Just another day of Globetrotting, or, I Don't Speak German

Gruss Gott! That's the polite way to say hello in German. Right now I am in a hostel in Vienna. I flew in here on Thursday night and met up with my friends Jeremy and Claire (and Claire's friend Alison who is also doing the BU program in Geneva this semester). Jeremy is studying here in Vienna at the Flow House, a house owned by Wake. I was pleased and impressed with how easy it was to navigate the Vienna airport, they even had attendants waiting next to the CAT ticket machines to help you buy tickets or answer your questions (the CAT is a shuttle traqin which goes from the airport to the center of town). I checked into the hostel where Claire and Alison had already stayed on Wednesday night. This was my first time staying at a hostel, and although I read up a little bit in Wright's hostel book, I still wasn't sure quite what to expect. This hostel is located near the Museumsquarter, fairly close to all of the major sites. It includes two buildings, and our room was in the second one (around the corner from the reception). When you check in you get an electronic key which looks more like a tablet stylus, but it's what lets you in to both the hostel building and your indiviual room. My room contained two bunkbeds and when Claire, Alison, and I got there a little after midnight theree was already someone asleep in one of the beds. There was also a bathroom with a toilet and shower, spartan but clean. My bed was reasonably comfortable and when I woke up the next morning my roommate greeted me in some language I could not understand, presumably German.

Something I realized right away upon arriving in Austria - I speak absolutely no German. "Danka shun" (thank you) is literally the ionly thing I can saw with confidence. I think this might be the first country I have visited where I am so hopelessly lost when it comes to language. Even in Morocco I could read most of the signs and I arrived with enough language skills to carry out a basic conversation. And there I always had French as a back-up. In Switzerland it was trhe same deal - between French and English I had it covered. Luckily Jeremy speaks more than a little German, so he was ablle to translate/speak for us on Friday. Today (Jeremy left in the morning, this is his fall break and so he's going traveling for thew week), Claire, Alison, and I had to slog through on our own, mostly by pointing or just speaking English apologetically. We got it sorted out though, and most people were very patient. So here are the highlights of what we saw over the last two days:

• Schloss Schrönnbrun (summer palace of the Hapsburgs)
• A market (name to be added later)
• Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Cathedral)
• Plague Memorial
• State Opera House
• Hofburg Palace royal treasury (think crowns, etc)
• The Lipazzaner horses beiung put through their morning exercises at the Spanish Riding School
• Albertine museum (an exhibit on Impressionism, which very much excited me because the art history class I started this week is entirely on Impressionism)
• Belvedere (another palace, which is also an art museum)

And although these weren't intellectually significant, I really enjoyed:

• A kaffeehause which had small colorful tea cups hanging from the chandeliers. We had coffee and tried apple strudel.
• The wurst I ate for lunch yesterday. It was served in a French-bread-esque roll with mustard and the sausage itself was filled with cheese. It was really good!
• Chili hot chocolate and a pastry! We went to a place called Demel which had a similar atmosphere to Angelina in Paris. Someone recommended it to Alison and I am so glad we went.

Check back later for more updates and lots of pictures!