Blending In

The altar at St. Stephan's Cathedral

They had a festival of the churches last weekend - hence all the projection screens and cool lights

Going to Fan Zone!

A mix of old and new - the parliament building and a big screen for the games

GO HOLLAND!

This morning for class we waited outside in the very cold, windy weather outside of St. Stephan's Cathedral. Our prof usually is a minute or two late, but today we stood outside waiting about 15 minutes for her. Then, to our dismay, we started our tour outside. St. Stephan's actually has a really interesting history, including it nearly being destroyed by fire in the 1940s, but I am not kidding when I say it was freezing today! Once we got inside though, it was nice, and it was fun hearing all of the legends and stories about the statues and tombstones and other artifacts in the Cathedral. After class I grabbed that apple sandwich from Billa and hung around the institute for a while. I took a nap this afternoon and cleaned my room - very uneventful but very much needed in both cases. Arin took Rachel, Paige, and I to Kolar for dinner for some yummy pitas, then we went to Fan Zone to watch the Italy-Romania game, which they drew 1-1 (Holland beat France 4-1... Go Dutch!) It was pretty quiet around here today compared to the craziness of yesterday, so that was nice. Now I just need to get to bed, I have to wake up at 5:45 in order to get ready and head over to Salzburg tomorrow!

Random things I've experienced:

• White asparagus for more than one dinner.
• Yogurt Milka (popular chocolate here) tastes just like the covered raisins, except there are no raisins.
• Never make fun of a statue, you just might get a toothache until you apologize.
• The Habsburgs (royal family) organs are stored in jugs underneath St. Stephan's
• There is an underground chapel that they discovered right next to my U Stop. I pass by it everyday but never have looked to see what it was.
• Poland fans really are the craziest. There were more of them at fan zone tonight than Italy or Romania, and they were the loudest and most decked out. I find them hilarious.
• Vera Bradley bags make good blankets in extreme circumstances.

Good night everyone!
Andi

Poland has invaded!

Havin some fun on the deserted U thanks to the game going on

Do you have spirit? Austria has spirit!! Europeans LOVE football - and nutella :) This is all over the U stops

Go Polska! aka Poland...

Just hanging out in Vindabona with Marcus Aurelis

Mmmmm - gelato!

...but he has a ton of Polska spirit!

Cheering in the streets - sure the game doesn't start for another five hours, but they'll still be going strong then!

EVERY store has something to do with soccer right now.

What you all have been waiting for - the Euro Cup!

It is inescapable around here. Every store has something to do with the Euro Cup, whether they have country scarves or t-shirts or jerseys or crazy hats or even eurocup underwear sets and boxers. It's everywhere. Today for class we headed over to the Jewish quarter and polizei were already setting up and pubs were setting out their tables. On our way back by St. Stephens, Poland fans were already chanting in the streets and taking every available table on the street in order to watch the game tonight - it was insane. There was pretty much a continuous parade through that area of crazy fans getting psyched for the game tonight. Aside from that, I had German class today and booked my train to and from Salzburg this weekend. We went over to Paige's again for dinner, then came back downtown for really good gelato and then walked around the area catching the games as we passed by each restaurant's big screen TV. The city stops once the games start for the evening. No one is on the subways or streets, the sidewalks just have clusters of people around each TV, whenever something happens you can hear fans screaming from all over, otherwise it is pretty quiet, everyone intensely watching the game. For the second half of the Poland Austria game we went to this place called 1516 and watched the game on their projector screen, to which the Austria fans were closest to, and Poland on the other side of the room :) It is really fun getting caught up in all of it.

Some random things I've experienced:

• A 3 euro coffee flavored gelato counts as your morning coffee, it's basically like a frappucino :)
• The strawberry gelato I had tonight tasted JUST like the fruit - soo soo good.
• The 3rd district in which I live used to be a civil town outside the military town of Vindabona - for some reason when I learned that this morning I felt really proud of my district, it's starting to feel like a second (or maybe third or fourth) home.
• Mozart makes beautiful music and Mostly Mozart makes beautiful chocolate.
• Cramming on to a U with a bazillon soccer fans does not smell good.
• Old ladies in Europe flatulate in public with absolutely NO shame.
• The weather in Vienna is almost more impossible to predict than the weather in Michigan.
• Never sit next to someone eating a hot dog wrapped in a crossaint and scalding hot cheese, you just might get a surprise burn on your back from the cheese squirting out when they bite into it.

Hope you all are having a great week!
Love,
Andi

The Castle in Bratislava

Super-tiny car!

