I left my heart in Vienna

Hey stranger, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this, partly because I’ve been traveling a lot, partly because I’ve been lazy, and partly because for a long time I refused to come to terms with the fact that this beautiful semester is coming to an end, but seeing as I’m now sitting at the Prague airport and my plane leaves in an hour, I guess now is a good time to face reality.

The past two months have been the busiest as far as traveling goes. I actually spent more time outside of Vienna in June than I spent in it. I traveled though Belgium, Norway, Poland, Italy, Croatia, and Spain and loved (almost) every single second of it.

Jacqueline and I both had 12 days where we didn’t really have too many classes, so we decided to plan a trip to wherever RyanAir would take us. We sat down on Skype one night and started experimenting with different travel plans, picking each city randomly from a drop down menu. It’s almost embarrassing to admit how many cities we had to put into Google because we had no idea what country they were in (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia…) but we ended up with a pretty decent flight plan in the end: Brussels to Oslo to Krakow to Milan and back to Vienna. Oh, and we decided to do the whole trip with only a carry-on. Awesome!

I don’t think I heard anything positive about Brussels from anyone, not even my grandma, but I knew with Belgium waffles and chocolate I wouldn’t be disappointed and I really wasn’t. Actually, I really loved the city. It wasn’t too big and we were able to see pretty much everything in one day, from the churches to the parks to the palace. We even managed to try macroons and waffles and frites and weird street meat. I gave in and tried some different flavoured beers that tasted more like bubbly fruit juice than beer, so I was alright with that…but I’ll take a vodka lemon over a Corona anyday.

On a side note, our hostel in Brussels is also where I picked up the book Scar Tissue, which was one of the best books I’ve read. Anyone that has ever listened to a Red Hot Chili Peppers song needs to read that book, it’s one of the most honest, raw biographies I’ve ever read and I have a lot more respect for the band. Plus it’s massive, so it’s perfect for traveling.

Our next stop was Oslo. I’ve loved every single person I’ve met from Norway, and everyone I know from Oslo is awesome. Really, you guys rock. But I am never, ever, ever going back to Oslo. I don’t know if you could pay me to go back there, but I mean that in the nicest way possible. We ate sandwiches every day for lunch and had pasta with tomato sauce for dinner every night because everything was so expensive.

Yes, I now know that it’s common knowledge that Norway, Sweden, Finland, etc are all incredibly expensive countries. Obviously, Jacqueline and I did not find that out until our tickets were booked. There was a really beautiful park that I would’ve enjoyed so much more if it didn’t start to pour half an hour after we got there, which was the case every single day we were there. We did get lucky and didn’t have to pay for a place to stay because of couchsurfing.org. A couple let us use their apartment while they were on vacation for the weekend (hostels started at $50 a night).

I also learned that Oslo doesn’t really have a lot of nighttime. It got dark around midnight and the sun came up at 4. Because of the ridiculous prices, we only went out one of the nights we were there. Since we did think to buy a bottle of vodka duty free at the airport we didn’t have to pay $10 for a beer at the bars and it was definitely an adventurous night. We met some guys that lived there and they convinced us to go to some club called Blue (pronounced “blauuu”, they said) with them. In turn, Jacqueline and I somehow convinced the bouncer that we didn’t have to pay cover. We stayed there till the sun came up – which isn’t saying much, since the sun rose at 4 – and then went to an after party at someone’s apartment. It was sorta fun, until we realized some guy had a broken ankle. He wasn’t exactly sure what happened. He thinks he fell down the stairs…I think it will forever remain a mystery. It was around then we decided to head back home. Good thing I left my cell phone at the apartment!

We got it back the next day, and that was also when I realized that these guys don’t really speak a lot of English. It was around that same time that Jacqueline and I realized we may or may not have told this guy last night that we wanted a tour guide. Awesome. We managed to part ways after the Opera House, which, Oslo, I’ll give you that. You have an absolutely beautiful Opera house. If I liked Opera, that would be awesome. Oh, and you have a Hard Rock Café, that was cool.

But you know what was not cool? The fact that our plane did not even land in Oslo, we landed outside of it and it was hour long bus ride between Oslo and the airport. But I guess what was kinda cool was that on the way to Oslo, the bus was full so we got to ride for free…if we sat in the aisle. You win some, you lose some.

Needless to say, we were definitely looking forward to Poland, and Krakow did not disappoint us. It was probably my favourite city I visited all semester. I originally didn’t even want to visit Poland but I’m so glad I did. The hostel we stayed at (Tom & Jerry’s) was fabulous – the people were great, the staff was so nice, it was clean and fun and the front desk sold vodka shots. The city itself was beautiful and the food was delicious.

We did a walking tour of the Jewish Ghetto, of the main parts of the city, and went to Auschwitz. We did cut our city tour short due to us wanting ice cream, but I think we saw most of the important things. One of the days we went out to eat at a traditional Polish restaurant in the city center and I think that was the only bad choice we made the entire time we were in Krakow. It was not traditional Polish food, it was just suspicious dry meat. Otherwise, Krakow rocked. The hostel had a vodka tasting one of the nights and again, somehow Jacqueline and I convinced the lady that we should get twice as many shots as everyone else. And then suddenly we decided it was someone’s birthday so that was a good reason to have more hazelnut vodka, which, by the way, is absolutely delicious. The rest of the night was really fun and ended in 5 a.m. kebaps, which is always a good choice.

If it were up to me, I’d never leave Krakow, but we had a flight to Milan to catch. Krakow didn’t want us to leave either because we barely made it to the airport on time. We woke up late and rushed out of the hostel to make the train to the airport, but I have my priorities so I had to grab breakfast first – the hostel had an awesome breakfast buffet, don’t judge. So Jacqueline finished packing up and checked us out while I ran downstairs to get breakfast. Well I started making sandwiches and there were so many combinations of meat and cheese that I couldn’t make just one sandwich. So I made 4. Jacqueline was shouting at me from the top of the stairs but c’mon, then there was this awesome Greek-type salad that I was in love with but I didn’t have anything to put it in...so I may or may not have eaten it straight from the salad bowl. Maybe that’s one of those things I keep to myself? Either way, I grabbed the sandwiches and some yogurts and decided we were good to go.

