Week 5

September 1, 2007

Major jetlag…

I am home now from an amazing month in Vienna. It was honestly an unforgettable trip, with unforgettable people. I had a blast learning and exploring what Vienna has to offer with the most remarkable people ever. For those Vienna/Prague 2007 goers who are reading this… I want to say thank-you for an incredible August. I had such a blast with you all!

I found this video and song thanks to someone who commented on this blog. I think this song suits this trip so well and video theme happened to be a bonus. Enjoy!

For more photos of the 30 days in Vienna.. click here... Tracey's Vienna Pictures!

Lastly, my thoughts:

I enrolled in this program expecting to experience and see what Europe was like and to meet friends that will last me a lifetime. I finished the program with everything that I was expecting and got much more to hold on to.

During my 30 days in Vienna, I’ve observed/learned that:
- The Viennese love their dogs! They seemed to have more dogs than children.
- Vienna is expensive!
- Drinking water from the tap is perfectly clean and normal.
- Young to middle-aged Viennese people are very nice, relaxed and easy going, but old Viennese people are always grumpy and will push you out of their way.
- Europeans have no patience for standing lines. There’s a lot of line cutting involved.
- European coffee is truly better than Starbucks!
- Maps and tour guide books are immensely helpful because it would be hard to find places and go to famous sites without one.
- English is a very widely spoken language.
- Water can be served with gas or without gas (carbonated or no carbonation).
- Small local cafes are usually the best places to get coffee and cakes.
- During mid-August there are really good sales… it’s great to do shopping during this time.
- European weather changes rapidly. The early mornings can be chilly, lunch time can be sunny and blistering hot, the afternoons can be grey and muggy, and the evenings can be freezing and rainy.
- European public transportation is so much more convenient than cars and is so much more useful than the public transportation in the US.
- Everything is closed early on Saturdays and is completely closed on Sundays!
- When buying groceries, you have to pay for your grocery bags and bag them yourself.
- Austrian TV shows are just like the American TV shows, just in German.
- American music is generally played everywhere.
- Vienna is like LA, just with more history, beautiful architecture, and a better public transportation system.

...until we meet again....

August 30-31, 2007
The last day of the Vienna/Prague 2007 program…

In the morning, Sherry, Laura and I returned to Café Leopold Hawelka and had the café and plum cakes for the last time. It was a great breakfast!

After, we walked around the rainy streets of Stephansplatz and did some more last minute souvenir shopping. Around 5 in the afternoon, the class met up in front of the Riesenrad (Ferris wheel) at the Prater.

The Ferris wheel was built in 1897 and achieved its fame in the 1949 movie, The Third Man. The ride lasted approximately 15 minutes long and the view of Vienna is spectacular from the very top of the wheel.

The view from the top.

Next, we headed off to Centimetre Restaurant for our class good-bye dinner. The professor ordered 4 swords! They were pretty generous portions might I add.

The Sword!... schnitzel, pork, chicken wings, fries and beans

After dinner, Laura and I left early because we had much packing to do. Plus, on top of that, I was not feeling very well. I also found out that Kristen came down with something so we went to see how she was doing when we arrived back at Simmering. Laura and I struggled to find a taxi to take us to the airport the next morning so we ended up asking the professor to call a taxi for us. I found some people at the stairs and said my good-byes while trying to hold back the tears. I wasn’t ready to leave yet...

Around 5:45am and with only 3 hours of sleep, Laura and I got all our luggage and went to the lobby area to wait for our taxi. Surprisingly the taxi man was already there in the front. He came in to help us with our stuff and said that he only could fit only one person in the taxi. Apparently we had too much baggage for his little taxi. But eventually, he decided to squeeze all of our stuff into this small car and drove us to the airport. Right when the doors of the dorms shut behind me, I suddenly felt so sad. I wasn’t ready to leave my unforgettable Vienna.

Awhile later, we reached the airport…Laura and I checked in our luggage and got our last breakfast together. Her flight was at 7:40am so we parted ways after the security check point. My flight wasn’t until 10am so I had some time to kill… About an hour later, I realized that my gate has changed. I grabbed all my stuff and went to find the correct gate for my flight to Zurich. My flight to Zurich was short; it was only an hour long.

I spent about a good hour and a half at the Zurich International Airport. I wondered around for a bit while waiting for my 13 hour flight to LA. The airport was small, yet very beautiful.

