Things I Love About Vienna Part II, and Other Happenings

Guten Abend friends, family and othe miscellaneous followers,

It is about 7:30 pm here in Vienna, as our time has finally sprung ahead (two weeks later than those of you residing in the U.S. of A). I'm procrastinating the writing of a paper, so I have turned to blogging as a semi-productive use of my time. So first, I present to you, the second entry in my series "Things I love About Vienna"

1. The Naschmarkt

The Naschmarkt has quickly become one of my favorite places in Vienna. It's a bustling (mostly) outdoor market near the center of the city, occupying a thin strip between two streets and stretching a few blocks. There are two "aisles" of sorts, one of shops and stands and the other an assortment of tiny restaurants and cafes. The actual market side sells mostly food: fresh produce, meats, gourmet cheeses, bread and pastries, chocolate- if it is delicious, you can probably find it at the Naschmarkt. The restaurant side offers a wide variety of cuisine, all prepared with the freshest of ingredients due to the convenient location right next to the biggest market in the city. These restaurants are all very small, with maybe eight tables at the most crammed inside and more spilling out onto the sidewalk. This time of year, most of the sidewalk seating comes with blankets. Sunny Saturday afternoons are the most lively at the Naschmarkt, as tourists and locals alike crowd the narrow corridors and fill the sidewalk seats. I love just walking around, stopping here and there to pick up some vegetables or spices, or to grab a drink and a snack at one of the restaurants and people watch for awhile. Last time I was there, I had the most delicious hummus I had ever tasted.

Translation: Cheeseland

The Naschmarkt, like the rest of Vienna, has a ton of flower shops

Fresh produce

Assorted oils and vinegars

2. My coffee maker... and giant yellow coffee cup

This is my coffee maker, and it is the best nine euros I have spent since I have been in Europe. I quickly realized that purchasing a coffee maker for my time here would be necessary, as I could not continue to buy coffee at cafes, and simply going without coffee was definitely not an option. The coffee at Viennese cafes is delicious, but it is also quite expensive. For about the price of one small coffee drink at a cafe, I got an entire bag of coffee grounds. I have to say, even the coffee grounds sold at grocery stores are better here than at home. I went with Julius Meinl, a traditional Viennese brand popular at cafes, and it makes such a good cup of coffee that I almost don't need cream and sugar. In fact, this morning I drank my coffee black! Now, for the yin to my coffee maker's yang...

My big yellow coffee mug! As mentioned in my previous "Things I Love About Vienna" post, I love the color yellow, so naturally drinking coffee out of a mug in this hue makes me even happier than just drinking coffee. I also like the size of this mug, and see it as a good analogy for America vs. Europe. The teeny tiny white coffee mug on the right is one of the pair that came with my coffee maker. In real life, I think it looks even smaller. It would probably take about six of these European "mugs" to fill Big Yellow. In America, everything is bigger. I love the efficient use of space in Vienna and Europe in general, but when it comes to coffee, bigger is better.


3. Proximity

Vienna is in a pretty great location. It's bordered by eight countries and kind of sandwiched between Eastern and Western Europe. This position makes access to a variety of other countries easy, whether for a two week vacation or a weekend or even day trip. Yesterday, I spent the day in Bratislava, Slovakia. I have been there a couple times before, but a few friends of mine were going so I decided to tag along. I bought a round-trip bus ticket for only 12 Euros, and left Vienna at 8:30 am. By 9:30 we were having breakfast in Bratislava's quaint Old Town.

The castle in Bratislava

4. Family Dinners

It's been weird liviing in a dorm setting again, but at the same time oddly enjoyable. One of my favorite parts about dorm (and shared kitchen) life is the dinner routine that has developed over the past couple months. Most weeknights, a group of five or six of us (sometimes more) split the cost of food and cook together. I tend to do a lot of the cooking, but I'm working on training a few sous chefs. Everyone hangs out in the kitchen for the evenings, listening to music and chatting as we cook. Recently, we had a large potluck dinner in our dorm hosted by the school's exchange office. About a hundred exchange students showed up, bringing dishes native to their home country. I contributed an All-American chicken pot pie, baked in a dish constructed out of tinfoil because we didn't have anything else:

Nothing says "America" like flag food

That's all for this edition of "Things I Love About Vienna". Stay tuned for more updates in the future. Now, in other news, here's a quick recap of notable events from the past couple weeks:

