Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Spring arrives in Vienna: the art of relaxation and following your bliss.

The sun is finally shining in Vienna!  While the Winter was a unique experience for me, I can't say that I am anything less than thrilled to feel the warmth.  Since the weather has been so nice, I have been planning my days centered around the Sun.

I have been to a park three out of the past 5 days, and honestly, I see the Sun shining in my window this morning and I think I might have to go again.  As beautiful as the buildings are in Vienna, their parks are just as stunning.  Really, Vienna, do you have to do everything perfectly?!

I can't say I have a favorite spot yet, because I love them all.  I guess I can narrow it down to three.

1. Belvedere Palace Gardens:  This is the first green area I went to.  It is here that I discovered how nice it is to do exactly what you want to do.  Until now, the Erasmus students and I have been traveling in packs and pairs to places around the city to have each other's company.  Don't get me wrong, I am a VERY social person, but sometimes it is just nice to abandon all else and do exactly what YOU want to do.  Follow your bliss.
So this day, my bliss led me to Belvedere Palace in search of some sunlight and photo opportunities.  I walked around the Karlsplatz area and took photos of the beautiful Karlskirche church.  At the tip of the Belvedere area is a grand fountain and statue.  I brought my big camera this day, so I walked around the fountain taking pictures from different angles.  I held my camera up for one last shot before I ventured on, and realized that from that exact angle, there was an entire rainbow that swept across the fountain.  It was one of those moments that you really feel like you're where you were meant to be.  I documented the rainbow and continued on towards the Gardens.

It took a bit of wandering, but eventually I found the Belvedere entrance.   You can find nearly anything as long as you have a good map!   I walked around the beautiful gardens, where you could see hints of Spring beginning to arrive.  Many of the trees had little clusters of leaves beginning to grow.  It was lovely.  I walked around for a long while, taking pictures and people watching.  I found an empty bench near the palace, read my travel book for a while, and then took a nap.  It was really the perfect day.



























2. Stadtpark

Stephanie and I decided to search out more sunlight, and ended up exploring Stadtpark.  There ended up being a good number of Erasmus students with us that day.  We found a pot in the center of the grassy area and laid out our new dolphin blankets that we got from the ProCent store for 5 Euros (and remind us of Florida).  We ate Billt sandwiches, fresh strawberries, and people-watched.  We realized that there are 3 main categories of people in Stadtpark:  Viennese workers on their lunch break, weird people doing weird acrobatic/circus things, and Asian tourists.  The Viennese workers just sat on the benches and ate their lunches.  The weird people were scattered about the park, some practiced tightrope walking, some juggled, and others perfected their martial arts.  The Asian tourists always arrived in massive packs, and proceeded to take pictures of us and the weird people in the grass, and took pictures sitting next to Viennese people.  I don't want to stereotype at all, but out of every pack that came through the park there was at least one double peace sign photo and one "kitty kat" pose (term coined by Steph).  I have now taken a liking to the kitty kat pose myself.  It was a relaxing/ amusing    day filled with laughter and vitamin D.  


Playing ball with a little Austrian girl
She started speaking away in German, part of which translated to
 "You have sunglasses and I have sunglasses too!
-too cute.
Tight-rope walkers









Double Peace Sign


Kitty Kat Pose


3. Donauinsel (Danube Island)















Donauinsel is a piece of land stretching for miles down the middle of the Danube.  Many locals come here for recreation and relaxation.  A sidewalk stretches around the green area in the center, where many people roller-blade, bike, run, and scoot.  I went there with a few others for another day of relaxation and suntanning. We layed out in the center of a grassy area, with the old Vienna on one side of us and the modern UN area on the other.  We had a picnic and read German gossip magazines (well, read a few words and looked at the pictures).  A group of Austrian guys showed up with a giant case of beer, a soccer ball, and... an American football.  While I was wondering how i might snag one of the beers, Steph was drooling up a storm over the American football.  They threw it around a bit (with terrible form) and then sat down.  Stephanie could no longer contain herself so she marched on over and asked if we could borrow it.  They agreed, but didn't dare to play with us.  We decided they were intimidated by girls who like sports, and especially by girls who threw better than them.  :)  This was on Saturday, and we had such a good time that we went back on Sunday and did it all over again.  This day was similar, except we brought more people this time and I had a cactus popsicle... which was very odd, and highly suggestive.  But it was 1 Euro, so why not?

American football boys helping each other out. h









So clearly, I am enjoying the Spring here in Vienna.  Oddly enough, not that the weather is nice, I'm leaving the country for the next 27 days!  Hopefully it will be even nicer when I return.

In a few hours, Stephanie, Alyssa and I leave for Paris to kick of our Easter Break!  Here is the itinerary:

April 6-13: Paris, France and surrounding areas.  We will be staying with my friend for part of the time and Alyssa's friend for part of the time.

13-17: Barcelona, Spain.  We have a hostel here.

17-20: Palma de Mallorca.  An island off the coast of Spain.  We have a hotel here.

20-22:  Bruges, Belgium.  We are meeting up with Hanna and Inna here.  Hostel.

22-24: Brussels, Belgium.  Still with Hanna and Inna.  Hotel.  

April 24-May 1:  The Netherlands.  We might go to Maastricht for a day to stay with my friend Tess, but other than that we will be staying with my Navigatee Raphie (my exchange student from last semester) who lives in Utrecht.  It's about 30 minutes from Amsterdam, so we plan to see the city, the tulips, and various other places.  I have almost a dozen friends in the Netherlands so hopefully I can see the majority of them on this trip.  I know Tess and Nicole are coming to Amsterdam for Queen's Day on the 30th (a huge Dutch holiday) so that will be fun! 

May 1: Flight from Rotterdam to Vienna

I know this seems like it would be very expensive... But actually, because we are mainly using Ryan Air, buses and trains it is soooooo cheap!  (Although it took about a monnth's worth of scouring the web for the cheapest options).  I have everything booked and planned out now.  I'm checked in, boarding passes and bus passes are printed, and my bags are packed!  I even made a 13 page itinerary booklet with maps, directions, and confirmations.  All set to go! :)

I will try to write quick updates as much as possible!  Love you all!  


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