"The Hills are alive, with the sound of music!" Austria take 2
Ironically, I'm not sure I listened to my Sound of Music soundtrack even once while I was there, what a shame. I clearly did not do Austria justice. But if you don't know that quote is from the Sound of Music you shouldn't be my friend, :P J.K.
So after a wonderful day in Podersdorf, Austria I woke up the next day to head about an hour in some direction to Sophie's grandparents house where I was greeted with this gorgeous view. Turns out her grandparents live up in the hills and have an amazing view. Sophie said she used to come here all the time because she loves it. I don't blame her, Austria is a beautiful country. They also had a stable with 3 horses and a lot of lovely land and woods. It made me feel like I was back at home with the hills, green grass, and woods. Besides the cattle that I saw, which was really cool too it felt like a normal place. We stayed there, hung out for a bit, laid in the sun and relaxed while her mom and grandfather went for a trail ride. I got showed around the house, read in the sun and was treated to a lovely lunch outside in the sun. Did I mention that it stayed in the 80's all weekend!! The lunch was delicious and I got yummy ice cream afterwords :)
By about 1 we headed back to Sophie's house and just hung out there for a few hours while her mom went to her brothers soccer game. I of course took advantage of the sun and sat outside and read some more and listened to Sophie practice the piano. Then by about 4 or 5 me and the rest of her family headed over to her dad's school where he was holding a rhythm workshop. So I showed up and was going to just sit and watch, because they're talking all in German, but I got roped into participating. So it was just a fun workshop where we did fun little games working with rhythm and empty soda bottles and stuff. I learned a nonsensical German phrase that I don't remember anymore. But the guy heading the workshop was from Berlin, which was really neat. After the workshop we brought him to the airport so he could go back to Berlin and went into Vienna to get some really good ice cream. Of course, we went to a Italian Gelato place, but this was amazing ice cream. :)
That was pretty much my entire day. As you can see, it was very taxing...I got driven around the country and had ice cream and a good meal :) Me and Sophie just hung out that night, watched some German T.V. and ate dinner outside with her family by candlelight and went to bed early. It was a blissfully simple day. :)
Monday was my day to explore the city of Vienna, finally!! I really didn't know anything about Vienna so I had no expectations and nothing really that I wanted to see extremely badly. Honestly, I think if I had just got to Slazburg and seen the Von Trapp house that would have made my entire trip, but alas, Slazburg is very far away....:( So me and Sophie got up at about 10:30 and headed out to Vienna by 11:50. Unfortunately we had to run to catch the train, which meant I didn't have time to buy a train ticket...oops. So we just hoped for the best that there wouldn't be someone checking tickets. Just my luck, some official looking guy walked on about 2 stops later, and me, not wanting to pay a ridiculous fee, suggested we get off before he starts checking tickets. He was making all sorts of official noises with his machine, so we got off the next stop and bought me at ticket....stupid officials. :( But we finally made it into Vienna by about 1 and headed over to the Palace.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the Palace, there were too many people visiting when we got there and we would have had to wait until 5 to get in. But I was okay with not being able to go in because it saved me some money and the gardens were just as pretty. Plus, I'd seen plenty of Palaces in Europe so I was okay with it. So me and Sophie entered the Palace Gardens and walked around a bit. It was extremely hot outside so we tried to stay in the shade. We walked down to the fountain down on the other end of the garden and were able to dip out feet in the water!! It felt so good, and we were in front of an awesome fountain. Sophie was also awesome at taking my picture all day. :) It was also nice because Sophie hadn't seen some of that stuff in a long time so I didn't feel like I was totally boring her with my touristy stuff. haha
Ruins in the gardens
Me on the balcony looking over the gardens
So we hung out at the palace for a while and then made our way back to a really cool market, which I stupidly didn't take any pictures of. But that's okay. It was an awesome market where they sold lots of food and clothes for cheap. I ended up buying some Turkish honey for my senora. I've been looking for something to get her from my travels and Sophie let me try some really good Turkish honey that she got for her dad and I wanted some for Julia. So we ended up doubling back and getting more Turkish honey and some other ingredients for dinner later that night. This is the only place where there's a market in Vienna though, it's a place the locals go to (I was full of local places that weekend) and it was really fun, I like markets. So after that we decided it was time to get ice cream!! Who needs a proper lunch when you're traveling and in Austria, not me! So we went back to the same ice cream place and got another grand helping of ice cream, and did some people watching. Also, the metro station there was a wall that went went on and one with different numbers. The numbers all represented different things, like how many people are in love in Vienna, how many people are homeless, how much money we've spent on war, how many people have been born since Jan. 1st, really cool stuff like that. It was an interesting walk into the metro station and Sophie translated all the things for me, so I knew what they were all talking about.
