Seeing Through Viennese Eyes

After a few thousand steps these last few days I decided That this would be a lazy weekend just chilling. I’ve seen the icons of Vienna many times and they are beautiful! But today I just Wanted to be a local.

So after meeting up with Nico from Argentina to purchase some beautiful jewelry, I hit The back streets. I know My direction fairly well after 4 times here so I just Walked in the general direction trying to get to the Danube canal on which all the locals walk or bike. Hidden wonders of beauty arise right before your eyes. Everything is beautiful!

And walking along the canal is just peaceful period! The overbearing clamber of the crowds fades into the simple solitude of the walk, though graffitied is quite peaceful and centering.  

I must have walked for almost an hour or so. I knew I wanted to get to the Stadtpark - famous though I haven’t been once in all my visits. I knew I was getting close from what I thought I remembered, Sure enough, pull it up on Google Maps and I just barely passed  it....I was at a juncture so took it and headed back following my phone and still looking up at all the beauty. I loved just walking as if I were a local. Just walking and taking in the serenity of it all. 

Soon I was at the park, marked by two crazy head statues. The park is larger than  Burggarten with more walkways and benches. I LOVE that Vienna has a multitude of benches EVERYWHERE for folks to sit and just be! Just BE! With the light breeze I was near heaven, I know. It was beautiful! After scouting out shade and solitude I found three benches in a U formation with NO ONE! That was it - my spot for the next 90 minutes of reading from Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning!

The park itself had some neat things and was beautiful...

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I then headed for the Albertina and Stats Oper (again walking in the general direction figuring I was on the right track) to get a Kasekrainer from the famous sausage shop there. This is a holiday weekend so there were more than the usual swarms of people! I waited in line for 15 minutes, I bet! Just for the best Kasekrainer in town ... for my friend!

Sitting in the Burggarten eating lunch and just soaking in the atmosphere was special to me. I felt Almost like a local! Off to the Naschmarkt - I wanted to get some hummus and pita and check out the prices for some pants like Kelsey got last year (yes, she wants ANOTHER pair). It was FAR to busy for my liking....and much less for the locals than I would imagine. I only had 7 euro in cash so I was pretty sure there was no bartering that low for the pants. They started at 20 and only got down to 15. I guess He didn’t believe me that I ONLY had 7 euro. Hahahaha

I left and stopped by the local Hofer grocery store (equivalent of Andi back home) for some essentials - yogurt, cheese, rolls, and milk. I have only been eating OUT once a day! Trying to save money and eat a lot less too. 

Home is a nice place to be, even if it just a small apartment in Vienna. I can still here the police and their crazy sirens but not much else. I’m near, but not close to a major road so it is fairly quiet! 

All my students - except one - went to Venice, Rome and Zurich. So I met up with Rachel to check out the city at night. We went by the Rathaus to check out the Life Ball - it is Pride Month and there were so many cool costumes and people dressed up in everything. We couldn’t get IN, but saw from the outskirts. 

We checked out the Volksgarten and all the beautiful roses then wandered the back streets til we found some place to eat. Even found an old (like 1600s old) little relic in the middle of the city that had been hidden for years. Beautiful!!! Rachel ordered (unknowingly) the exact same thing she had at Bier und Bierly the first day. We laughed. We split our meals....Bier und Bierli was MUCH better for her dish. 

We stopped by the Stats Oper to watch part of the opera on the jumbo tron and then headed home. It was late and I was getting up early for church. Fun evening for sure!

 

Finding Beauty EVERYWHERE

This morning we met Verena and traveled to a small town called Götzendorf to help with some community service. The girls were all troopers for sure...though cleaning up the cemetery wasn’t hard. We helped to keep it nice ... raking up leaves and sticks. The workers were super nice, though only one spoke much English. It is interesting to be in a cemetery. My mom loves cemeteries ... I remember walking through the one close to my house when I was in labor with Jordan. I thought of her today too. I looked at the dates....some as old a death date of 1906. Another one was the final lying place of 10 Russian soldiers in 1945. SOOOO much history here.

Fun (or weirdly interesting) fact I learned today — we bury out dead next to one another with HUGE cemeteries. The Austrians bury families on top of one another. They dig down 2 meters 10 centimeters and put the body in...but not in a fancy casket like ours, all sealed up and expensively ornate and beautiful. Instead, it is in a box. They get 4 tons of dirt out of each hole. When they put that dirt back in, the casket obviously lowers with time. In 20 years, the entire thing has decomposed so much that only bones remain. Therefore, they again dig down til they find bones then lay the next casket on top. We saw as many as 6 names in one plot. If it is less than 20 years, they dig down til they hit the casket then put the next one in. The families are given the option of cremating the bones and putting them in an urn, or putting all the families bones in another coffin.

