It's Spring in Vienna

The last three weeks (ie. time since stranded in Brussels) has been utterly wonderful. Life has been out of control hectic but so much fun. I have started to dread the day this adventure comes to an end as I am starting to realise how few days I have left in Vienna. Now that classes have come to an end I only have one paper and an exam to go! My cramming at the beginning of semester has finally paid off and the travel plans are taking shape. I am currently with Lydia and Nikki headed to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) for a night and then onwards to Croatia! Unfortunately it doesn’t feel much like I am headed for a beach holiday – it is raining and we are training through forest (it is quite stunning forest though)!

So before I start my next holiday I thought I would recap on my last few weeks. For starters, Vienna in the springtime is beautiful. The parks are stunning and the every cafe has outdoor seating. We have spent plenty of time in parks having picnics – Stadtpark, Prater, Schönbrunn and Donauinsel. Stadtpark is great for lunch as it is the prettiest of all, Prater is HUGE and perfect for soccer, Schönbrunn is great for running – it’s like a maze and Donauinsel has water – that is, the Danube River. We are certainly making the most of having the sun shining. People get very enthusiastic about the sun – they even play volleyball in parks (not the beach) in their swimmers. I find it totally bizarre but I guess that’s what you do when you don’t live anywhere near the coast. I have also embraced bike riding. In Vienna, like many other European cities, they have a city bike system where there are stations all over the city that you can pick up and drop off bikes from. Bikes are just so much better than walking!

I have also had some great nights out recently. One of these was dinner at Schweizerhaus. It has a humungous beer garden and their specialty is pork knuckle. The crackling was mouth watering and the portions are so big you have to share between three. We were there on what seemed to be a perfect night, all until it started POURING rain. We got pretty saturated and our dinner turned soggy. It was an unfortunate end to a delicious night. Another great night out was at MQ (museumsquartier) where they launched Sommer im MQ (Summer in Vienna). Basically museumsquartier is an outdoor plaza that is encircled by museums with greats bars and cafes. In summer it’s where all the alternative kids hang out at night. So to launch, they had a massive outdoor concert with all different performances. The best by far was the contemporary dance piece where the dancers were in a shallow pool – I loved it. Matt also discovered a new favourite place with the best dessert. It’s like a beer garden but I think it resembles a fairy garden – there are lanterns and fairy lights and it’s so nice to just sit for a chill night. I have also been to the ballet again. Robbie and I went to see the Nutcracker which I loved. Can’t believe you can get tickets for 7 euro, it is fantastic! I could go on but at the end of the day – it’s simply bliss. We celebrated Shannon’s birthday in fine form – after my reception following my M&A’s class (they literally threw us a little celebration at their law firm with bevos and food) we went to the uni party at Rathaus (town hall) which was crazy. A bunch of wild twenty-somethings in the most beautiful old building. Such juxtaposition but so so much fun! Ok that’s enough of my pm experiences...

In other more amusing news, the university is burning down. Well apparently it was just the server room but I was sitting getting some study done after a group meeting and suddenly the power goes out. Given I was sitting at a window I hardly noticed and figured everything fine. A good five minutes later a voice came over the loudspeaker shouting something in German (I later found out it meant “Get Out”) so everyone packed up their things (I followed having no idea what was going on) and ran down the fire escape. There wasn’t even a siren! Uni was then closed for days. The following week, I was in class again and the same thing happened but this time nothing came over the loudspeaker, security had to come tell us to evacuate. I mean I can’t really complain – I got an early mark, but seriously I have no idea what is going down with this university!

Back to food, there have been some great discoveries. Firstly, one of the things I was missing most about home was brunch. A traditional Viennese breakfast is literally a bread roll and jam – I mean come on! Where are the eggs benedict, toasted delights with pesto and haloumi and crepes?! Well I found out Eggs Benedict sadly does not happen here but all the restaurants at naschmarkt have INCREDIBLE brunches. Oh it was so delightful! We also found great food at the gourmet food festival in Stadtpark over the weekend. There were so many tastings and yummy things to eat. Nikki and I even waited in a line for 45 minutes for deep fried apple with cinnamon and icing sugar – sounds kinda terrible but tastes divine! So much better than apple pie but along those lines.