In this photo, you are looking at three different countries - Slovakia in the foreground, Hungary in the far left, and Austria in the far right

Again, red geraniums - I am not kidding when I say that they are obsessed with them.

Guss Gott!

Today was a little bit of a whirlwind. It was pretty cold this morning when we took off for class, I was just in the classroom today. Grabbed Spar for lunch, and the sun was really shining, so I ate around the fountain beside the Opera House across the street from the institute. Then our bus took off at one for Bratislava, Slovakia. It only took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there, then our tour guide (her name was Blanka) hopped on the bus with us and took us up to the castle at the top of a large hill in Bratislava. We were able to see 3 countries at once, which was pretty cool. And after that moment, my camera died :( We walked around the old city some, saw a guy who was completely green from head to toe who looked like Old Greg sitting by one of the fountains (he creepily stared at us as we were walking by too...) and then headed over to a restaurant for dinner. There we were served an interesting appetizer of lunch meat ham wrapped around some kind of root with a butter dollop and pepper slices on top - what strange fine cuisine. They also brought us out some of Slovakia's famous(?) hard liquor - it smelled like really bad cologne so there was absolutely NO way I was going to taste it - yuck. Anyway, the main course and dessert were actually really good, but dinner had an interesting start. After that, we headed over to their new Opera house that they just completed last year to see the tragedy of Tosca - it was a good experience, but I don't see myself falling in love with operas anytime soon. The opera went from 7-10, so afterwards we loaded up the bus and headed back. Borro (our driver) turned on the EuroCup game on the radio, and for a short while we were following another tour bus that actually had the game playing on their TV. Borro was tailgating worse than usual during that time :) Turkey won tonight, kicking Switzerland out of the tournament, and even if I hadn't found that out on the bus, I would have found out as soon as I got off. Rachel and I have to walk down a street that it more like a shopping center on the way to our U-stop, and their was pretty much a parade of screaming Turkish fans, and we got caught in the middle of it. It was at this point that I was really ticked that my camera batteries hadn't given me more of a warning. However, we decided that this is going to be happening a lot during the next two weeks, so I'll be sure to catch one of them on camera. The parade ended at a block party type thing in front of St. Stephens, right past our stop, so we were able to easily hop on the U and head back home. Now I just need to get some sleep so I am ready to take on tomorrow.

Some random things I've experienced:

• I forgot to tell you this in the Hungary post, but in order to use the public restrooms you have to pay 100 forints (150 forints = 1 dollar). Kendra, never visit Hungary.
• I heard the song "Hey there Delilah" playing in German in one of the stores on our way to the institute, and two girls behind me on the U were singing "Ridin' Dirty" in German - it sounded SO strange.
• We really should get more excited about soccer in the US, they are CRAZY about it over here and it's really a lot of fun - watch for a post soon to be dedicated to all the hype about the EuroCup around Vienna.
• 3 oz. of coffee at the end of a meal does NOT need both a full packet of sugar and a full packet of creamer.
• Always make sure to include the color black in some part of your outfit when going to the opera, otherwise you scream hometown girl.

I really need to get some sleep, so I hope to hear from you guys and I will talk to you later!
Andi

Some time to relax...

Stone work from inside a Egyptian Mustaba

Marcus Aurelies from Gladiator

Saint Stephen's Cathedral

Doing cartwheels in Paige's backyard

Guten Abend everyone -

Today was my first real low key day since taking off a WEEK ago - it doesn't seem like it's been that long, yet I have already done so much it doesn't feel like it would be possible for me to have fit so much in already. Today I went to the Constortious Museum, which was built to house the Habsburg's (royal family) collection. It was really cool. The stone from the entrance of the Egyptian mustaba was from 2,500 B.C.! I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around something being that old, especially because I can still see it and touch it today, knowing that some hands were crafting it 4,500 years ago - it's incredible. It was also cool to see a few head busts of Marcus Aurelies, we're going to see his tomb in a few days - again, soo cool. For some reason I am enjoying museums a lot more during this session than I have ever before, and I think it's because I'm hearing all the cool little stories that go along with the pieces, which make them come alive that much more. It's safe to say I am really enjoying my class. After a classy lunch of a six-nugget meal from McDonalds (I had to take a break from Billa and Spar) a couple of the second session students had a beginning German class, which was actually really interesting as well. My friends and I are still trying to put the finishing touches on our Salzburg trip this weekend, so we spent the afternoon putting that together. Then, we headed over to Paige's house for some spaghetti (and it was only a 75 cent meal, which was really nice!) and just hung out at her house since her host family is gone to Italy for the week and she's been home alone. It was nice just to sit and talk on her back porch and play in her yard. I really missed seeing grass, since I live closer to town, all I ever see is streets and buildings. It may not have been the most extravagant day ever, but it was nice just to relax and enjoy friends and not be running all over the city all day. Then we just came back and I finished watching the Sweden-Greece game with Ingrid, Sweden won, and Spain beat Russia earlier tonight, in case you were wondering :)

