The Summer Residence

Feb 9- Schonbrunn Castle: Summer home to many of the leaders of the Holy Roman Empire

Fun Fact- Marie Antoinette lived in this castle. She is Austrian and was originally named Marie Antonia, but changed her name to the French counterpart upon her marriage to Dauphin Louis of France. She was married at age 14 and was the 15th of 16 children!

Feb 10- City Tour of Vienna: Three hour tour on foot of the city of Vienna. We began our walk at the U Bahn (untergrundbahn/ subway) Schwedenplatz location. We wound around the 1st disrict, which is the city centre, and saw various buildings and historic places. My favorite building was the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence of those in power. Though I think I would prefer the sprawling gardens on Schonbrunn, the Hofburg had quite impressive architecture.

Feb 11- My group took a tour to the Donauturm Tower. This tower is located a bit out of the city on the northwest part of town jsut past the Danube River. The tower is one of the highest points in Vienna and therefore lends itself to incredible sights of the city. From the top we were able to see the giant power plant next to our university (sounds unappealing, but it looks like something straight out of the Willie Wonka movie). It was difficult to recognize some of the buildings from so far away, but it was really nice to see some of the residential areas that were beneath the tower. They houses are much more colorful than those in America, but still tasteful. There also seemed to be more space/bigger lots between the houses, but that could have been just the area I was looking at. From this height I was now able to get a good view of the mountains and hills that surround Vienna and they were so beautiful. This made me so excited for the weather to warm up so I can go hiking.

Feb 12- Linz: Yesterday I went to Linz. Here, we took a tour of the steel factory and the a tour of a future technology museum. It would have been cool if I was into steel factories or future technology museums, but alas, I am not. The day was not a total bore though. At lunch, we tried a new type of fruit. It was really tart but delicious. Turns out it is an Israeli fruit and is named syphilis. It made for a good joke because we had each passed it on to take a bite, and has therefore all given each other syphilis. Ok, kind of gross, but still funny.

Feb 13- Benadryl: my best friend for the day. Not feeling to well so I am going to take it easy.