Cheers to the Weekend!

This weekend has already passed by so quickly! Luckily, we had some really lovely weather to enjoy the city in. My German exam on Friday went well enough, so now I just have to look forward to receiving my grade next week... But I've definitely learned a lot even in just five classes! I went to Billa, the grocery store, the other day and didn't speak in English once. I even managed to ask for "Mandel Milch" (almond milk) in German and found it! Thank goodness, because now I can make my Haferflocken (porridge)!

On Friday after our exam, Elise and I went home to take a nap after staying up late to study and waking up early to take the test. We had to be ready for our evening activities! Since we're in The Villa, we decided to throw a little pregame party for IES friends before we went out to the Vienna End of Summer Party at all the clubs. As most evenings out are, the pregame is almost always more fun than whatever happens afterwards, at least in my opinion! We'd made a Facebook event and invited as many IES people as we knew, and about 25 people showed up. However, we were segregated as two of my roommates and their friends, boyfriend, and our RA and her friend went upstairs to play games with cards, leaving about 15 people downstairs with me, Elise, and Evan. We all had such a good time hanging out together though, and everybody loved touring the house. 

Roomies!

Elise is basically Emory

By 11pm, we decided to make our way to the first club of the night, Flex, because our RA told us it might get busy on a night when the entrance was free. It was quite a trek to get there, but our RA, Viola's, friend took us all the way to the club. It was a sort of grungy-hipster club along the Danube Canal and quite honestly, looked a bit rough and gross (as well as empty). Needless to say, we walked on. All the girls were tottering around in heels and we ended up walked over a mile to the next club in District 1 called Elysium. It was situated on a very nice street full of bars and restaurants and clubs so we were more enthused, especially when we ran into a few more friends that hadn't made it to the pregame. Elysium was nice and felt like an underground maze as we walked inside. We found our way to the techno-dance music and lights...only to find a handful of people there. I knew the Viennese go out late but this was absurd as it was almost midnight. There were a lot of comfortable leather couches in the club and after some of us bought overpriced drinks, we settled around a table to chat. Lots of interesting things transpired in the time it took for the club to fill up, unfortunately mostly with older people and then the very young boys who looked about 15 years old. All in all it wasn't too bad and we got to dance a little bit.

Anna, Elise, and I at Club Elysium!

We left at about 1am and ran into three Irish teenage boys outside who spoke English. They'd been living in Vienna for a while and definitely thought they were the absolute coolest as they attempted to befriend us and then lead us back to Flex. They tried too hard, but since we didn't really know what else to do, we walked with them to Flex...all ten of us as we'd lost some people during the night as they went home. It was quite a painful journey in heels to the dirty club/cafe, and once we had made it, we didn't have free entrance, despite our VIP tickets. None of us wanted to pay the 6 euros to get into the divey place, so we said our farewells and made our way home. Evan had to kick off her heels before we made it to the U-Bahn because we'd walked so much. By 2:15am, we'd finally arrived home and were ready to pass out. Luckily, one of our roommates had cleaned up the empty bottles and cups from our pregame for us so we were quite grateful. This evening was supposed to be Vienna's hottest party night and it really wasn't all that fabulous. Maybe because so many people were away on their summer break and all the University students aren't back yet, but this evening was so over-hyped. Elise and I agree that going out is often very overrated. We'll have more house parties, but I don't think either of us will be in a huge hurry to go out clubbing and getting blisters again.

The next morning, despite each of us (me, Elise, and Evan) having only five or six hours of sleep, we woke up early to go to IES for a very brief lecture about the history of Vienna before getting on a bus tour around the city and surrounding suburbs. The lecture wasn't very interesting, maybe because we were tired and the presenter literally sat in a chair in front of us and talked, but the bus tour was great! It really helped that the weather was fabulous and sunny.

Somehow my roommates and I were the first ones to the 10:30am lecture and we live the farthest away...

IESers walking to the bus

We met the bus tour at the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Art History Museum) on the Ringstraße and saw how that museum and the Natural History Museum across from it looked identical. In between the two was the statue of Maria Theresia. 

Kunsthistorices Museum and the statue of Maria Theresia

The Natural History Museum opposite the Art History Museum. They're identical!

The bus tour took us around the Ringstraße and we saw Parliament, which was designed after the Roman Parliament with columns and gold statues, Rathausplatz, which looked more like a cathedral than Vienna's City Hall, the Universitet Wein, a theater, and so many amazing 19th century buildings and older. Taking the bus tour around the city was a great way for us to get our bearings.

Inside the Spanish Equestrian Riding School

            

                           Theater across from the Universitet Wein                                                 Front of the Parliament building

One of the first places we stopped at was the Belvedere Museum. It was stunning! 

How gorgeous is this summer palace?

The Belvedere is a historic landmark in Vienna consisting of two Baroque palaces, the Upper and Lower, the Orangery, and stables. The amazing palace was built to be a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Upper Belvedere was also used as a guest house for the Prince's visitors. I wouldn't have minded being a guest rather than the Prince myself. The palace was so much more spectacular than the one-story Lower Belvedere that could be seen at the bottom of the gardens. 

Elise, Anna, and I in front of our new Viennese housing! Jk, we wish...

