Home Sweet Home

Well, I suppose it's time to wrap things up. Even though we all went our separate ways and half of us won't ever see each other again, it was one heck of a ride. I want to thank you all for the great experiences and helping me to grow up.

Salzburg

WOW! What a place. The old cemetary was beautiful, the castle was a wonderful sight, & the shopping was great. The scenery on the way there and back was breathtaking. What a great day.

Otto Wagner

The day started off slow with the rain but the church was worth the walk and rain. The architecture was beautiful. My favorite thing in the church was the hanging lights, they were amazing. The whole church was amazing. The stained glass windows were so clear and bright, what an inspiration.

Day 16

I had an especially great day. The Guggen home for schizophrenic artists was great. I really enjoyed their work and meeting one of the artists was the highlight. What a spectacular view they have. I loved the Mango Duck that I ate for supper. The food and the company was the best. What a great day.

July 19th

Well today was...interesting... At the art house tour place a ma bob we went to today, I talked to Karl, who ended up wanting me to be a nude model for him. Wow. I ended up turning down his offer and we all had a good laugh afterwards. Still ticked at myself since I slept through the catacombs. Very. VERY ticked.

Catacombs

The catacomb tour is my favorite tour so far. Our tour guide was enthusiastic and lots of fun. Seeing the old coffins and bones, rooms filled with bones from the plague, and knowing people used these areas as bomb shelters was very interesting. I think being able to see the old gargoyles up close and personal was my favorite.

On Sunday

Having a great time at the very friendly Chinese restaurant!

Casual Bro

Mozart

I learned at lot from the Mozart tour. My favorite part was the musuem. Since I'm very interested in textiles, the Otto Hapsburg funeral procession was fascinating. The different types of clothing from all over the Austro-Hungary Empire was great.

Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th July

All day Mozart event! I printed a walking tour off the internet. We visited the Mozart House, the only one of 13 apartments where Mozart lived that still shows traces of his life. Beautifully done. We walked by the Stephansdom where thousands of people were waiting for Otto von Habsburgs funeral. We saw the procession and Habsburg's family walk by. I know my American students had never seen anything like this. I was puzzled to see my dear fellow Austrians pay a man the their respect, a man they had not wanted while he was alive. I suspect a great deal of nostalgia and a love for wearing uniforms played a role. We went on to see Mozart's unknown grave on St. Marx cemetary, a rather eery place where funerals took place only between 1784 and 1886. In the evening, we went to a Mozart and More concert in the Malteserkirche.

Today we took the bus with Italians, Spaniards, Germans and Americans (as well as a South African) to Vienna Woods, Mayerling, and the subterranean lake in Hinterbruehl that served as a mine, a place where the Nazis built the first jet, and a "working place" for concentration camp prisoners during WW II. Another interesting bit of Austrian history that I did not know. I could not believe that they had the Mary Vetsera's coffin at Mayerling. Unreal!

After we got back, I went home and took a three hour nap. Very necessary!

Off to grading now.

July 17: Asian food

I've seen many things in Vienna. Moms' holding their bathroom-needy children over bushes, cranky old men screaming at the loss of floral life, and naked people. Today, I encountered some really, really fun and interesting things.

I went on a tour this morning with the group. The tour consisted of a bus ride out to the woods surrounding Vienna, where we observed some of the historical sites there. the first was the location where the son of Sisy and Francis Joesph killed himself, it was very sad, but we weren't able to stay long due to the number of people on the trip (close to 40) and the other places we had to see. We then traveled to a monastery where we observed several classic sculptures and paintings. There was a beautiful statue portraying Jesus' feet being washed by the prostitute. Again, really fascinating, but also rushed. We closed out our half-day tour with an expedition into an underground lake. The trip had some fascinating history, telling of how the Nazi's used the underground caverns as plane manufacturing sites during the war. After we escaped the catacombs, I decided to get some lunch and stepped into the nearby snack bar. Seeing they had a falaffel sandwich, I chose that as my meal of choice. It took them about 7 minutes to prepare the thing, but it was everything I could ask for of a sandwich. Served in a pita bread pocket, the chick-pea cakes were still warm from where the chef in the back had fried them. Delicious! Surely the best I've had in Vienna. Luckily I was able to complement the chef personally since he checked me out. He seemed taken a back by the compliment. Guess no one told him his food was that good.

