Date: May 10th, 2023
Location: Vienna, Austria
Today, I woke up again around 8:00am to have breakfast and get ready for the day. It was our usual spread so I can't complain. That bread for toast and the bacon they make for us is always going to be good. But eventually I was joined by some of the people from Penn State group and we started to make our way over to the TU Vienna building to work on our project and attend a University Planned Event. I think the other two went out to the bars and came back a little late so they weren't quite as ready as I was to make the walk over after breakfast. But I don't mind- I'm glad people are enjoying themselves!
Once we were by the building, I looked at this banner that was waving from the front of the building. It had been there ever since we got to Vienna, but I had never stopped to really question it or what it meant. All I know is that the banner was a big, giant spray painted sheep with some German words and phrases written on it. I decided to make a note about that so I could ask the German TU Vienna student about it. I figured he might know a thing or two about that- especially because he's a German speaker himself! And luckily, he was already there at the TU Vienna building where we we going to meet!
The people who had joined me on the walk over had gotten straight to work once we sat down next to the German student. He was a big help with making things organized and helping make sure we have a clear image of what we need to succeed. In between working on the project, the other Penn State students and I asked him about the sign with the sheep on it. He told us that the sign was there because it's currently election season for TU Vienna's student government. But their student government is a bit more complicated than ours. Naturally, there's a school wide student government where you elect someone to represent the student body when the administration has to deal with problems that concern them. However, in Austria, there are parties that run for the government!
It was crazy hearing the German student's explanation and hearing that there are groups like the communists and socialists and all sorts of things! And apparently, the sheep is the mascot for one of the parties running for office! So cute! Though either way I didn't think anything like that could ever be possible but sure enough- people running for student office in Austria can organize themselves into politic parties. Who knew!
After a while, the other Penn State students who weren't with us yet joined us for a couple of minutes to work on our project. Progress has definetely been slow, but oh well. I think a lot of people are like me- already on vacation mode! So it's understand how this simple little project hasn't been on the top of everyone's to do list. But after only a couple of minutes of working on the project, all the Penn State students were called away to have a tour of TU Vienna's AR Lab. If you didn't know, AR stands for Augmented reality it's basically using technology to give real life a bunch of add-ons. For example, the it looked like the TU Vienna AR Lab was working on some technology that allows people to tour the city of Vienna and getting to know the history by just wearing an AR headset or looking at your phone as it scans different features. It was pretty cool! Sadly, the tour was only about an hour long with a long time being used for explanation so I didn't get to try the AR headset they had. You win some, you lose some!
After our tour of the AR Lab, all the Penn State students decided to grab lunch and meet at our usual spot by the fountain for a quick pulse check with the German TU Vienna student. For lunch, my group decided to stop by a Döner place that sold kebabs and wraps and a couple of other things with meat cooked in a certain style. I got myself a Döner rice bowl with lots of veggies which was very delicious! Also, I think Döner itself is Turkish, but we may have eaten a Germanized version of it at lunch. Who knows! But back to our quick lunch meeting!
The German student was the only one out of the all the TU Vienna students who could meet with us that day which was unfortunate, but also makes sense since they're still in the middle of school semester. I didn't envy the fact that they still had a lot of work to do at all! But the German student from TU Vienna was able to meet with us for a quick second to make sure we were on track to finish and give an update to what he heard the other TU Vienna students were doing. It turns out, three of the TU Vienna were going to meet together sometime today to work on a part of the project. Though I didn't get most of the details after that. Oh well!
After lunch, all the Penn State students went back to the hotel to chill out a little bit before making our next moves. We found out on the way that some of our teachers had planned a hike for us! We were going to ride the bus to the Vienna woods to the top of this hill and we were going to hike down to get to a vineyard! Naturally, not everyone wanted to go. We spend so much time walking, I can't blame them! Plus, not every brought the right shoes for a hike too! But I decided to go anyways ebcause even though Iceland gave me more than enough hikes to last a lifetime, I figured the view from the top would be great!
And so off we went! We took multiple trans and buses all across the city for what must have been at least an hour until we had arrived at our desired destination- Leopoldsberg. At some point, two Penn Staters broke off from our group to make a full seven mile hike up and down the mountain. But I don't envy them one bit- that journey looked brutal. Even the hike down and to the vineyard was pretty tiring. But boy was the view worth it. Leopoldsberg is beyond the outskirts of Vienna so it looks like you're in the country side. But if you look out, you can see just how big and beautiful the city of Vienna is. Oh it was amazing!
The actual Leopoldsberg building (which I think might have been a church at one point) was currently under construction, but that never took away from just how amazing that view was! You could just see so many things for miles and miles and miles. You could even see very distantly, a grouping of wind turbines turning in the particular active wind today. Oh, it was just so amazing!
Though like all good things, it must come to an end. And that end? Was the hike down and to the vineyard. Well, mostly to the vineyard. The hike down wasn't too bad and felt much quicker than it supposedly was. That supposed 45 minute hike down really felt like 20 minutes. It wasn't the easiest on the knees though- that's for sure. Though seeing all the flora made the trip more enjoyable! It felt nice knowing that I had tons of pretty blooming wild flowers cheering me on as a I made it down hill. But once we got down the hill, we had another problem- hiking back up to the winery.