The Belvedere

Elise and I in the grounds behind the Belvedere looking down towards the city of Vienna and the Lower Belvedere Palace

We finished looking at the exterior of the Belvedere (which is now an art museum that I'll be visiting soon!) and got onto the bus to the Prater area of Vienna. We stopped once again, after passing the giant Ferris Wheel and amusement park in the Prater park, at Hundertwasser apartment block. The apartments are all brightly colored and reminded me of Gaudi's architectural work in Barcelona. The architect here, Hundertwasser, disliked straight lines and said that nature didn't have any (though that's not true...), so he refused to use straight lines. Even the pavement outside of the apartments weren't flat--the cobbles rose and fell like mini hills! 

                                 

The colorful Hundertwasser apartments!

Interior of the Kalke Village by the Hundertwasser apartments

Our trio outside the Hundertwasser apartments where even the pavements aren't flat!

From the beautiful Hundertwasser apartments, we got onto the bus again and drove past the Danube Canal and River Wein and went right across the enormous Danube River. I spotted a church on a hill overlooking the river and expected it to be a very old landmark. Turns out that the church was built near the end of the 19th century and therefore wasn't very old at all. The architecture had just been copied from older churches! Our bus guide had told us that a lot of the Viennese architecture wasn't original, but imitated from other styles and cultures.

It looks like it's out of a fairytale story!

Across the river, we passed the Danube Island, where biking and other recreational activities, even swimming in the swift Danube current, occurred. I definitely would not want to swim in the Danube, although our guide said the water was clean and regularly tested and we even saw people swimming in the vast river. Not really my thing. Once on the other side of the river, we were in what is known as "modern Vienna". There were modern skyscrapers (well, only 40 stories, so not really skyscrapers to us Americans) and buildings surrounding the large United Nations building. I really want to go in, so I'm very excited for classes to start; one of my classes takes on a tour inside!

The Danube River with the hills of the Vienna suburbs in the background

We left modern Vienna and made our way towards the outskirts and suburbs of the city. Grinzing used to be its own little town outside Vienna, but Vienna has expanded in the past hundreds of years, and now Grinzing is part of the 19th district of the city. Besides being quaint and picturesque, the town is famous for being the home of Beethoven. All the apartments and homes are lovely, and this is definitely an affluent area now. People there also have their own vineyards and apparently the wine and dining is spectacular there. Elise, Anna, and I have already decided we need to spend a day and evening touring the tiny area to see all of Beethoven's old haunts and houses, and then have a delicious and sophisticated meal. That's definitely an upcoming day trip for us after classes.

Just a quick snap of Grinzing from the bus. It's so pretty in person!

The bus then took us up winding hills through the huge Vienna Woods, to the top of a hill in an area called Cobenzl. The view of Vienna was incredible! The spot is a very popular one for weddings, and on such a gorgeous day as Saturday, a couple were having their marriage photos taken. It was a breathtaking sight.

You just couldn't really capture the background in a photograph...

Three hours after we had gotten on the bus to start the tour, we were back Ringstraße. I was absolutely famished after not eating anything except a bowl of cereal at 9am for breakfast, so Anna, Elise, and I walked to Rathausplatz where Vienna's Summer Beach Festival was happening. Right in front of City Hall was a giant international food festival! It was like heaven after only seeing pork and schnitzel for the past week. 

Summer festival at Rathausplatz (City Hall in the background!)

We took a lap, trying to figure out what to eat, and then Elise and I settled on a falafel and hummus platter while Anna, obviously missing America, went for a cheeseburger and potato wedges. We ate our food at a table outside the Rathaus in the sunlight, while listening to the speakers blast summer tunes. It was a very relaxing way to end our afternoon.

Rave at Rathausplatz

I had gotten ready for a nice, peaceful evening at home. I wasn't up for going out again, since the blisters on my toes from Friday night hadn't disappeared. I might have watched Pretty Little Liars with Elise so we could catch up. But, Evan convinced me to go with her back to Rathausplatz to the summer festival which now had a DJ and was becoming a rave. It only happens once a year, so why not? I threw on my leather jacket and we were off to the Rathausplatz, just six hours after I'd left it. Elise decided to stay home, so it was just Evan and I. We've had a bit of drama in our house because a new girl has moved in and is encroaching on our space. She has to live with Evan and Evan, being a very light sleeper, hasn't been able to sleep very well. Our house is large, but the shared spaces, such as the refrigerator, are European standard (aka quite small). Now, trying to fit seven people's food in the fridge, as well as anything our other roommate's boyfriend might bring back, if anything (he's been here for 5 days visiting her), is a struggle and we're all a little aggravated about this new addition, even though the girl is well-meaning. So it was good to get out of the house and spend time at the Beach Festival. And it was so fun! It did become a rave and there was dancing and lights and EDM, as well as all the food stalls from earlier (Evan got a delicious Nutella crepe before the evening was over!). We met Evan's friends, who I didn't really know, and I coerced Anna, Eddye, and Meghan to come join me at the party. It was so much fun, even though there were a lot of creepy old guys, people smoking (this IS Europe...), and beer cans and bottles littering the floor. It's crazy that Vienna allows this to happen outside of their City Hall! The evening was basically what Friday night's partying should have been like. It was such a good time!