Some random things I've experienced:

• Grocery carts in Spar are four wheel drive.
• there's this amazing granola mix called Knusperli - I got the peach and yogurt cluster mix, and it is soo good.
• According to my friend Arin's short story, I apparently love to listen to Celine Dion.
• In football in Europe, it is customary for the players to swap jerseys and wear the other team's jersey after the end of the game as a sign of friendship and good sportsmanship.
• One handed cartwheels are really fun, but aerials (no hands) are just as scary to think about attempting here in Vienna as they are in the US (I couldn't bring myself to try one).
• Pirates of the Caribbean in German = Fluch der Karibik.
• Some Austrian TV sets are impossible to figure out.

Have a good evening, everyone! Keep commenting, I love hearing from all of you!
love, Andi

The Hills are Alive!

My sweet t-shirt from the University of Vienna.
Only picture of the day, sorry :(

Ok, for as long as the last post was, this one is going to be very very short.
Not too much happened today. My class had one of its few sessions in an actual classroom this morning, then Paige, Rachel and I headed to Billa for lunch. The sandwich I have had the last few times at Billa is really good - it a wheat sub that has sesame seeds and some sort of granola-type stuff on the outside, then on the inside is a cream cheese, lettuce, swiss cheese, and apple slices. It sounds weird, but tastes delicious. After lunch we talked to Doc about our upcoming free weekend - I think a group of us are going to Salzburg, Austria (a 3 hour bus ride from Vienna) for the day on Saturday. Not as extravagant as I had originally planned, but it will still be a lot of fun. Then the trip of the day happened. I went to a district of Vienna that I haven't been in yet with a group of 4 girls to go to the University of Vienna Bookstore to get t-shirts. We were heading towards an escalator across the U station, when one of us noticed a flight of stairs in the other direction. We decided to go up that way instead. That wasn't the greatest idea ever. We spent the next hour wandering around, and when we finally were on Uni's campus (which was really pretty), after visiting 3 actual book stores we were told to head back in the direction we came from to the "old part of campus" a few blocks away. When we thought we got there, we found yet another bookstore that didn't have what we wanted. We were all getting really frustrated and decided to head back. As we were getting ready to cross the street to the station, one of the girls saw "Universitat Wien" flags, and within five minutes we were at the bookstore trying on the 9 euro t-shirts. It was a grand total of two minutes away from our stop! Ahh - at least we have the shirts now. After that we headed home for a quick nap then off to the Folkoper (another opera house) for the Sound of Music!! It was amazing. They had English subtitles that were a little messed up, but it was still really good and little Gretel was PRECIOUS!! At the end, they had the whole audience sing Edelweiss together - it was so much fun! Then we hopped on a brand new (!) U car to take us home.

Random things I have experienced:

• While at the opera, I had standing room tickets, but an old couple said I should come sit by them and that I wouldn't get in trouble. I ended up talking to them about the Eurocup, football and ice hockey in the US, the history of the Von Trapp family, among other things. The woman on the other side of me was from Salzburg and insisted that I go there so I could see where it all happened - it was really fun talking with them.
• The von Trapp family went to the US after crossing the mountains - I never saw Julie Andrews do that.
• Here's what I remember from the messed up German version of the song "Do-Re-Mi"
• C - like cellophane paper
• D - like the fast D train
• E - like an elephant
• F - like a fluttering flag
• G -
  
• A - like the alphabet
• H - like rose hip tea
• I rode my a streetcar today - my first time traveling through Vienna without using the U!

That's all I have for today, like I said, not much, but I'm starting to settle in more. Have a great rest of Monday and Tuesday - I'll post more soon!

Much love,
Andi

A Weekend in Budapest

WARNING: this post contains an ENTIRE weekend, it may be extremely long :)

Friday...

The Heartbeat of Hungaria!

Rachel and I arriving in Budapest

Window box downtown Budapest

NP = Nykerk play - nerdy pig and ugly stepsister sending some Nykerk love from Hungary!

The parliament building lit up at night - soo pretty.

