Familiar faces in Foreign places

I am coming off my third round of visitors, in row. Round 1, my friend Meaghan, who was studying in the Netherlands. Round 2, my parents, whose round was extended to nearly 2 weeks due to the volcanic ash business. Round 3, my grandparents.

Its quite mind boggling to see people I am used to seeing in a certain place (i.e home or school) and meet them in an entire different corner of the world. Though a lot has changed, really, nothing as changed. The same things make you laugh and that is really all that matters.

It is also just so fun to do the tourist-y things that I haven't done yet. I can't think of a specific reason why I hadn't done the quintessential things in Vienna, like go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Albertina, the Belvedere, the Donau Insel, the Hofburg, on and on and on. But I guess living here, I don't think about it. Plus, if I had seen everything, seeing it with my visitors would have been stale strudel for me. And stale studel it not good. It doesn't even count as strudel.

Spring time has got to be the most heavenly time in Wien. Meaghan was visitng for Easter weekend, the last weekend of my spring break. Though the city was clogged with tourists, (thanks to Easter, here in a Catholic country) more so than usual, the weather was perfect for sitting outside and drinking kaffee, wandering the gardens of the various palaces, and drinking wine at the beautiful wine gardens, heurigers, on the outskirts of the city.


My parents arrived about three days later. For their first weekend we went to Salzburg, where my mother studied for a year. It was the first time she had returned in thirty years. We rented a car and saw her old house, her school, the places she would ride her bike in nearby Germany. And of course some Sound of Music related sights. I may have started singing.
But interesting fact: most Austrians have never seen the Sound of Music. It an American thing. Rogers and Hammerstien were not Austrian.


The rest of the week, though I had classes, was filled with all the museums I hadn't seen yet. Perfect since it rained all week! The volcanic ash delayed their departure by three days, but I didn't mind. I wasn't ready for them to leave, and the sun finally came out! Then my grandparents arrived three days after that. More museum seeing, beautiful weather, good food. All good times.

Now I am going to be visitorless. But I only have less than 4 weeks left, which is hard to believe. So next up, I am meeting my friend Heather in Venice for the weekend. My first overnight train should be an adventure. Plus I heard that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are there shooting a movie, plus their 68 kids. Maybe I will see them!

English Speaking Holidays

After experiencing my first Austrian midterm week, which ranged from " write a half page about France" to 5 pages of confusing charts about Lieder, it was spring break. Woohoo! Spring has sprung in Vienna, there rows of tulips lining the sidewalks and people consummating in the park (true story). But for my spring break I broke out the wool socks and headed north. First stop, Aberdeen, Scotland for the weekend to visit my cousin Chris who is a professor at the University. Second stop, Dublin, Ireland for two days of solo traveling in uncharted territory, because why not? In continuing the trend of doing things that terrify me, it just made sense.

Flights were all miraculously on time, even though I flew British Airways to Aberdeen the day before the second cabin crew strike. They didn't seem too disgruntled and politely offered me a sweet or savory snack. As always.

My first day in Aberdeen was delightful, and suprisingly the weather was not so different from Vienna. It was clear and sunny and not too cold. We enjoyed a brunch by the beach and took in views of the North Sea from the beach. Then we dropped the kids, Quinn, 3, and Clare, 1, off at the babysitters and went to Dunnottar Castle, which was located on cliff that dropped straight down into the sea. It was mostly well-preserved ruins, and you could walk right into all of them look around.



Then we headed to a nearby pub for an afternoon scotch. It was a small pub in a cute seaside town, with plenty of local color. A little too much local color, we discovered. As we were enjoying our scotch, the man who had been at the next table having animated, albeit drunken, conversation threw up some local color all over the floor. He just missed me as he was making a bee line for the bathroom. Obviously he didn't make it. Curiously enough, no one in the pub missed a beat and conversation continued. Chris and Cammy, however, were completely shocked. They swore in their several years of living in Scotland, that this had never happened. Ironic that that should happen on my first day in Scotland!

Later that night we enjoyed a fancy Scottish dinner free of drunken mishaps. I tried Haggis and black pudding, although it was more fancified then one would normally have it. Still delicious! After a day of hearty Scottish food, I was practically waddling.

The next day was a little wetter and colder, but we still got to see one more Crathes Castle, which was very interesting.

Next I was off to Dublin! I was only mildly terrified as I packed up and left. But I discovered that travelling by yourself is special in its own way. I love traveling with people. Especially my parents. There is nothing like it. On my trip to Spain, even though I was traveling with my roommate, I spent half the time thinking about how much my parents would love the things I was seeing and experiencing and wishing they were with me. I wouldn't say it detracted from my trip at all, but during my trip to Dublin I was in a noticably different mind set. I had fully realized I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted (within reason). Not one person knew me, I wasn't self-conscious about be alone at all. It was liberating.

As a result, I did a lot of stuff! The first day was cold,windy, and rainy, and then it was cold and snowy. So I was wearing two pairs of wool socks that were soaked through by noon. I sought refuge in Christ Church Cathedral, the crypt was really interesting with a teasury collection. Then I accidently ended up in the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History, which like the other National Museums of Ireland, was free. Then, after nearly getting beheaded by my umbrella and mislead by my map, I visited the Irish Museum of Modern Art. I ended the day with a performance of Macbeth at the Abbey Theatre.


The next day was beautiful and sunny, so walking around was actually enjoyable. I hung around Trinity College and some of the parks nearby. Then I went to the National Gallery of Art, saw some Irish artists, along with Carravaggio, Monet, and Valesquez. and the National Museum of Archeology, which was my favorite! they had 3 bog bodies on display. After a thousand years sitting in a bog, it was amazing and creepy to see their skin and hair intact. Yikes! After a visit to St. Patricks Cathedral, I was ready to head back to Vienna.