Finally in Vienna!

We have returned from our ski trip, all quite sore and tired of skiing! Our trip home began as an absolute nightmare. We had to hike up the mountain from our resort to the top gondola station in order to get down the mountain. Not only is it very difficult to climb up a mountain in such high altitude, but it was also literal blizzard conditions. We could not see five feet in front of us, the temperature was in the single digits, and the wind was unreal. It was a 30 minute trek, but felt much longer. When we got to the top, our pants were actually frozen solid. We then had to walk from the bottom of the gondola to the bus stop with all of our luggage, and then transfer from a bus to a train which we took to Salzburg. In Salzburg, we switched trains to Vienna, and finally arrived in Vienna in the late afternoon.

Mostly everything is closed on Sundays, so we all made a mad dash to the grocery store and another Ikea-like store to get some cooking utensils. Afterwards we were all exhausted, so a small group of us went out to dinner. We went to an authentic Austrian restaurant and had a great meal. I had sausage, potatoes and sauerkraut. We then hung out at the dorms for a while, and decided to make our way to an American bar we had heard about to celebrate a birthday. After wandering the streets for over an hour, we gave up on finding it and headed back to go to bed.

This morning we got up and decided it was a great day to start wandering Vienna and learning the city we will be in for the next four months. We left in two smaller groups, with the intention on eventually making it to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the middle of the town, which is almost a 40 minute walk from the dorms. There were 6 people in my walking group, which was the perfect size. We have come to the realization that it is chaotic and loud when all 18 of us try and do anything together. We wandered for a few hours, taking small detours when we saw something of interest. We eventually stopped at a small café to grab some coffee and a bite to eat. It was a very local, small coffee shop with only a few seats. The coffee was fantastic! After we warmed up a bit (it was sunny today, but chilly and windy), we headed back out towards the center of the city. We passed through the museum quarter, which we will be revisiting later this month during orientation.

Museum Quarter

We eventually made it to the St. Stephen’s after 3-4 hours of walking, and were immediately impressed by the architecture inside. It is a gothic style building, and originates from 1147. One of the most interesting architectural aspects of the building is the colorful, mosaic, tiled roof. We spent some time walking through the inside, and reading the history on the plaques scattered throughout the main area. We decided we wanted to tour the catacombs, and had to wait 40 minutes for the next tour. We spent that time walking around, observing the architecture and intricate detail of every nook and cranny.

St. Stephen's

The tour of the catacombs was incredible. It was a 25-minute tour, and only cost 5 euro. We started by seeing the tombs of prominent Cardinals and Bishops of Vienna. There was also a room dedicated to the Habsburgs. In those times, they mummified the bodies after extracting the important organs. In the walls of the room there were urns, where their organs have been preserved in alcohol since then. The tour concluded with the mass graves of the lower classes. Each room was piles of bones and skulls that were many hundreds of years old. Each room had a different history. For example, one room was 11,000 people that had died from the bubonic plague. Another was organized and stacked by bone type. It was someone grotesque but also extremely interesting to know we were seeing actual skeletons, that were so incredibly old. Unfortunately, we could not take any pictures in the catacombs.

St. Stephen's Cathedral 

On our walk back, we stopped in another café to warm up. We all had a small pastry/cake, which were delicious! I am not normally a dessert person, but I’m afraid this trip is going to make me one.

After walking around for 5 hours today, I am already beginning to feel that I have a better understanding of the layout of Vienna. In the next few days, I am hoping to buy a Vienna tour book and read more about the history. It was neat seeing all of the beautiful buildings, but it will be even better when I know what the buildings are and the history behind each of them.

We’re now back at the dorms, getting ready to cook as a group. We are all sticking to basic foods today, as we still don’t have many utensils and groceries. Most of us will probably have pasta, sandwiches, grilled cheese type foods. After dinner we are going to make our way to a pub to hopefully watch the Super Bowl. It doesn’t even start until midnight here, so I’m not sure all of us girls will make it until the end!