The Blue Danube

       If you ever get the opportunity to bike along the Danube River in Vienna in the Spring.....DEFINITELY do it. It was he most beautiful Monday I've maybe ever had?! I can't think of a more magical way to start a week actually....we biked so far we left Vienna and were in Niederösterreich for a bit! Gorgeous day.

       I would like to make an important side-note that ALL of these fabulous pictures were taken by me while I was riding my bike! I think I deserve a little bit of credit--risked my LIFE weilding that camera to photograph those swans. And it was absolutely worth it!

      I would now like to make a second side note, that taking these pictures was really not difficult at all; our bike ride was leisurely and I'm being dramatic. Please kindly disregard the first side-note.

Budapeshht!!

          

       Last weekend I went on a class trip to Budapest! It was so fantastic!!!!--two of my professors here in Vienna happen to be Hungarian and wanted to personally show us where they were from! So they organized an optional weekend trip to Budapest. Tibor Frank, my Arts and nations professor, gave us a tour of the "Pest" side of Budapest on Saturday, and then Gez, my Intercultural Communications professor, showed us the "Buda" side of Budapest on Sunday, which is just across the Danube...

        This picture^ is of the famous Hero's Square (or Hősök tere), complete with many statues of (you've guessed it!)..Hungarian heroes! On the right side, there used to be some Hapsburg figures, but those were taken down and replaced with Anti-Hapsburg figures for obvious reasons. Tibor knew far more information that anyone should about every single statue. He knows so much!!!! 

       Ok, now the next picture is what Tibor refers to as "the Fun castle!!!" (he's so cute). But apparently, this castle has 17 different building styles from across Budapest put togethe. Or maybe it was 7. No, I think it was 17. I can't remember, Tibor! I'm sorry!!!

         Our wanderings took us to this special little statue. (If you're thinking it looks an awful lot like George Washington, you're CORRECT!) Here's Tibor himself! With George Washington--a monument put up on Budapest by Hungarian Americans.

 

      Then Tibor took us to the Liszt Museum! (The Music Conservatory). I'm actually reading about Liszt right now in a book....he's from Hungary, but he didn't spend that much time there, until later in his life. BUT anyways, there's a marble cast (of sorts) of his hand (because his piano-playing hands are LeGeNdAry!!) and I decided to compare my hand to Liszt's hand....conclusion: not as elegant.

 

        This is the view of the Pest side of Budapest from the Buda side of the Danube River. Gorgeous!

 

And here is where Tibor's tour ended! :(:( Until our next class, Tibor!

        So, the next day we got a little lost on the Metro lines and missed Geza's "Buda" tour...but we still had an excellent day--wandered around both Buda and Pest, enjoyed the sites and some beautiful weather! Here's St. Peter's Basilica (Looks like Budapest has as "Stephansdom" as well!)

And here is the most impressive Opera House I've ever seen!

And here is the Parliament Building! Such an impressive building...

       And of course, every phenomenal example of architecture surely deserves a selfie with Heart-shaped sunglasses, am I right??

     Famous Chain Bridge in Budapest! This is a weird picture actually...self-taken..and I think we were trying to get the lion in between us!

 

Der schönen blauen Donau!! View from the bridge :)

 

        After crossing over the bridge to the Buda side we decided  to climb up to the Buda castle! It was quite a climb....

The castle:

 View of the Danube from the Castle. So pretty!!!!

And here is St. Matthias' Church

 

         I took many more pictures, but they're not important! Budapest was a gorgeous city, and we were so lucky to have Hungarian professors take us through the city they know and love! The only thing I didn't have time to see, were the Baths...guess I'll just have to go back someday!!

THE DAY I PLAYED A VIENNA HORN

AND IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY, INDEED.

APRIL 19th, 2012.

  

     What I thought would be a typical lesson with Franz, became 13232412x more awesome when he brought his Vienna horn! After sight-reading Strauss 2 for an hour, and preparing for our weekly coffee + cake at Cafe Schwarzenberg, I was SO SO SO happily surprised when Franz whipped out his Vienna horn. ("I almost forgot!")

       I was so overwhelmed. My first thought was just, I NEED TO PLAY THIS INSTRUMENT, RIGHT NOW. Franz had me play scales mostly and slurs just to get a feel for the instrument. Playing Franz's horn felt very different! Different sound, different air....and SO much fun!

(Pic of me smiling happily with the horn)

We were preparing to pack up and meander off to our cafe when I remembered I desperately desired photographic memories so I could re-live the 10 minutes of Vienna horn playing over and over forever and ever.

"FRANZ, können Sie ein Photo machen?!"

"Natürlich!!"

      I wanted just a picture of me smiling happily with the horn, but Franz insisted on an action shot. He had me play the opening to Bruckner 1 and then snapped a photo.

AH

BEST DAY

Seriously.

Best day.

(Franz's Bruckner 1 action shot)

        Now all that's left is for me to get a picture of Franz Söllner! (for the memz). Debating the best way to go about this--go for the sneak shot? (I'm surprisingly adept at taking candids unbeknownst to the subject of said candids), or suck it up and ask for a picture with him? It wasn't embarrassing when I wanted a Vienna horn picture, so maybe this option wouldn't be too bad! ha ha! I mean, I think we have a Schnitzel date in the near future, because Franz wants to make sure I experience the BEST Wiener Schnitzel so perhaps I'll wait til then. Or perhaps I'll get his pic in my lesson tomorrow! :) Wednesdays are always the best days of the week.

The Wachau Valley

      I LOVED Italy, but was very happy to come "home" to Vienna--hadn't realized how much I missed it! <3Wien. But only after a week of re-soaking up Vienna I was off to explore other parts of Austria.

