Vienna and Venice

I can't believe that in the last two weeks I have been in about 7 different cities.  I have traveled from the Czech Republic to Austria then all throughout Italy.  I would like to mention that I successfully lived out of just my back pack for these 10 days. Thank goodness for good packing techniques. This post however will just be about my field trip to Vienna, Austria and Venice, Italy. 

I have been waiting to go to Austria ever since I first watched the Sound of Music.  So when our bus finally arrived in Vienna, all I could think was that I was in the land of Baroness Schraeder. Anyways, our first day in Vienna we of course started our walking tour of the city.  This city reminded me a lot of Prague because the streets were packed with people and many different shopping stores.  The one perk of Vienna over Prague was the paved streets! The group was maybe half way through our tour when the rain came.  Luckily, we were close to one of the museums that were planned for the next day.  We all ran in the pouring rain to the building.  Running sucked at the time, but it was needed because of the amount of pasta and gelato I consumed in Italy.  Anyways, we toured the Imperial Treasury of the Hapsburg Dynasty.  Out of all the museums I have toured on this trip I thought this one was most interesting.  I remember learning about the Hapsburg Dynasty in high school and it was really cool to see legitimate crowns, jewelry, and the wardrobe that the family wore.   

Just one of the outfits, they had a different one for every country they entered

 

These were just some of the treasury.  I thought that they were the most interesting because they look like things one would only see in the movies. 

After the museum, I had my first Austrian wiener schnitzel which took up my entire plate.  Also, at this meal I discovered that I like cucumber salad.  This is random but it was a pretty big moment in my life.  In fact I took a picture:

 

Shortly after this picture I realized how much the Euro sucks.  Everything looks normal priced.  For example, if one would walk into a Starbucks and see a drink for around three dollars that is normal.  Except it's three Euros, not Dollars.   

After that life changing eating experience the group reconvened to finish our walking tour of Vienna.  During this time we quickly toured a St. Stephen's Cathedral.  I wish I would have been able to get a good full picture of the organ at this Cathedral because it was the most impressive one I have seen yet.

 

After the tour the group got checked into our hostel and we rested up for the next day!

The next day we were up early to go through more museums.  We had the choice of three different museums and I picked the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  This museum had a mummy exhibit as well as a picture gallery.  I will admit that these types of museums are not normally that interesting to me but the mummy exhibit did not bore me at all.  

This was a mummified alligator and they also had other mummified animals.  I never realized that animals were also preserved.

Throughout the picture gallery section there were people re painting certain pictures.  This part entertained me for quite some time because it was very impressive.  The artist weren't all this far on their paintings either, so we were able to see many stages of recreating such paintings. 

After a group of us went through this museum, we had a little time to kill before lunch so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather.  We found a patch of grass and started catching some rays!  By the end of the day my sunglasses had left a mark on my face.  When lunch time rolled around we were lead to a market place where there were many different restaurants and food stands.  The best part of this market was the stand of pickles! Since arriving in Europe my roommate Ali and I have been trying to find a jar of dill pickles but they have all been sweet.  So, while everyone was indulging on sweets after their lunch I had my pickle in hand!

Once lunch was over we headed to tour the apartments of the Hapsburg Dynasty.  Unfortunately, on this day I had to sign up for classes and was quite stressed because Wi-Fi is hard to come by on these trips.  I was able to tour the lower half of the museum which displayed the many different dining wear the Hapsburg Dynasty used.  There is no reason one family needs that many options for plates, I mean the food is really the important part.  After that I tried to tour the actual apartments but when I left the lower section I did not know that I needed our group ticket to get to the top part of the museum.  So, two other girls and I were out of luck.  Being unable to return to the group behind us, and then not able to tour the upstairs we left and roamed the city in search of Wi-Fi. After an hour of emailing my advisor I was all signed up for classes!

Later that evening, Molly, Jenna, and I decided to shop a little.  It was good because I found some things that I had been really wanting.  Then I remembered I only brought a backpack.  The rest of my night was dedicated to re-packing everything I brought.  After Jacob showed me the proper way to pack my backpack I ended up with more room than when I started!

The next morning we all loaded on the bus early and made our way to Venice, Italy.  On the ride we drove through the Alps and more importantly I was able to find an area to take my Sound of Music picture!

 

The bus ride was around seven hours so we arrived to Venice in the late afternoon.  After we checked into our hostel we went on a short tour.  We started in the Jewish Quarter.  This quarter was interesting because after the Holocaust survivors of Auschwitz returned to live here.  Today several survivors still remain in this quarter.  Next, we made our way through the islands and saw the Bridge of Sighs and ended at St. Peters Square. 

Bridge of Sighs

St. Peters Square 

This place had beautiful buildings but I could not stand all of the pigeons. After having a bird already poop on me in Prague, I was just waiting for it to happen again.

After our tour a group of us set off for some pasta and gelato.  We stumbled upon a place called Alfredo's and they hand made their noodles.  This was probably the best pasta I had on the whole trip.  As always, we were full and happy but we knew we could find some room for gelato.  We found the place we were looking for just as the rain came and we all ate our cones under the store awnings.  When we were done stuffing ourselves to the brim we broke off and wandered the streets of Venice.  For me, there was nothing better than getting lost in these streets.  Every turn was another beautiful view and I could not get enough. 

 

When we found our way back to the hostel me and Molly unpacked our nicer clothes and started to have a 'fashion show' to decide what we were going to wear the next day.  We were being loud and giggly girls which would shortly backfire on us.  Later on in the night a lady came busting through our door and started yelling at us for being too loud.  Even when Molly started to say sorry she screamed "YOU NO SORRY, YOU NO SORRY!"  I know we should have been a more respectful to our surroundings but I am almost positive at that point she was being far louder than we were.  We ended up whispering to each other for the next two hours.  It sure made the night more memorable!

 

This is Molly and I the next morning in front of our favorite hostel in our outfits that we carefully picked from the night before.  We set off to tour Doge’s Palace.  From what I remember this Palace had rooms with high ceilings full of designs and paintings.  Also there were many rooms with different armor.  This palace ended with a tour of the jail attached to it.  It was interesting; however, it is hard being stuck inside when there is a whole city to explore.  After this palace we were all set loose for a couple hours.  A group of us set off in search of Italian pizza and some Tiramisu.  We got lost a couple of times, but the food was well worth it. 

In the afternoon everyone reconvened to tour the Basilica of St. Mark. 

It was an impressive church and the tour was short.  During this time all I could think about was the gondola ride I was about to go on!

The man steering our gondola had some pretty impressive skills.  He made putting our boat into the slot at the marina look like a piece of cake.  On this ride we went around some tight turns, saw a little boy learning how to steer a gondola, and we learned more about Venice.  This ride was totally worth it and I would do it again if I could! 

All in all Venice is my absolute favorite place so far.  I am determined to get back to this city one day! After Venice I headed on my spring break with Ali, Jenna and Sarah.  We briefly went to Verona, then to Rome, La Spezia, Cinque Terre, Pisa and then back to Prague.  I am going to dedicate that trip to another blog post.  Stay tuned and I miss you all!