Before I get into that, I just spent an interesting last hour reflecting on my London study abroad experience as I answered questions for an interview by my high school newspaper. They’re doing a feature story on studying abroad, and know that I always support my alma mater, especially the good ol’ Campus Crier, whenever I can.
I talked about all the things I’ve done and learned since being here, and realized that I really have accomplished quite a bit. Between sightseeing, traveling Europe, work and my fun work-related functions and just general exploration of the city, I feel like I’ve really made every minute worth it. There’s still a ton of stuff I want to see, places I’d like to eat at, and some shows/concerts to attend, but I feel that even working within a tight budget, I’ll be able to do most of the stuff. It’ll be nice now to slow down the sightseeing pace a bit since I’ve seen most of the major sights, and just take time to explore areas and see things just as someone who’s called London home for a while.
I also feel like I've grown up a bit, as cliché as that sounds. I feel a lot more self-reliant and have seen myself succeed here in this situation where I am expected to go to work every day and function as a normal Londoner. I've still got a bit of growth to go before I can take on "the big kid world" as I call it, but I'm feeling this was overall, a good step in the right direction.
I’m leaving London in four weeks, and it’s kind of a bittersweet realization. Whenever it comes up at work, Lillian looks at me and we’re both like, “Oh, let’s not talk about it!” I think we’re a good working pair and we’ll definitely miss each other when I’m gone. In general, I’ll miss quite a few things about London—its vivaciousness, its number of great stores and restaurants, the amazing public transportation, its history, my job, and my room/flatmates. But I think I’ll be happy to get back home and be more in my element again. Though Britain and America share a lot of similarities, I can’t see myself living long-term anywhere other than America. You can’t deny where you feel at home.
Enough of the sap…
Moving on to my Easter trip to Vienna (Wien) and Bratislava. I’ll probably break it up a bit to keep you from hating me.
In order to catch my flight to Vienna on Thursday morning, I had to stay the night in Heathrow Airport, as I yet again booked an early morning flight. Pete had to stay in Vienna by himself the night before, so I wanted to get there early, and I liked the idea of having a whole day to see the city. I didn’t end up sleeping in Heathrow, instead opting to take a nap before I left my flat and passing out on the flight.
Pete greeted me at the airport and we checked into our first hostel. I then officially capitalized on the fact that we were able to use the slightly less expensive Euro currency, and bought myself a cute spring jacket from H&M, something I’d been wanting for a bit. By the way, there were H&M’s on every corner in Vienna. I couldn’t believe it. We then went to the heart of downtown Vienna to explore the area and enjoy lunch. I had my first wiener schnitzel, a sort of deep fried pork sandwich, and Pete and I each enjoyed a good pint of Ottakringer, an Austrian beer.
St. Stephen's Cathedral. Note the gorgeous tiled roof. It was added on in the 1950s.
A close up of St. Stephen's Cathedral in central Vienna. It's a gorgeous Gothic building, but we couldn't tell if it was black because of a past fire. All the signs were in German.
You could take carriage rides all over the city.
Our very Austrian lunch of wiener schnitzel, fried zucchini and Ottakringer. Not so healthy, but so delicious.
There were a lot of buildings with this sort of architecture in Vienna. I really liked it.
It wouldn’t be a proper Pete and Sam trip if we did not have some enemy accosting us. As you may recall, in Paris it was the gypsies. In Austria, we had to battle the Cape Crusaders, men and women dressed up in capes in swarms in the high-tourist areas, trying to sell opera tickets to unsuspecting tourists. Ok, it’s actually a legit service. But their tactics are pretty low. One guy after trying to sell us a performance for Friday and hearing that we couldn’t go, tried to sell a ticket just to me, not Pete. I don’t know if it seemed to him like I expressed me interest in the whole idea or something, but Pete was not having any of it. Needless to say, we dodged the Cape Crusaders the rest of the trip. And that was a hard task, as they were so sneaky and seemed to pop up around every corner.
We later returned to central Vienna for a good Austrian dinner near St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The restaurant we selected ended up being really nice with fancy décor, classical music in the background and a great authentic menu. I opted for the quintessential Austrian selection with grilled sausages and bratwurst. We walked around and hit up a nearby bar to cap off the night, settling in a little early as I was drained from hardly any sleep the night before.
It ended up snowing quite a bit that first day. A weird cold front swept all of Europe this weekend—even London got some snow!—and the weather in Vienna was a bit schizophrenic the first day, with snow for a few minutes, then sun, then rain, then sleet, then thunder snow. Kind of frustrating, but kind of romantic when it was snowing.
Pete in the snow. They don't get that in Spain. Though he hides it behind his smile, he is unhappy with this situation.
St. Stephen's in the snow.
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