After returning to Vienna, the some of the group wanted to eat again, so we headed to an Indian restaurant that Deef and I had discovered the day before. Ashlan, Joesph, Michael, Sabrina, and I went exploring. The Indian place was closed, but we accidentally walked into the Chinese restaurant next door and took a seat. The food was delicious none the less. Ashlan's and my curry dishes were excellent, (though I thought her's was the better choice, chicken just absorbs curry better) and Michael's mango duck was the best prepared mallard I'd ever ingested. The workers there, Wang, a Chinese middle-aged man, and Weng, a younger female Chinese college student, were unbelievably friendly. They were kind enough to be the subject of our interviews of "Auslanders" and were every helpful when dealing with our broken German. After we finished our main courses, we were given free Mango-snowcone esque desserts alongside freshly sliced watermelon. At the table next to us sat an elderly Austrian woman who had lived in America for 21 years. She cracked George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes the entire time, making us laugh quite a bit. Each of us was given a small tassel-esque charm to take with us to remember our time in the restaurant. Our time together ended with the Chinese workers taking our photograph and saying they would send it to Ashlan's email address. Ashlan, I want a copy.

We are going back to that place. I wonder if we were their first customers because the amount of friendliness they showed was comforting and encouraging. I hope to see them again this week.

July 16th

Wow! The 7 people (You know who you are.) that didn't come to the concert tonight sure missed out on some amazing stuff!!! Of course, it wasn't all Mozart. My favorite that they played was "Ave Maria". Seems like tomorrow won't be as long, but will probably feel longer than it will be.

July 15th

Bike tour!! Such a great way to see Vienna. Our tour guide took us through the city to Prater and the Donauinsel. On the way back through the Prater, Sarah fell and landed in a Viennese Schrebergarten. The owner and his wife were about to leave, but when they saw the excitement, they came back and got very excited. They were yelling and shaking their heads and fists at us. Chase was asked who speaks German. His eyes got very big, then he pointed at ... ME. Thanks, Chase, I felt like you threw me out of the bus! The angry old garden gnome turned to me and started yelling at me. I kept saying shhhhh, you are going to get a heart attack. Nothing happened, you can fix this, write a letter to the newspaper, enjoy this beautiful day - but nothing helped. He got angrier and angrier. Our tour guide returned and tried to fix the fence. Meanwhile, Sarah stood there, trying to understand what the man said. She was a real trooper. I think I would have started to cry. When he had calmed down a bit, the bad Karma came back to him, and Sarah's bike fell into his measly garden AGAIN. That's when half the group turned away because everyone thought it was unbearably funny. A few minutes later, we got back on the bikes and rode away. Sarah's bike had a flat tire, so we waited for someone to bring us a new bike. Everyone returned happy and amused at the Viennese anger. Top even documented the experience with photos and had her psychology students analyze the situation in psychological terms. Too funny.
We met Tracey back at the Opera house and went to Hawelka where Matthew had the most expensive apple juice of his life and Top and Chase enjoyed some hot chocolate. We ended up having dinner at Reinthaler's and ice ceam on Schwedenplatz before we returned back to Sechshauserstr. Said good bye to Tracey who is going back to the US today. Off to a Mozart walk today and the Otto Habsburg funeral, then a Mozart concert in the Malteserkirche.

strolling along

I loved strolling the back streets of old Vienna. St. Anna's church was stunning. I plan on returning to the Cafe Frauenhuber to eat where Mozart and Beethovan ate. I hadn't realized how many medieval structures there werehere until our tour.

July 13 & 14

Had a great tour at Wiener Zentralfriedhof on Wednesday. The guide was funny and very knowledgeable. She asked right away which grave we wanted to see - and I told her that I had to go and see Falco's. We saw Beethoven's, Schubert's, Brahm's, Strauss' graves and a monument for Mozart, who was buried in another cemetary in an unknown grave. I realized that politicians have the ugliest graves. Karl Lueger even had his old self painted in the cemetary's church. He stands right next to Jesus. Unbelievable.

Today, July 14th, we went on a tour of romantic courtyards and secret lanes. Saw a couple of beautiful houses, St. Anna (supposedly Mary's mother), Mozart's house where he lived for three years, the Malteser church, where many young Viennese get married, the oldest cafe in Vienna, the Frauenhuber etc. I liked the guide - she reminded me (and Top) of Mrs Doubtfire and I expected Robin Williams to jump out and ride a broom any second.

