Vienna Adventures

Hi all,
I got home from Vienna last night and was completely exhausted. However, after catching up on some sleep (and homework), I'm ready to impart my tale of Vienna.

Panda Hostel
So, as Eric was the one who schemed up a trip to Vienna the weekend I was at the theater retreat, he was the one to make the hostel arrangements. We got into Vienna around 9:30 and successfully found our way to the Panda Hostel. Our keys had been left pinned to a bulletin board outside the room, and there was no staff in sight - although it was full of helpful signs... This would become a common theme. We let ourselves in, went to the correct room, and found a note attached to the ladder leading to our bed - yes, a ladder leading to our bed...as in a lofted singular. This was slightly awkward, to say the least. It was a full-sized bed, but not the kind of story you particularly want to tell your significant other about. Seriously peeved, but with no staff to discuss this issue with, we decided to go out and eat dinner. Striking off in a random direction, Eric joked that a sign with red neon lights in the distance was the "red light district" - he was wrong, however, as it was actually on the street just around the corner that we walked on to. After about 6 blocks, we abandoned the well-lit streets in hopes of finding a cafe or restaurant tucked behind them. Finally, as we had almost made a full circle (well, square...) we found ourselves outside "Pizzeria Casanova". It looked a little dodgy at first, but as we walked by and noticed a Catholic priest eating inside, we decided to chance it. The rest of the night passed inconsequentially, except I (well, Eric) discovered that I now sleep talk in German...

Friday in Vienna
The next morning we got up at 8, because the staff is only around from 8-10 (with a 10-2, unobserved, lock-out time) to settle our bill - cash only- and ask if we could get separate beds. Unfortunately they were booked full for the rest of our trip, and we already knew there were no other hostels available. So we set off to explore Vienna. We stopped at a bakery, where I ate my first man-pastry. I still don't understand it...
Next we wandered around and found the National Library and then the Natural Museum of History...so that's where some of the pics are from.
Next we wandered through Mozart's Garden (well, it had a statue of him, at any rate) and were immediately approached by a be-wigged man. He sold us tickets to the Vienna Mozart Orchestra...and Eric was ridiculously excited. More excited than he gets about American Ketchup, and that's saying something...
The tickets were a little steep at 19 euros, but Eric swore left and right that we had to. We also impressed the costumed guy that we knew German...apparently most Americans who visit/live in Vienna don't know any. The rest of the afternoon was mostly spent at the Schoenbrunner palace. It was the summer seat of the Hapsburg empire, starting with Maria Theresa. We checked out the EXTENSIVE grounds (including the fountain with the cute ducks) and wandered through the labyrinth and mazes. Apparently the world's oldest Zoo is there, but we didn't check that out. We did, however, make the very steep hike up the hill with a monument overlooking the palace, but didn't spend the euros to go up on top of it.
The Vienna Mozart Orchestra tickets were for that evening...and it was absolutely terrific!
The concert was held in the Golden Room, which is rumored to have the best acoustics in the world. Our seats were up in the balcony behind/directly besides the orchestra, but as there were lots of empty seats, we moved down to the corner directly behind them. At one point my burning eyes reminded me that blinking was mandatory...I was that enraptured. The high-light for me was the soloist who played two sections from The Magic Flute...he was truly amazing.
I didn't take any pictures of the costumed actors playing (I was too busy listening), but there are a few photos of the empty stage.

Saturday
We woke up relatively late on Saturday, rushing out the door before lock-out. We wandered through a few of the large parks (I was hoping to find the nameless cemetery for the drowned that was featured in the film Before Sunrise.

..but it wasn't in our guidebook and we never managed to stumble across it) and then headed back to the palace. We took the Imperial Tour (the shortest) and wandered through about 30 rooms, about 2/3 of the palace. It was gorgeous, and the Hapsburg have an incredibly interesting and tragic history. Afterwards we tried to get standing room tickets for Carmen - but they were sold out within 5 minutes - much to Eric's non-dismay. So we went to the "Volkstheater" instead. If you ever have the chance to see "Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald" (Tales from the Vienna Woods)...don't. If I were to categorize it in one word, Disturbing would be it. Afterwards, we met up with an Australian named Shane, who we'd met the night before briefly. He went with us to pick up pizza for dinner and he decided he'd come with us to see the Vienna Boy's Choir at mass the next morning.