After getting ice cream we took the tram to the metro to the
Stephensdom Cathedral. I have to say it, after living in Europe for 5
months I kind of love Cathedrals and churches. I love seeing them
because I think they are gorgeous. So I was excited to see this one. I
LOVED the colors in this church. They draped cloth over the windows to
give it the effect of stain glass windows and I loved it. The colors
were amazing. We also tried to go up the tower to see the view of
Vienna, but it was closed :( But it was a lot of fun to look at.
Here's some pictures!!
So that's pretty much how beautiful this Church was. I loved it. I could have stayed in there all day just gazing at
it, but alas, there was more to see. Right as we stepped outside the
church and I took my last photos some break dancing guys set up shop
right next to the Cathedral. So we decided to stay and watch them
perform a bit. It was pretty fun, and their dialogue was really funny.
Their English was funny and the phrases they used made me and Sophie
laugh. So we stayed to watch a little bit and then moved along. But
not before I took a video!
After that we walked down the street, I bought some gifts and we walked to the Famous Opera house. Clearly, I don't know my opera because this opera house is apparently a big deal. It was really pretty though and really cool to see. We tried to go inside, but we couldn't. Sophie's been inside, which is really awesome. So I naturally took a picture outside the doors and marveled at it. Maybe one day I will go see an Opera...maybe...it will probably be Phantom of the Opera. From there we took the tram towards some public parks. I saw, from afar, a statue of Mozart and it was really cool. We got off the tram at some museums of history and natural history, which were really large and impressive. Then we went to the government buildings, which were also really impressive, contrary to Sophie's belief's. The lawns leading up to the government buildings was beautiful, and there was an arch also near it, which was cool.
After that we walked towards a big area where people gather. To me, it was more like a plaza than anything. It's an area where a lot of the youth hang out after school, apparently there are some exhibits sometimes of art and other such things, and there are really cool benches. So we walked around and looked at some of the oddities that were in there too. For one...this was an oddity. I'm really not sure what this is....it's got sand in it. But it also seems to me like it's a cage. So I decided it's a prision/cage for children for parents to put their kids in when they get annoyed with them. Yup, that's what that is. :) It certainly made me and Sophie laugh. So we just hung around there a while while deciding what to do next. We decided to walk over to the science museum and try to get up their tower to get a view of the city, but once again it was closed. It closed just as we got there, oh well...so we sat down on a bench and watched some people do some rock climbing! Which I actually really miss after rock climbing for a semester. The people could climb all the way to the top of the tower too, which def takes talent. So it was fun to watch them, and some of the little kids climb. Then we just went home and relaxed for the rest of the night. It was yet another night of eating outside by candlelight and it was awesome. Later, Sophie could change one of the shows to English, so I watched Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice in English, it was awesome! I don't even like doctor shows but it was fun. :) So I went to bed a bit late, but I certainly made the most of my last day.
Tuesday morning I woke up bright and early, 4:30 for my 7:30 flight. We left the house by 5:30, got to the airport by 6:15 and I was on my way back to Granada. The security there was def interesting though. I never showed ID and only needed it to get into my gate, certainly different than other airports. But my flights went without a hitch, I got Swiss chocolate! And my bus home was right on time. So I got home by about 5:20, just in time to dump my stuff and take off to the Plaza de Los Torros for the bull fight!! That story is coming up in the next blog, but my trip to Austria was amazing and I'm so glad I went. Traveling by yourself is such a good experience, even if I did meet up with someone, I'm glad I did it. Thanks Sophie!!
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