Life in Vienna

This is a picture of me looking down on the long-lived Austrian mountain town, Murau. Filled with skiers in the winter, its local brewery is well known (and well loved) across most of Austria.

If asked on the street what they thought of Austria, nine Americans out of ten would conjure up images of Kangaroos or the Sound of Music. At best, public memory can recall that the country played some role in the first and second World Wars, if only as a matter of proximity. In spite of this, I came to the heart of Austria to study for the 2004 fall semester and I haven’t regretted a moment of it.

Life in Vienna is a fascinating mix of old and new. There’s something distinctly quaint about European life; everyone, it seems, walks a daily path that’s been traced for centuries into the past. In our world of plastic wrap and lunch to-go, many Europeans still go to daily food markets for vegetables, hang up every piece of wash, and travel by train more often than by car.

At the same time, this is still a very modern city. Many of the clothing styles are above and beyond the curve (compared to what you see in Dallas). You can find any number of chain restaurants and retail stores ranging from Hooters to McDonald’s. Ask any person on the street (though you may need German, Italian, French or Turkish to do so) a question about American politics or the policies of the EU and you will receive an energetic response.

Yes, Austria and Vienna have played an important role throughout history but they continue to play one today. Vienna remains one of Europe’s most prominent cultural centers, and you cannot help but find operas, symphonies, and musicals playing nightly across the city. The collections of art amassed under the discerning (and rich) hands of the Hapsburg rulers are worthy of any nation’s capital, and the long tradition of Vienna’s embroiled political significance continues to this day in the strong educational scene for aspiring international diplomats.

Life in Vienna has been very different for me; it’s given me a much more international outlook on the world and taught me much about history, in general. Living in a place that has played such a unique role in the historical development of a modern Europe encourages you so much to actually appreciate and learn the history. I’m sure that long after I’ve returned to the States, I will look back on Vienna, Austria, and Central Europe with an empathy and fondness that would be utterly foreign to me had I not had the opportunity to study here.

Visiting the Great Wall of China

Looking around, nearly all that I could see was as it was when the wall was first built centuries ago. Walking on the Great Wall was more than stepping on a big pile of bricks. It was walking on history -- feeling the way that the Chinese and the Mongols felt when they encountered it. Strangely to us, many Chinese regard the structure as just a wall -- a simple fact of life. Much the same way, I think, that we regard 90-story buildings in New York City as just a place to go work. Being at the Great Wall was a surreal experience.

>> See Tim's blog

A visit to Venice

I set out into the beautiful sun-painted cobble-stone streets of Venice and began to have a wonderful day. I purchased a map of the city and even one of Florence as well. (I was going to be very well prepared when I arrived in the next city!) Never mind that I later discovered that I purchased a map and guidebook of Florence that was all in German. Don’t ask me how it happened, suffice it to say that the plastic-wrapped set seemed understandable enough at the time that I didn’t even notice it wasn’t in English.

So with a fat back pocket (stuffed with two city maps and a guidebook, no less), I began walking around the east side of the city to San Marcos, the city’s single Piazza. The city was really fantastic. Little canals crisscrossed underfoot, streets and side-streets led every which way, and the weather really was perfect. It was worth it to do nothing more than people watch as hundreds passed up and down the narrow pathways.

A visit to Verona

These arches are the outer portion of the original Roman arena that have survived. These are actually part of the logo for the arena (I guess no one else has this distinctive outcropping). It's really interesting to see how each arena crumbles and falls, because they're all different (Padua has barely anything left of an arena).

>> See Kas' web site

Euro-Rail trip

The end of summer has marked a successful end to my studies in Cologne. I "passed" the Numerik math class that gave an end of the semester exam and got certificates of participation in the other classes who didn't offer takeable exams for me.
 
I left last Sunday after a frantic move-out from my 23rd-story apartment in Cologne and met a friend from Dallas, Aidan, at the train station in Duisburg, Germany. Aidan spent the summer learning Italian and touring the opera houses of Italy.
 
We met two Canadian girls on the connecting train to Amsterdam who recommended a youth hostel there. We had just picked one at random from the internet so we blindly followed. The Bulldog, it was called, happened to be in the midst of the Red Light District in Amsterdam so we got a first hand look at the Amsterdam underworld and nightlife in the evenings.
 
During the days we saw the Van Gogh museum, took a canal tour, hiked around the city, and visited the Nemo, a stunning Science and Technology museum with tons of neat experiments to wow little kids like me.
 
On Tuesday we headed to the Hague and spent a nice evening on the beach and even took a dip in the frigid North Sea waters. A beautiful sunset over the rocky pier ushered in the night and the chilly north wind. But we still had time and energy to admire the beautiful yachts moored in the cove and dream about hitchhiking a boat ride to Bilbao or Lisbon.
 
From the Hague the next morning we left early and went to Brussels where the whole town was out to celebrate our arrival. There were tons of people waving flags and the whole military and even the king turned up. It was actually the Belgian Independence Day and we just happened to visit at just the right time.
 
After a nice Belgian lunch and some potent dark beer, we hopped on the Thalys high-speed train to Paris and on to Bordeaux. We were originally planning to go to Nantes but we met some other Canadian backpackers who convinced us to head to Bordeaux, where on the first evening we tried to order two glasses of French wine and ended up with two half-liter beer mugs. Oh well.  The next day we took a tour of the Bordeaux vineyards and got to see firsthand more than we ever need to know about the entire wine-making process. It is indeed a feat that some of these little chateaus can bottle more than 400,000 bottles of wine a year.
 
From Bordeaux, we took a train to the coastal city of Arcachon and then took a ferry across the bay to Cap Feret where we have been for the last 24 hours. Yesterday we rented bicycles and rode all around the peninsula and put our feet in the Bay of Biscay. Since the youth hostel is so cheap here, we figured we could have one real 2-and-a-half hour French meal, which much more than made up the price differnce between here and the hostel's in the other cities.
 
From here it is on to San Sebastian, Bilbao, Salamanca, Lisbon, Gibrlater, Barcelona, Interlaken (switzerland), Nice, Monaco and Rome or until we run out of time along the way and have to speed to Rome to get Aidan to his flight home.
 
I then have another week to see Italy and return to Germany to collect my belongings that remain at my aunt's in the town of Hagen.

>> See Walter and Aidan's web site, EuroTrip 2004