Just interesting. But BEAUTIFUL cemetery....the families take care of the plot. Very little grass can be found, but rather gravel and huge marble slabs marking the site.

I think the most difficult part of today was waiting....after our first hour long raking experience, we went to their shop for coffee - only none of us drinks coffee. Nor do we smoke. So, soon I was getting light headed and a headache. Rachel and I went outside. I can’t believe the others didn’t, but no worries. It was their break so we took a break. The next cemetery was significantly smaller and already fairly kept up ... didn’t take long. Back to the shoot for a few minutes then they took us to lunch! A buffet — so we could see what we were eating. Austrian food is ALWAYS delicious so all was good.

I REALLY enjoyed hanging out with Verena from the AAIE - she is spectacular. She is funny, kind, and smart/wise. She has been a BIG help to me.

When we got back, the girls headed home — they are off to Venice, Rome, and Zurich for this long weekend. Rachel will stay ... but will probably head somewhere close on Sunday and Monday. I , on the other hand, am relaxing in the city I love. Sleeping in, walking in such a relaxed way that I get nowhere very fast. I may even see if I can have dinner with Elizabeth.

I scouted out how to get to and from the airport and how to have Natalie get herself back to the city, store her luggage, and then meet up with us on Sunday the 16th. Krista is coming on the 13th to head to Salzburg with us - that will be FUN!! When I got back to Stephansdom I looked at all the venders outside - it is Pentecost weekend. I didn’t find much until a young man sitting at a tiny little machine with a beautiful blue stone, engraving an edge. It intrigued me. I’m not a jewelry person, but I stopped and talked to him. He told me ALL about it....even came out and helped me see the stones better. His name is Nico and he is from Argentina. Suave....that is the Argentine way. But I was sold. I walked away but quickly came back for more. I think I found the one I want to get Kelsey. It is a light blue, similar to her eyes. It is expensive but not outrageous. I hope it is not gone when I go back tomorrow.

Here are a few pics of my day - community service and sauntering through the backstreets of Vienna to Karls Kirche. I even sat on the benches and took in the breeze, listened to the many people playing music and dumped all my small coins to them. I enjoyed just sauntering!

And I love getting home early and putting my feet up. I have seen a lot of Vienna, so I no longer feel like I have to spend EVERY LAST minute out and about. It is nice to relax for sure.

Noses Up Ladies!

If there is one thing I will always remember about today, it is that phrase from our spunky heart-warming and charming city tour guide, Elisabeth. By “noses up” she means to look up. She is completely Viennese (born in the city center and has lived here ALL her life). She LOVES Vienna and is so proud of its architecture. She LOVES to show her city and loves wants others to notice it - the beauty (roofs especially), the age and character, and the feeling of her beautiful city.

It was, once again, a pleasure to be with Elizabeth. I had already told the girls that I was her Fan Girl and she was taken. They quickly fell in love with her too. We had lunch together with Priya and Rachel. It was fun to talk. Rachel picked her brain and Elizabeth was eating it up. We talked religion, politics and everything in between. And she remembered my children! How cool is she!

But let me digress .... this morning I got to Karlsplatz a little early. I went up and sat near the Stats Oper as I waited. Ascending to that view every morning is magnificent to say the VERY LEAST!!

Elizabeth did NOT disappoint. I don’t know if there was anything I learned new, but she did leave some things out that we saw last year. She was cognizant of the girls and how tired they were. They walked MORE than I did and were exhausted this morning. I love Vienna - and to hear if from the lips of someone that was born here and has lived in the city center her whole life, full of love and admiration for the city, is wonderful! Maybe she did talk about Sisi more, the beautiful yet unhappily married daughter of the Habsburg family. I don’t know a lot about her.

Each year Albertina, though beautiful, gets more boring. Did I just say that out loud? I usually can handle it, but when I see that the students are tired and not into it, I am more conscientious and this time they were all tired. Because there was an event tonight, all of the staff was running all around us, furnishing were moved and chairs set up .... rooms roped off. It wasn’t typical. I’m not sure if this was flustering to the guide, or to the girls, but it felt more boring and out of place this time around. I have seen it MANY times so it doesn’t thrill me any more. But I still ask questions and listen intently.