Adventures with Shane
The guidebook said to be at the Hofburg Chapel by 8 am for the 9:15 mass if we wanted free standing room. However, we decided to leave at 8, and were actually all out the door by 7:45. After shortly stopping for breakfast and asking for directions, we successfully found the chapel. We decided to chance the standing room, and were soon in line. Directly behind us was a group of UCLA medical students who had just finished their rotations and were graduating and going on to their residencies within the next few weeks. Eric drifted off and discovered a couple from the Netherlands who were very impressed with his German, and reminded him "You are the Future". For some reason, we found this funny.
We stood in the main aisle of the church, halfway to the front. At first we thought we'd been misinformed, as the choir that lumbered in had the median age of 30 for it's members. Soon, however, the small orchestra above us began to play and we were rewarded with the sweet voices of the Vienna Boys Choir. The whole mass was quite a shock for Shane, as he 1. Didn't know German and 2. Is Anglican. The mass was about Pentecost and tradition, although they threw a lot of Latin in there as well. At the end of the mass, they brought the choir down...and here's a quick video clip...


After mass, Eric caught sight of the man who played the father figure in the play from the night before. We found this hysterical.

After mass, we went to the Donau park (but first made photo history at the Natural Science Museum...in photos...). We wandered around and ate at a restaurant in it for lunch. Eric caught sight of the mini-golf sign...and so of course we had to go. It was quite possibly the most ghetto course I've ever seen. It was also quite a challenge...

Ok...last movie...I promise...

Afterwards we got some ice cream and then parted ways, as Shane had 5 hours of Sigfried to sit through that evening. We went to the Danube Island (Between the Danube, New Danube and Old Danube), which was pretty much a theme park.

Going Home
We made our 4:40 train with ease and both napped on the way home. Claudia met us at the station and they came to my place to pick up Eric's bike. My back ached from my heavy backpack (we were thoughtless - we could've left them in a locker...sigh), my feet were worn to stubs and I was incredibly hungry. I tried calling my mom for mother's day, but it took about 5 tries to connect to the calling card hub, and another 3 to make it to my parent's voice mail. Due to the heavy operating load, the message was incomprehensible. But it was the thought that mattered, right?

Anyhow, I hope all is well in the land of free toilets and cool whip,
Steph

Storming the Tower

Hi all,
Just a quickie about yesterday's adventure.

The Tower, for which my Dorm is Named...
Now, when I told Chris about my ultra-cool adventure of getting to tour the tower that's attached to my dorm, he asked me which tower I was talking about. Apparently during his 10 day visit he somehow missed it. However, there is indeed a tower attached to my dorm...as it literally means "Golden Tower" because, well, there's a giant yellow tower! As it is extremely old (700+ years) they don't like us or tourists traipsing about in it. However, as a perk to putting up with having to hear drunk German men singing at all hours of the night, they let us into tour the tower once or twice a semester. The first semester the tour was at 8 in the morning on a Saturday. So Steph missed that one. The next tour date(s) got posted 3 days ago. The choices were 3 o'clock Monday, or 7:30 AM Wednesday morning...gee, decisions decisions.

So naturally I went with the 3 pm and met up in the kitchen nearest the tower. The best part was that I hadn't realized that WHOLE wing even existed. They're directly across from our kitchen. The guy who does all the utility work unlocked the door (teeny...watch the pics) for us and we started the ascent. I counted approximately six long flights of stairs, each one ending on a very small and completely empty landing. At the top, our huffing and puffing was rewarded by a 4-sided view of the city. Also inside (along with a good deal of graffiti) was some original art...hopefully they don't come out too faded. After 20 minutes of snapping photos and oohing, we climbed back done. I'm not that great with heights (and I hate ladders), and going down was a little difficult. All the stairs were so old that they were slanted downwards...something I hadn't noticed going up. So it felt like one little slip and you'd keep going...and going...and going.
I made it down without problems, but about 3 minutes later my adrenaline rush caught up with me and I had wobbly legs. Pathetic, I know.

At any rate, it was really cool...
Enjoy the pics!
Steph

Happy May Day! (Late...)

Hi everyone,
Here's a quick run-down on my lovely Sunday I had today.

Tea Party
A few days ago I received an invitation to a tea party / meet and greet with the woman who organizes the English Conversation course that I and 3 other people teach. (Different kids, different days). We had been told that the family was deeply religious, and in fact, the bottom of her e-mail contained religious service information. Nevertheless, Eric, Emma, Miles (new, Vanderbilt/Wheaton/Wesleyan) and I trekked out to meet the family, taking an unfamiliar bus route. We were met by one of her sons (she has 4) and his girlfriend. Once we got there, introductions were made and she had us eating cake, drinking coffee and conversing. Eric was particularly nervous and said on the bus (not quite jokingly) that he'd love a beer. It was funny because the father of the family offered beer and Eric and Emma took him up on his offer. Of course, he later offered everyone snuff, but that was declined. It was a perfectly lovely afternoon, and I even wore a dress and my new shoes (but only for 10 minutes, because I now have a new hole in the back of my ankle...sigh). So it was a very nice time.

