Ice Skating!

So you may remember me rambling on about ice skating in front of the City hall building in an earlier post. Well, we finally did it! This is not your usual ice skating rink however. Really it's an entire maze through the whole park in front of the Rathaus! You enter on to a normal round rink... but then... the fun begins! The paths swirl and criss cross all over each other, with slopes and deadly turns. Mainly, you just have to watch out for people around you, and try with all your might not to fall! The group ended up being me with a whole bunch of rowdy guys... oh my! But we had a fabulous time. There was a lot of racing, and hat stealing, and mad chases through the woods of the park. All of this, of course, under the absolutely spectacular view of the Rathaus under the moon. Great tunes were blasting, and it was just a perfect night! I cannot wait to go back, especially if the weather gets just slightly warmer... brrr! Here are some pics to give you an idea...

Heurigan Nacht

Alright, so I've been avoiding it long enough, I have to talk about Vienna night life!

First of all, Vienna has a very strict quiet hour law that starts at 10PM. So, if you want to do anything, even just hang out, you really have to go out if it's after 10. Luckily, the night life here is a lot of fun, so it's pretty easy to do!

One of the more traditional and famous ways to go out here are called Heurigans. They are traditionally pubs or breweries that make all their own wine and beer. However, nowadays they are also known for their reasonably priced comfort food and relaxed atmosphere. It's just al really great place to chill... :) There is one in particular that is a lot of fun in the first district. It's on a sort of random little side street, and the sign is tiny enough that if you aren't looking for it, you'd never notice it. However once you're inside this place is crazy! Instead of the building going up towards the sky, it has been built down under ground. So they have about 4 levels of live music and a good time going into the depths of what feels like a cavern. Their käsespätzle is absolutely to die for! Käsespätzle is basically little gnocchi noodles covered in cheese. It's like the best mac and cheese you could possibly imagine... and then some. So. Good.

Alright, now that my mouth is watering just a little I'll tell you about a few other places. There's a funky bar/dance club called Down Under in the 2nd or 3rd district. It's an Australian Bar with a similar theme to the place I mentioned before. The dance club goes down under ground into this sketchy looking cave of sorts. But the music is great, and the people are really friendly! I try my hardest to talk in German... but most of them end up switching to English no matter how hard I try. There are some crazy lights, and sometimes the music goes towards "Austrian-Folk-Pop-Funk" which gets a little weird, but we just go with the flow and dance anyway!

Another section of clubs is called the Bermuda Triangle. The three points of the triangle are made up of the 3 biggest clubs in Vienna. The only one I've been to was called the Praterdome... Seriously, the most intense thing I have ever seen. There are at least 5 (maybe more) different dance floors that all have a different theme. My favorite was themed like an old Ballroom with chandeliers and candles and mirrors everywhere. In this room they had a great DJ and the best light show I've ever been to. You seriously couldn't tell which way was up at times the lights were so crazy. But the atmosphere was still pretty chill, and we had a ton of fun!

Although going out has been a lot of fun, most of us have found that we really enjoy just sitting around a plate of cheese and crackers having intellectual conversations about life. It sounds silly, but there is just something about being in Europe with wonderfully intelligent people that just makes you appreciate these quiet moments. But no matter what we are up to in the evenings in Wien... I can guarantee that we are having the time of our lives!

A Night at the Imperial Palace

I went to a Ball (think Cinderella) at the Imperial Palace here in Vienna. You know, the Imperial Palace? The one downtown where the Habsburg's just happened to rule over the entire Habsburg Empire... :)

But in all seriousness, I think this was possibly one of the most amazing things I have ever done in my life!

I got ready with my lovely roommates and best buddy, Abby.

Then we met the guys from upstairs and all got on the subway to get to the Palace. Do you remember me saying that people in Austria have no shame in staring? Well... let me tell you, we attracted a lot of stares on the bus! (We told ourselves it was because we're such a good looking group...)

Then we arrived at the Palace. This is the kind of place that I am used to being a museum, where everything is ornately decorated and the grandeur is almost too overwhelming to handle. And the best part, is that I got to wander from room to room for hours dancing the night away in all of that glory!

The first thing to happen at the ball is the Grand Opening. If you'd like, you can check out a video my friend took here:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?v=10150723541391679

So in the main room that you see in the video, they were playing mostly Viennese Waltzes mixed in with a variety of other styles. Then you could wander around the palace and each room had a different theme. There was a jazz band/ swing room, and a slower ballad room, a latin dancing room, and of course some traditional folk dancing!

We literally danced the night away. It's amazing how much bonding happens when you dance with people! Here are some of those wonderful friends:

First of all... drum roll please... the roomates of Jahngasse!

And the lovely ladies of the evening...Gwen, Abby, Sarah, Susan, Alexa, and Jen!

Now... here's the catch! Public transportation in Vienna stops at 12:30 on weekdays. (Did I mention this was a weekday?) So... that means, that the ball goes until about 5 AM when the buses start to run again! So, being the epic "juice squeezers" that we are, we all stayed until 5 AM. Keep in mind that we all had German class at 9AM. Oof. I can honestly say that I made it to German class on no sleep! Although, I may not remember much of what we learned that day...

But it was totally worth it! I mean really, how often in my life can I just casually say, "oh! And then I went to a Ball... in the Imperial Palace!"? Ah... this is the life!

Love, Susan

Opera Night #1!!

The opera is something that is just part of the culture here. Everyone goes, everyone appreciates it... it's just a part of life! So my first opera experience here was at the Wien Staatsoper, one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Oh Darn. I got to see the fabulous Il barbiere di Seviglia by Rossini (aka The Barber of Seville). And it was absolutely incredible.

