Yesterday we took a long bus tour down the Donau to Melk, Willandorf and Dürnstein. It was the first day where it really hit me that I was truly in a foreign place and not just another city where people speak a different language. We saw old castles, plenty of the Donau, and the ancient ruins at Dürnstein. Great trip.
Inside the church at Melk, complete with choir
The awesome library at Melk
Am I an intellectual yet?
After Melk we went to Willandorf, which was the site of the discovery of the Venus of Willandorf, a 25,000 year old figurine believed to be a fertility symbol. While the discovery itself was quite amazing, Willandorf doesn't have anything really special to offer aside from being another - albeit beautiful and quaint - town on the Donau.
We did, however, take a stop to hang out on the banks of the Donau.
Donau
Having a beer on the bank of the Donau. Life is good.
Love this picture. After wandering back from the beach I decided that it was imperative that I climb this tree and finish my beer in it. This led an Italian to ask someone in our group - 100% seriously - if it was a cultural thing for Americans to drink beer in trees. I'm leaving my mark here.
When I was finished being a monkey, we set off for the town of Dürnstein and its ruins.
Our goal
Halfway up, looking out over the valley
We saw a lot of climbers on our way, the craggy rocks are just perfect for climbing. I of course couldn't resist, and bypassed about a quarter of the trail up the mountain by climbing up a rock face. So much fun, I wish I had my gear here with me.
Ancient well on the way up
Reaching the ruins
View from the top
I need to stop doing this
Finally, here is a video of the view from the top of the ruins. Amazing hike, fabulous view.
Today some of my group took this beautiful day to go visit the Belvedere. Sadly they didn't allow photography inside (though I did get one picture of a sweet painting before I caught on... oops) but that didn't stop us from taking some fantastic pictures in the gardens and in the Stadtpark.
View of the Belvedere and its awesome fountains
These statues were all over the place
HI-YO SILVER! AWAY! (This is probably not illegal)
The girls inside
Napoleon was kind of a dick, but that doesn't make this painting any less awesome.
More fountains!
Awesome memorial in the Stadtpark, I believe celebrating Vienna's independence from foreign powers after WWII
Last Thursday, frustrated by Vienna's rainy persistence, a group of us ventured out to Linz on our first real (albeit brief) trip. Our goal: The Thor Bräu Brewery in Ottensheim. The train out took about 2 hours and we were too late to secure a compartment. Unfortunate. Wandering around Linz, we located a store called Vom Fass that specialized in fine oils and whiskys. We couldn't help but stop in...
A number of small casks of various fine whiskys. Very exciting.
My favorite
After leaving the store we wandered over to the large plaza nearby and talked to a tourist info office about how to get to the brewery. Pictures ensued.
Plaza
Fun bit of graffiti
Then after a close call with a bus that almost took us completely out of the city, followed by a nice walk through town, we got to the brewery
This is just happy captured in picture form
It's a fairly small operation, but the beer was really good. And cheap! They were rather surprised to see us there, apparently they get few tourists. An old, rather eccentric gentleman took interest in us and started talking about how he had been to California and how they want Austrians to take Schwarzenegger back (he's ours now, dammit). He bought us a round, which we were happy to accept.
Sorry about the quality, the guy who took the picture for us, while quite nice, didn't have the necessary skills
Ottensheim at dusk
After we finished off our beers and food, we headed out to find that we had missed our bus back to the train station. Damn. When calling for a cab failed, two (awesome) people from the bar drove us to the station where we just barely made the next train back to Linz (we'll pay next time, promise). Thanks, random bar dudes. We caught our train back to Vienna, and enjoyed a nice post-brewery nap on the way. Waking up, we realized that it was still raining in Vienna. Damn. Oh well, at least I had some fantastic beer and got myself a rather tasty souvenir:
A handfull of pictures from today's (extremely) brief museum visit. Taking a train to a place near Linz tomorrow to check out a brewery, so expect a completely unrelated update soon! Because we all know how much Kyle loves beer.
It's been a whirlwind of a week in Vienna. I'm a lot busier than I expected, and I'm getting a lot more homework than I was hoping for. School is going well, though they placed me in a slightly more advanced class than I was expecting and I feel like a complete moron. I knew I was in trouble when I walked into the class and heard that students actually conversing in German. I have trouble sometimes just getting sentences together. I seem to be on the same level as far as grammar and whatnot, but they just know so, so many more words than me. They've also lived in Vienna for months, instead of 5 days.
By the way, this is the view from my classroom
Not too shabby.
On Monday after our placement tests we all went on a sizable hike up in the mountains to see a bit of the countryside and go to a Heuriger, which is German for "you'll eat so much amazing food and drink so much wine you won't be able to make it back down the mountain". Here's a picture of most of the gang:
Apologies to those who didn't make it in the picture (I don't have one of the whole group yet)
Robert and I met some awesome Polish/Serbian friends in our dorm who we have been hanging out with. We went to Schönbrunn yesterday and got hopelessly lost in the children's hedge maze.
Our group went to a museum today (first of many) and caught a look at some really early Viennese history.
A model of ~1800s Vienna
And now that I've finally put those pictures up, I have a lot of homework to do. Life in Vienna ist so schwer
Inside the church at Melk, complete with choir
The awesome library at Melk
Am I an intellectual yet?
Donau
Having a beer on the bank of the Donau. Life is good.
Love this picture. After wandering back from the beach I decided that it was imperative that I climb this tree and finish my beer in it. This led an Italian to ask someone in our group - 100% seriously - if it was a cultural thing for Americans to drink beer in trees. I'm leaving my mark here.
Our goal
Halfway up, looking out over the valley
We saw a lot of climbers on our way, the craggy rocks are just perfect for climbing. I of course couldn't resist, and bypassed about a quarter of the trail up the mountain by climbing up a rock face. So much fun, I wish I had my gear here with me.
Ancient well on the way up
Reaching the ruins
View from the top
I need to stop doing this