We sped walked to the train station but got lost along the way and missed the train to the airport. Good thing there’s only one train every half hour. We sat down and hoped we would make our flight, but on the bright side, I figured this was a perfect time to enjoy breakfast. I don’t think Jacqueline felt the same…but I think now we can both look back at the situation and laugh, because we made the next train and then sprinted like gazelles to the airport and made our flight with a few minutes to spare. Although I did have a very close call and almost threw away my passport while I was throwing away 3 empty water bottles (still don’t know why I was carrying them all with me) and the yogurt containers and my sandwich wrappers. Thankfully I caught myself in time and was able to continue sprinting after Jacqueline.

We landed in Milan where we planned to couchsurf for the 4 nights we were there. Our host was very unique and interesting and Italian. We ended up not staying at his place the whole time because we decided it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for, but he did cook us delicious Italian meals, made us coffee in the morning, shared his wine with us, introduced us to the best gelato place in Milan, took us to a great Italian restaurant and let us sleep on his leather couch, which I had to unstick myself from every half hour.

When we arrived he made us pasta and it was a pretty quiet lunch with plenty of awkward silences. I had to pinch myself more than once to keep from laughing out loud at how ridiculous our situation was. He was kind enough to take us around the city afterwards and we saw the Duomo, the shopping streets and city hall (or some important city government building).

We got up early the next morning because our host had to work, but it worked out in our favour because we went to the top of the Duomo before there was a line and hardly anyone was up there. The view of Milan wasn’t beautiful, but the cathedral itself is amazing, inside and out. We spent the rest of the day walking through the city and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed, and by the end of the third or fourth day I was more than ready to leave Milan. There’s not much to see or do and our host wasn’t exactly the funnest guy to hang out with – turns out he spends his Friday and Saturday nights watching television.

We actually ended up doing what we could to avoid going back to his place our and thought of an elaborate story to explain why we had to cut our stay with him short. Our plan worked and we were home free, except now we were homeless in Milan (Yes, I’ve noticed me being homeless is a reoccurring theme this semester). I had to find a hostel to stay at because Jacqueline was staying with her family. After hiking through half of Milan with our giant backpacking backpacks we found a travel agency that was open (it was Saturday…Sunday? so everything was closed) and with broken Italian and a lot of hand gestures we found a hostel for me to check into for the night.

The hostel had the highest reviews but it was still awful. I think that’s why we wanted to couchsurf in the first place – Milan is not hostel friendly. I explored the city by night and got terribly lost going back to the hostel and was informed by a man on the subway that the part of the city I was staying in is full of mafia members, so that was cool. I went to sleep and couldn’t wait to get out of the hostel and back into my own bed, especially when I woke up covered in mosquito bites. Three of them were on my forehead. Also really cool.

The next morning I walked to meet Jacqueline and her family for lunch, and naturally it started pouring the second I walked out of the hostel. Again, I was trekking through Milan with my giant backpack, but this time I was also using a map as an umbrella. If that isn’t an awesome way to end my backpacking trip, I don’t know what is.

Jacqueline and I spent the day with her family, but they don’t speak English so I spent most of the day smiling a lot and eating really great Italian food and not saying much. Our plane left at some ungodly morning hour, so we headed to the airport with one of the last busses and planned to sleep at the airport for a few hours before heading to Bratislava and then back to Vienna.

Luck was not on our side, because this airport was not down with passengers sleeping all over their floors and chairs. They closed off everything overnight except a small section by the entrance, so we set up camp in a corner and nearly froze on the cement floors.

We finally made it back to Vienna and I was so happy to fall asleep in my own bed, although the mosquito bites on my forehead were not getting any better. No but seriously, all joking and creepy men aside, it was an awesome trip and I’m so happy we went and I really wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

“Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless, newborn baby—I just don’t care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it’s mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to—I just don’t care.”

-Eat, Pray, Love

After our backpacking adventure we were in Vienna for a few days – just enough time to unpack, do laundry, buy alcohol, and repack for Croatia for Spring Jam 2011. Hundreds of students piled onto a party train (literally a train – not like a party bus, it was an entire train with compartments and everything) and partied for 12 hours from Vienna to Porec, Croatia. There was a neon party on the way there so I got to wear my neon pink leggings again. That’s twice I wore them out here, which I think is quite impressive. In Porec we got onto busses and were driven about an hour away. I couldn’t tell you exactly where we were. Actually I couldn’t even put Porec on a map (another embarrassing fact I probably shouldn’t admit here) but either way it was one of the best weekends of my life.

Spring Jam is like Spring Break in Mexico but condensed into a weekend and with a lot more Europeans. Whatever you think happened, probably did, maybe it was even worse. Our trip started with vodka shots for breakfast and ended with us hiding sandwiches in our pants on our way out of breakfast. We went on a Bacardi party boat which was better than any booze cruise I’ve ever been on (sorry Hawaii, sorry Mexico…you have a lot to life up to). I shuffled my life away in Croatia and I am quite alright with that.

We came back to Vienna haggard, tired, sorry excuses for human beings. I woke 5 hours later a haggard, tired, sorry excuse for a human being and went to take my Media & Society final. Awesome! Afterwards I had just enough time to unpack and then I had to repack again because I was going to Spain for 10 days to visit Jillian for Hogeras, a popular Spanish fiesta where the city puts up giant (massive) statues made of wood and Styrofoam on almost every street corner, everyone looks at them and drinks in the streets for a few days, then they burn them down and everyone continues partying in the streets and then there’s fireworks for a couple of days after because in Spain the party really doesn’t stop. I’ve learned Spanish people love loud noises and they love fire, so this whole celebration really makes a lot of sense.

