened that day. All of a sudden, I realized the opera started at 5 pm rather than 7 pm, the normal time. I rushed out of IES and headed over to the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna National Opera) and got in line for my tickets at around 2:30 pm, because you always need to arrive super early. I got my tickets, whilst helping a couple other people in line become oriented to the opera. One of these couples only spoke Spanish and I realized how horrific my Spanish has really become. I felt like I couldn't pull up all the words I used to know, since the German ones kept interfering! I eventually managed to help them understand and then settled in for the 5-hour long opera, Parsifal. The German subtitles were tough to understand with their old-fashioned language, but I managed. Wagner's opera was truly nothing short of incredible with its intense passion and conflict. But the best part came at the end of the play. I was talking to my friend, Arya, in the standing section of the opera, when an old woman came over to us. I asked if she need something and she wanted to give up her FRONT ROW SEAT for the last act. So yes, I got to see a Wagner opera from the front row of the Wiener Staatsoper. The close-up view of the characters and the intense sound of the orchestra were absolutely breathtaking. I will never forget as the singers' voices reverberated around the opera hall on the last line "Erlösung dem Erlöser." What a beautiful, unforgettable night!
9 April
Thursday ended up being a catch-up day, since my friend Maggie planned to visit from Freiburg on Friday. Went to class and worked on school as usual, then headed over to the Burgtheater (main theater in Vienna) for a performance of Dantons Tod, which focuses on the life of main characters in the French Revolution. We had to attend the performance for my Viennese Theater class, but I could hardly concentrate due to my rising stress about finding housing in Chicago for the summer and employment for next school year. I honestly spent most of the time writing e-mails on my phone in the back row, rather than attempting to listen to actors running about the stage and jabbering about French philosophy in German. The fact that I consumed a rather large coffee before attending the play likely contributed to my distractions...
10 April
After German class in the morning, I met up with Aaron Martin and Maggie Kline near the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna National Opera). All of us lived together in the Global Village Living-Learning Center at IU during our first two years at university. Aaron and I are studying abroad together in Vienna, while Maggie currently lives in Freiburg, Germany, for her study abroad semester. We met up to show Maggie a few of the main sites around Vienna, so that she could get a taste of our beautiful city! Aaron and I took her to Karlskirche (St. Charles' Church), where we rode up the elevator to the top of the church and enjoyed the gorgeous view of the city. We then showed her around the Schatzkammer (Royal Treasury), which contains gems and belongings from the Hapsburg dynasty. Aaron and I had already visited most of the Schatzkammer for our Cultural History of Austria class, but we took time to see an extra portion during this visit which our class skipped during our tour. I loved going a second time to both these locations - they truly display the glory of Vienna and never fail to fascinate me with their incredible handiwork! We then grabbed snacks at a local grocery store and sat down to rest our weary legs for an hour or so in Stadtpark (City Park), which lies alongside a river in downtown Vienna. For supper, we enjoyed traditional Viennese food at the Zwolfapostelkeller (12 Apostles' Cellar), a centuries old wine cellar in Vienna. I tried Käsespätzle for the first time and completely loved it!
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| Delicious Käsespätzle! |
I headed out to the Wachau Valley today for a day-long field trip with my study abroad program. We left Vienna on a bus shortly after 9 am and first visited the Monastery of Melk, which contains over 5,000 rooms and perhaps the most decked out Baroque church which I ever saw. We did not visit all 5,000 rooms, of course, especially since a sizable section of the monastery is still in use as a Catholic school today. After the monastery, we headed over to a traditional Austrian restaurant, where I enjoyed a Knoblauchcremesuppe (garlic cream soup), salad, and a delicious Topfenstrudl with plumsauce! In the afternoon we hiked up to the ruins of the castle Durnstein, where Richard the Lionheart was supposedly imprisoned in the 12th century during his return home from the Crusades. The view of the entire Wachau valley from Durnstein was absolutely gorgeous - a sweeping and breathtaking Austrian landscape. We finished off the day with a tour of a family-run winery in the Wachau, where we learned all about the process of making wine. We traipsed down into the old wine cellar and found layers of wet, sticky mold on the brick walls, into which people sometimes press coins for good luck. The rich, clear flavors of the wine were among the best I ever tasted!
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| View of the Wachau from Melk Monastery |
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| View of the Wachau from Castle Durnstein |
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| Ruins of Castle Durnstein, prison of Richard the Lionheart |
I enjoyed a refreshing morning at church, where Reinhold, one of the pastors, preached a message on encouragement from 2 Corinthians. I went to lunch afterwards with several people from church and then headed off to catch up on school for the rest of the day. I spent most of my time working on essays due on Wednesday for Cultural History of Austria, along with visiting Die Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente (Collection of Old Music Instruments) in the Hofburg (Royal Palace). My visit helped me realize how ridiculously large the Hofburg actually is with is winding halls and rooms. I enjoyed seeing the predecessor instruments of the piano, along with browsing through a myriad of strange instruments from the Middle Ages.
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