At one point in the conversation, I apologized to the mother for not being able to find her son the first day. She looked confused, and I reminded her I'd sent her an e-mail. She then told me that all the e-mails she's received from me (about 5) had been completely blank! She somehow managed to think that was normal...lol. What had really happened is, without fail, every time I send her an e-mail it bounces back. It does so because it says I have invalid characters - because the e-mail address line has a title with umlauts...so I'd been clearing it out and clicking send again...after it'd erased my message. Whoops. So I'm glad THAT got cleared up.

Maibaum
On our way back to the bus stop about an hour and a half later (and the bus only comes once per hour on Sundays), we were astounded to see a very large may pole coming our way. It was being carried by a whole fleet of firemen (decked out in full uniform...on a hot day...), part of a soccer team in uniform, and various other stragglers. The guy in front yelled at us to help, and although I first thought he was joking, he definitely wasn't. We yelled we had to take the bus, and we got a little crap for it, but they soon rallied themselves with a song. Honestly, Germans and their singing...

Anyhow, there's a game night happening out in my kitchen, so I'm going to run along (gingerly) and join in the fun.
Hope all is well,
Steph
PS The picture is to show the size of the may pole, and I would've given some left body part to have had my camera along!

Spring Has Sprung Springingly

Hey Everyone,

So, I realize that I probably shouldn't have said I'll post more often right before I go away for the weekend. Also not helping is the fact that I came down sick...but more on that below.

Theater Weekend Retreat
I must admit that this weekend was a lot less hard-core. I had to ride the train this time, with 10 other people, because there weren't as many drivers available. We went to the tiny town of Abtschlag - about 2 hours by train. It was slightly funny because no one noticed we had 11 people, we just assumed we had 10 until we got to the town - we'd only bought 2 Bayern tickets that were good for 10 people total! Our theater instructor Christine had a good laugh over that. The first night I went to bed around 1:30, unfortunately the walls were like paper and it was impossible to sleep for an hour. I hadn't been feeling 100%, my joints were hurting a bit and my neck was sore. The next evening my symptoms exploded - I was simultaneously feeling fevered and chills. I got mothered by Sara and whisked off to a different room that Andy (the other instructor) gave up for me. I'm pretty sure I had a fever, but it broke by the next (Sunday) morning. After 11 hours of sleep, I woke up with a killer headache and no voice. I had some tea and took an early train back with a couple of other people. I got back to Regensburg by noon, took medicine and slept for 7 more hours...However, today I am feeling much improved and will continue to get lots of sleep, water, vitamins, decongestants, allergy medicine and cough drops pumped into my system. Yay.

On a less Depressing Note
Spring has sprung in Regensburg. Yesterday and today were delightfully (and unfortunately, headache-inducing) sunny and warm. The trees have all frantically shot out their leaves and the grass and flowers are growing rampantly. The fountains have gurgled back to life, the pigeons are obnoxiously wooing outside our windows and the statues have come out of their boxes. And since it's the season for new beginnings, two more strikes are on. It is rumored that the train
strike is actually over. However, the buses and the post are on strike. This doesn't effect me really, as the only mail I normally get is from the bank and that's all they are not delivering. Apparently they just want to hurt the businesses. A German naively asked me what happens when our post goes on strike (which they're not allowed to do, under federal law) and I told them that we don't have the expression "Going Postal" for nothing and we don't like to tempt fate.

The Pant Dilemma
I have decided to try to make do with my 2 remaining pairs of pants and my two pairs of capris. I also have some springy dresses and a skirt or two, but let's not kid ourselves people. I will try to save myself the 30-60 euros for something important. Like icecream on hot days when it's too hot to breathe in my room.

Teaching English Conversation
So, I have had 2 sessions teaching my group of high-school aged kids English conversation. I had 8 the first week and it was a bit awkward at first. They hadn't gone to the last scheduled meeting, so Molly hadn't been able to tell them that she probably wouldn't be teaching them the next semester. Also, the kid (literally, about 7...) who was supposed to meet me and take me to the room apparently couldn't figure out who I was. So I had to find it myself, with a phone call from Molly. There weren't a ton of awkward pauses, I had brought along a bunch of questions (ie. if you got stuck on a dessert island, what 3 things would you bring? etc) and did a couple of other activities. We played 2 truths and a lie, which went over well and then tried to do a current event (which went horribly...lol). However, the hour passed swiftly and I felt assured that YES I COULD do this.
The second week only 3 showed up, but the others should be back next week (they/we have a holiday this Thursday). I had quizzed them about adverbs and nouns the week before as a set up to Madlibs. They loved them. I also had printed out an adverb list with such gems as lackadaisical and abhorrent (along with much easier ones), so they maybe learned some new vocab as well. We also played Never Ever Have I Ever...and that was fun as well. I had planned to do a fill-in-the-blank lyrics sheet, but we didn't have time. So that's going well!

Anyhow, I have some homework to read through for tomorrow...so until next time!
Steph
Ps. The pic is me all dolled up for Molly and Emma's B-day Extravaganza where...I think I look weird without any bangs...but I did my hair myself!