Before all the festivities began we went to Benidorm for the weekend. Benidorm is one of those tourist/bachelor/bachelorette party destinations that really just has beaches, bars, and beach bars. Reoccurring theme in our travel destinations? Possibly. We made friends with various bachelor parties, bought wigs and microphones, visited waterfalls and visited the most miserable small Spanish town I’ve ever been to in my life. Oh, and we were there for two nights but to keep things interesting we only booked a hostel for one night. Yes, homeless for a night in Spain. Homelessness: another reoccurring theme in my semester abroad. If nothing else, it always makes for an interesting story.

The hostel we stayed in the first night wasn’t the greatest and it actually wasn’t really a hostel, either. It seemed more like an apartment building and we were the only guests. We stayed the first night, but after walking into the “lobby” to find the son Skyping, and after he added me on Facebook, we decided it was time to check out. So we checked out but left our luggage in the storage downstairs…and then came back a few hours later and got ready in their bathroom. It was a tricky situation but somehow we managed. Our second night we planned just not to sleep and then catch one of the morning busses back to Alicante. Our plan worked until about 6 in the morning, when as we were leaving the club, we decided we should take a little nap on the beach. We used the beach chairs to built a fort to keep the wind out (and by fort I mean circle) and then lay down in the middle to sleep.

Jillian woke up an hour later to find a strange Middle Eastern man sleeping in between our beach chairs and made the executive decision to relocate our napping location farther down the beach. The Middle Eastern man woke up and when we told him he couldn’t come with us he ran away. The beach was still pretty empty, so we walked down the beach closer to the hostel we weren’t staying at anymore, pulled out another two beach chairs, and passed out again. We woke up roughly two hours later to find the beach filled with people in their swim suits. Then there was us. I was wearing a lei, holding a microphone and cuddling with a pink ukulele a nice British man gave me the night before (it was missing a few strings. Okay, it was missing most of the strings). And we had also lost our third party member and both our cell phones had been stolen throughout the night. Another ideal situation we had found ourselves in.

First things first, we gathered our belongings from the hostel and sat down to wait for our third musketeer to come get her suitcase as well so we could leave this town and maybe get some sleep. Due to us sitting somewhere where we couldn’t really the entrance to the hostel, we missed our third soldier by a few minutes and trekked back to the train station on our own, but for once luck was on our side and we all met up in the train.

Benidorm got the best of us but I think we got the best of Alicante. We hiked to the top of the castle one of my first days there. It was still closed so we climbed a fence and spent a solid hour at the top. It wasn’t until we were walking back down that one of the employees started yelling at us that the castle wasn’t open for another two hours. Yeah, I’m still not sure exactly how that happened either.

Rikki met up with Jillian and I for the weekend of Hogeras and it was so much fun! We hadn’t been together in so long but it was as if nothing had changed. We spent the entire weekend laughing and laying on the beach and hanging out with Jillian’s roommates and skinny dipping at 9 in the morning (okay, that was only me and Jillian. Rikki decided to go to sleep at that point). We ate paella, drank sangria, went to a nude beach and swam in seaweed. That was also when I immediately took back any plans I ever had to become a mermaid.

Of course I spent 12 days traveling with RyanAir with a massive backpacking backpack and never had any trouble with the carry-on restrictions, but on my last flight of the semester with RyanAir, from Alicante to Bratislava, I was towards the back of the line and of course they made me try to fit my rolling suitcase into the stupid size checking box. Of course it didn’t fit and of course I did everything I could to shove it in, almost knocking the whole thing over on the stupid RyanAir employee in the process. So I had to check it in and was miserable the whole flight back to Bratislava. But again, it was all so worth it and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat because those 10 days were absolutely fabulous.

I know this is a disgustingly long entry, but I have to make up for the past two months. Of course every single night in Vienna was amazing and as the semester came to a close I realized just how much I appreciate everyone that I met throughout the last six months.  Well not that I didn’t realize it throughout the semester, but you know what I’m saying.

Our last nights were spent in the same way we started: traveling as a giant pack of exchange students. I loved it, actually I loved Vienna so much that I really just couldn’t leave. I was supposed to be out of my dorm (and therefore I guess out of Vienna too) on June 30 at 9 a.m. The night before I still had no idea what I was going to do after I checked out, because I didn’t have a ticket back to Prague and my ticket back to the US wasn’t until July 17. I had three giant suitcases with me and no idea what to do with them, so Jonathan came to the rescue and said I could stay with him until I got my life together and left Vienna (yes, I am aware I was once again homeless).

So we get home around 5 or 6 in the morning and I did my last minute packing, checked out of my room, and we lugged my giant suitcases to Jonathan’s dorm, where he was already storing two other large suitcases. Naturally the elevator at the subway was broken so we had to carry the suitcases up the stairs (thank you, random man who helped us even though you also had to help your wife carry the stroller). I spent the next couple days flopping around Vienna with whoever was left, and then finally let Jonathan have his room back 3 or 4 days later when I booked a bus ticket to Prague. I would like to give Jonathan a giant thank you for all his help…but I don’t know if he reads this, and even if he does, I think this is way too long and he’s maybe skimming it at best. ;]

Arni and Jonathan helped me carry my bags to the bus in the morning and my uncle picked me up in Prague and we transported the suitcases to my grandma’s place, which I’m sure she was thrilled about, because she already had my mom’s suitcases here too.

I was in Prague for all of two (three?) days when everyone decided they were leaving – my mom was going to Switzerland to run a marathon, my grandma was going to her summer cottage, my cousins were in America, and my other grandma already had people over. And quite frankly I just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Vienna, so it really didn’t take much for me to decide I was going back. Arni was nice enough to let me stay with him (so technically I wasn’t really that homeless this time…) and I went back for four days which were absolutely amazing. I did everything I could to hold onto this past semester, and it worked for a while but at the end of those four days I had to suck it up and say my final goodbye to the city that has been my home for the past six months. And to be honest, it was more of a home to me than Hawaii and I still cannot believe that this beautiful dream has come to an end.