So here's how this worked! Our group got in line about 3 1/2 hours before the doors opened to wait for standing room tickets. This is a fabulous thing that they do here so that even the poor students can afford to go to the opera. About an hour before the doors open they let us into a back room where we formed a line and got our standing room tickets. My ticket was 3 Euros. Did you read that?? No really. Let me say that again. My ticket was 3 EUROS! That's it! The people sitting in front of me probably payed upwards of 100 Euros at least for their tickets. That is the amazing thing about this place! No matter who you are, you can afford to go to the opera. Granted, standing for 3 hours isn't the most comfortable thing, but once you get into the incredible performance you hardly even notice.

So when they finally open the doors, it's a mad rush to get the best standing room "seat" that you can. Everyone brings a scarf and you tie it around the railing in front of you, and from that moment on you have claimed your territory. No one will touch your scarf! So, since there's quite a bit of time between doors and curtain, you can go grab food, or just relax before the show.

This show was a perfect one to start off with. I know most of the music, and was able to even hum along with some of the Recits. It's funny and witty, and the opera house even has little screens in front of every seat that gives you either a German or English translation. It was a fabulous evening with an amazing group of friends. It reminded me why I love vocal music so much!!

Bus Tour

A few saturdays ago we went on a fabulous Bus tour of Vienna. It was a great opportunity to get out and see more of the city than we've been able to. It was also good for me to get a slightly better idea of my surroundings... Directions are not a strength of mine! I think the best way to show this trip is just through pictures and captions... so here goes!

We started out at the Kunsthistorisches Museum which is the largest Art museum in Vienna. The building was built specifically to house some of the most incredible pieces of art in the world. Directly accross from it is a twin building that is the Natural History Museum. Both of these I'm sure I'll be blogging about more later.

Here you can see St. Stephen's Cathedral in the distance, as well as a nice view of a typical Viennese street.

Next was the Belveder Palace. Here we got a chance to get out and look around. Two HUGE palaces built for Prince Eugene of Savoy as a summer home... the first building was more of a "guest house" for friends to party in. These two now hold some of the most influencial pieces of art you can find, including a vast amount of Gustav Klimt.

We also took a ride around the central ring of Vienna which took us by all sorts of famous buildings. Here is the Parlament Building.

The Imperial Palace and Imperial Treasury.

We went through many little districts, including some small "Pub" sections of the city. These little suburbs are famous for their home-made wines and beers, as well as great food in the summer time. From there we went up through the Vienna Woods to a peak above the city. This was by far the best view of the Vienna as a whole that I've seen so far!

We crossed over the Danube to check out the Danube Island and beyond...

We also visited a few of the buildings created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser (look him up!). He is a famous Austrian architect who believes that buildings should be able to be a part of nature, rather than destroying it. He also doesn't believe in straight lines. Even the floors in these apartment buildings are slanted and dipped. You can see trees growing out of the roof and walls. Even the ground outside the apartment building is choppy and rolling. And yes, people really do live here!

Of course, we saw a million more things as well! The fun thing about this bus tour was that it inspired my desire to explore the city even more. There are so many museums and sights to see. Freud, Schoenberg, Mozart... they all lived and created here and left much to be explored!

The Palais Corbelli

Here is my morning routine.

I get up and get ready for the day, take a street car/trolly (Straßenbahn) to the center district of Vienna.

For those of you who haven't been here, Vienna is shaped sort of like a wheel. The first district is the center, and the other districts kind of go clockwise around the center.

Anyway. I get off at the Wien Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House- If you don't know what that is... be ashamed. Then look it up!) and start my walk. That alone should tell you something. Every single morning I start off my day by looking at one of the most famous opera houses in the world. Pretty great, right?

I take a stroll down Kärntnerstraße (a very famous street), before making my way to the Palais Corbelli. The Palais is where IES is centered, and where all of my classes are held. And like you might guess from the name, it is a literal Palace. It's designed in a sort of Baroque rococo fashion with lots of gold and marble, colors and designs. There are huge marble pillars, and statues everywhere. Even the classrooms are designed to the max. It seems sort of silly really, to see these spectacular pieces of architecture with rows of desks and chalkboards in them.

The most amazing room is the music hall. It's very small, but reminds me of the famous "Hall of Mirrors" in Versailles. The whole room is covered in mirrors and paintings and gold design. There are beautiful angels playing lutes and harps painted on the ceiling, joining in the music. Spectacular. It seems like this is the kind of thing that I will start to take for granted as I live here longer, so I am making sure to write just how amazing it is now. I walk up the red-carpeted marble stair case to class every morning and I can just feel the history. How on earth did I get so lucky to study in this incredible place?

The Rathaus Ice Rink in the Rain

Vienna weather can be.... difficult. One day it's just cold enough to handle, and the next day you are being pelted with rain while walking into an impossibly strong, bitter cold wind. Brrrrr! However, the excitement of Vienna hasn't worn off enough to made weather a deterrant from exploring. So, off we go into the wild windy weather.

One such evening, we had plans to go to the opening of the ice skating rink in front of the Rathaus (City Hall). Now... this is no ordinary rink, folks. It's an entire park, that consists of not a walking path, but a skating path. So you get to skate around the entire park on these lovely winding pathways next to this phenominally gorgeous building. Of course, it was pouring rain at this point and there weren't a whole lot of us with enough clothes on, so we decided to postpone the actual skating part for another night. (Still to be re-scheduled...) However, there was a great variety of hot drinks, and the opening show was really pretty amazing. They had some scary looking drummer guys (think the Blue Man Group), as well as two practically naked guys doing strenght acrobatics (all on ice remember). And of course there were proffessional skaters and singers that all made the show quite entertaining. The mayor of Vienna even made an appearance!

I can't wait to actually get back and skate!! But for now, here are some photos of the Rathaus in the rain.