This past weekend was my first travel experience. 10 of us went to Vienna, Austria, and were lucky enough to stay at the house of a friend from our program, who happens to be European. Of course, we could not stop singing The Sound of Music. However, our friend told us the somewhat surprising fact that The Sound of Music is not a big thing in Austria, at all. She said that most of it was not filmed there, and no Austrian actors were used, so no one really knows or cares about it (case in point: her Austrian boyfriend didn't really know what the movie was when we asked him about it, and has never seen it). Our constant Sound of Music references started to annoy her a bit, but we couldn't help but call her the Captain and us her children. Oh well. At least I found friends who don't mind at least some musical references!
Our bus left Prague a little after midnight Thursday night (or Friday morning, I guess). The bus was really nice, and we got free drinks and crappy movies both ways. It took us about five and a half hours to get to Vienna, at which point we needed to take two subways and a bus to get to my friends house. After napping for a few hours and having a very European breakfast (bread with assorted spreads and pastries), we travelled around the entire inner ring of the city. Like other European cities, apparently, Vienna is built on a circle, which is the center of the city, and has just expanded outward evenly around the entire thing. We spent so much time walking and eating that we didn't actually make it to any museums! We did see the Czech tourism center, though, which was kind of funny.
I was also informed that schnitzel with noodles is rarely, if ever, eaten. And unfortunately there was pork schnitzel at dinner so I could not partake, but I got some noodles and put them on my friend's plate, plus there was warm apple strudel for dessert! Plus, on Saturday my friend took us to this huge hill, that had an amazing view of the entire city...while she was leading us up the mountain it was just like Captain von Trapp leading his children! You can never escape musical theater.
Vienna is a gorgeous city, with really unique architecture. Because it was my first European city besides Prague, it was interesting for me to try and discern the individual features of each city, as opposed to characteristics common throughout this part of the world. I enjoyed my time there, but my friends and I agreed that we had just spent a few weeks learning how to get around in one foreign city, so it was slightly frustrating being thrust into another just as we were starting to get the hang of the first!
This weekend I plan to stay in Prague and get some more Czech culture in, hopefully going to a hockey game and the Philharmonic. I look forward to learning even more about my host country!
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You are so funny - how shocking that Sound of Music is so American!!!!!
ReplyDeleteso glad you are visiting other places. What great experiences.
One of my favorite places in Vienna was the naschmarkt - the market - Did you get to walk through?
Did you see the Staatsoper - I sang there.
Was it cloudy? In the 6 weeks I spent in Vienna at the end of winter, I saw the sun once for a few hours one afternoon.
Did you know Yentl was filmed in Prague (and Immortal Beloved and Amadeus and much more). So now you can sing Yentl songs on the Prague streets!
Enjoy Hockey and the Philharmonic - what a contrast!