I came back to Prague and went to visit my other grandma in Marienbad for a few nights, and came back to say bye to my cousins before the left for Italy, and now I’m sitting here waiting for it to sink in that this is my last few minutes in Europe. I’m posted up at the airport wishing the wifi was faster so that websites would actually load.

Vienna, it’s been real. I would give anything to be able to do it all over again. Everyone that studies abroad comes back home and says, “oh my gosh it was the most amazing thing ever, I loved every minute of it, I would love to do it again, there’s nothing like it, blah blah blah” and I always sat there and thought “uh-huh, yeah, sure, okay, you’re exaggerating but I’m going to smile and nod anyway”, but now I finally get it, and now I’m going to be the one saying it’s the most amazing thing ever (because it is) and there’s nothing like it (because there isn’t) and that I met some of the most amazing people ever  (because I did) and that I am so incredibly thankful we all crossed paths (because I am). And maybe now you’re going to be the one sitting there thinking “uh-huh, yeah, sure okay…” and smiling your head and nodding, but if you ever get the opportunity to study abroad, please take it and you’ll understand what I mean. And if you don’t get the opportunity to study abroad, create the opportunity.

I don’t think I could say this European love affair is over, because it’s not. It’s on hold for a few months because I have to go back to Hawaii and do the whole last year of college thing and then do the whole graduation diploma thing, but then I’m coming back. Unfortunately for my bank account, I’ve fallen in love with this continent. Europe, see you next summer. You have stolen my heart.

“We travel, in essence, to become young fools again – to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.”

–Pico Iyer

this moment is the sweetest memory

i just got back from budapest, hungary. i went for the weekend with 3 friends and it was definitely an adventure. we stayed at a hotel on the buda side - the city has two sides, buda and pest, divided by the river - fun fact! we went to the parliament, saw the castle and spent the day walking around the city. i would love to put up pictures but they're on my friends camera - mine was lost/stolen earlier in the week. i'm still hoping it will turn up somehow.

on the pest side there's a memorial to the jews that were shot and fell into the river. it's 60 pairs of empty shoes along the river, made out of iron. it's my favourite memorial i've seen out here. there was also a photo contest earlier in the year and the winners photographs were blown up onto posterboards and displayed in front of the parliament. i could've spent all day there, there were some really great pictures.

vienna has been beautiful otherwise. the weather has been great and we've been spending a lot of time outside. before i went to budapest we went to the donauinsel, or danub island. it's a long, narrow island in the danube river. the next day we lounged at a beach bar before cooking class. they have sand and lounge chairs and it was almost as if i was back in hawaii.

a friend celebrated her birthday last week and we had dinner at a fabulous mexican restaurant and i couldn't have been happier. i am so excited to come back to delicious mexican food and real sour cream, although i will miss schnitzel dearly.

i have a lot of traveling planned for the next two months: linz, brussels, oslo, krakow, milan, and alicante. needless to say, i'll be needing a job the second i come back to vegas, but it's definitely all worth it. i'm thankful my school schedule isn't that intense. i tend to have classes only two or three times a week, and i'm almost done with most of my classes. it's weird that people are already going back to vegas for the summer, because technically i have school until the end of june. but i'm not complaining :]

i've borrowed some books to read from friends and am so incredibly happy to be reading again. i absolutely love getting lost in books and cannot wait to get into bed and read tonight. i've recently finished outlander and it was amazing, i definitely recommend it. it's about a woman who is transported back in time 200 years, into the middle of war in scotland. she struggles with the new life and isn't able to go back to her 'normal' life for months, and then isn't sure if she even wants to. it's a little strange but so captivating. today i started ravens, i like it so far but i'm not that far into it yet.

"we read to know we are not alone"

cs lewis

i want to live where soul meets body

a lot of people really love to travel but not so many people love the airport. i'm going to go ahead and guess that not a lot of people like the actual "traveling" part of traveling - the act of getting from one place to the other, whether it's by plane, bus, or train. i really love it. i love packing (even if it's always, without a doubt, no question about it, done at the absolute last minute). i love going to the airport and walking to the terminal and going through security. i even like going through the metal detector. but good news, europe doesn't travel just by air. europe travels by busses and fast trains and slow trains and in between trains and trollys and it's fabulous.

i'm in the czech republic this week, bouncing back and forth between prague and marienbad, a smaller spa town in the western part of the country. i got to prague by bus and spent the night there. in the morning i took a train halfway to marienbad but had to switch onto a bus because the tracks were derailed or something. then i hopped onto another bus before i was finally here. and you know, i loved it. i met a guy who had just spent a month traveling throughout africa, a funny couple from the czech republic (they're actually the reason i made it to the last train without getting lost), and a weird old man who was missing a lot of teeth. besides the weird old man who wanted to meet my grandma and come visit me in hawaii, they were all really great. and even he wasn't that bad.

i love people watching and wondering where everyone's going, getting onto a bus and wondering who you're going to sit next to, sitting in the train compartment waiting for someone else to come in, making a home away from home. maybe it's just because i'm restless. maybe it's curiousity or just a desire to constantly be in motion, i don't know, but 5 hours on a bus or 3 in a train or a couple in the sky are absolutely fabulous.

it's probably a good thing, because i've been spending a lot of time lately transporting myself from place to place. just before i came to czech, we went to the vineyards about an hour northwest of vienna, past grinzig. needless to say, it was beautiful. while i'll admit don't know much about wine except that it comes in white, red, or pinkish, it didn't make it any less pretty. we wandered down through the maze of vineyards and found a little house where we enjoyed white wine and sunshine.

today i went towards the center of marienbad where there's a fountain that dances to music. it rivals the fountains in front of the bellagio. okay, not really, but it's still cute. there's an ice cream stand next to it that's been there for as long as i can remember. i used to beg my parents to buy me ice cream there all the time when i was younger. i finally realized that parents will say no, but grandma always says yes, so of course i had to enjoy a cone of ice cream for old times sake.

