Sachertorte, Dirndls, Mozart--Yep, I'm in Vienna!

Now is when the “study” part of “study abroad” really kicks in. I don’t want to complain about my homework, so I’ll just state what we have to do and then move on: 2 papers, 2 finals (thank goodness 1 is already finished), lots of readings about Austria’s history, and finishing up 50 “journal entries” for pieces of art or architecture that we’ve seen.

Consequently, the parts of Vienna that I’ve been visiting lately are as follows: museums, museums, museums, and my apartment. The museums are pretty cool, but I think I’m at the breaking point of cultural overload at the moment. :)

So the first museum we visited was the Natural History Museum, which I really enjoyed. I saw lots of rocks, dinosaurs, taxidermied animals, and the famous Venus von Willendorf—a sculpture created around 24,000 BC. It’s 11 cm tall. And in a room about a thousand times its size...haha!

Here’s some more of Vienna! (I wrote on these things for my journal entries):

Karlskirche

An Art Nouveau Bahn Station:

The Hundertwasserhaus! Ever since I learned about this in German 330 (oh wait, that was just this past Winter semester) I’ve wanted to go see it. And here I am, in Vienna. I like post-modern architecture, and I really love the Hundertwasserhaus! There are hardly any straight lines (yes, I know that’s redundant) to be found. There are over 200 trees that are growing from, in, or on top of this apartment building, and all the windows are different sizes and there’s not really any rhyme or reason. And most importantly, it’s extremely colorful!

Here’s the inside of the building across the way that Hundertwasser also designed (he was an artist, not an architect).

We also used the Toilet of Modern Art:

Here’s another museum I visited. I wrote on some pop-art pieces that were inside and then wrote about the building in its entirety for modern architecture. 

Becca and I passed this van on the way to school: “Mädchen Auto” (girl car). Not sketch at all, right?...

Here are some pictures of the Karlskirche and Vienna at night! I went to a performance of Beethoven’s 5^th symphony in the Karlskirche—the orchestra also played some Mozart. It was really cool to attend an orchestra concert. Mozart and Beethoven. In the Karlskirche. In Vienna!

We also visited the Schmetteringshaus (Butterfly house)! 

And I almost bought this book. Instead of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, in German, it’s called “The little never-full caterpillar.” “Nimmersatt” is just a fantastic word! I really love studying German :)

Vienna is known for its Sachertorte, so naturally, we had to try it out :) It was pretty delicious!

We visited Schloß Kreuzenstein on Saturday for class. It was pretty neat—a jumble of different styles. Can you spot the gothic part? 

Naturally, I had to take tons of pictures of Cindy’s girls because they are just the cutest! 

Oh, yeah. And Jordan. :) He fits right into the Medieval Era, oder?

Kristen being a princess:

Becca and Katelyn being “urban:”

Trying to get a cute picture:

Cindy photo-bombed our picture! And I absolutely love it :)

On Sunday, Cindy’s girls were all wearing Dirndls! I died of cuteness-overload:

 

So now I only have 3 more days in Vienna! Crazy--how did that even happen?! I lived in Berlin for 2 months and Vienna for one month. I feel so incredibly blessed to have had this opportunity. And instead of going home on Thursday, I'm taking a train up to northern Germany so I can visit my family for a week--I'm really excited! And the day after I get to Pennsylvania, my family and I are going on vacation to Maine! I can't wait :)

Last night, we had a "fireside" where we all just talked about our favorite experiences, things we've learned, funny stories, memorable things, etc. It started to hit me that I'm not going to be with these people on my study abroad group every day anymore, and I don't like the thought of that! Thankfully, Cindy has applied the "come visit me at my house" policy she has here in Europe to when we get back to Provo! Yay! :)