Karlsplatz

There is an U-Bahn (the subway system) stop that has become a landmark for us here in Vienna. Karlsplatz station is that "downward slope" hotspot of Vienna. Every city has one. The one area of town that when you start hanging out there, you know you have hit rock bottom. There is enough drugs, alcohol, and more illegal substances than I want to know about going through just this one strech of this underground. You would be able to tell what area I am talking about when you see without knowing where it is because as soon as you get there your lungs cry in despair. Walking through this one area that only takes about two minutes to walk through will make your clothes and hair smell for the rest of the day.
I have many fond memories which I will always remember from Karlsplatz, but we had a choice incident yesterday. As we boarded the UBahn there was a man you was obviously drunk with a bottle in one hand and a glazed look on his face. When we sat down Kimberlee was telling some story from earlier in the night to Kim and I. The man is staring at Kim and nodding along to her story and showing expressions that infer that he too is part of the conversation. We are beginning to feel uncomfortable when we hear that beautiful melody by Mr. William Joel. "It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday. The regular crowd shuffles in. There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin." Our Karlsplatz friend broke into song and when I say broke I mean that something had to have broken because it was awful and very loud. He is basically serenading us in the middle of this jammed metro car. Some are looking at us as if it is our fault, some are blank faced in true Austrian fashion, and some are smiling in sympathy. After he finishes the chorus he yells, "Nevada!" To which Kim responds, "Nein, California." After some drunken German murmurings we had to get off the train, but I will never forget the night I was serenaded by the the old man sitting next to me making love to his tonic and gin.

Concentration Camp

The bus ride to Salzburg was a fairly typical one. As usual, my friend Megan and discussed all of the "drama" that we get wrapped up in.
"Why doesn't he get it? Is he blind?"
"He is so hard to read! What do you think he meant when he said that?"
"Are you worried about Jim and Pam getting together so soon? Because I am!"
"I just don't know if I should get her something from Vienna or Italy."
"Is McDreamy really going to leave Meredith?"
These are the kinds of problems that were occupying our thoughts on that bus ride, until we got to Mathausen. Mathausen is a labor camp is located about an hour outside of Salzburg. We heard stories about men who had been forced to leave their homes to come to the camp without any knowledge of what became of their families. We saw the gate they entered after being crammed into trains and trucks. Later, we walked through the gas chambers and execution rooms which was the most creepy thing I have ever done. I am not using creepy in the "The Sixth Sense is so creepy" way but in the sense that human beings killed other human beings by the roomful there. The last leg of the tour at Mathausen takes you to this gorgeous cliff that overlooks a little river. The cliff has a set of stairs cut out of it that has more steps than I have ever seen. This is where the prisoners were forced to carry the large boulders up to the camp and if they were too weak by the time they got to the top of the stairs they were unburdened from the rock and then thrown off the cliff into that sweet, little river. As Megan and I walked down the stairs, we talked about how stupid we are. My main thought as I walked through that camp was how lucky I am to have my big concerns be about tv shows and guys. This whole trip has taught me a lot about myself and that expereince was definitely one that helped.

And now, blog thoughts...

It has been quite a while since I have written anything here which has recently made me very sad. The reason it has made me sad is because I am coming to the halting relization that my days here in Europe are numbered and the numbers are getting ever so close to zero. I have never been very good at keeping a journal, so this blog is acting as my journal. Pathetic, isn't it? Three months in Europe and I all have to show for it is some boring travel log entries. I have had a lot of blog-worthy moments as of late so I am going to try and recount some of these over the next week or so. Please keep in mind that my thoughts are not anything grand but just things that I want to write down for my own benefit. Sorry, if I am being selfish, dear readers, but you'll get over it...

America the Beautiful

Do not get me wrong. I love Europe. I am having the time of life and am loving absolutely every second. I am not trying to brag, but I am. Just to bring me down from cloud nine, let's list the things that I miss about America:

1. Free water. I don't think we appreciate this the way we should. They charge you for tap water here! Crazy.
2. In direct correlation with number 1, free refills. Oh how I miss my endless supply of Diet Coke.
3. A good salad or Jamba Juice. This is probably because I am eating cheap which means a lot of schnitz and brauts, but I feel like I am not getting a lot of fresh food. I would kill for a good salad bar.
4. Bathrooms. Free ones, mind you. They have them here but you are expected to pay for most of them.
5. Having to schedule everything. I miss being able just bring friends home and have it be ok.
6. The "y" key. On German keyboards, the "z" key and the "y" key are switched and you never realize how much you use the "y" key until you keep typing "Ellen Llozd" or "zours trulz". It is quite annozing.
7. Prices. Stuff is expensive here, especially when you factor in conversion. I long for my good old Target.
8. Smiling. I miss smiling. I am a smiler. When you smile here, people think that you have mental problems.
9. People minding their own business and not telling you to cover your mouth when you yawn. Yes, this happened to me.
10. English. I miss English.

So, there they are. Again, I am not complaining, just documenting the things that I miss.

Vienna So Far- A Readers Digest Version

Vienna is awesome so far! I live with a Kimberlee and a Kimberly, and oddly enough I am the only one with a nickname. Here I am known as Ayon, the Spanish pronunciation of my name. I love living with the Kims because we have so much fun together. Even when we are lost in Vienna, we are having a blast cracking ourselves up and looking like obvious outsiders. Our couple that we live with are the sweetest people ever. Helmut and Edit. Helmut was described to us as a teddy bear and that is Helmut to a tee. He is this big teddy bear who is always cracking jokes and trying to make sure that we don’t get lost again. Edit is his cute little wife who is always rushing around us to make sure we have enough Nutella (God’s greatest creation) and yogurt to keep us happy at breakfast. We get breakfast every morning and it is always this awesome spread of meat, cheese, toast, yogurt with muselee (sp?), toast with Nutella, juices, and fruit teas for my sore throat. Food here is basically amazing. Edit took us on a walk through the Vienna Woods and we ended up at this restaurant that had every meat you can imagine schnitzeled. It was awesome. School is going really good and I can already feel my German improving. The city is gorgeous and the people are very helpful. We just got back from our day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia where it downpoured all day long, but we still had a really good time. I will try to be more consistent with my blog entries now that I am caught up, so until next time, Schuss!

Day 13 - Vienna! At Last!

On this day, I awoke to Vienna. From the train station we made our way to the Institute where we would be going to school and waited for the rest of our group. At this point, nothing was more welcome to me than the thought of unloading my luggage, seeing other people besides the three I had spent the last two weeks with, and showering. We were to stay in a hotel in our first night in Vienna. Before, checking into our hotel, we all had to go on a walk around Vienna. This was all fine and dandy except Kimberlee and I had not showered in 65 hours! We know, we counted. So, after our walk we got to our hotel and showered. I can’t remember feeling so refreshed. That night we ate at this really good pizza place, paid for by the institute. I had this really strange pizza, but it was awesome. It had shrimp, some sort of leafy lettuce, and a more biting cheese than your normal mozzarella. That night, the girls in my room and I stayed up and chatted for a while.

Day 12 - Switzerland

I awoke in Switzerland and having to lug my bags off the train. We had to settle some things in Geneva, but after that was all done we got on the train to Zurich. This train ride only made me sad that we were not spending more time in Switzerland, because the countryside there is beautiful. We drove past some of the cutest little towns I have ever seen. Most of our time in Zurich was spent in the train station with our stuff but we did take turns getting out and seeing some of the city. It was really fun and I had my first brutal wake up call that I was going to be speaking German for the next 3-4 months. We eventually got on our night train to Vienna.