While the vineyard didn't seem to be actually on the Leopoldsberg geographic land feature, it was just another hill away and a very, very unenjoyable walk. It wasn't too far or two long but those 15 or so minutes of walking up an incline was not easy or fun.
Despite that feeling, I was pretty glad I came with everyone on this hike. And this had a lot to do with the view and also the vineyard we visited. At the top of the annoying hill we all had to climb, there was a cute little vineyard and restuarant. Everyone who joined us on the hike (which was around 20) all sat down and was able to order a drink and something to eat! They had a different kinds of drinks and food though the menu was in german so it was kind of hard to read. I ended up trusting my gut and picking out a random drink on the drink menu, and order a spare rib special that the restuarant was having. And let me just say- best decisions ever!!!! The drink I got was something called Aplesaft, which is basically apple juice made with a carbonated mineral water. It's not what I expected since most of the people aorund me ended up having wine and beers but what I got was so good that I had to order another one right before I left! The spare ribs were also pretty good. I heard that was a popular dish in Austria and I had seen it on a couple of menus before so I knew I had to try it! And man, it was delicious! It was like a dry rub and the meat was just falling off the bone. It was so good and not even as expensive as I thought it would be. Worth every euro, that's for sure. Though one of the best parts of all was the view we got to see! It was night by the time we all finished eat and the hill we were now on over looked Vienna as well. The city was so pretty when lit up at night! So many lights! And we could see so, so far! Literally the best!
Eventually, it was time for everyone to finish up and walk down the hill to make it home. The walk home was considerably more easier but I was beyond exhausted and my feet ached so I was ready to go back to the hotel, shower, and relax. We ended up having to walk a while to find a tran station but we did eventually find one. Luckily, that took us pretty close to our hotel so that all that was left for us was to transfer to a different tran for about 5 minutes and head off. At that point, a large, large, large chunk of all the people who went on the hike had decided to walk the rest of the way since they didn't feel like waiting on the second tran. How they managed to do it, I'll never know. But I did get to enjoy a nice and pretty quiet hotel as I went upstairs to my room and took a nice, hot shower and changed into some lounge clothes.
Though as tired as I was, I knew I still have a good deal of work I had left to do for work and things like that. And I wanted to write this blog! So I took a good, long time in shower and when I finished with that, I packed up my laptop and headed down to the lobby so I wouldn't keep my roommate up with my laptop clacking all night long.
As soon I got downstairs, I saw one of the undergraduate girls from Penn State sittng on the couch drinking a cup of tea. She said I had just missed a crowd of people going to the clubs and bars and that was more than fine by me- I was super tired and that's not my thing. But she then informed me that she was staying in because she was sick! She has a really bad cough and she was able to visit a clinic today to get some medicine, but our teachers wanted her on bedrest for all of today. It all made sense considering that she was one of the people who didn't end up joinging everyone on the hike. She was busy resting. Though after she told me about all of that, she confided in me that she hadn't had dinner yet since she was napping so much and she was really, really hungry. It was nearing midnight and I didn't want her to go alone to grab dinner if she was going to go out so I decided to grab one of the graduate student girls to come join us on a quest to get some food! The big problem was that most of the restuarants nearby had already closed and the girl who hadn't eaten dinner yet had some food allergies. So that left us with one option...McDonalds!
But this McDonalds is nothing like you see in the states! This McDonalds was so clean and so organized and so modern! The menu wasn't that different from home but you there's something truly special about eating inside a McDonalds that has rotundas and chandeliers! I ended up ordering a strawberry milkshake from the local McDonalds near us and it was pretty good. But one of the best things I learned today was the fact that McDonalds in Austria has a special contract that the meat has to real, authentic Austrian livestock. That meant that not only was the beef and chicken real- it was also locally sourced. What a great deal! In fact, I'm getting pretty jealous of the Austrians! Maybe this is a sign I should move here in the future. Just kidding! Unless.... haha!
After the girl we were accompanied grabbed and ate her dinner, it was time for us to head back to the hotel and go to bed. Luckily it wasn't a long walk and the weather was nice so it felt good to have a nice relaxing moment like that. Overall, it was a good time going out and exploring the McDonalds in Austria. Actually- all of today was a good time! So happy with all that happened! I had a lot of fun and I really can't way for the next day.
And that's it for now! I'm going to go ahead and get some sleep. Thanks for reading! Until next time!
- DD
Picture Sources (in order of appearance):
Part of the Sheet Banner! - My photo!
Up Close Leopoldsberg - My photo!
View of Vienna - My photo!
Leopoldsberg from the bottom of the hike - My photo!
View from Vineyard! - My photo!
Apfelsaft! - My photo!
Vienna of Vienna (Night Edition) - My photo!
Austrian McDonald's Decor - My photo!
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