Die Universität Wien

And now for a little bit about a pretty important topic.. school. I'm taking five classes here, two with an American professor from the University of Illinois and three through the University of Vienna, or die Universität Wien. The picture below is of the Hauptgebäude (main building) of the Uni Wien, where I have one class, Literaturgeschichte (Literature History). The university is huge, with different campuses and buildings throughout the city and 88,000 students. Eighty-eight thousand! Can you believe it? Another fun fact: the Uni Wien is the oldest university in the German-speaking world! It was founded in the 14th century. That means that the list of all the past presidents of the university located in the entrance hall (below) is very very long.

List of presidents.

After you walk through the entrance hall, you reach the central courtyard, where all the entrances to the different staircases of the building are located. No one is allowed on the grass (yet), but students sit on the benches on the edge of the courtyard.

My Literaturgeschichte class is in a big lecture hall that over 300 students have to cram into. Unfortunately, the lecture hall isn't that big, so not everyone can get a seat.. some people have to stand at the back (I had to do that the first day) or sit on the stairs. So you have to get to class fairly early so you can squeeze through the doors once the previous class lets out and snatch a spot on one of the long benches (there are no individual seats or desks). And the way the class is set up is very different from almost all American university courses. It's called a Vorlesung, or lecture, which means that it takes place only one day a week for an hour and a half, and everyone's whole grade is determined by only one thing.. the final exam. There are no assignments, no quizzes, no attendance-taking, no mid-terms. Just the final exam. So the learning is much more independent, and the students have to motivate themselves to keep up with the reading throughout the semester so that they won't be in trouble for the exam. I have to concentrate very very hard to be able to follow the professor during the lectures, and even when I do, it's not possible to catch every single thing, but I think my comprehension has gotten better. At the end of each "Stunde," or class, all the students knock on the tables or desks, which is their way of applauding for the professor and a lecture-well-given. When that happened at the end of my first class here, I was caught by surprise and thought it was pretty funny.

Stairs leading up to the lecture hall, or Hörsaal.

Salzburg Revisited.

This weekend I got the chance to travel to Salzburg for the second time (the first time was with my dad this past summer). For many (Americans), it is best-known as the city in which The Sound of Music takes place.. but its coolness extends far far beyond that. I traveled with four other girls from my program, and we stayed in a really nice youth hostel called Yoho. It's on the opposite side of the river from where the Altstadt and most of the main sights are, but it's very close to the Mirabell Palace and Garden, which we stumbled upon by chance soon after leaving the hostel to explore. The gardens were huge and beautiful.

Cool tree in the park. That's a stone pillar holding up one of the branches.

View over the garden, with the Hohensalzburger Festung (fortress) in the distance.

In one section of the park, there were a bunch of small dwarf-ish statues arranged in a big circle, which we found a little strange and pretty amusing.

I also really liked these stairs..

Pretty soon, some very ominous-looking clouds starting gathering in the distance, and we decided that we should head for cover. We found a restaurant called Gasthaus zum Wilden Mann, where I had possibly the best meal I've had since I've been in Austria. First I got the Kartoffel-Krautsuppe, a potato and sauerkraut soup. I know what you're probably thinking right now.. sauerkraut soup?! I was a little skeptical too, but it was so delicious! I must say, I was not the biggest fan of Sauerkraut before I got here, but my mind has been changed as a result of my experiences at various restaurants in Vienna.. when made right, it's so crunchy and crisp and noticeably fresh and wonderful. After the soup I had "Schweinskotelette" (kind of like a pork chop, but sliced thinner), with herb butter, potatoes, and vegetables. It sounds pretty simple, but it was extraordinary. We decided that the Austrians really know how to cook their pork.

Garden and ominous clouds.

On the main shopping street in Salzburg, Getreidegasse, all the shops and restaurants make special and ornate signs that hang over the tiny, narrow street.. the sign-making is a tradition that even McDonald's upholds.

In countless shop windows were dirndls and lederhosen, which people in Salzburg actually wear. Not just for Oktoberfest, or as costumes, but in real, every-day life. Another tradition that I find quite charming. The best were the mini-lederhosen for babies/small children.. so adorable.

Walking across the river to get back to our hostel, Salzburg was quite a sight to see.

On Saturday we walked around the Altstadt and found a market, where vendors were selling cheese and fish and pretzels (see below) and flowers and various other knickknacks. The pretzel stand sold about 7 different types of pretzels, both savory and sweet, like the Krapfen Brezen, (donut pretzel).

We went inside the main church, the Salzburger Dom (Dom = cathedral). It was huge, with very cool arches and domes.

Later, we made our way up to the Hohensalzburger Festung, the fortress that looms over the city. The climb to the top of the hill along the zig-zagging path reminded me very much (even uncannily so) of the climb up to Alcatraz.

Once we were inside the fortress, it was almost like its own little village inside. There was a cafe and a place to get gelato and a chapel and a theater. We took an audio tour of the rooms inside, which included the "Folterkammer," or "torture chamber" (not as interesting as it sounds.. it was never actually used) and ended at the top of the observation tower, where we got a really amazing view of Salzburg and the surrounding area, with beautiful mountains in the distance. It could not have been a more perfect day weather-wise.

