Vienna

Last Thursday the majority of students in my program went on an excursion to Vienna, with my professor and his family. He set up the train tickets for us, but we were by no means obligated to do anything school related if we didn’t want to. However, he did organize sketching sessions for us around the city if we were so inclined. I was. And I really enjoyed improving my sketching skills… free hand pencil and pen drawings are something I’ve never been so great at, but I’m working on it!

Back on track….

So… Vienna! I fell in love with this city. It was so bright and open and green! So many parks and beautiful gathering spaces – quite a nice change from Prague!

We got into Vienna after a 4 hour train ride on Thursday afternoon. After checking into the hostel and a quick lunch we hurried to check out the city. We walked into downtown along Mariahilferstrasse – the main shopping drag—and did some really fun window shopping. Austria is on the Euro so everything is much more expensive! But we found our way into the main museum area and through the Habsburg palace and then into Stephansplatz – the center of the city. We found an amazing little café with crepes and really great coffee. Afterwards it had gotten pretty late so we stopped at a bar called Weiwurm and tried the Radler drink – which is the local draft beer with lemon juice… so good!

On Friday we started with a sketching session led by our professor at the Rathaus – the Viennese parliament building. After an hour of me struggling to draw something well, everyone split up into their separate groups to explore the city some more.

My group – myself, Meredith, Mary, and Julie – went to the architecture museum (Arkitekturzentrum Wien) and then the Museum of Modern Artery interesting and at some parts disturbing exhibit at the MuMoK, we headed to Karlsplatz for lunch and a look at the architect Otto Wagner’s pavilions.

The Karlskirche (Karls Church) was in the same garden area, so we went inside. Once in the nave you can see the amount of restoration they are doing on the dome of the church. There’s actually tourist access to the top of the dome to see the restoration work. We took the elevator up to the base of the scaffolding and then climbed about 10 flights of stairs to the very apex of the dome and into the lantern. I can’t even describe how amazing it is to be in the same field of vision as a dome – something that is so illusive and monumental and distant in ones usual interaction with it. The scaffolding was a little shaky and there was no one to regulate the amount of people going up and down, so we ascended and descended as quickly as possible!

After the Karlskirche we went to a student housing project done by a famous female architect Zaha Hadid and got a private tour by oneof the contractors.

Definitely not my favorite building… it’s actually pretty impractical for students, but I’m glad I saw it so I could make my own judgments on it.

From there we headed back into the center of town in search of another famous architect’s work – the American Bar by Adolf Loos. It’s a tiny little bar, but is really quite beautiful with its low lighting and tile work on the ceiling and walls. I had a delicious hot chocolate while I was there too J

That night we went met up with some of our other classmates at another hostel and went out to a popular bar/club district called the Bermuda Triangle. Not very exciting – but, we did happen to find some good music and a really creepy Austrian man. Luckily we got rid of him and danced a good part of the night away.

On Saturday we started off once again with some sketching but this time at the Loos House – a bank by Adolf Loos near the center of Vienna – and this time while I was sketching I was able to enjoy the music of an Austrian Senior Citizen Marching Band… not something you see every day!

After our hour of sketching (I did much better this day), Meredith, Mary, Julie, and I went on to the Votive Church, the Hundertwasserhaus, the Kunst Haus Wien, and then to our favorite little café for an afternoon coffee.

We met up with most everyone else at the Praterstern – the amusement park/fair of Vienna. We rode some AWESOME rides… the last one definitely shook up my stomach and messed up my balance and orientation! Since we’re missing the State Fair in Raleigh this year, it was a nice little state fair of our own in Austria.

Sunday was our day to head back to Prague, so we made the most of our morning before we had to get back on a train at 3:30. The four of us went out to a place called Gasometer, which is actually 4 gasometers (they’re essentially 4 humongous round brick silos that have been converted into apartments and retail spaces). We hung out there for a little while doing our architecture thing and then headed back into town for a little souvenir shopping and then back to our hostel to check out.

Another four hour train ride took us back to Prague exhausted and sad that fall break was already over! It’s hard to believe how fast this semester is already going…

More to come this week…lot’s of things going on. So, I’ll try to be more frequent with my posts in the coming days!