i hardly ever feel that i'm thousands of miles away from the united states and it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that a plane ride home is 10+ hours. i didn't really realize how far i am from home until recently, and then suddenly it hits me that i'm on the other side of the globe. i can't say that i'm out here alone - i'm surrounded by good people and great friends - but when tragedy hits back at home, it's hard to be out here without the friends i grew up with. rest in peace, courtney. your smile and your contagious laughter are missed. your memorial will be beautiful, just as you were, and i wish i could be there. thank you for the great memories and the amazing times in high school.

you do not have a soul, you are a soul. you have a body.

miss you, court.



sex, drugs, and sausage rolls (and a little bit of that european class)

(note: sorry to disappoint, but this entry actually has nothing to do with sex, drugs, or sausage rolls - although i have really, really grown to love kasekrainer sausages. it's actually almost a little worrisome how much i love them. they're this beautiful, delicious combination of meat and cheese that goes so perfectly with bread and mustard and ketchup. to be quite honest, i would take that over a sachertorte any day.)

prepare for cultural overload, because i don't update this as often as i should and i've been flopping around vienna's museums and historical hotspots like nobody's business this past week, since my classes have been few and far between lately. plus i finally made use of the neon pink american apparel leggings i brought out here from vegas - which, by the way - everyone was convinced i'd never wear. hellooo tight and bright party?

well, just kidding about the cultural overload, i'll make it short and sweet, because i can't handle that much classy european culture all at once. i think i'm getting there though. mushrooms don't make me want to vomit anymore, i'm starting to actually appreciate history, and i've been drinking a lot of tea lately (okay...that's not me being a classy european exchange student, that's just me trying to get rid of my cold. whatever).

schwarzenbergplatz square is home to the hochstrahlbrunnen (right), a fountain built to celebrate the construction of the first waterpipeline from the styrian alps to vienna in 1873. this pipeline had a huge impact in the modernization of vienna and to this day, the people here are very proud of their clean water, and for good reason. the tap water here is clean and drinkable, unlike many other places. in the early 1900's lights were installed so that the fountain lights up at night. at the time, this was amazing. it's really beautiful, plus if you go there when it's windy you get really wet and so does your camera. and your jeans. jacket . gloves. bag. good news is vienna weather is seriously bipolar so you'll probably dry off soon enough.

behind to the fountain is the soviet memorial heldendenkmal der roten armee (left, behind the flowers, you can kindof almost see the blurry outline of it). it was built in 1945 to commemorate the 17,000 soviet soldiers that died in the battle for vienna. they were buried beneath the memorial, which was built by locals and prisoners of war. in 1955 a state treaty was signed in which austria guaranteed to take care of and maintain the heldendenkmal forever. not just for a few weeks or a few years or until it fell apart - until the end of the world, austria must take care of the heldendenkmal. ever since the soviets left vienna, a lot of politicians have wanted to destroy it but have been stopped by the police. vandalism (quite common on the memorial) must be removed by the republic of austria, per state treaty. it has a generally negative view by the austrian population, who have nicknamed it the erbsendenkmal, or "pea memorial" - after the conquest of vienna, food and other supplies were short, so stalin donated 1,000 tons of peas to the starving viennese. the good news is that the bodies of the soldiers were eventually moved to an honorary section of the zentralfriedhof cemetary.

fun facts that maybe one day will help you win jeopardy, or sound really smart on your next date. i'll even help you out if you're dating an artist. what's up friedensreich hundertwasser?!

a controversial painter and architect, he designed buildings using irregular forms, bright colours, spirals and uneven floors, working to connect humans and nature. he turned rooftops into gardens and often planted trees within his buildings, with their branches growing outside. he had a unique way of thinking and wanted to show that through his art, whether it was on a canvas or a building.

his architectural works in vienna include an apartment house, a museum, and a district heating plant (right). he designed both the apartment house and the heating plant without accepting payment. the only reason he agreed to design the apartment house was so that something ugly wouldn’t go up in its place. he was really into the whole environmentalist/save the planet/stop killing nature thing (we were a little late catching up), so he said he would redesign the district heating plant only if the city would supply it with the latest and most environment friendly technology. atta boy! the third building he designed is now museum kunsthauswien, and it's the world's only permanent exhibition of his works.

hundertwasser has also designed other buildings as well, including a church, an incineration plant and sludge center, a railway station, a winery, and a public toilet. the winery is in napa valley, california, by the way. all you people in the usa, hop on over there and feel cultured.

i'm reading music and kickin' it with mozart
(haus der musik)

vienna loves its music. more than a handful of great musicians have roots here. many were born here, some created masterpieces here, a lot of them lived here and well, they also eventually died here. so it only makes sense that vienna has an amazing house of music, or haus der musik: an interactive, innovative, fun museum of music and sound (that sounds so terribly cheesy, but it's really true).

it's in the heart of the city, in what was once the palace of archduke charles and the home of otto nicolai - composer, conductor, and founder of the vienna philharmonic orchestra. where the palace’s state rooms used to be is now a presentation of the history of the orchestra and its musicians and conductors. okay, i know, that doesn't sound that exciting, but there's five more floors that are filled with a lot of really cool stuff. there’s also a floor dedicated to mozart, beethoven, strauss, haydn, schubert and mahler, who were all musicians and composers in vienna. don't feel bad if you don't recognize all the names, i didn't either.

my friend beethoven

turns out, beethoven had a lot of mistresses floating around, but he was always really unhappily in love. mozart owed a ton of people money and vice versa when he died, and his family didn't even have money for a proper burial, so his body was simply thrown into a huge ditch-grave. strauss was the one who always wanted to be in the spotlight, in the newspaper headlines. if he was famous now, he'd be the one demanding an all white room with organic fruits and poached salmon caught off the eastern coast of alaska or something.

the place was more like a playground than a museum. we got to conduct a virtual orchestra that actually played according to our movements. i tried to get them to play the polka but they booed me off the podium within 20 seconds. we were also able to record a cd and make new sounds using some weird headphones and a microphone and putting our head into something that looked like a spiderweb covered brain. one room was created to make you feel as if you were in the womb again. it was dark and slightly shook. the noise was loud but strangely comforting, but at the same time it felt as if we were being taken away by aliens. there were so many interactive computers, video games, displays, etc. the carpet was awesome, it looked like some of the doodles out of my media and society notebook. but with more colour, i don't have that many markers.

and this is where the cultured european section ends.