During the flight, I watched the movie 300, ate really good food and slept most of the way. My flight arrived late due to some mandatory detour that we took. The home coming was nice. I got to see my loved ones again.

my flight home....

August 28-29, 2007

Word of the day— (g) wein; (e) wine

During class, we did a digression on what we thought and felt about our visit to Mauthausen. I agreed with many of the students about what they had to say about the camp. I was appalled and aggravated to see a bunch of tourist families bring their little children that only horse around in a place like that. The kids are too young to understand what the camp was, so why on earth would their parents bring them there? The parents should have left their children at home if they wanted to visit the concentration camp. Also, I was disgruntled when I saw the families take photos and was smiling in them like it was a happy situation. Do they not have any respect for the people who died at this camp? I can’t believe how inconsiderate and ridiculous these people are.

I recall tour guide at Mauthausen telling us about how some tourists came to visit the camp, ripped off pictures of people remembered and craved the Nazi symbol in place of the former picture. How terrible is that! I guess there are people out there that still supports Hitler still to this day… and there is nothing to be done to change that. Why are people so ruthless in this world?

After the digression, a few of us went to the Naschmarkt for some wonderfully delicious seafood.

Salmon, white fish: chef's special, calamari and shrimp... definitely satisfied my seafood cravings.

Awhile later, Sherry, Laura, David and I went to Kunsthalle Wien/ MUMOK and visited the Dream and Trauma exhibition.

“The exhibition approaches two phenomena that draw on the unconscious, the dream as well as the psychic injury – the trauma, with over forty contemporary artistic positions. Dreams and trauma are two dimensions of human experience. In their own particular way, both generate imaginary worlds of the mind and fantastic scenarios. The dream, the companion of sleep, belongs to everyday life and links together various states of being: “To die, to sleep, to sleep: perchance to dream,” says Shakespeare’s character Hamlet and thus delineates essential experiential parameters. In contrast reality is manifested in the trauma as a psychic deformation and a symbolic wound. This non-place, a zone of formlessness and fragmentation collects whatever has been suppressed or has disappeared from the conscious. Sigmund Freud defined the trauma as an experience which brings such an increase in stimulation to the inner life in such a short period of time that the normal usual way of dealing with or processing the experience fails.”

This exhibition didn’t exactly traumatize me… it was just made me feel really uncomfortable and weird because it was digging deep into my subconscious and revealing it. It touched on strange morbid sexual aspects of the subconscious. But nonetheless this was a rather strange yet interesting experience.

After Dream and Trauma, the 4 of us decided to take it easy and cruise down Stephansplatz for some more of Demel!

The next morning was our last lecture forever!

We discussed about the death of Franz Joseph I in 1914 and the becoming of the new emperor, Charles I. Charles I’s reign lasted for only 2 years before it ended. This marked the end of the Habsburg rule in Austria. It all started with Rudolf I in 1273 and ended with Charles I in 1918. We also touched on Hitler’s Austria. Hitler arrived in Vienna in 1938 and began his Nazi terror that spread all over Europe. During this time National Socialism was rising in Vienna.

After class, Sherry and I headed off to the Rathaus for the last time. The weather got really bad the last few days; it started to rain while we were walking.

While walking towards Museumquartier to meet up with Laura, Sherry and I passed by the Austrian Parliament.

The girls and I ate lunch at Café Sperl! I had the most amazing cakes and café!

Me and my 2 cakes: light and fluffy cheesecake (not like the NY ones) and plum cake

The best Grandma’s coffee. It's called the Grandma's coffee because it's made through the old styles of making coffee.

While walking around, we found a small festival happening in front of the Hofburg.

We also did major souvenir shopping! I will surely miss the shopping in Vienna when I leave… that’s for sure. We decided to go back to Simmering early to start packing for our trip back home.

August 26-27, 2007
I spent most of Sunday on my own. I visited Karlskirche and took a stroll in the Resselpark. The Karlskirche (aka the St. Charles’ Church) was built in 1716 in the Baroque style. It is located on the edge of the 1^st district, 660 feet from the Ringstrasse. Currently, the church is in the process or restoration and the ceiling is open for viewing. There is an elevator that takes people up the small platform and a tiny stair way that leads to the dome at the very tip of Karlskirche. I especially love the architecture of this church. I was speechless when I first saw what the structure looked like. It’s so magnificent and beautiful!

This is the beautiful façade of Karlskirche.

The alter and the interior of the Karlskirche.

