Vienna

I did not have to work from May 1st to May 7th, so I took advantage of the break to travel to Vienna. I left early on Saturday morning, took the bus to Békéscsaba, then a train from Békéscsaba to Budapest, and finally a train from Budapest to Vienna. Overall it was a little less than 7 hours of travel time, and very inexpensive, especially compared to train prices in Western Europe! The trip was fairly uneventful, except that from Budapest to Vienna I had to sit on the floor; they sold more tickets than there were seats, so I sat on the stairs in front of the exit with a group of boys from England.

I arrived at around two in the afternoon, and immediately did something equal parts embarrassing and entertaining. There was a taxi queue outside the train station, so I walked up to one of the cars and asked if they could take me to Wombat's City Hostel. Much to my chagrin and amusement, the car was NOT A TAXI! He had parked in the taxi queue, but somehow I managed to choose the only car that wasn't a taxi! When I realized my mistake, I said "Really? Well that's embarrassing," and started to laugh. So, I decided to take the metro instead. The metro was uneventful and it only took 15 minutes to go from the train station to my hostel.

I checked into the hostel, dropped off my luggage in my room (they had lockers in each room, so all of my belongings were secure), and took off to explore Vienna. My hostel was in the Naschmarkt area of the city, which was advertised as a sort of farmers market, so I decided to begin my explorations there.  Much to my disappointment, there weren't any fresh fruits or vegetables; instead, there were used clothes that were on the ground and looked fairly dingy and unclean. And, to make things even more excited, a man peed on the street right next to me. How weird is that?!

Next, I took off in the general direction of the city centre. However, on my way I saw the dome of Karskirche, and decided to wander in that direction. I meandered for 3 hours around Vienna without looking at a map, decided I was hungry, found a restaurant, and then used the restaurant's free wifi to figure out how to get back to my hostel.  I arrived back at the hostel with no problems, and met my roommates. The other three girls who were staying with me were all from different parts of the world. Ali, a 30 year old, was born in Puerto Rico, moved to LA when she was 12, and was in the middle of a six month solo backpacking trip through Europe. The other two girls didn't tell me how old there were, but seemed close to my age. One of the girls was from Korea and the other was from the Philippines. They were nice enough, but the Korean girl woke up every morning between 6:30 and 7:00, and was very loud, and then returned late each night at around midnight and would turn on all the lights; as you can imagine, I found this irritating, but it wasn't a huge deal. Excluding my noisy roommate and the spotty wifi, Wombat's City Hostel was extremely clean, the staff was pleasant, and it was inexpensive, so I would highly recommend it to anyone travelling to Vienna.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

On the second day, Sunday, I started off my morning by walking to the city centre and attending mass at St. Stephen's Cathedral. The cathedral itself is quite lovely, but going to mass there was incredible. The mass itself lasted two hours because there was a string section, choir, a professional soloists who performed mass parts from Hayden's Mass in a Time of War, which incidentally the choirs at Bluffton sang my sophomore year.  The accoustics in the cathedral were amazing, the voices were sublime, and I had a lovely time. After mass was over, I spent some time looking around the cathedral and taking pictures before returning to the city centre. Much to my disappointment, most of Vienna is closed on Sunday's because they are observing the sabbath, so I spent a few hours wandering around the city centre window shopping. there was a souvenir shop open, and since it was colder and windier than I had expected, I bought a scarf. For lunch I stopped to eat a bratwurst from a street vendor, and it was delicious!

Secession Building

Next, I headed back to my hostel to drop off a few things before walking to the Secession Building, which looks interesting with its gold dome, but was vastly disappointing. This building is a modern art museum. I personally don't enjoy modern art much, so it wasn't really enjoyable to me, especially since one of the exhibits was a bunch of insolation that had been cut out into capital letters and then nailed to a wall. There was also an exhibit that contained pictures of plaster feet. The best part of the Secession building was the Beethoven Frieze, which is a fresco created by Gustav Klimt that narrates Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Karlskirche

My next stop was Karlskirche. This church was incredible! It is so stunning from the outside, but the inside is even more amazing! There is a small museum section that contains religious art and objects, as well a photography of the church, and then there was the church itself.  The dome is beautiful, and the whole place had lovely artwork and exquisite detail. I personally found this church more appealing than St. Stephen's cathedral because of how light and lovely it is, but I enjoyed both considerably.

I took a selfie in front of Schönbrunn Palace 

On Monday, my third day in Vienna, I went to Schönbrunn Palace.  This palace is where the Habsburg's spent their summers.  The palace itself is beautiful, ornate, and quite large, but the gardens were so extensive it was amazing. They include the first zoo, a maze, numerous fountains, and the Gloriette. Schönbrunn Palace was my favorite part of Vienna by far.  

Inside the Belvedere

After visiting Schönbrunn, I went to find the Hunderwasserhaus (a crazy building which appears to have no straight lines in the entire place) before going to the Belvedere. The Belvedere is another palace, although it wasn't inhabited by the royal family- it was built by Prince Eugen who was a general.  Like the Louvre, the Belvedere is now an art museum. I enjoyed looking at the art, but I also spent a substantial amount of time enjoying the palace itself and its extensive gardens. Unfortunately I only had time to go the the Upper Belvedere, but I still enjoyed myself thoroughly.  

Hunderwasserhaus

On Tuesday morning, I woke up early, took the metro to the train station, and went home. I was tired, but happy with my trip. So, I went to a new country, explored a city, saw a lot of beautiful places, and had a great time. It was difficult to settle down into working after vacation, but it was nice to see the students and teachers again. 

I also have started to finalize plans for this summer! In the beginning of July I will go with Szilvia to Poland, visiting Krakow, Auschwitz, an old salt mine, and some other interesting things in that area. At the end of  July, I will return to Rome to meet my Aunt Mary! This time I will be able to see the Sistine Chapel since they won't be electing a pope, so that's really exciting! We also might take a few day trips, so that will be fun. 

Finally, in August my parents and younger sister will meet me in Ireland. I am so thrilled to see my family! 

Those are my upcoming trips, and I will do my best to start blogging more about Hungarian culture and my life here. Ta-ta for now!