Billy Joel was right, Vienna was waiting for me. I just didn't even know it. Just arriving in the city I was blown away by the architecture. It was beautiful! My dad was so excited for me to go to Vienna; before I left the states he kept telling me that Vienna was where all the best spy movies are filmed.
We definitely had a busy schedule. In the short amount of time we were there, we:
• Had a tour if St. Andrew's crypt and saw 18th-century mummies
• Saw the palace
• Had a traditional, amazing, fun Viennese dinner
• Had a history of medicine tour of the city
• Went to a old pharmacology museum
• Went to the Freud museum
• Went to a chocolate-making class
• Climbed the Vienna cathedral tower
• Had a great pizza dinner
• Took a ride on the city skyline ferris wheel
• Went through the shopping district
• Went to the Natural History museum
• Went to a string quartet concert in an old beautiful cathedral
• Took pictures on top of a museum with an opera house
• Got a free glass of wine by singing happy birthday on the street for someone in an outdoor cafe restaurant
• Went to a hilarious Australian bar, a German electric dance bar, and a really fun Latin bar!
My favorite part of the program was the dinner. It was so beautiful to be sitting in an old, old building with an accordion and violin coming by and singing and clapping with the rest of my class. I felt like such a great part of the community and I'm honestly going to miss every single person when we leave.
My favorite part of solo time included the chocolate-making class that I went to with Alyssa and Danielle. There's nothing sweeter than tasting all kinds of chocolate and pouring our own bars (except the 100% cacao... yuck!)
I also had the best glimpse of humanity yet again, as all of my blog posts seem to revolve around the idea that though we are separated across the globe, we are all the same. After taking pictures on the top of a museum after our string quartet concert, I was walking back to meet the group where they were eating dinner. Along the way, me and Danie and Rika, and a student worker from AIB saw a restaurant server bringing a single slice of cake with a candle to an outdoor table slowly singing happy birthday. Since it was 10pm, there was no one to join and it looked a little sad. So I looked at Dani and we jumped in clapping and yelling happy birthday the American way. Rika and the student worker soon joined! The table of adults in their 50s all thought it was hilarious. They were biking across Europe and were from CA and CO and wanted to hear all about our study abroad. Then the waiter gave us all free wine and lollipops. When we declined more wine he explained that after COVID it is hard to grasp humanity connecting. That nobody wants anything to do with each other with religion and gender and what not. He said us singing happy birthday was the first time in 4 years he felt a human connection at work between strangers, and that that feeling was worth all the wine in the world! My favorite part of the night had to be our last night. We went trying to find the best place to dance. The German disco bar looked promising, but alas we did not know any of the songs in English. What was SO much fun, was when a group of maybe 10 of us found a Latin bar. Immediately Danielle, Alyssa, and I started teaching everyone how to salsa and step to the music. Before long they started a choreography dance floor, and we were all dancing along with the experts. It was a wholesome moment to again experience some of our culture in a different country, and have our friends there for it too!
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