Forgot my camera!

The past few days have been busy, lots of sight seeing and warming up with friends for hours in little cafe's!
Yesterday we went to City Hall and unfortunately I somehow forgot my camera! AND my phone happened to be dead, so no pictures just yet, but I made some friends take pictures of me so I am waiting for them to upload them. The inside of city hall was BEAUTIFUL! So large, and they have over 1000 events every year in the hall, when the tour guide told us that we all looked at each other and said, then shouldn't they're be something going on right now? There could have been for all I know.

After the tour a few of us followed Simon (our orientation leader) to his favorite cafe shop, which happens to be right down the street from me. After sitting down I realized I was the only exchange student from US. It was fun, I learned so much about everywhere else, and its entertaining to try and understand what they are all saying with the thick accents.

Today I found a Billa (grocery store) this morning to do some grocery shopping, and decided to walk to city center for our site seeing tour though the 1st district of Vienna.

Getting a brief history 

Walk through the park
On valentines day <3

Imperial palace - Hofburg

We walked for 2 hours out in the freezing cold, luckily I know how to dress for this weather, wearing my fleece lined leggings, Eddie Baurer fleece jacket, along with my down puffy coat, and Sorel boots. But somehow after 2 hours.. I was till cold!

But the landscape was snow covered and beautiful.

St. Peter's Church

Inside! So beautiful

After the tour a group of us decided to head back to the most famous cafe in Vienna for some coffee, and cake, to celebrate valentines day the right way of course. DEMEL.
I ordered the traditional Austrian Chocolate cake and it was amazing! A similar thing happened again today as I looked around the cafe shop I discovered I was the only US exchange student again! I am loving meeting everyone from different country's. The only thing that may get old fast is when they speak in they're native language to each other. Like 2 guys from france, talking french.

Some of the amazing cakes you can order.

Kelly my Valentines date!

Venice in videos

I thought I would do something different today, and I will update you all as to what I did today on the next post, mostly because I forgot my camera so I am waiting for friends to email me pictures they took today. So stay tone.

This first video in Venice at the carnival when Kristi (who had the camera, red head) Dani (in the middle with short dark hair) and I got swamped by Carnival people while sitting relaxing on a fountain in the middle of an alley way.

This is of st. marco's square in Venice at night before it started thundering, everyone was enjoying wine straight from the bottle, and listening to the band warm up.

And lastly these were a group of guys playing on the street in Venice, they were so good, everyone was loving them.

Nightlife vs. daytime

So last night I went to my first night club here in Austria and it was wild and fun :) Its called Ride club, and its for international students, you get free entry with your international student card (called EBN).
I went with a large group of internationals, we all left from a dorm called gasagasse.

Great group of people right here!

From above everyone dancing

It was a great time had by all, everyone told me I would be cold wearing tights, but little did they know I'm from VT where girls go out with no tights on and high heels in below freezing weather.

The bar was pretty interesting because people are allowed to smoke inside unlike the US. So when I got home, my hair had absorbed the cigarette smell. YUCK.

In the morning I went to the large shopping center to find a USA to EU adapter, it was definitely a little adventure. What a HUGE electronic store it was.

After I met up with my orientation group and we had a tour of the schonbrunn palace. It was a recorded guided tour though BEAUTIFUL rooms with amazing crystal chandeliers, and large pantings. You weren't allowed to take pictures inside unfortunately.  So after the tour we started walking though the gardens covered in snow. It was amazing, I wanted to continue walking, but others were too cold (people wearing cloth sneakers in the snow haha, one from florida, and one from sydney Australia  I imagine they were freezing!) 

Beautiful walk ways.

After we decided to leave we went to a little cafe for cake and coffee to warm up, then to a Heurigan (traditional austrian restaurant) for dinner were we met up with people from other groups. We had the whole restaurant reserved for exchange students so it was a good time to do some more mingling, and eat great food, and wine.