I took the elevator and the stairs to very top! The tiny shaking stairs were a bit creepy to walk up though. But I made it to the top and back down alive.

The very tip of the top dome!

When evening hit, I met up with Laura and Sherry for some dinner at the Kebab place across the street from the dorms and a bike ride around the Danube. We had technical difficulties renting the public bikes and working my broken bike. Embarrassingly, I haven’t ridden a bike since I was kid, so I was not exactly sure I remembered how to ride a bike. Plus, the bike was a tad bit taller than me; that made it more difficult for me. Laura, the sweet gal that she is, helped me get on my bike each time I fell off. When I got on the bike, I only knew how to go straight…didn’t exactly know how to turn or stop. We biked along the Danube Canal and the whole way through, I was hoping and praying that I wouldn’t crash into the Danube! After biking for an hour, we decided to go on a search for an available bike box to return the bikes. We literally walked all over town trying to find open slots.

Me and my rather juicy Kebab

The view of the city from bike route along the Danube...it was such a beautiful night!

We ended the night with some Toblerone crepes at the Rathaus.

The next morning, Sherry and I visited the upper Belvedere.

The Belvedere Garden from the 3rd floor...

This is a painting of 'A Mother's Love' (1839) by Joseph Danhauser. The painting was considered a Biedermeier art, fitted for the ideal bourgeoisies at the time.


This is is a painting by Ruldulf von Alt of the 'St. Stephen's Cathedral' (1832). I particularly found this piece very facinating because it gave me a feel for what life back in the 1800's was like in Vienna.


Gustav Klimt's 'The Kiss' (1907-1908). This painting is painted with a lot of silver and gold. The piece, to me, is warm, loving and peaceful. It's really a sweet romantic treat.

I also observed other works by E. Schiele and O. Kokoschka.

Around the lunch hour, Sherry and I met up with Laura in Stephansplatz and ate at Café Leopold Hawelka. The café and plum cakes were absolutely superb. For dinner, the girls and I took the bus to Passauerhof Heurigen in Grinzing. The place was so cute! The food and wine was really good. After dinner, we headed back to the bus stop and waited there for awhile, but the bus never came. So we walked all the way down the hill to the U-Bahn station.

Me in front of the heurigen.


Ah, dinner is finally served.

Week 4

August 25, 2007
Welcome to Bratislava, Slovakia!!!

Sherry, Laura and I took the 7:15am Westbahnhof train to Bratislava! It only took us about an hour to get there.

Me sitting in the wrong cart on the train to Bratislava... this cart reminded me of the Hogwarts Express!

The Bratislava Hlavna Stanica Train Station

We arrived at the Bratislava Hlavna Stanica Train Station. We found the city map and started our journey out into the city. We stopped and asked the locals how to get to Old Town, but not very many people spoke nor understood English. We figured that walking was our best option since we didn’t have any Slovakian Koruna. After a good half an hour walk through the city, we finally reached the outskirts of Old town and found ATM machines. I, on the other hand, needed to find a bank or currency exchange place. Once I found the bank, the lady gave me such a hard time with my US dollars. I was really frustrated and just gave her my Euros that I was saving for the last week of the program. After exchanging money from the very hostile lady, the girls and I were starving so we stopped by a nice outdoor restaurant to eat some local Slovakian food.

I had pork chops and the famous Vinea! It was deliciously satisfying.

After the nice lunch we cruised around the Old Town on foot and visited the St. Martin’s Cathedral. I guess there was a service going on so we were allowed to enter.

Somehow I managed to forget to use the WC before we started walking. I made a mad dash up the giant hill of the Bratislava Castle in search of a WC. I did manage to find one inside of the castle, which is now a museum.

The Bratislava Castle!!!


The view from the top at the castle.

The girls and I walking down the streets of Bratislava

Bratislava's Old Town Square

We wandered the city some more and went in search for an open massage/spa. Interestingly enough, most of the town was closed… and it was a Saturday! At the information center, a young woman helped us find a massage parlor that was open. We spent most of the day walking and on a hunt for a massage parlor. By late afternoon, the girls and I were tired, restless and thirsty. We decided to stop by a small café place for food and drinks. As soon as we finished eating, we continued on our massage hunt. I didn’t exactly know where to go. A kind and very sweet lady helped us get a taxi to our destination. The taxi driver took us far away from Old Town! Yeah, we would not have been able to walk the far. The massage place that we went to was out in rural Bratislava and it looked a bit creepy.

