8.27.12
This last week it’s been about 37 degrees Celsius.. in other words VERY HOT. So on Friday Annika, Kelly, Addison and I were all very glad to go swimming in the Donau. We met at around 2.30 at the U-Bahn station and walked to one entrance. It cost 3.90 euro to get in and we were so thankful to finally submerge ourselves in the water. In comparison, it’s a little warmer than rivers in Montana and a LOT warmer than the west coast beaches!
We swam, ate Pommes Frites (French Fries), and swam some more until 5.30 and we were completely exhausted afterwards. There was an odd very tan and fit man in a canoe who apparently was the lifeguard..he just kind of floated about and sometimes caught people swimming from the other side of the river to us. But mostly he was just very odd and talking on his walky-talky. We made up a couple scenarios about him to amuse ourselves.
Once I got home, I just took a shower, ate a light dinner and crawled in bed to read my book from the library. It felt so nice to just relax and read—so I did so for several hours before going to sleep.
The next morning Addison, Kelly, Annika and I woke up early and met at the U-Bahn station at Schoenbrunn at 9 a.m. We saw the beautiful palace which was the Hapsburger’s summer residence. We stepped out into the gardens.. and they are absolutely gorgeous…and huuuge! The gardens seem to go on forever, and we couldn’t possibly explore every corner of them in our time there.
But we did go to the Labyrinth/Maze and had a fun time walking around in circles and doing small games and activities. It cost about 3 euros for a student ticket—one interesting thing about Vienna is almost everywhere there are student reduced prices for people up to 24 or 27 years old. This is so awesome (and helpful for a poor student traveler), and why don’t we have this in the US?
After the Labyrinth we went into the Tiergarten (Zoo). I absolutely love zoos. We don’t have one in Missoula so I rarely get to go. My last one was when I was 16 and me and my mom went to London for New Years. The zoo day-pass is relatively expensive—15 Euros, but apparently a year-pass is only 39 Euros! We stuck together for a little bit but then I split off from the rest of the group to go see the monkeys get fed. I love monkeys. Monkeys and elephants and my favorite animals and I could just stand around and watch them for hours on end! Maybe I should work in a zoo.. I just wanna touch all the animals! People may think I get a little to excited about zoos..but we don’t have one in my hometown, so whenever I see one I just have to go!
If you would like to see pictures of the zoo, they are on my facebook! I didn’t want to take up a bunch of space here on my blog for them.
After I saw the monkeys, I went around and saw all the animals on the Neptun Route: Nutrias, Rhinos, Pelicans, Cranes, Reindeer, Barbary Apes and Sheep, Sea Lions, Penguins and, my highlight of this route, the American Water Buffalo! Apparently these bison were a gift from the Lakota Native Americans to the Austrians as thanks for support.
We all met up at 12.30 to eat some lunch. Everything was pretty expensive but we found a cheep Grill and got a frankfurter (hot dog) and Pommes (of course, more French Fries.. we’ve all become oddly addicted to Pommes..)
They had already done the main route so we split off again and they went on the Tyrolean Route to see the arctic wolves, Bee house, and European Lynx. I went off to see the lions, tigers, leopards, Hippos, Rat house, Koalas, Giant Pandas, Giraffes, Zebras, and my favorte—the elephants. One panda, Fu Hu just had his birthday a couple days ago and we had read about him in class. The elephants were really fun to watch—there were 3 adults and one younger elephant (the third baby elephant to be born at Schoenbrunn).
We all had a really nice time at the zoo.. but come 2.30 we were once again exhausted and made our way back to the U-Bahn and back home. Again I took a shower, ate a light dinner and read more of my library book until falling asleep relatively early at 9.30.
This morning I finished off my book, and planned on rounding up my weekend with a relaxing/somewhat lazy day of updating my blog and going to see Paranorman in 3D with Kelly, Addison, and Nick. We went to an earlier showing of the movie and it was really enjoyable. I have watched several films in German before and so it wasn’t that difficult for me to understand but for the others they said that it got a little difficult near the end to understand what was going on. Oh, and they had a rainbow box.
It was kind of a dreary Sunday day and after the movie I was very bored and didn’t want to go home and just read for five hours, so I decided to take a walk around the side streets near Mariahilferstrasse where I live. There are dozens and dozens of little streets, and even if I lived here my entire life I would never be able to walk down every one! But I wondered around for over an hour, up and down a long the streets and found many ice salons and cafes, a couple music stores, lots of clothing stores, and exotic restaurants. I found one shirt in a window that said „Mei Dirndl is grad in da Waesch“ (My Dirndl is in the wash~~roughly translated.) I’m totally going back to see how much it costs.
I also took pictures of a couple of the streets; all the street buildings look the same. Like the same architectural style. Here are a few examples:
I then saw this one sign in German explaining how one shouldn’t block the driveway at any time of day or it would be towed away at owner’s expense. And next to it, the English translation:
After my walk I went back home and learned how to use my Eurails pass, and did some planning for my vacation to Berlin I will most likely be taking with Kelly, Addison, and maybe Nick.
This weekend the Opera is having the „Day of the Open Door“ where you can get free tickets and go and see previews and short concerts and so on of the coming season. This weekend a few people from our group are going to Venice, and I’ve decided to do some Rick Steve’s tours during these days and do some touristy things.
I’m starting to really get to know my way around Vienna and feel comfortable exploring. I’m very excited for this semester to get going, and I’m glad you’re all coming with me!
rainbowtravels 