View from the top of the observation tower, Take 1.

View from the top of the observation tower, Take 2.

Cool tree inside the fortress.

After climbing back down, we looked around the most beautiful graveyard I have ever seen. It's very small and tucked up against the cliff under the fortress, and all the graves are beautifully decorated, with colorful flowers and metal signs similar to those of the shops on Getreidegasse. I had seen it before this summer, but it was fun to see again. We discovered some sort of building inside of the mountain over the cemetery, which I don't know anything about, but maybe it's part of the fortress?

Building built into the cliff? Very mysterious.

While wandering around more, we came across an ornament store that was filled with hand-painted egg ornaments, made from real egg shells. I couldn't believe how many there were, the store was absolutely filled with them. Some of them had the most intricate designs, sometimes with some sort of beads.

Eggs galore.

We were all sad to say "Auf Wiedersehen" (or, as many Austrians say, "Auf Wiederschauen") to Salzburg, and hopefully I'll be able to go back. It was very nice to change it up a little bit and get away to a place with a friendlier, more relaxed, and more charming small-town atmosphere than that of Vienna.

Schloss Schönbrunn

Since Vienna was once the imperial capital of the Hapsburg Empire (during certain periods known as the Austrian Empire or Austria-Hungary), there are remnants of this imperial heritage all over the city. The most beautiful that I've seen so far has been Schloss Schönbrunn. Schloss means "palace" or "castle," and this Schönbrunn palace served as a summer residence for the royal Hapsburg family. It's somewhat removed from the center of the city, and the grounds are enormous.

The front of Schloss Schönbrunn.

We took an audio tour (meaning: our guide was a set of headphones) through the rooms of the palace, which was very interesting. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. Probably the most famous inhabitant of the palace was Maria Theresa, who ruled the empire in the 18th century. Many of the rooms in the palace were designed by/for her, and she was also responsible for the building of many of the structures on the grounds and in the gardens of the palace, which you'll see in a bit. But she was basically a beast: not only did her reign span 40 years, she also had 16 children (one of them was Marie Antoinette)! Another famous (at least for Austrians) inhabitant of the palace was Empress Elisabeth, affectionately nicknamed "Sisi." I had never heard of her before I came to Austria, and I feel like most Americans don't know anything about her (but maybe I'm wrong about this?), but she is an icon here, sort of a Princess Diana-like figure. She was married to Franz Joseph I, whom she didn't seem to like very much (it was an arranged marriage), and was stabbed to death in Geneva at age 60.. recipe for a tragic figure, I suppose? Even though she didn't have much power or do much at all, people are obsessed. There are books and movies and shows about her, and there's even a Sisi Museum here in Vienna.

After the tour, we walked around to the back side of the palace and explored the grounds. A huge rectangular garden (which I'm sure is much prettier in the warmer spring and summer) stretches back from behind the palace and ends with a large fountain. At the fountain the landscape begins to climb, and this hill is crowned by the "Gloriette," a big stone veranda-like structure.

View from the back.

View from behind the fountain.

View from the middle of the hill.

The Gloriette.

Under the roof of the Gloriette. Great view of the palace and the city from here.

Scattered throughout the palace grounds were many other smaller gardens and structures and monuments to be discovered, like the "Roman Ruin" in the picture below.

Interesting obelisk + fountain.

Close-up of some mysterious creature.

A Night at the Staatsoper.

Last night I went to the Staatsoper (state opera house) to see the ballet "Don Quixote." The opera house itself is a very cool building, located right in the heart of Vienna.

80 minutes before the start of each performance, the ticket office for "Stehplätze" (standing places) opens. There are three different categories of Stehplätze, and the tickets cost either 3 or 4 euro. 3 or 4 euro! To see a ballet at the Wiener Staatsoper, one of the most famous opera houses in the world! Inside the front entrance, I really liked the tiled floors.

The performance was beautiful. Although there wasn't really much of a plot to follow (it was really only loosely based on the book, and Don Quixote was a pretty minor character), it was all about the aesthetics. The dancing and costumes were very Spanish-/Flamenco-inspired, and it was very entertaining and impressive to watch. So entertaining that I didn't at all mind standing for almost 3 hours straight. Here are pictures of the performance hall.

View from our Stehplätze. Not too shabby.

After the first and second acts, there were intermissions. During the first intermission, we walked around and saw the different rooms. In the room in the picture below, they sell (pricey!) drinks and snacks at a little bar, and everyone stands around and eats and socializes. The variation in dress was really interesting. There were older women in gowns accompanied by men in nice suits (although I don't think I saw any tuxes.. I'm sure they were there, though), and at the same time people in jeans and T-shirts (mostly tourists). My roommate insisted on wearing jeans, because someone told her that it didn't matter how you dressed, but it just seemed a little disrespectful to me to make no effort whatsoever to look nice. I mean, it's the opera.. in Vienna! Obviously no one is going to kick you out if you're not dressed nicely enough, but for me, that's not really the point. The opera is a long tradition that has a special place in Vienna, and I think that deserves some respect.

I have to say that my night at the Staatsoper has been one of the coolest things I've experienced so far in Vienna, and I can't wait to see another performance there, maybe an opera next time.