Well, it's taken me a while, but I've finally reached my last blog post, and this one's about the *sniffle* last day *sniffle* in Vienna! I definitely miss it!
June 3rd began with our final discussion, which was mainly just a review and reminder about upcoming assignments. We kept it pretty brief so that we could get out and enjoy our last day in the city! Our first stop was a flea market, whose discovery I don't remember at all... I think one of my friends stumbled upon it. Anyway, I wasn't really interested in any of the goods, but my friends got some cool stuff, and the people were incredibly nice! One of my friends got a very nice tea set for just three euros, and some of my other friends were given things for free! I swear the Austrians have a soft spot for Americans, or maybe just for people who try and fail miserably at speaking their language; it must be adorable.......... After the flea market, my group headed to a restaurant that we had been eyeing for some time, a place by the glorious name of "Asia Restaurant." (There are actually lots of "China Restaurants," "Japan Restaurants," and "Asia Restaurants" in Austria, and maybe the rest of Europe) As you can imagine, we were overjoyed to eat at a place that claimed to represent the world's largest continent. Unfortunately, the food quality wasn't the greatest, and while there was Chinese, Korean, and Japanese food, food from the remaining 45 Asian countries was nowhere to be found—I totally should have asked for my money back, right? The best part of the experience came at the end of our meal, when a waitress came up to us and said (phonetically), "keena vine?" We were pretty sure we heard "wein" the German word for wine, but we had no idea what she was asking about it. We tried to ask if it was free, but she didn't seem to understand. She said it several times before walking away and coming back with small cups of plum rice wine. At that point we realized "keena" was "China" in the German pronunciation. It was pretty hilarious. Fortunately the wine was free, and delicious! After Asia Restaurant, I'm honestly not entirely sure what we did for the next few hours. I think we split up and did some packing, some last-minute shopping, etc., but I really don't know. In any case, the next big thing we did was pay a final visit to the Turkish baker near our hotel. We always bought awesome baklava and other pastries from the guy, for really good prices (you could get huge loaves of bread for just one euro), and he sometimes even gave us extra stuff for free. He was a funny guy. He didn't speak much English, but he recognized that we were American, and one of the first things he said to us, with a big smile on his face, was "Obama!" Anyway, on the last day we brought him a card that we had made and signed for him, and he gave us free cookies and took pictures with us. It was great! After that we headed down the block to Caffé Latte to have one last dinner with the whole class. As always, the food was delicious (I tried tandoori shrimp!) and the conversations were great. I even managed to get some hilariously awful pictures of my friends. After dinner a few of us headed to Stephansplatz for some last-minute souvenir shopping, and I managed to find a couple of things, but the best part was going to the Hotel Sacher for a piece of the famous Original Sachertorte. We got it to-go, which I thought was kind of funny considering the fanciness of the place, but they were happy to box it up for us. We ate it across the road at the Staatsoper, where the rest of our group was watching an opera on the big screen outside. Eating the Original Sachertorte is one of those things you just have to do in Vienna, and it was a perfect way to end the day, and the trip. After that, all we did was pack up and get what little sleep we could—we had to go straight to the airport at 6:15 the next morning. It wasn't the greatest feeling, getting less than four hours of sleep before inevitable jet-lag, but I don't think anyone cared. We were just sad to be leaving one of the coolest places in the world! Poor Wien, it must be so heartbroken that we're gone...
Well, that is das Ende of my blog... I hope you enjoyed it!! I will update this thing with pictures eventually, I promise!
PHOTO UPDATE:
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| The Original Sachertorte... take-out style. |
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| Catching the end of an opera outside the Staatsoper! |
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| Hilarious. |
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| One last look at Caffé Latte! |
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| Tschüss, Wien! |
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