Week 7: 10/7 - 10/13 — Charlotte Harrison

In another life, I hope I was a Viennese princess

And just like that, my time in America has come to a close!

I woke up early-ish on Monday to shove some winter clothes in my suitcase, eat the last of Dad’s waffles, and spend time with Mom. (Unsurprisingly) we were able to wax on about the wedding yet again. After grabbing a ceremonial Starbucks for the road, we made our way to the Dulles airport and said our goodbyes.

I have to admit that if nothing else, living abroad has made me incredibly comfortable with transportation. I can’t tell you how different I felt at the airport on Monday, compared to how I felt just a few weeks ago in August. It’s easier to navigate terminals, calculate timing, and know how to pack now that I’ve done this several times.

I connected in Amsterdam for the first time, so I enjoyed getting to explore a new airport and try new food. The facilities were clean and beautiful, and it was exciting to explore charming souvenir shops filled with stroopwafels, wooden tulips, and model windmills. I might just have to add Amsterdam to my weekend travel list!

I made it to Florence at about 1pm, so I grabbed a quick snack and headed to my 3pm class with my roommate, Virginia. It did feel like a slow death to sit in there with only 2 hours of sleep, but I can’t afford to mess with my university’s tough absence policy.

On Wednesday, I had Human Resource Management at 8:15am, which is more than a little hard to wake up for. But, aside from the tiny room, I don’t mind it: today we met the HR Director of the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital and talked with him about various aspects of his job, and his perspective on the work. I also spent time researching things to do on my weekend trip with my roommate Brelan (!!) to Vienna, Austria. I gathered a list of museums, and then thankfully made it out of class after about 3.5 hours.

I spent Wednesday afternoon heading back to some of the spots I had missed while in America — lunch at Mercato Centrale, the thrift book truck parked by the theater, and the consignment store that was thankfully running a “tutti 2 euro” sale, so I bought 2 dresses for 4 bucks, give or take! I rounded out my day by grabbing some perfect gelato on the way home, and then passing out for a much-needed jet-lag nap.

Wednesday night: SAI Cooking Class! I met up with the group (conveniently) near my apartment, and then we walked to the cooking school together. Brelan made it on the way, and then we washed our hands and prepped for work. We worked with Giorgio, our teacher, to first prepare spinach and ricotta ravioli, and then squash spaghetti. After our work was done, we gathered at a long table to enjoy our homemade meal together! The squash spaghetti wasn’t my favorite, but I loved the ravioli.

On Thursday, I woke up around 7 to trudge over to History of the Mafia for the first time — things did not go well. I’m never completely alert this early in the morning, so I headed over to my main school building on autopilot, forgetting that Mafia is in a different place nowhere near it. Everything clicked just a few minutes before I made it all the way there, so I sighed (a lot), rerouted, and tried to accept the fact that I would be late to a class that I had already missed last week. As I expected, when I ducked in 15 minutes late, he stopped class and asked who I was and how my sister’s wedding was in front of everyone. I answered, bright red, and then dropped into the nearest chair. The class itself was pretty boring, but I will be able to tell you a whole lot about Italian gangs in a few weeks. Turns out they are just as bad as the movies!

Friday — travel day! Brelan and I needed to get to the airport, and after my great big taxi mess last week, we knew we needed a new plan. Enter… the tram! I had no idea about this, but there is a tram that goes from the Santa Maria Novella train station straight to the airport. We hiked over to that side of the river with our bags, dropped a euro for the trip, and made it to the airport after 30 minutes. Easy peasy!

We made it to Vienna in no time! Getting on the train into the city was a little bit of a puzzle (not to mention everything being in German), but we eventually made it to our hotel and unpacked before running out to do a little sightseeing before everything closed. Vienna was stunning!! I’m not sure why more people don’t talk about it or plan on traveling there. In my opinion, it should be up there with top European cities like Paris or London. The architecture was absolutely stunning: everywhere you look, regular apartment buildings and stores are gilded with decorations, tiled roofs, and rounded windows. Centuries-old churches sat in the middle of the city with spindly towers and massive wooden doors.

