13 May 2017

Overall the past six days have been crazy and fun. I chose to go on this trip to experience traveling across the world for the first time. My second trip via plan e was a lot better than my first, less motion sickness and more sleep than I thought. Going through customs for the first time was easy too. Overall everything was good until we had to travel from our host family’s house to the classroom.  We have gotten lost almost every day this week on the Ubahn. Our daily commute takes an hour. We walk to a bus stop then get on the bus to the station then get on the S -train until we reach the U-trains until we get into actual Vienna. As of Friday we have officially figured it out. This week we have walked all around the inner ring of the city, also known as the old city. We have done a scavenger hunt, two walking tours and spent most of our free time in here. This city is nothing like New York or D.C. The buildings are all different shapes. Each building looks as if it is from another time period. Most are covered in a mural or decorative statues to show the history of the city. So far I have been able to visit a lot of historical places for music. I found the statue s or graves of Johann Strauss, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Franz Schubert. We also got to find the school where Beethoven and Haydn met and one of the houses Beethoven lived in on our tour. I am very excited for next week and the rest of our cross-cultural.

-Hannah Menefee

 

Prior to leaving for the cross-cultural, I was incredibly excited to visit Germany and Switzerland. I’ve often learned about Germany in history classes and knew of personal Mennonite connections to Switzerland. I knew little of Austria and, therefore, was unsure about the visit here. My hesitancy, however, was completely unfounded. The past few days in Vienna have been a great experience that I hope to never forget for several reasons.

Since being in Vienna, we have visited some amazing sights. I’m a history major, and love visiting old buildings and museums. We have visited St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a Gothic-style Roman Catholic Cathedral dating back to the twelfth century, along with others. On Thursday, we went to the Art History Museum and the Natural History Museum. 

While I have loved the classic sights, the unexpected experiences have been some of the best. As a woman from a small town, I was unsure about public transportation and city navigation, but it has been a great experience to travel the city and learn how to navigate on our own. Also, a street near the Donaukanal (a canal), offers some fantastic graffiti. Overall, Vienna has been an incredible visit so far, and I know it will be difficult to leave.

-Emma Yoder