A couple weeks ago, our class took a week long trip to Vienna, Austria and Venice, Italy. These were two places that I was most excited about visiting when I was accepted into this program. Each city has their own uniqueness which is what I enjoyed the most about this trip.
Our first day in Vienna was spent just learning the ins and outs of the city. We walked for what seemed like an hour from our hostel to the main square. The square had various stores and restaurants, including my new favorite clothing store, Pull & Bear. Once we found the place where we would be meeting, we split up for lunch. A few of us went to Brothers Pizza where we ran into Doug and Jan and his son Damien! Shortly after we regrouped, we walked around the city as a class and Jan told us about the history of the city, and then we toured St. Stephen's Cathedral. We split up once more so we could do our own thing and get some dinner. We decided to meet again early in the morning for a long day filled with activities.
After taking the long trip to walk into the city square, we started our day at the Hapsburg Imperial Treasury where there were many ancient jewels and crowns and other heirlooms over the last 500 years from the Hapsburg Imperial rule. After spending about an hour and a half in awe, we split up into two groups to see either the Natural Science Museum or an Art Museum. Since I chose the art museum when we were in Dresden, I decided to do the Natural Science Museum this time and I wasn't disappointed.There were 3 different levels in the museum and each had something different. First, we went to the animals. It felt kind of like a zoo, but with stuffed animals. There was a whole entire room dedicated to just birds. They had every animal that you could imagine. They also had dinosaurs, dodo birds and woolly mammoths. The next level we went on was dedicated to different rocks and crystals that belonged to areas all over the world. I think we spend over 3 hours in this museum, but I didn't mind at all because it was something that I had never experienced before.
After getting some much needed lunch, we rested at our hostel for a while and then headed toward the nearest metro to go to the Palace. If we wanted to go inside, we had to pay so we decided to just walk around outside. We first arrived in the front court yard, which was the size of a football field. On the front of the palace, there were two sets of stairs that led up to the front doors. We walked around the building to the backyard where the garden was. Since this was early April, the flowers and trees hadn't quite bloomed yet, so the garden wasn't very green but I used my imagination. All of the trees and hedges were trimmed in the shapes of arches and the outsides almost looked like walls on the side of a building. It seemed like this garden went on for miles and miles. We ventured a little while longer and saw a huge hill that reached a building which seemed like it would have a great view of the city. It took us a while, but we finally got to the top and we were right. The city was beautiful from the top of the hill-we could even see St. Steven's Cathedral.The next morning, we had to pack up and say goodbye to our cozy hostel to head to Venice. We had a little bit of a delay when Bre fell down the stairs and sprained her ankle and had to be taken to the ER. We loaded the bus and waited for her in the hospital parking lot and arrived many hours later in Venice.
When we got to Venice, we had to get a train to go further into the islands. Since the city is made up of 118 islands, its hard to get around. The smaller islands are connected by bridges and the bigger islands are only accessible by water taxi, water bus, or train. Once we got onto the group of islands with our hostel, we took a water taxi with all of our luggage to get to the hostel. It was late at night, so we got settled in and got dinner and then headed off to bed.The next day was spent exploring the islands and visiting different churches. After breaking apart from the group, we got lunch, and then went back to the hostel to change and relax for a little while. A couple of us met up so we could go on a gondola ride around the islands. This was something that I had been looking forward to doing this whole trip. We searched for the cheapest possible ride for the 6 of us, and it ended up being about $15 each for a 30 minute ride. Our gondola driver gave us a mini tour and told us a little bit about the history of the city and he also sang a song for us. After our ride, we got gelato and some souvenirs and then some dinner and called it a night. The next morning, we hopped on a train for Rome.
I could have spent so much more time in both places, but I'm grateful for the short amount of time that I had. I wish I could have spent more time exploring Austria. It was such a beautiful country and I think I could have found some hidden gems if I looked a little further. If I ever get the privilege to come back to Europe, I will be coming back to explore a little bit more.
