A Little Catching-Up to Do
So, here I am in my apartment in Vienna! It's so exciting!! I'm in the big bedroom sitting on the window seat, letting the cool breeze wash over me. So, here's the update:
I had to check out of the hostel at 10:00, so I headed directly to the Westbahnhof, and waited around there until 2:40, talking to other students, socializing, etc. I met a few really cool people, including some with whom I still hang out. At 2:40 we left the train station for Murau. After 3.5 hours in the bus, we arrived.
We spent 3 days in Murau, which is a small town in the Styrian province of Austria, which is southwest of Vienna. The town was gorgeous and ridiculously cute, and the main business in the town is the Murauer Brewery. I tried a bit of the beer after the free tour of the brewery which IES sponsored....it was pretty good. Anywho, it's also a skiing place, but not so much when there's no snow. We stayed in the Jugend & Familiengästehäuse (say THAT 3x fast) which is a recently renovated hostel. It was really nice, the rooms where beautiful, and the food was decent. (and free!) All in all, it was really great. The first night we had a general orientation/introduction, and I went to bed pretty early. The next morning, I woke up really early and went on an hour-long stroll around the city. It was fantastic....I must have taken about 50 pictures, which as I said, I will upload as soon as I can.
The next three days were spotted with orientations and lectures and little excursions, most of which are too mundane to go into detail. I was invited by one of my roommates in Murau to live with him and some other musicians, and since he's a nice guy and he had room draw number 7, I agreed. I rushed to the housing interview from my German oral exam, and we chose an apartment on Dürergasse, in the 6th district. (or die sechste Bezirk, a new word that I learned today!) Anyway, we headed back to Vienna the next day, and after picking up our luggage at the Westbahnhof, my roommates and I opted to walk to our apartment. (it was only a couple of miles, but with all that luggage it was a real bitch) We met our landlady, Frau Hinteregger, and her daughter Johanna. She showed us up to our rooms, and a nice man (boyfriend/brother or something) brought all our luggage up. Our apartment is absolutely amazing!! It was just renovated (they finished the day before we arrived) and everything is brand new, the furniture, the appliances, the paint job, all the kitchen suppllies...everything. It's seriously like living in an Ikea catalouge!! (most if not all the stuff is from Ikea, or Ee-ke-ah as they pronounce it here.... they have two, one of which is in the South City Süd, which happens to be the largest mall in Europe, but is kinda far away) But I digress..... The apartment is on the second floor (third floor if you're counting American style) and four of the other 6-person apartments in the building are inhabited by IES students. There are three bedrooms in the apartment, a foyet, 1.3 bathrooms, and a huge kitchen/dining area. I took some pics of the place, which I will also eventually upload.
I've done a lot of exploring of the area surrounding my apartment and the city center. I live near the Naschmarkt, which is an open-air farmer's market type dealie, and there's tons of other little shops around, which has made shopping for food quite fun. There's 3 asian restaurants and two asian markets just on the way to the bankomat, and I look forward to exploring them more. My friend Mike and I went grocery shopping at Hofer, which is a really, really cheap grocery, albeit with limited selection. I picked up spaghetti, sauce, grapes, orange juice, sparkly apple juice, mineral water, a 2.2 kg sack of potatoes, toastbrot, sour cherry marmalade, and three types of candy for €9.98. Unfortunately, we forgot that you don't automatically get plastic bags, so I went around again and picked up some Haribo and 4 plastic bags so that we could take our stuff home. And, of course, as soon as I walked out the door with my shoulder bag and two overflowing plastic bags, it started raining. Luckily it was less than an 8 minute walk from my apartment.
As I said, I live in the 6th district, which is southwest of the city center. The city center (the 1st district) is surrounded by the Ringstrasse, which lies where the wall around the old city used to be. IES is in the first district, in a palace called Palais Corbelli. It's literally three minutes away from the big cathedral, which for most intents and purposes is the center of the city. Outside the Ringstrasse are the next 8 districts, which circle the ring in counterclockwise order. These inner nine districts are encircled by the Gürtel (belt) and outside them lie districts 10-23. The Westbahnhof is on the western side of the Gürtel, and (in case you are looking at a map) our apartment lies a couple blocks off Mariahilferstrasse, which we used to walk from the Westbahnhof. As I said, I've been exploring a lot, gathering the local art, architecture, sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of the city. It's been great. In a few days I'll know the makeup of the city, and I'll be able to really get around without getting hopelessly lost. I've been using the U-bahn (short for Untergrundbahn; the subway) a bit to get the hang of it...it's really nice. It's very fast, clean, and safe, but it is a bit expensive. I'll probably end up getting a monthly pass for €45, because the other options are a one-way (€1.50) a three-day (€12) and an eight-day nonconsecutive pass (I can't remember how much that is). There's some other ones, but they're slipping my mind at the moment. It's only one subway stop to the institute, and so far I've just been walking since it only takes 20 minutes, but I won't be keeping THAT up. ^_^ All right, I think that's all I have to say at the moment. Next time I'll talk about the academic portion of my experience (at least what's happened so far) so stay tuned! ^_^
I had to check out of the hostel at 10:00, so I headed directly to the Westbahnhof, and waited around there until 2:40, talking to other students, socializing, etc. I met a few really cool people, including some with whom I still hang out. At 2:40 we left the train station for Murau. After 3.5 hours in the bus, we arrived.