In the evening, we took Tracey Bradley to the spa. She came floating out of the massage place.
Top and I were enjoying the display of PDA in various pools. Haha!

On the bike tour tomorrow.

Cemetary

I was amazed at the beautiful cemetary we toured today. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and passionate, I enjoyed her. The burial rituals were interesting and a contrast to what I'm familiar with. The church was beautiful. After the tour, Shelby and I ate supper near St. Stephensdom. I had handmade pasta, it was great

July 13th

Today we went to a cemetary. I brought extra batteries this time because my camera was being weird. Speaking of weird, I got a picture of what looks like a woman dressed in old timey clothes in the background. Spooky!

July 12

My students' German is getting so much better. They read a lot in class, and we work on pronunciation and stress, so they sound much more authentic when they read. It sounds like they understand what they are reading, just by stressing particular words in the text.
After class, I graded for two hours and then we went to Prater, rode the Ferris Wheel and several other rides. Had dinner at Luftburg, then on to Harry Potter. Of course I got lost with Tracey, but what else is new? We walked home after the movie, went to bed at 3.00 am. Teach later today, then on to Zentralfriedhof where we will go on another tour. Very much looking forward to it! Note to self: don't need the tour guide for the Prater next year.

Day 9

One of the main things that I wanted to do while in Vienna was see the 1898 ferris wheel. I enjoyed seeing it and riding on it. Riding on the old rollercoaster was great and the food was fabulous.

July 12th

Long day today. The dates are all starting to blur together.

Day 8

The 3rd Man guided tour was really interesting. I enjoyed seeing all the places and tidbits of the movie. I didn't know what a zither looked like but at the end of the tour there was a lady playing the 3rd man theme on the zither.

July 9&10&11

Saturday, July 9th: picked up by a bus to go to Wachau; took a boat tour, saw castles and fortresses on the hills; saw apricot trees, walked around Melk, had lunch with Top, Leigh, Sarah and Joseph. Tour of the abbey, back to Vienna.
Sunday, July 10th: hung out at the Therme Wien all day, smelly water, but very nice and relaxing. Had a massage. Top and I stayed until seven, then had ice cream at Schwedenplatz. The waitress recognized us from the previous day.
Monday, July 11th: class, then on to Jewish tour with Dr. Timmermann; learned about the Gestapo building and Austrian resistance movement; ended at the Jewish monument on Judenplatz. From there, Leigh, Top and I went on the excellent Graham Green tour that lasted two-and-a-half hours. Fantastic tour guide, who turned out to be Dr. Timmermann's brother Christopher. Top bought a Zither CD from the Zither player who met us and played the Third Man theme. Learned so much again!
Dinner at an Italian place, then on to meet Bernd for a drink. Wonderful day!

July 11th

Spent some time today touring history of the Jews. Came home and did homework after I felt better.

June 10th

More things happened today. There were much-needed massages, that's for sure! I accidentally lost my wristband (Those dumb things need holes like watches!) and was freaking out. It was found, thankfully. I went into my room then passed out. "Eh, I'll only take about a 30 minute na--" ...Yep.

July 10

So far my time in Vienna has been absolutely incredible. Today, we went to the Therme Spa. It had many different types of pools to fit everyone's needs and a sauna. I spent some time basking in the sun and then moved on to the sauna. The sauna was definitely a new experience for me! Afterwards, Sarah and I left to get food and headed back to the dorm. We got lost, but it was fun.

July 8th

We missed the tour guide for the Graham Green tour, which does not really matter because we heard quite a bit about The Third Man during the sewer tour - will reinvest the money into the tour about the history of prostitution that - surprisingly - everyone wants to do. We finally managed to load money onto the quick cards so that we can do laundry - and smell nice. Mel, Shelby and I (Julia) peeked into St. Stephen's Cathedral and I showed the girls Meister Pilgrim and the entrance to the Catacombs - they now want to go there, so we will. I introduced them to Eiskaffee (coffee, vanilla ice cream, lots of cream on top), walked back to Naschmarkt, bought the scarf that everyone seems to wear this summer, stopped by Bipa to get more foot creme and the watch that I saw on Jamie ... got back, taught, took an exam, relaxed a bit. Went back to Burgring, sat at an Italian and had some dessert - Tiramisu, Creme brulee & Co - some wine and very good conversation. I got the tickets for the late show at the Burgkino - The Third Man - and also got 13 tickets for Harry Potter, the last movie. That will be a LOOOONG night! We all fell asleep off and on during the film, but hey, we got to see the places we had visited, i.e. what they looked like after the war. Caught the subway to get back to Sechshauserstr. and finally hit the sack at 1.30 am. Whew. Today on to Wachau!!

