Give your feet a chance, they'll do all the thinking

I made it to Vienna! I've been here for five days so far...and it's been wonderful. This city is gorgeous, and not just the "historic" parts or the "nice" parts. Everything is pretty. I'll be walking around, see a fancy building, and assume it's a museum or government building, go towards it, and discover that it's just another apartment building/office/shop. An overview, in pictures, of what I've done so far:



Flying Into Vienna
First of all, this was the worst six and a half hours in my life. Why? No in-flight entertainment. Luckily, I was seated between two people close to my age, who were just as completely bored as me. The girl to my left was Canadian, attends FIT, and was going to Croatia for vacation with her Viennese boyfriend and his European friends. The boy on my right was Israeli, coming home from three months in South America. He talked about how he had done his three years in the army, and now was traveling before he started school. Overall, very interesting people with which to be stuck in one place for hours on end.



My Apartment
It's actually bigger than I thought it would be! The picture on the left is of my entryway/kitchen/shower, and the right is my bedroom/living room. I also have my own WC, but it's down the hall. I'm on the fourth floor, with no elevator, so I'm getting a workout walking up and down steps. I really like it, except when it comes to sleeping. They don't have air conditioning in Vienna (except in really public, tourist-y places), so I keep my windows open all day and night. This would be fine, except that I live down the street from the U-bahn (subway), which is above-ground at this end. At night, when the train passes, it echoes down the street and sounds like it's going by right outside my window. The light also comes directly into my apartment in the morning, so it usually wakes me up at least an hour earlier than I set my alarm for. Other than that, I really like it. It still kind of feels more like a hotel than a "home," but I've got time.



My Neighborhood
I live at the corner of Lornezmendlgasse and Thaliastrasse. I took this photo halfway to the U-bahnhof (subway station), looking back towards my street. I'm in the 16th district, near the Ottakring station, which is about as far from the city center as La Salle is from City Hall. Dr. Kling said that this neighborhood, while it was never a "hood" (his word), has traditionally been very working class, although it been getting nicer recently. I've got lots of food options in the area: a Schnitzelhaus, which is sort of a fast food chain schnitzel place; a Billa, which is a grocery store chain; a Frühk, bakery chain; and a Wurstelstand (sausage stand) right by the subway. There's also a few internet cafes and playgrounds. Sunday night I took my work to the park and sat and wrote for a little while. It was very nice.



Stephansdom
I'm pretty sure I've been here every day, even if it's just for ten minutes to meet Dr. Kling. It makes me think of Travel Study 2008 (actually, most things in Vienna to...wonder why...). They're doing restoration work on one of the towers, or something. I went inside the first day that I was here, and took some pictures. But mostly I just meet Dr. Kling or wander around the pedestrian zone.



Museums Quartier
I haven't explored the actual museums too much, although I did walk around the neighborhood, and visited the Kunsthalle (Art Hall). There's an exhibit right now called Porträt, about different photographers that specialize in portraiture. It was neat. There were a lot of naked people. Today I'm going to go to the Natural History Museum, which isn't in the Museums Quartier, but right across the street.



Schönbrunn Palace
I had forgotten how big and beautiful and yellow it was! Absolutely amazing. I actually didn't go inside this time, rather, I walked around the gardens in the back. I wish he had been able to explore them on Travel Study, because they're absolutely amazing and perfectly symmetrical. They had a maze and a labyrinth. I did both. The maze was frustrating because you had to choose your path, so if you didn't get to the lookout terrace in the middle, it was your own fault. The labyrinth was frustrating because they're weren't any options, and you were just at the mercy of the path, so it took a long time to get the middle anyway, but you couldn't do anything about it.



National Library
Cue harps and trumpets. This is the reason I'm here. I actually didn't get there until yesterday, although Dr. Kling took me to the Literaturhaus on Monday (Literature House, a public library that specializes in literary studies. Awesome). We spent a few hours in the reading room, which is not as pretty and much more modern than the room we visited on Travel Study. Tomorrow we're visiting the archives, finally.

I've taken many more pictures that this, so check my Facebook for the impending album.

I'll write tomorrow about my actual work and more details about living in a foreign city.

If you're reading this, I probably miss you. Leave comments!