Productive days

So last time I wrote I think it was Sunday, the days are flying by I can't believe it. Sunday evening I hoped on the U-bahn to go over to a friends for a potluck, so first stop was the store, since I really haven't been grocery shopping I bought some traditional Austrian chocolate, and other pastries for dessert.
Dinner was an eclectic mix of pastas, omelets, crepes, and some traditional chinees food (made by one of the Chinese girls, I have never eaten REAL chinees like this, it was really good). I hope to have a potluck at my place when it becomes nice out. I haven't posted pictures of my apartment yet, but we have an amazing patio that over looks the street and is large enough for a small gathering.

Me and Maggie

Monday was very productive I went to the housing office to sign my contract, then to the authorities to register as a citizen for the next 5 months. I went with Maggie for the day and who know she spoke german! It came in handy when we went to register with the government, they spoke little german, and actually wrote my birthday wrong, so she was able to speak to them and get the correct date.

On our walk though the 1st district (most historic and touristic) we found a ben and jerry's!

WHATT! :)

Then we went to the market and I finnally was able to buy some food for my apartment, very different shopping here then in the states, since you have to get on the U-Bahn to get back to your apartment you have to be able to carry everything you buy. So I choice wisely and was able to have a nice dinner of chicken, pasta, and salad. Also purchase some breakfast cereal, yogurt, banana's and juice.

1.99 for wine?

Purchased semester U-Bahn ticket
WU Student ID

VENICEE!

After Dinner we hopped on a train to VENICE! 200 students from all over the world, 10 hour train ride, with an all you can drink bar.
Most exhausting trip every but SO worth every minute.

This trip is best described in pictures.

This is all the students waiting for the train, and its already full of Austrian students ready to entertain us for 10 hours.

The lovely girls I shared a Couchette with

So the train was long, but so fun and it was a great chance to meet so many people, we all were forced to be in close corders and I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls.

After arriving in Venice, we found a bathroom (which we had to pay 1 Euro to get into, we were able to change and brush our teeth. 

Then we were off, for a day full of walking and seeing AMAZING things.

Maskss everywhere :)

Stopped at the first bridge

The buildings were beautiful

Best girls to travel with every!

 At this point we learned that it would be nice to say "will you take a picture of us" in every language. Otherwise you point at your camera and your face and just smile and hope they understand. ALSO you pray they won't run off with your camera.

I obviously wanted my face painted!

Elaborate costumes

Beautiful Gondolas 

So at this point we were just walking to san marco center, which probably took over 3 hours because we kept stoping in little stores to try and warm up. Around every alley way was another group of goofy costumes.

What?

Bird people

Best part of the trip is this picture above, Dani, Kristi, and I decided to sit down while Jessica found a bathroom. While sitting we were Mobbed by 10+ Carnival people. They proceeded to hang around us for 10 minutes, and told us to "move slowly". At this point they're were probably over 30 people taking pictures of us! And we refused to move (cause we were just too tiered and having way to much fun!)

So amazing!

Same fountain we were mobbed at :) Happiest girls they're could be.

We all bought masks by the end of the day, and just walked around. We were kind of clueless as to what to do other then walk. We went into a few cafe's, but it would cost more to sit and eat then to "take away" One time I waited.... 40 minutes to use a bathroom, cause it was free and inside! haha Now looking back it wasn't worth it but, with friends time flies.

We decided to have an early and LONG dinner because it ment we were able to SIT, and be warm. Being from Vermont I thought I was prepared for the cold. But I wasn't prepared for the humidity, which made it feel 10 degrees colder then it really was. Also making it too cold to think about going on a gondola ride.

We found a Pizzeria, were I ordered Lasagna, and may have been sleep talking (or sleep eating) at this point. We were all very tired, but we had lots of fun talking about the crazy things we saw all day, and making plans for Spring Break.

Wopss 

After dinner we made our way back to san marco square, with EVERYONE else and there was a concert going on! Everyone was drinking straight from the wine bottles at this point. It was really cool to see everything in nighttime and thenn... it started Thundering!

Which way is the train station?

San Marco Square at night!