Last weekend, I played in a one-day indoor soccer tournament with some other exchange students. It was a co-ed tournamnet and consisted of a first round of four, 12 minute games, followed by playoffs. We tied our first game and lost the next three. Needless to say, we did not advance past round one. Despite our sub-par record, it was a lot of fun. I definitely want to look for more opportunities to participate in events like this. The day did, however, result in a couple minor injuries for yours truly. First, I got kicked in the ankle pretty hard by a large Austrian fellow resulting in the bruising and swelling seen here:

It is important ot note that said large Austrian fellow did this to my ankle, and he was the one that fell down and tried to complain to the ref that I fouled him. I won't even get started on my views on European soccer players diving all over the field to try to elicit a call, because that would just turn onto an angry rant. Needless to say, I slammed him against the boards with all my might the first chance I got.

Secondly, the turf surface of the fields, combined with my tendency to take a few spills during soccer games, resulted in some scrapes and bleeding:

I could hardly walk the next day, due to some very sore muscles and my ankle injury, but my ankle is now back to it's normal size and almost normal color, and the wounds on my knee have stopped oozing.

A second notable event is the commencement of the planning/booking of my second half of spring break. So far, I have booked ridiculously cheap flights to Palma de Mallorca, Spain and, from there, to Edinburgh, Scotland. I haven't firmed up plans after Edinburgh yet, but I'll write about the plans for my entire spring break when they are fialized. Hope you all had a great weekend and have enjoyed my ramblings, thanks for reading!

How To Miss Various Forms of Public Transportation

Dear Blog,

It has been awhile, I'm sorry for my extended absence. I have been traveling, meeting up with friends here and there, and starting classes. Prepare yourself for a long post concerning my (mis)adventures of the past couple weeks...

Last Wednesday I departed Vienna for a week of adventure in other parts of Europe, more specifically Brussels, Cologne and Budapest. I left my dorm at about 6:00 am to take a bus to Bratislava and, from there, flew to Brussels to meet up with my friend Heather, who was heading there for a spring break study tour. Flying out of such an obscure airport was by no means convenient, but the flight was 8 Euros on Ryanair so I can't really complain. I arrived in Brussels at around 9:30 am, and had planned to meet up with Heather at one of the central train stations there, but it turns out that finding someone in a major European city that you have little to no knowledge of can be quite difficult.

Long story short, I wandered around for about four hours, using my iPod whenever I found free internet to try to get in touch with Heather. Eventually, we figured out through a series of emails that we were at different train stations. After this realization, I was able to take the Metro to the station she was at and meet up with her there. The time was not totally lost, however, as I was wandering around the main square in Brussels and got to see stuff like this:

I also ate a waffle, which was quite delicious. When I finally found Heather, we bought train tickets to go to Cologne (the next train that had seats wasn't for another 2 hours), and got on the train around 7:00 pm. It was a long day, and when we arrived at our hostel in Cologne at around 9:30 pm we fell asleep almost immediately.

We awoke Thurday morning to general debauchery in Cologne. Carnival was pretty much in full swing by 9:00 am, and looking out our window we could see an endless stream of costumed party-goers heading towards the city center. Carnival in Cologne is like a cross between Halloween and Mardi Gras, with lots of beer and bratwurst. We borrowed some costumes from our neighbors in the hostel, accented them with a few accessories from a costume shop, and a couple hours later we were ready to hit the streets dressed as a Scottish lass (me) and pop sensation Lady Gaga (Heather). We walked to one of the main Carnival streets, and then slowly made our way to the Old Town down on the river. There were hoards of costumed people in the streets, and street vendors everywhere selling food and drinks. It was a fun atmosphere and a beautiful, sunny day. The whole event is kind of hard to describe, but maybe some pictures will help:

We found President Obama wandering the streets of Cologne

Costumed people everywhere!

Lady Gaga and a Scottish Lass enjoying a beer in front of the Dom

That afternoon, we met up with two of Heather's friends who live in Germany and were in town for Carnival, then in the evening the four of us found Stephanie, my roommate in Vienna who was also in Cologne visiting friends. We all went to a bar for a little while, and after some street food around midnight headed in our separate directions to get some much needed sleep.