Day 5 Vienna

We shopped at the Naschmarkt. I really enjoyed the experience. I bought cheese, Austrian sausage, & bread. I loved the smells of the spices. The flowers, plants, fresh fruit & vegetable were a delight for the eyes. Loved it. My traveling companions were great.

Austria Blog Eins

Hallo von Austria!
Austria is a beautiful city with tasty food and lots of history. We've been to a few churches which are so amazing that my camera ran out of batteries!
Sisi, one of the princesses that ran this city, had built some pretty awesome palaces (which we've visited.).
The U Bahns, the equivalent to subways in America, are like a rollercoaster ride in themselves.

I get up earlier, walk farther and have enjoyed every minute of this trip. The group meshes well, the food is great, and the architecture is awe inspiring. Classes and studying are interesting, but not overwhelming; I would suggest a study abroad program to anyone.

Thursday, July 7th

Time to see something gross: we put on some helmets and went down into the sewer system. I'll never forget Jamie's face when the poo smell first hit us. The sewer system of Vienna is over 2000 km long, and 250 sewer workers scrape Vienna's waste down on a daily basis. I asked the sewer worker who accompanied us on the tour whether he likes his job; he said: "I love it." Hm ... how do you come to decide that you want to work with crap? I really do wonder. Is it because your father was a sewer worker? They show a movie, which is projected against the sewer wall. The first part is about general information on the sewer system, the second part shows excerpts of the Third Man, which was filmed down there.
Afterwards we walked over to Naschmarkt. The students seemed to really enjoy walking along the small stores. Top and I had dinner. Avocado-Vogerlsalat and Steak Toast - very yummy!
Later in the evening, we were happy to report that the group was complete, safe, and sound.
I love my job! This is probably the very best part of it: showing students my home country.
So long ...

Mittwoch 6 Juli

Today I went on a tour around the Hofburg Palace. The real fun began after the tour when Jamie and I decided to take our own 'tour' around Vienna and ended up finding a cozy cafe where we snacked on some tomatoes and mozzarella. Afterwards, we walked around and discovered where the fun occurs after hours. And by that I meant we went to Starbucks and bought chocolate croissants.

July 6

Oh my goodness ice cream!!!

Our tour guide recommended a gelato shop to us, and by golly it was all she made it out to be. Definitely worth the half mile walk to it. I ordered an avocado cream mix that was simply to die for! Brilliant work on the part of the creators.

Still on the subject of food, Deef and I visited Lamm, a kebap/gyro stall across the street. The sandwich I purchased was pretty good but tasted slightly of taco meat, a definite turn off for my palate. I've had better at home. I'm hoping I can find a kebap to rival that of the masterful Kloitsburg concoction that I had in Berlin. What can I say, I'm a sucker for pickles.

The tour mentioned in paragraph one was actually very interesting, and the guide did an excellent job of presenting a history to a group who knew absolutely nothing about it. Her mannerisms might be defined as "quirky" in a typical social setting, but in the setting of a tour guide they drew in the audience and added a personal feel to the vague, distant histories. I would definitely recommend her to anyone going on such a tour.

I purchased all the ingredients necessary for Knodel today, hoping to make it for dinner, but I rediscovered our lack of a dishtowel upon our return home. Sadness followed. Hopefully the next day will meet with more knodel success.

Wien, Österreich - Joseph Simpson

Monday, July 04, 2011

I’m in Austria. It’s very different here than I expected it to be, but still very beautiful and interesting. Everything seems to be coated with age; it’s like the city is some aged beast that’s still living quietly. Perhaps it’s just the section of the city we’re in. I’ve been on the move for the past 30ish hours and my body says so. I was able to grab a 3hr nap this afternoon and then went to eat dinner with Chase and Matt at a coffee house. It was a really cool place; it was a quiet tucked away place with nice furniture and many many mirrors. It was nice because… well I can’t really describe it, other than it had this quiet quaint feel, with a group of elderly ladies quietly talking and drinking coffee behind us. The three of us had an fun and kind of confusing time ordering because about 2/3rds of the menu was in German and the rest was in English. Eventually we figured out what to get through our broken German and the waiters broken English.

