Feb 14- Happy Valentine's Day! Except that consists of me still laying in bed. It is different having a cold in the cold. I felt that if I went outside I would just die, so I stayed in.
Feb 15- I drag myself out of bed, out of Haus Erasmus and back to WU (the university). We heard an interesting lecture from one of the professors concerning the history and political structure of Austria. One of the most interesting things to me was the identity of European nations before and after both of the world wars. Austria was once part of Germany but somehow became this other area but never considered itself necessarily a separate entity from Germany. After the second world war the decided it was time to make the distinction. This was my understanding, it is probably a little off, but none the less, it was interesting to hear this.
My group of the program was scheduled to go to the Parliament building that day. We were allowed in three of the different conference room, each of the progressively more impressive. I did not have my camera with me, but this is a picture of the third and most architecturally interesting room that we saw.
Feb 16- I went to Erste Bank and opened an account. I don't remember what I did for the remainder of the day. Probably explored?Feb 17- Went back to the bank for a minute to ask a question and then went straight to the United Nations building. We went through some janky form of security booth. The building was very modern and not very attractive. We saw a few conference rooms and that was about it. I did learn more about the purpose of the UN and how participation varies by country.
Feb 18- This was our last day of the OK program. We went to a theater called Burgkino to see the movie The Third Man, which is set in Vienna. It was an older movie, but it was cool to see the city then and compare it to what we see now. The ferris wheel at Prater was in one important scene of the movie and that was cool because the same wheel is still up in the theme park today. To read more about the movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/).
At 8pm we went out to a bar/pub called Charlie P's where they had fingers foods for us. These finger foods were sandwhiches and french fries. The place was packed with people from the program and it was fun to meet people that I had not met before and also see those that I had been hanging out with already.
Feb 19- A few of my friends here had not seen Black Swan so we decided to go back to Burgkino to see the movie. Once we paid for our ticket, which is a ticket for a designated seat, we sat down and then Alex I did not know if we had paid for the German showing or the original version. Luckily, it was the original..
Later that night I met up with my friend Kambis for a drink at a place called the Frei Raum on Mariahilferstrasse and then walked around the city centre. Vienna is such a beautiful city, especially at night.
Feb 20- A group of us went to a cafe with the intentions of doing some leisure reading. Once we got there it was too dark to read so we all just hung out and ate
Feb 21- Alex and Andrew and I decided to take an adventure. We jumped on a tram and headed across town. We had no plans and decided to get off on the south side of town. As we walked along the streets we noticed many of the embassy buildings. After a few minutes of walking we went through a little gate and stumbled upon this little beauty
By little I mean palace and by beauty I mean out of this world. This is the Belvedere Palace. Even though the gardens were not in bloom they were spectacular to look at. I cannot wait to go back when it warms up.
Feb 22- Went to the school with my friend Drew and found some cool street art. No one else was awake so we went home to gather more troops and then headed of the the Naschmarkt. They had dream catchers!! and giant grapes!!
dreamcatchers!!
ReplyDeletegiant grapes!!!
cat stevens!!