After the taxi driver dropped us off, we walked to the building and rung the door bell. I was really surprised to see a young Chinese woman at the door! She was super nice to us… maybe because she liked Sherry was speaking to her in Chinese. The Chinese back and foot massages were incredible!!! I felt so relaxed and I think might have fallen asleep for a few minutes during the massage. Too bad there was not enough time for each of us to have an hour massages, half an hour each was pretty good. Our session ended around 9:20pm, so we called a taxi to pick us up. The taxi driver said that he remembered us because we were the only girls that went to get massages. Laura blew the last of her Koruna on chocolates… I wanted to buy some postcards, but sadly all the souvenir shops at the train station were closed. We ended up catching the second to last train at 9:50pm back to Vienna.

The beginning of this Bratislava trip with the hostile bank lady was a bummer, but the massage totally made up for it. I was once again a happy camper and Bratislava satisfied.

August 22-24, 2007
In lecture, we learned about the Ringstrasse. It was built in 1860 and was associated with the great bourgeoisies. The buildings such as Kunsthistorisches Museum, Rathaus, and the Opera Museum, are more like imperial grandeur bourgeoisies styles. The around the Ringstrasse resides barons such as bankers, industrialists, and upper class nobility so that they could be closer to the Habsburg monarchy. A new style of living emerged for workers; they get to live in their private space and actually go to work, instead of living in the same place as their work.

When class ended, Laura, Sherry and I ate lunch at Café Europa in Stephansplatz.

I had a very light meal and it felt great to eat something healthy. Plus the meal was absolutely delightful, especially with café lattes!

After lunch, the girls and I went took tram 2 around the Ringstrasse.

We got off at Schwedenplatz and had gelato ice cream and strolled along the Danube Canal.

Once we finished our gelatos, we headed off to MAK (Museum für Angewandte Kunst) –Museum of Applied Arts—

This was the room that was filled with Biedermeier era/style chairs. Pictures were not allowed, but I snuck a few in. During the Biedermeier era, bentwood furniture was made by Michael Thonet. It was known as the “Viennese chair.”

Later that night, a group of us went to the Rathaus for dinner. I had this incredible Iranian dish. I can’t remember what it was called but it consisted of a whole chicken thigh with rice and a sauce.

The morning after, the class met up with Dr. O again for the Leopold Museum tour. Rudolf Leopold and his wife, owners of the entire collection of art in the museum, collected each piece of art by themselves and are still alive today!

During the tour we learned about Gustav Klimt and his painting of 1910 called ‘Death and Life.’ Five years later, Klimt added more to his painting because the gap between life and death was too large. He painted the image in such a way that with death and life collided, the pieces would match up. As a class, we interpreted that death was coming to the group of life whether the people are aware of it or not.

We also discussed Egon Schiele’s ‘Cardinal and the Nun’ (1912). This painting is similar to Klimt’s ‘The Kiss.’ In this piece, the nun has a scared terrified look on her face. And closely examining the work, both the cardinal and the nun are praying… praying that they won’t get caught, praying for God to forgive them. This painting is now one of my new favorites because it’s sweet in a very strange way. It definitely shows humanity in a humanistic way. I’m not sure what it is exactly that attracts me to this particular painting, but I am indeed intrigued.

At sun down, the class met at Molkereistr. 1 for pizza and a movie on the Jewish Holocaust. The place was located in a very rural area of Vienna. It was kind of creepy walking through the streets… not exactly safe looking. We also had a very interesting time trying to find restrooms. In the end, we had to walk down the street to a local bar to use the WC.

The next day was our visit to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp
This concentration camp was founded in 1938. About a thousand Jews arrived at the camp in 1944. The prisoners were originally political prisoners such as: pows from the US, England, Canada, Soviet Union, homosexuals, whom ever that did not respect religious backgrounds. Only from 1944-1945, Jews entered the camp. When prisoners enter the camp, their heads gets shaved and all their belongings get taken away, this goes for both men and women. Women were made into prostitutes and children, who were strong enough, were sent to the work force. In the camp, prisoners worked 11 hours per day, 7 days a week. They were required to carry heavy stones by hand and were labored hard until they die. The prisoners went on day to day with only a 500-600 calorie intake of food. The maximum living time span without food (the malnutrition treatment) was 3 days. During cold days, the SS soldiers made the prisoners open the barrack windows and shower with cold water and on hot days, the SS soldiers would tell the prisoners to do the exact opposite.
A concentration camp is a camp for cheap work force that works prisoners to death. An extermination camp is a camp with only gas chambers and the prisoners were gassed to death with cyclone B. Mauthausen had a gas chamber, but the camp was more dominant in the deathly work force…. The trip was rather depressing with all the stories that the guide told us and the documentary that we saw. We went to the actual gas chamber where real people died. We also visited and read the memorial plaques that were plastered on the camp walls.