      A little over a week ago, on April 14th, I went with many IES students on a day-trip to the Wachau Valley, Austria's wine country, in the Bundesland, Niederösterreich! It was an action-packed day!! I actually forgot to bring my camera, so these are all stolen pics...shout-out to..whoever took these pictures!

      Our first stop was: Melk. There, we toured a monastery that had a library that looked like it was straight out of Beauty and the Beast, as well as one of the most incredibly Baroque churches I've ever seen in my life. (More intense than any I saw in Rome!)

Stift Melk:

View from the abbey

       

       Next, we stopped in Dürnstein, a quaint little town known for its apricots! (among other things) We hiked up a mountain to some castle ruins where Richard the Lionhearted was once held prisoner. As a friend so rightfully described the hike, it was quite literally breath-taking. (Gorgeous view, but a steep climb!..but well worth it!)

<---Castle Dürnstein

There I go!

     After climbing up every rock we could find and soaking in the glorious view of the Danube/valley, we made our way back down to the bus for our next destination: Krems. In Krems, we went in a museum that offered history on the region, but honestly, following the museum, I was just happy to hunker down in a coffee house for a warm pick-me-up, since it had started to rain.

    We finished the day with a wine-tasting and a traditional Heurigen night! The Wachau region of Austria is known for its favorable land for vineyards. You could see terraced vineyards out the bus window stretching for miles! In the wine cellar, we were able to taste 4 different wines, both white and red, and then the family hosted us for a dinner, and gave us opportunities to buy their wine following dinner. It was the perfect end to the perfect day!

Wine cellar

Heurigen night!

Ich liebe Österreich! I love Austria!!

Things Italians have said to me:

-"Ciaoooo Bella!"
-"You must be from New Jersey"
-"You're like from the television! You're like a professional dancer!"
-"You look like my ex-girlfriend."
-"Do you have Facebook?"
-"You look like my ex-girlfriend"--YEP, happened twice in two different towns.
-"Can we take a picture?!"

AMALFI COAST!

        I suppose this post is better late than never, but to finish off my Easter break (Osterfereien) in Italy, Meg, some of her friends, Maura, and I spent Easter weekend on the Amalfi Coast! Little fun fact: Die Küsten von Amalfi is really known for their lemons. There are lemon and orange trees everywhere! Casually lining the streets, and overwhelming other produce in fruit stores with their gargantuan size. Like....LOOK at those lemons! I've honestly never seen lemons this big. I don't know what they do with them really--half of it is skin. Skin that is like 2 inches thick. So when you peel it open it really isn't that much bigger than a typical lemon...What a useless lemon!--->

      Anyways, our hostel was in Sorrento, and we also took a day-trip to the island of Capri, and to the town of Positano. Both GORGEOUS destinations.

SO. Am Freitag, sind wir nach Capri gefahren.

Capri:

       

        Capri was my favorite part of the coast--and we actually experienced legitimate "Capri Sun"! The real deal! That's right, folks: Capri sun is now more than just a delightful juice in a pouch, it's a beautiful, beautiful source of sunshine, joy and warmth- brought to you by the Amalfi Coast and the one and only: Capri Island!!!! ......And the weather really was perfect. We took a boat ride around the island, and even disembarked our boat to get in an even tinier one in order to enter the Blue Grotto, one of the seven Natural Wonders of the world. (SO WORTH IT).

Twin pic on the boat! <3

     The opening to the grotto they only take small 5-person boats inside. Everyone lies flat on their back while the guide hauls the boat through the entrance on an ocean swell by pulling a chain overhead. It was incredible. You can only enter the grotto at low tide, so the rush to get inside is enormous! Lots of small boats were making their way inside.

Getting ready to go in the Grotto!! Do I look excited??

      In the Blue Grotto, the only source of light really came from the water. The sun reflecting off the water made the most intense blue I've ever seen in my life. Awesome! And the acoustics were overwhelming--the Italian guides were all singing songs in there to prove and demonstrate the grandeur of the sound. But it just created an eery cacophony of Italian songs that competing with each other (while our boat glided contrastingly peacefully through the water)...what an experience!

 Meg took this photo while we were in the grotto. Worth the 12 Euros for 5 minutes of this? I think so.

      After the boat ride, we took individual chairlifts up to Anacapri, the top of the island! It was actually quite a long ride... Ich glaube dass es 15 MINUTEN gedauert hat! But it wasn't a boring ride. More and more of the island revealed itself as we slowly ascended.

      We actually met a man from the States on our bus ride to the chairlifts, and he told us that he comes back to Capri every year to take the chair lifts up to Anacapri--it's his favorite thing to do on the island, and in his opinion, one of the most beautiful places in the world. I can totally see why! (Of course, hiking up to Anacapri is an option, and surely an equally scenic option...but when you're wearing nice sandals and aren't in a particular mood to get sweaty, chairlifts are a spectacular alternative! I recommend..)

     It was such a peaceful and breath-taking ride--both up and down. (Quite a change of pace from the bustle of Rome!) And of course, there were plenty of photo opportunities once we reached the top. Here are some of my favorites:

Another candidate for Christmas card 2012 I think?!

 Despite the torrential rain, Positano was also a beautiful spot. The way the homes and buildings are built into the cliffs is something like I've never seen before. It cleared up nicely in the afternoon, prompting some hilarious beach photo-shoots (#noshame)

Go ahead, say "awwww" I know you want to.

Haha, I don't even know..

 

Seafood pizza--ate ALL of it #yum

 All-in-all....GREAT WEEKEND!