Tomorrow I’ve got paperwork to fill out, auf Deutsch naturlich, and then start class. I can see the steeple of a church from my window, and I want to go take a look at it after lunch tomorrow. But, I think the professor has a bike ride planned, not sure.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

I’m tired; it doesn’t seem possible that it’s only the third day here. I’ve had some interesting stuff going on; yesterday the fire alarm went off and we had to wait for the Feuerwehr (fire-watch) to come and turn the screeching thing off. Then today I left the group at the Stephansdom after our tour of the city center and the Hofburg, but took the completely wrong direction. Several hours later and having gotten directions 3 times, I’m back at the apartment. At least now I thoroughly understand how the U-Bahn system works, and the S-Bahn fairly well. I’ve tried two new foods over here that I was hesitant to, and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with them: Döner (kind of like a BBQ sandwich that tastes more like a taco and is loaded with veggies) and Himbeer Eis (Raspberry ice cream). Everything, I mean everything, tastes so much better here; it has so much more flavor. The water is better, the milk, the apple juice, the wurst (hot dog/sausage)- everything. It seems kind of hard to believe sometimes.

I’ll upload some photos to Facebook relatively soon. I think one of the most interesting things I’ve noticed so far is the mixing of the different cultures and architecture styles. A lot of the people I talked to before I came here seemed to have the concept that Vienna is a… I suppose western European city, but in reality it has strong Turkish and eastern European influences. The way that different building styles are mixed and matched (a lot of it is because of bombing in WWII) with Baroque stonework on one side of a street and glass and steel on the other… takes a bit of getting used to. Every city I’ve been to has a unique “feel” to it: NY is all hustle-bustle and shiny expensive metal skyscrapers, Chicago has nice wide streets and art nouveau style architecture, San Antonio’s well kept river front, Charleston’s cobblestone old quarter- every city has a different feel to it that one can’t really put into words.

One aspect about the city that’s surprised me is that it seems like there are almost no beggars. Maybe it’s the European social setup or political practice, or perhaps something else. In any event, I find it surprising and relieving. When I visited Chicago a few weekends ago, there were apx 6 per block, and would get in your face and follow you. Here, there are hardly any and they aren’t creepy, aggressive or demanding at all.

Oh, and also, the Hofburg is AMAZING and HUGE - it’s absolutely beautiful.

July 5th and 6th

We got off the wrong U Bahn stop - missed the bike tour, but we might be able to reschedule after all! It was raining and I think Sabrina was relieved that she did not have to learn to ride a bike within minutes only to dive into the Vienna afternoon traffic with all the road raging Viennese drivers.

The students went to the Albertina and/or got lost somewhere (following my example); some had dry Sachertorte at the Cafe Sacher (it is supposed to be dry - our tour guide today said it used to be a diet cake); I spent the afternoon trying to get money out of the ATM and walked back with Matthew, Chase and Joseph. I showed them a courtyard and Chase got a good deal at the English bookshop! We had some icecream and walked back to Karlsplatz, peeked into the church, watched the first theater in a small boat, and took the U Bahn home. Chase and Matthew accompanied me to Grinzing to get my suitcase from my sister's house. They both had a nice Gulasch, I had beer and admired photos of my brandnew nephew.

Today we took a tour of the city center; our tour guide, Mag. Husa, was very knowledgeable and told us lots of stories about the Hofburg, the Habsburgs, about coffee houses and Viennese water.

Top climbed the Stephansdom, and I was off to meet a former student from Wales, Helen, at the Museumsquartier. Ran into another friend by chance and had a lovely dinner. Visited the Lena Hoschek store - www.lenahoschek.at - in Gutenberggasse (off Burggasse), had another glass of wine at Cafe Mozart and went home.

Willkommen in Wien! Welcome to Vienna!

We arrived on July 4th - were wished a Happy Independence Day by Asian tourists on the U-Bahn. To get from the airport to the student guest house in Sechshauserstr. 31, we took the S3, U 3, and U 6 to Gumpendorferstr., then Bus 57 A (too far), walked back to 31.
In the afternoon, we went for a walk, got on and off some street cars and busses. Walked around the city center, had some ice cream, bought some post cards.

July 5th: short informational meeting at 8.30; then on to lessons; time for lunch and a bike tour in the afternoon.

Let's start posting blogs and photos! Viel Spass! have fun!