Picasso bis Monet was pretty ok too. I’m not totally into art, though I love art myself. No one cried when they saw an actual real original Monet, like Lisa did last year. But, the guide DID have this handy APP that when opened and viewing a painting, you could see the actual place that was being depicted. For instance, Monet’s pond, tho beautiful, is impressionistic. The actual pond is equally as beautiful. I’m just more into realism in art. Picasso’s painting of his girlfriend is crazy to me. HE is crazy to me. But when I saw the actual picture of his girlfriend (at 20 when he was 60), my feeling magnified. He WAS crazy! Or at least his impressionistic style is crazy to me. The other painting of one of his muses tells a much funnier story. (I’ll share it later....basically, he painted 60 portraits of this young 18 yr old girl whom he fell in love with. She didn’t feel the same. After 60 paintings, he painted her no more. However, he gifted one to her and after his death she sold it for a LOT of $$$).

The rest of my day was very relaxing. I took a scooter to the Volks Oper and walked through the Volksgarten full of ROSES of every color. It was beautiful — pictures NEVER do it justice. But the smell was divine too. This weekend is the Live Ball at the Rathaus so it is all closed up in preparation. I rode the train home for the evening. Stopped and got a Duner Sandwich and made my way to my apartment where I ate and chilled for a very long time. Read blogs and commented then wrote my own.

Gotta meet the girls at 8am so I’m heading to BED! Good night, Vienna! Goodnight friends!

28,000 Steps Later

I woke up feeling much better than I did when I got to my apartment last night. I was EXHAUSTED to say the least. I unpacked and had no desire to go back out to find food. So I drank a shake I had brought for dinner, took a shower, and went to bed! Best decision EVER!

Despite the bed being squeaky last night, I didn’t hear it at all when I was sleeping. I guess I was THAT tired! The morning held all the possibilities in the world! Day 1 for this new crew of five female students. I was getting more excited. I went in early so I could for sure be there to meet them at the Karlsplatz train station. I ate a very good croissant with ham in it .... Stocker always satisfies!

They got there early and we walked up to the Institute and waited for our walk around tour and registration. I had a good time with Verena....it seems we are becoming friends since I communicate so often with them and this is not my first time. I like that.

She dropped us at the famous Naschmarkt.

I let girls explore. I went with Rachel and when we got back she went exploring on her own. I got an Almsdudler (popular Vienna drink - just to say I got one. Always do..even though it isn’t my favorite by any stretch).

We met up and then I took them on a short train orientation. I let one of them lead each time — explaining little tips here and there. I was proud of myself for getting us to lunch at Bier und Bierli EXACTLY on time. I tried NOT to go the same way I knew...but to branch out to what I thought I knew. I was right! I LOVE when I am right!!

Lunch didn’t disappoint! I ordered the Goulash. It was wonderful! So was Rachel’s cheesy gnocchi ... everyone enjoyed their meal, even though they didn’t eat it all.

Their Transportation Scavenger Hunt went well I think. At least from what I heard. I think they are well equipped to navigate Vienna now! We walked to Zanoni and Zanoni for our first day gelato then I walked them to Hofburg Palace to get a group pic....then we called it a day.

The rest of the day was theirs to do as they pleased. Some went to climb the 376 steps in Stephansdom I heard. Others went home and to the store. I will be excited to hear from each of them as I read through THEIR blogs!

I hit a Billa grocery store and headed home for the night. I organized All the money and vouchers the Institute gave me and wrote this blog. Shower and relaxing from here on out!

And THAT is how I got over 28,000 steps today!

Austria 🇦🇹Baby!!! Adventure Awaits!!

All here
All accounted for
All through security
Plane leaves in 90
See ya on the flip side!!

Tomorrow - Heading out!

It is hard to believe...off I go. Tomorrow I leave for a three week adventure with five new students to show the city I love! VIENNA! I am packed (all but the last minute details - phone and chargers, etc)
I have spent the better part of this week getting ready...checking and rechecking my luggage, luggage list, etc.



And now I am off. I can't wait. It won't be long and THIS will be my daily view.



And this....and this....and this.... !!!  Austria Baby...here I come!!
          

One Week and Counting

A week or so ago I got down my suitcase and started dropping items from my newly created packing list in it - in no apparent order or neatness! Yesterday, I began to make it neater...packing in order to be ready to go. My list has stars by what I still need to purchase, circles around things I still need to get from my office or the house. Again, I am packing my roller carryon INSIDE my larger suitcase so that on my shorter excursions I am not lugging a larger bag around.

I’ve also spent time fixing the itinerary and getting everything ready. It’s weird to think I’ll be there alone without another adult leader. But I’m getting excited to be with 5 new students - we always end up as family by the end 😊. Additionally, Krista is coming for the Salzburg portion of the trip and then Natalie from the study abroad office is coming as we visit our new partner site in Ostrava, Czech Republic! While there we will be visiting Auschwitz - a stirring and humbling experience for sure. 

This time next week I’ll be getting ready to graduate Spencer from seminary then send him off to work in Fort Worth, TX all summer to make money for his mission. Crazy how fast life goes!