Right after class we grabbed lunch then loaded up the bus to head to Hungary for the weekend. It was a four hour trip - and I spent the entire trip in the very back seat of the bus and didn't even feel the least bit sick! That was an accomplishment all of its own. After we finally parked the bus (we were up on the sidewalk/barricade between the divided street at one point - apparently that's not a big deal) we went inside and had dinner at our hotel. Then it was time for a quick tour around Buda. Budapest is actually two cities - Buda and Pest - divided by the Danube River. We toured around castles and other buildings, then got to see the Budapest lit up at night, which was absolutely gorgeous! Then we headed back to the hotel, where Sarah, my roommate from May term and my roommate for the weekend, stayed up watching Autoball - a match in which two small cars play soccer with a large inflated beach ball thing - it was hilarious!

Saturday...

Chillin' with the pelicans at the Budapest Zoo!

Hero Square - in the center is their tomb of the unnamed soldier... I was going to get a close up of it later that afternoon, but it started pouring!

Rachel, Paige, and I with Anonymvs - the great historian of Hungary who has his own park :)

Eliz and I really were the loving the boat tour on the Danube! This is in front of the Parliament Building on the Pest side.

Today we woke up and had a tour of Pest. We saw a lot of monuments that had been put up as a sign of revolution from the communist control. Supposedly there's a park where all the former communist statues were put as a reminder of what the Hungarians have gone through. After the tour we were given some free time, and a few friends and I headed over to the zoo and then a quick tour of the Hungarian Museum of fine arts. I had some kolach (hungarian sweet roll), which was a little stale - two of my friends got it, one of them was really good and the other one was filled with mold! Oh well... It only rained lightly for a small amount of time while we were in the zoo, but when we walked out of the museum, it was really, really raining. We saw our bus on the other side of Hero Square, so we ran through the puddles that we forming everywhere, meanwhile the bus started to take off and look for a different parking spot! Fortunately we were able to catch it before it got anywhere. We then headed back to the hotel to clean up, then the rain stopped for our dinner cruise along the Danube. It was really cool to see all of the buildings and bridges from this viewpoint, and the Danube was really pretty as well. Afterwards we were allowed to tour the nightlife of the city, and I ended up standing under my umbrella (the rain picked up again) listening to some interesting jazz music on the street, then headed to a music pub to listen to some more music and have a drunk Hungarian try really hard to catch my attention - it was pretty ridiculous, but fun all the same.

Sunday...

Real Hungarian goulash!!

More red geraniums...

The Cathedral at Esztergom - we got to see the catacombs underneath!

The AMAZING organ at the Catherdral in Esztergom

My Hungaria!!

On Sunday we gradually started to head back to Austria. We were able to see some of the Roman ruins of Aquincum - including their heating system and other artifacts. After that it was over to the town of Szentendre - an artist colony where I ate real Hungarian goulash and found my wooden spoons :) After paying 100 forrents to use the bathroom (a Hungarian policy I really didn't like) our bus drove along the Danube through the hilly countryside - it was absolutely beautiful. Once we arrived back home, Rachel and I hit up the classy restaurant of Burger King (it was one of the few things open without ridiculous prices) to watch Austria and Croatia play in the EuroCup! People all over Stephensplatz (a road downtown by my U stop) we decked out in jerseys and scarfs. Croatia scored in the first four minutes, and ended up winning 1-0. The streets were filled with people and crushed bottles and empty cans - it was kind of gross, but it was good to be back "home."

Some random things I've experienced:

• I rode in the back of a bus for 4 hours without getting sick - take that motion-sickness!
• The streetlights in Europe make you feel like you're in a drag race. Right before it turns green, the yellow light comes on under the red light. Unfortunately, our bus didn't take off with crazy amounts of speed - except once we got in to Vienna we started burning some rubber at the line because Borro, our driver, really wanted to get back and watch the game.
• The back wheels of our bus turn so that you feeling like you're sliding, which is really weird, but we needed it in order to get through some of the turns we had.
• At the zoo, the baby giraffe was playing with a tortoise that had come into the exhibit. The tortoise would stick its head out, then the giraffe would try to lick his head. It was really cute.
• Autoball is a great sport that really should come to the US.
• There was a junkyard I had to walk by to get to our hotel, and a junkyard dog barked at me. I immediately thought of bad, bad Leroy Brown.
• Hungarians are obsessed with red geraniums - I saw them EVERYWHERE!!
  
• The song "Boogie Woogie" makes drunk Hungarian men jump up and start clapping, and temporarily stop staring at you and trying to get you to notice them... creepy...

Well, that's enough for now! I need some sleep...
love you all,
Andi