We spent 3 days in Murau, which is a small town in the Styrian province of Austria, which is southwest of Vienna. The town was gorgeous and ridiculously cute, and the main business in the town is the Murauer Brewery. I tried a bit of the beer after the free tour of the brewery which IES sponsored....it was pretty good. Anywho, it's also a skiing place, but not so much when there's no snow. We stayed in the Jugend & Familiengästehäuse (say THAT 3x fast) which is a recently renovated hostel. It was really nice, the rooms where beautiful, and the food was decent. (and free!) All in all, it was really great. The first night we had a general orientation/introduction, and I went to bed pretty early. The next morning, I woke up really early and went on an hour-long stroll around the city. It was fantastic....I must have taken about 50 pictures, which as I said, I will upload as soon as I can.
The next three days were spotted with orientations and lectures and little excursions, most of which are too mundane to go into detail. I was invited by one of my roommates in Murau to live with him and some other musicians, and since he's a nice guy and he had room draw number 7, I agreed. I rushed to the housing interview from my German oral exam, and we chose an apartment on Dürergasse, in the 6th district. (or die sechste Bezirk, a new word that I learned today!) Anyway, we headed back to Vienna the next day, and after picking up our luggage at the Westbahnhof, my roommates and I opted to walk to our apartment. (it was only a couple of miles, but with all that luggage it was a real bitch) We met our landlady, Frau Hinteregger, and her daughter Johanna. She showed us up to our rooms, and a nice man (boyfriend/brother or something) brought all our luggage up. Our apartment is absolutely amazing!! It was just renovated (they finished the day before we arrived) and everything is brand new, the furniture, the appliances, the paint job, all the kitchen suppllies...everything. It's seriously like living in an Ikea catalouge!! (most if not all the stuff is from Ikea, or Ee-ke-ah as they pronounce it here.... they have two, one of which is in the South City Süd, which happens to be the largest mall in Europe, but is kinda far away) But I digress..... The apartment is on the second floor (third floor if you're counting American style) and four of the other 6-person apartments in the building are inhabited by IES students. There are three bedrooms in the apartment, a foyet, 1.3 bathrooms, and a huge kitchen/dining area. I took some pics of the place, which I will also eventually upload.
I've done a lot of exploring of the area surrounding my apartment and the city center. I live near the Naschmarkt, which is an open-air farmer's market type dealie, and there's tons of other little shops around, which has made shopping for food quite fun. There's 3 asian restaurants and two asian markets just on the way to the bankomat, and I look forward to exploring them more. My friend Mike and I went grocery shopping at Hofer, which is a really, really cheap grocery, albeit with limited selection. I picked up spaghetti, sauce, grapes, orange juice, sparkly apple juice, mineral water, a 2.2 kg sack of potatoes, toastbrot, sour cherry marmalade, and three types of candy for €9.98. Unfortunately, we forgot that you don't automatically get plastic bags, so I went around again and picked up some Haribo and 4 plastic bags so that we could take our stuff home. And, of course, as soon as I walked out the door with my shoulder bag and two overflowing plastic bags, it started raining. Luckily it was less than an 8 minute walk from my apartment.
As I said, I live in the 6th district, which is southwest of the city center. The city center (the 1st district) is surrounded by the Ringstrasse, which lies where the wall around the old city used to be. IES is in the first district, in a palace called Palais Corbelli. It's literally three minutes away from the big cathedral, which for most intents and purposes is the center of the city. Outside the Ringstrasse are the next 8 districts, which circle the ring in counterclockwise order. These inner nine districts are encircled by the Gürtel (belt) and outside them lie districts 10-23. The Westbahnhof is on the western side of the Gürtel, and (in case you are looking at a map) our apartment lies a couple blocks off Mariahilferstrasse, which we used to walk from the Westbahnhof. As I said, I've been exploring a lot, gathering the local art, architecture, sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of the city. It's been great. In a few days I'll know the makeup of the city, and I'll be able to really get around without getting hopelessly lost. I've been using the U-bahn (short for Untergrundbahn; the subway) a bit to get the hang of it...it's really nice. It's very fast, clean, and safe, but it is a bit expensive. I'll probably end up getting a monthly pass for €45, because the other options are a one-way (€1.50) a three-day (€12) and an eight-day nonconsecutive pass (I can't remember how much that is). There's some other ones, but they're slipping my mind at the moment. It's only one subway stop to the institute, and so far I've just been walking since it only takes 20 minutes, but I won't be keeping THAT up. ^_^ All right, I think that's all I have to say at the moment. Next time I'll talk about the academic portion of my experience (at least what's happened so far) so stay tuned! ^_^
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