And as we started headed back to the train station we realized just how far we had walked! Also how many bridges we had crossed.
Everyone told us the train station was straight. But in Venice there is NO straight. So we continued to follow the crowds and continued to be rained on.
When we finally made it to the train station it was 10 PM and we were able to get on the train, take off our wet cloths and set up beds again.
We all fell right asleep and I didn't wake up until morning when one of the Austrian students knocked on the door and started speaking german... we were all half asleep (it was 6 am) and he was saying we were 15 min. away. We got our stuff ready and hopped off the train and onto the Ubah to our dorms. Everyone said goodbye and went back to there dorms and SLEPT for HOURS!
It was such an amazing trip and I couldn't be more ready to hop back on a train and see more of Europe!

First day!

Upon arriving in Frankfurt 5 am there time, but in my mine it was 11 pm, so through off and ready for my first cup of coffee I made it though customs :)
My frist stamp on my passport and I couldn't be more excited. German police are so funny and serious. This is where I realized the men in Europe have better style then me! I have never seen so many suits, ties, and leather satchels.

On my way to the airplane in Frankfurt, a guy asked me where I was from in German I didn't even know how to say, I don't understand so I just stood there looking stupid shrugging my shoulders... Then I said sorry.. and WALA he spoke english, ahahaha, then I said oh I live in Rutland. (Like I would if I was at Killington skiing) phss like he's supost to know that, then I said Vermont, and then he looked confused. This is when it hit me that I was in EUROPE!

Austria!!

I slept alittle bit on the plan to Vienna and so happy to see my buddy Elena on the other side of luggage claim :)

We waited for two other students to arrive from a flight from Berlin, then we took all our luggage and hopped on the train, then to the Uban (subway) and finally to my dorm. It was a treck but I was so happy to have friends and a guide. The two guys were left to find there apartments by themselves after Elena and I got off.

Elena had planned a lunch at a traditional German restaurant where I ate my first Schnitzel. 

Schnitzel

Mingling :)

These were the wonderful people I got to eat lunch with, the first few on both sides of the table are US students and as you get to the back of the restaurant, were the Austrian students that joined us. We talked about school, travel, and it was great. After lunch some people went sight seeing but I was SO tied I decided to head back and do some unpacking, I found my room with no roommates and just starting unpacking, with hopes they would show up and be kinda normal. Jenna came first and she is from the US studying German at a school here in Vienna, she's really nice and I can't wait to get to know her better. Then I met my roommate (and I'm still not sure what her name is) she's from Russia, and speaks mostly German. But seems very nice :)

And the last roommate isn't here yet.

My room

Pictures 

After a nice long night of sleep I had orientation session for the school where we sat and learned about how to sign up for classes or the waiting list, and register with the government, and get semester UBahn (subway) 

After all that fun stuff I went home and quickly packed a bag for Venice. The buddy system planned a trip to the Carnival, the train would leave at 9 and dinner was a 5.

There coffees are good, but small

I drank coffee, and had wine Spritzers with some great friends :) Good conversations and a wonderful dinner.

Wine Spritzers

Dinner Friends :)

Here I go

Going back in time! This is Me trying to pack my life in 100 lbs or less. It was rough, but now that I am here I deffinitly have all the right things including Peanut Butter, Maple syrup, and some home made Gorp from Mom :)

Took over Davids "office" for a few days

Rolled Everything

 

See you on skype :)

50 lbs YESS

My Vermont snowglobe in the Airport in Germany :) 

Here I go off to the airport, Mom and Dad drove me down to Boston on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, I said bye to Vermont winter, and see you in spring (or summer).

Getting out of the car in boston it was still hard to believe I had made it this far.

And so I handed over my US phone to my mom, and walked through security, Thank you mom and dad for getting me to Boston safely and not making it too big of a deal, you know I miss you already.

Here I go! 

Flight is on time and I got my comfy cloths on

On the other side of security, waiting for my plane,
yes EVERYTHING matches 

Beautiful sunset from the flight

And so I hoped on the plane in hopes my luggage would make it to the other side alright, and I would hopefully get some sleep.

Not much sleep was to be had, I was so excited and nervous to be on my way, but I did shut my eyes for several hours.
Once I got to frankfurt I really enjoyed watching everyone rush through the airport in there fancy suits speaking several different languages.
I had a 3 hour layover but by the time I found my gate I only had to wait 2 hours, and so I did laps around the airport to stretch my legs and continue to people watch.
Eager to meet my buddy on the other side in Vienna :)