(i also went to the belvedere but that's just another palace-turned-art-museum that's a lot cooler to see in person than to read about)

i know what everyone's really interested in is the fact that i actually got to wear my hot pink leggings. i originally got them for the neon themed party bus we had a few years back (ps why did we not do that this past break?) and haven't gotten a chance to wear them again since. i take them with me everywhere i go though, just incase there's an 80's/neon/tight and bright party. finally, after a couple years of me dragging them with me everywhere, i got to make use of them again. the night was so much fun, although i looked like i got dressed in the dark when we went out to a club after.

i also finally got a library card at the national library and i'm so excited to read new books it's almost embarrassing. bad news is i forgot to check if they have an english section. i also forgot to see if you can actually check books out. a lot of the libraries i've found are only reference libraries, which means you can only use the books there...i don't understand? i also actually have no idea if their english section (which hopefully exists) only has smart-european-national-scholarly-information books, or if they have i-just-like-to-read-for-fun books.

i definitely jinxed it when i said the weather was getting warmer, because i went to the easter market at schonbrunn palace today and got lucky my toes didn't fall off due to hypothermia. the wind is absolutely freezing and i had to pull out my big fuzzy winter jacket. it wasn't really a big deal though because it's just hanging in my closet, right next to the minnie mouse cardigan, which i'm still not exactly sure why i bought. probably to match the mickey mouse dress i got that same day.

i have class both tomorrow and friday, which is really weird, but then i'm heading off to mallorca for 7 days. we have our apartment booked and i can't wait. i'm flying with ryanair for the first time, hopefully my luggage meets their size/weight/height/colour/content requirements, or whatever it is they have now.

a lot of people say they really miss a certain type of food when they travel, whether it's a restaurant or a type of food or a specific item. that was always really weird to me, but now i understand that feeling, because i would kill for good mexican food right now. chips and salsa, a burrito with no guac, extra sour cream? beautiful. in other food news, i've only eaten at mcdonalds twice in the past two and a half months. i still can't cook, but i made a really great sandwich earlier today, and after successfully opening three cans of mangos (peaches?) in cooking class, chef said i earned my housewife degree. so, if nothing else, it's a start.

il bel far niente: the beauty of doing nothing

ain't nothing like the sound of the leaves

when the breeze penetrates these southside trees

leaning up against one, watching the vibe

forgetting all about the stress, thanking god i'm alive

it's so simple, i had to keep the song simple

when i get home i'm gonna open all the windows...

-atmosphere, sunshine

sometimes i'm not sure what to write here, because i'm not really playing tourist every day anymore. even if i was, you can only read so much about museums and churches and palaces before it just gets old. i'm starting to fall more into a comfortable "home" lifestyle here, and i absolutely love it. i cannot express enough how perfect this change of pace is, how much i needed something new in my life.

i went to the movie premiere of pina - dance, dance, otherwise we are lost earlier this week. i didn't know what to expect from it except that it had a lot of really intense dancing. there was (thankfully) very little dialogue - the german subtitles are still too much for me to translate. it was a 3d film about the german choreographer pina bausch, who actually passed away during the making of it. pina turned into a tribute to her, with members of her ensemble dancing in her memory. it was a little strange, but maybe if i knew her work it would've made more sense. here's the trailer:

on wednesday night a family friend had an extra ticket to see marta kubisova in concert here. she's a czech singer who was extremely popular in the 60's, but because the government didn't like her lyrics, she was banned from performing and singing for 20 years. it wasn't until after the velvet revolution that she was allowed to perform again. she still has a beautiful voice and although i'd never heard of her until wednesday night, i'm glad i went.

one of the bars here had a beer pong tournament earlier in the week, tell me that isn't beautiful. i didn't sign up because the thought of drinking beer still makes me want to vomit but some friends were in it and we went to cheer them on. the bar (traveler's shack) was awesome, low key and really fun, although i wasn't sure why one of their bar games was hammering nails into a giant piece of wood. a hammer is one of those items i'd rather not have people hand me when i'm drinking. a fabulous guy dressed in lederhosen made up for that, though. a friend and i ended up getting asked to play a few games to sub in for people who weren't there. we won the first game (against the guys who ended up winning the whole thing!) but since we weren't actually in the tournament it didn't really mean much, but we got bragging rights and that's enough for me. and believe it or not, i somehow managed to choke down two cups of beer for the sake of our team.

the rest of the week was spent laying around in the parks and riding bikes, letting the sun thaw our winter skin. austrian classmates invited us to a bbq on saturday, and we spent the day on the terrance, bathing in sunshine and eating homemade hummus with turkish bread and chicken shishkabobs. we drank white wine spritzers and gin and tonics and saw how beautiful the change from winter to spring is.

i've recently started reading eat, pray, love. it's strange, because i'd been wanting to read it since before the movie came out, but no matter how hard i tried to get a copy back in vegas or hawaii it never seemed to work out. ironic that i finally got a copy while i'm doing my study abroad in europe, but i'm really happy it happened this way. i'm at the part where the main character is trying to learn how to master il bel far niente, the beauty of doing nothing, which is something i struggle with as well. america, you've taught us all to be workaholics and i'm not okay with that.

"...americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wears, but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment...this is the cause of that great sad american stereotype - the over-stressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax."