Lukas, Heather, Tim, Me and Stephanie enjoying Carnival

For Friday, we didn't really have any plans. Heather and I had booked our hostel online for Wednesday and Thursday night, but it was full for Friday. Most of the time, hostels have a few extra beds that they don't fill with online booking, so we figured we would probably be able to get a bed for Friday night when we got there. We were wrong. Not only was our hostel booked, but pretty much everything in the entire city was full. Luckily, Heather's friend Chris was on break from school and staying with his parents about an hour outside of Cologne in a small town called Attendorn. He and tim were heading back there Friday morning, and he offerd us a place to stay if we wanted to go along. We decided that one day of Carnival was enough for us, and headed for the countryside. It was once again a fairly warm and sunny day, and we spent the whole afternoon relaxing by the lake. It was a nice break from the craziness of the day before.

A hot air balloon over the lake in Attendorn

Heather and I at the lake.

Sunset on the lake

That night we made dinner and got to bed fairly early, as we had scheduled an 8:45 am bus from Cologne to Brussels and had to take a 7:00 am train from near Attendorn to get there in time. We overslept, and our streak of bad luck continued. Tim drove us to the train station (on the Autobahn), and we ran onto the train with a few minutes to spare, only to find that we had to buy tickets from the machine in the station and not the conductor on the train. We had about three minutes to spare, so I left my backpack with Heather on the train, took her wallet, and ran to get the tickets. I sprinted back to the platform, tickets in hand, to find that the train, and Heather, were gone. This situation was probably the worst case scenario, as not only were we separated and inevitably going ot miss our bus, but I had all of Heather's money and she had all of my stuff. I went into the train station to check the schedule and saw that the train she was on made a stop about ten minutes away. All I could do was hope that she would get off there and come back for me. About 45 minutes later, Heather burst through the doors of the station, weighed down with two backpacks, a purse and a suitcase. I don't think we have ever been so glad to see eachother.

We boarded the next train to Cologne, where Heather was able to tell me her side of the story. The train doors had closed with no warning (there is usually an announcement or at least a beeping sound), and the train was speeding away from the platform before she could even process what was happening. Panicked, she tried to explain the situation to the crowd of elderly German men on the train with her, and they all decided it would be best for her to get off at the first stop. After all, she didn't even ahve a ticket. When she got off the train in pretty much the middle of nowhere at 7:00 am on a Saturday, there was no one to be found. She went out into the street, flagged down a car and asked to borrow a cell phone. She called Tim, who translated the situation to the driver of the car, and in the end she got a ride back to the station I was waiting at.

When we fianally arrived in Cologne we were able to get on a train to Brussels that arrived later that afternoon. All things considered, the whole situation could have been a lot worse. We got to Brussels around 1:00 pm, and went to the airport to meet up with my friend Marlee, who was flying in for spring break. We all went out for a delicious Belgian dinner, and, after the day we had, indulged in some equally delicious Belgian beer.

Finally made it to the train station in Cologne!

That night, Marlee and I stayed at Heather's apartment in Brussels and got up at about 3:00 am to make our way to the airport for our 7:20 am flight. Many hours and many naps later, we landed back in Bratislava. We took a bus from the ariport to the train station to get on a train to Budapest, where we planned to meet up with Sonja, my roommate from Gainesville, and one of her friends. When we got to the station in Bratislava the next train to Budapest was leaving in four minutes. We got tickets and ran to the platform, of course only to see the train just starting to pull away. We went back into the station to find that the next train wasn't for another 4 hours, so we took a bus into the city center to get some lunch and do a little exploring. Bratislava has a beautiful old town, and it was nice to spend some time there.

After a little exploring we headed back to the train station and were soon on our way to Budapest. We arrived and checked into our hostel, went out for some traditional Goulasch, and met up with Sonja later that night at an underground cave bar. The following day we all headed to the baths for a day of rest and relaxation. We soaked in the natural outdoor thermal pools, baked in the saunas, and barely tolerated the incredibly hot steam room. Marlee and I got massages, then headed back to our hostel to change and do a little sightseeing before getting on a bus back to Vienna. We got on a bus at 7:00 pm, and were back in my dorm in Vienna around 10. We were both exhausted and crashed almost as soon as we walked in the door.

My week of travel was exciting, fun, crazy and exhausting. It was great to see old friends and meet some new ones, all while exploring places I have and have not been before. Marlee left early Thursday morning after a couple days in Vienna, and Sonja will be here until Sunday. Tonight we are planning on attending a classical music concert in the city center, where you can get standing  room tickets for only 4 Euros. For now, I plan to stay put for a little while to continue to explore what Vienna has to offer, and hopefully save a little money for more adventures. Until next time, auf wiedersehen!