Stairway of Death....

August 20-21, 2007
Laura, Sherry and I went to the Heeresgeschichtliche Museum (Military History Museum)

The Military Museum was built in 1850 in the many styles ranging Byzantine, Hispano-Moorish to Neo-Gothic.

The Hall of Fame was dedicated to Franz Joseph I who became Emperor of the Babenberg dynasty in 1848.

This is an oil painting of Emperor Franz Joseph I at age 26 in his Austrian uniform by Francis Adams. On the four corners of the painting’s frame are 4 different coats of arms: Hungary, Austria, Bohemia, and I didn’t catch what the other country was called.

Harnesses were used as armor during the 30 Years War that occurred in 1620.

A moving military tank outside of the building!

After we exited the building, it started to rain. We found shelter at small restaurant inside the military building.

I had a strong craving for something garlic-y and it was definitely satisfied with the creamy garlic soup!

Afterward, we headed back to Simmering. Since we were rained in, Laura and I had girls’ night out in my room! We watched Tokyo Drift on my computer and ate what girl’s like best… junk food! It was so much fun. =]

The very next day, class is back in session! During class, we learned that back in the 14^th century, Jewish prostitutes were required to wear earrings. Interestingly, upper class women started to wear earrings and changed the meaning of earrings overall.

From 1790 to 1792, Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruled Florence until his death. In 1792, Leopold’s 24 year old nephew, Franz II, took his place on the throne. That same year, France declared war on Austria. Every European power country went to war with France. France, however, prevails because of the draft, the mass subscription. A year later, Franz II’s aunt Marie Antoinette died. Back then, it was more honorable to be beheaded than it is to be hung. In 1799, Napoleon seizes power and military dictatorship in France. He declares himself Emperor of France in 1804. During this time, Napoleon was declared himself Holy Roman Emperor and that shook up Franz II. Franz II needed to insure himself the Emperor title so he declared himself the Holy Roman Emperor of Austria; thus, giving himself a double emperor title: Franz II (German nation / I (Austria –inherited). In 1806, Austria was defeated in the Battle of the 3 emperors (Napoleon, Russian Czar, and Franz II/I). Franz II/I declared the fall of the Holy Roman Empire and became only Franz I of Austria. The war finally ended with the Treaty of Schönbrunn.

The class touched on Prince Clint Metternich (1814) and how he persuaded Napoleon to marry Marie Louis.

We also discussed about the Biedermeier era/style (1815-1848). The Bourgeoisies, during this era, lived a very gemütlichkeit (cozy) home life.

After lecture, a group of us went to the same buffet place for lunch that we went to during the first week. Awhile later, we walked to Stephansplatz to find the Jewish Museum. I must admit that this museum was quite disappointing. There was nothing on the Jewish Holocaust; there was only a whole lot of information and displays of ornaments of the synagogues and about the Jewish community. I did not get very much out of my 4 Euros that I paid for this museum. I wish it had more content.

The entrance of the Jewish Museum

Belongings of the Jewish people that were taken away during the Jewish deportation.

Late in the afternoon, Sherry, Laura and I walked to Graben to eat at a famous café called Demel. The place is known for its Anna Torte and chocolate cakes.

The place is known for its Anna Torte and chocolate cakes.


My chocolate truffle torte with the anna torte cafe.

After consuming a whole lot of chocolate and sugar, we walked to the Haus der Musik. This was probably my most favorite museums/sites that I’ve been to.

Left image: Laura and I at the Haus der Musik. Right image: me listening to some classicals.

traces of sound waves... pretty neat stuff!!!

Top and bottom images: scenes from Mozart's "Magic Flute" by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (Berlin 1816)

Mozart's composition glasses.

Fun glow in the dark foot steps that teaches how to do the waltz.

I listened to clips of Schonberg's compositions and really enjoyed them. His songs were calm and soothing to my ears.

Word of the day— (g) sagen ; (e) say