-eat, pray, love

nothing's bigger than love

i hear a lot of people say they're traveling to "discover what they're looking for", "learn what they want in life", "find themselves", whatever. it was hard for me to hide my skepticism when i heard this, because for a long time i thought that there was no need to relocate yourself halfway around the world to discover what you like and don't like. i figured hey, if you don't like olives in the usa, you're probably not going to like olives in asia.  just because you're in europe doesn't mean you're going to appreciate modern art if you couldn't stand it in brazil, and spending time in jerusalem isn't going to just suddenly make you religious.

i still believe we are essentially the same individual regardless of where we are. our core, our wants and needs aren't going to just magically transform overnight. i'm still not convinced that planting oneself in a different environment is going to cause you to discover the meaning of life, but i finally better understand the 'learning about oneself' part of traveling. i still don't like olives, but i've been learning things about myself that i probably wouldn't have learned this semester had i stayed in hawaii.

for example, today i learned that i am absolutely fascinated by the subway system.

okay, i know. there's a lot of things that i find fascinating, like fishtail braids, well done collages, and the way our voices travel through one phone to another. i also know this isn't a groundbreaking discovery and i would've been just fine going through the rest of my life without this knowledge. in fact, there's millions of people who have never and will never travel on a subway and it's not going to affect them at all, even a little bit.

but it's not the subway itself that i find fascinating. i don't really care how or why it works. as long as it gets me from where i am to where i need to be, we're good. if it gets me there on time, we're even better.

it's the people on the subway fascinate me. the way that everyone comes together from different parts of the city, the way that they're all trying to get somewhere...the way the majority forgets we're all human, the way so many people tend to leave their hearts outside the station.

there was a man who came onto the subway with his accordion keyboard and started to play. the second he started playing, everyone looked up and exchanged those glances, those 'what's-he-doing' looks of disapproval. i was about to do the same, but then i looked at him and changed my mind. he wasn't a great accordion keyboard player, not that i would be able to tell if he was, but he was happy. he enjoyed the music. after a few minutes people got used to it, and it was alright. everyone went back to sitting in silence, staring at their shoes, avoiding eye contact, staring out the window into the dark tunnel.

after a few stops, a man - i would call him a gentleman, but he was far from it - stood up and yelled at the accordion playing man. i've only had a few german courses and we didn't learn the colourful words he was shouting, but it was something along the lines of stop.

the poor man, bless his heart, put down his accordion and stopped playing, and it absolutely broke my heart. i know he was playing to make some extra change, not just because he wanted to make everyone's day better; i'm not that naive. but there was absolutely no reason for this man to speak down to him. what could he possibly be doing in the subway that's so important, and what makes him so mighty that he can tell others what they can and can't do?

i think that taking the subway can be extremely boring. it's silent, eye contact is awkward, it seems that people just pick a spot to stare at and try to permanently engrave it into their memory. what does a little music hurt? who's it hurting?

of course, there's more to it than an accordion playing man. when people exit the train, it's amazing how focused everyone is on their destination, it's as if they forgot all the manners they have outside of the subway. all of a sudden, it's not important to be polite. "excuse me" is a foreign language and i swear some people are convinced it's the end of the world if someone gets on the escalator before them. it's a little sad.

slow down, we're all human. wouldn't it be beautiful if we could remember that all the time, not just when it was convenient for us? and please, let that man play his accordion keyboard.

you better slow down, don't dance so fast.

time is short, the music won't last.

when you run so fast to get somewhere,

you miss half the fun of getting there.

when you worry and hurry through your day,

it's like an unopened gift thrown away.

life isn't a race, do take it slower,

hear the music, before your song is over.

-david l. weatherford

slow down, you crazy child

i rarely post songs, but this one is absolutely amazing.
please take the time to listen to it, and take a few extra minutes to let the lyrics sink in :]


vienna waits for you; billy joel
http://www.4shared.com/audio/d-EX8ApU/billy_joel_-_vienna_waits_for_.htm

Slow down, you crazy child 

you're so ambitious for a juvenile 

But then if you're so smart, tell me 

Why are you still so afraid? 

Where's the fire, what's the hurry about? 

You'd better cool it off before you burn it out 

You've got so much to do and 

Only so many hours in a day 

But you know that when the truth is told.. 

That you can get what you want or you get old 

You're gonna kick off before you even 

Get halfway through 

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you? 

Slow down, you're doing fine 

You can't be everything you want to be 

Before your time 

Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight 

Tonight...

Too bad but it's the life you lead 

you're so ahead of yourself that you forgot what you need 

Though you can see when you're wrong, you know 

You can't always see when you're right. you're right 

You've got your passion, you've got your pride 

but don't you know that only fools are satisfied? 

Dream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true 

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you? 

Slow down, you crazy child 

and take the phone off the hook and disappear for awhile 

it's all right, you can afford to lose a day or two 

When will you realize,..Vienna waits for you?

And you know that when the truth is told 

that you can get what you want or you can just get old 

You're gonna kick off before you even get half through 

Why don't you realize,. Vienna waits for you 

When will you realize, Vienna waits for you?

we'll live where we smile most

the past few days i've been getting settled in my dorm (which i actually really like), getting to know the other exchange students (who i also really like) and getting used to drinking tap water (which i'm trying to like). i'm really happy here, and i'm happy i came alone because i've been forced to meet new people and create friendships so quickly, although i was terrified at first because it seemed as if a lot of people were coming with friends from back home, but it's not really the case.

i went grocery shopping on saturday and got bread, grapes, wine, vodka, and orange soda. i was graced with a large nutella from the family we stayed with for a few nights and i'm completely content. you can't go wrong with nutella lets be real.

there's about 40/50 foreign exchange students this semester, and it's a really diverse group: china, south korea, finland, holland, lithuania, france, argentina, portugal, czech republic, slovakia, and of course, canada. there's two of us from the USA, and of course i've been representing us well. jaws hit the ground when i drank wine straight from the bottle on our way out, and i was practically laughed out of the room when i said i wanted to wear sweatpants to school. i was told it's "extremely american" and unacceptable here, which  might be a problem later in the semester.

most grocery stores, malls, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, etc are closed on sundays, so a group of us spent the day walking around the city center and trying to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings. i've learned i have a terrible sense of direction and it's probably a good thing i'm never in charge of leading us to the subway. i have yet to successfully figure out where and in what direction to transfer when we travel. if i was on my own, i'd probably be halfway to russia by now.

the city is beautiful, i went to the albertina art museum where kandinsky, klee, and lichtenstein (among others) were being featured. it's amazing to see the art when you have some knowledge of the artists, and unfortunately i only knew a couple, so i got through the exhibits rather quickly. i realized i enjoy art museums, but only for the first hour or two, and i really only appreciate the first couple of rooms. of course i liked lichtenstein's works the most, and i was quickly reminded that i'm a pop culture child, but i'm okay with that.

i spent my saturday night going from a bar called dick macs to waxy murphy. so far, drinks have been fairly cheap but i'm not used to how much people smoke here, all the bars and pubs are extremely smokey because of it.

monday we had a campus tour, and i really like the school. it's a nice change from HPU because all of the classes are in one building and it's extremely modern. i believe it was built three years ago, but i'm not positive...and i'm really too lazy to look it up.

i ate pizza with a fork and a knife for the first time, and i found it time consuming and strange but people here have incredible manners. i already know i'm going to be the token american who doesn't know how to properly use utensils or hold a wine glass...story of my life.

it's just before midnight and i'm absolutely exhausted. due to a long night and my amazing dancing ability, i managed to lose my keys last night and haven't gotten new ones yet. i'm going to the office tomorrow but i can't really leave my room tonight, and it's probably better. last night i got practically no sleep and ate too much salami.

from 830 am to 530 pm today we had one big austrian culture lecture, and although we got delicious snacks (little breads and sachertorte) i was more than ready for bed afterwards, but first we had a waltz lesson. anyone that knows me knows i am not a graceful dancer and don't know what a beat is, let alone how to keep one. so it was really great when the dance instructor personally showed me (in front of everyone) how to add the quarter turn to the box step. it was also great how the entire time i was dancing i had to chant out loud "left right close, right left close, left right close..." and even better when my dance partner and i knocked into just about everyone while trying to put the moves together. we more or less got it in the end though, and it was a lot of fun. i think the sparkling wine helped though.

at first my sarcasm didn't translate very well, especially since the majority of the students are not native english speakers and came here to improve their english as well as their german. i'm so happy i speak fluent english, but i do feel ignorant when i walk into a store/museum/office and i can't say anything in german. german class starts tomorrw though (630 pm to 945 pm..what?) and hopefully that'll help me. but as everyone's english is improving extremely quickly, i think everyone's understanding my humour a little more now. there's a group of people here from the czech republic and slovakia, so i'm speaking czech with them to brush up, and hopefully lose a little bit of that gnarly american accent i've acquired.

i'm starting to doze off, so i'll take that as a sign that i need to get into bed. sweet dreams, world. :]


'cause we can live anywhere
yes we can live anywhere
pack your things up, come on let's go
didn't you know that we own this world
we can live anywhere
-big d and the kids table, we can live anywhere

things have changed for me

i can honestly say up until now, i've never had to worry about translating webpages from german to english or worrying about ordering lunch at a restaurant because the server might not understand me. it's been a while since i've had to start over and move into a new place. it's been a while since i've lived in a room and not had my walls covered in posters, drumsticks, and concert tickets. it's also been a while since i've been thankful for itunes radio, the truly kind people in the world, and the fact that my parents are open to new ideas and situations.

until tonight, i've never sat in a room with a group of students and been the only one who speaks "native" english. when was the last time you sat with people your age and not a single one of them knew who brand new, taking back sunday, death cab for cutie or lil wayne was? but at the same time, when was the last time you sat next to someone who knows dj tiesto because they're both dutch and come from such a small place? ...and when was the last time youtube didn't let you watch a video because "it contains content from _________, who has blocked it from your country on copyright grounds?" :/

tonight's my first night staying in my dorm (finally!) and it's strange because my dad's still here, about a 20 minute car ride away, but i'm still starting to finally feel the "study abroad" independence, although i did take full advantage of the fact that my dad's friends forced their son to run errands with me today. trust me when i say he was 100% my translator when i got my public transit pass, bank account, cell phone, and country registration. also trust me when i say i actually did very little to understand what anyone was actually saying to me because he was there to save the day.

marijuana cards don't exist here. food is ridiculously expensive. most people don't own more than one or two really warm winter jackets. i have nothing to put on my walls or in my shelves. the subway system here is absolutely amazing. mcdonalds serves sour cream sauce with chicken mcnuggets. there's an amazing music store just steps outside of my dorm (think guitar center, mac, and best buy rolled into one). i couldn't unlock my door tonight. my electric toothbrush doesn't charge here, even with an adapter and a converter. i visited hard rock cafe in prague, and i can say i've become one of those weird obsessed-with-visiting-hard-rocks-all-over-the-world people. breakfasts here are absolutely amazing. i finally visited my school, and it's such a nice change from HPU. 

although i think i stick out like a sore thumb (where did that saying even come from?), i'm happy i'm here with the people i'm here with right now, because we're all here to try something new, experience different cultures, and learn a little bit more about ourselves in the process. i don't have any expectations because it's impossible for me to have any right now, and i think that's what makes it so beautiful. i have lived my day one day at a time up until now and i don't plan to stop. i mean obviously i want to travel, and i have certain cities i want to see while i'm here, but i think they'll all fall into my schedule accordingly. amsterdam, ireland, paris...we're coming for you, prepare yourself.

"all journeys have secret destinations of which the travel is unaware." -martin buber