First, we visited St. Stephen’s Cathedral by the city center. It was enormous, and filled with stained glass, two towers, and even catacombs with the remains of some of the Habsburg dynasty members.

We stumbled into a restaurant nearby to try and use the bathroom, but the man was so kind that we decided to stay and grab an early dinner — he was from Turkey, which it turns out is relatively common here. We had a hummus appetizer, and then we enjoyed a chicken kebab meal with a cool yogurt sauce. It was delicious! He was so sweet, he even offered us some Turkish baklava for dessert. They were definitely not the same as the Greek/American ones that I’m used to, but they were good.

Saturday was our big tourist day!! We headed out at 9:30 and had a (pretty odd) breakfast before taking the train south to the Schonbrunn Palace. If you don’t know much about Austria, I’m happy to give you the summary of our tour: The Schonbrunn Palace is the summer residence of the Habsburg family, which was the Austrian dynasty responsible for some of the most famous rulers in their country. One you might recognize? The youngest daughter of Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette. Oddly enough, they made almost no mention of her during the tour, as the family seemed to have cut ties with her when things went south in France…

The Schonbrunn presents like a little Versailles — there is a long, hulking yellow building that fills up the gated grounds with a similar feel to its French sister. Brelan and I forked over an eye-watering amount for the all-access “Grand Tour,” so we hurried over to the palace entrance to make it in time for our slot. When we got into the lobby we received an audio guide, which I normally cringe at, but it was actually really fascinating to hear more about each room. Coincidentally, I had watched The Empress on Netflix with my mom a year or so ago, which is about the Empress Sisi, so it was exciting to feel like I was recognizing some aspects of the history.

The Habsburgs loved the finer things in life. Every. Single. Room. Custom fabric wallpaper, gilded wainscoting, and elaborate furniture sure to have hosted legendary historical figures. I particularly enjoyed their portraits, of which they had almost too many, recording each of their children or happy marriages and memories. I’ll let you scoot about my photos and check out the palace yourself.

After we finished up in the palace, we trotted around the gift shop and then headed out for the second half of the tour: the grounds! Brelan and I wound our way through the Privy Garden, and then the Orangerie, which is exactly what you think it is, but it also holds dozens of exotic plants that the Habsburgs enjoyed growing like rare apples, avocados, or tropical flowers. It was beautiful! Luckily, it was sunny and bright on Saturday, so we had a great time checking everything out. Brelan and I also saw a beautiful fountain, and then we got trapped in a chest-high maze with some children. Our last stop was the Gloriette, which is an overly-fancy pavilion at the top of a hill where the Habsburgs would gather to socialize and look out over their massive property. Casual. It was beautiful, to be fair to them, and it offered a view of the whole city from the top.

Brelan and I made our way down the hill and back onto the subway. This time, we hopped off at Naschmarkt, a permanent outdoor market near our apartment. It’s quite fascinating to see things like this and get a bit more of an understanding of Vienna’s cultural makeup. I don’t really know what I was expecting before I came, but it’s so much more than Austrian or German. Vienna is full of people from Turkey and even Greece, blonde Germans, and architecture that resembles either France or Russia. It’s truly a fascinating mix. I haggled with a few guys (you can’t possibly convince me that any of it was worth more than 5 euros), and then we basically keeled over at a restaurant out of starvation. We ordered the quintessential schnitzel (quite good!) and then had a lazy afternoon chatting and snacking.

Once we were ready to start moving again, we made it to the Belvedere Palace (Prince Eugene had it made for himself as a humble pat on the back after he saved Vienna from invasion) and grabbed tickets for the Upper Palace museum tour. This was truly remarkable. The ground floor held ancient Christian works from the 1000s-1300s, which was insane to see in person. Brelan and I kept remarking about how insane it was to consider the hands that made and touched each piece almost 1000 years ago. For my own interests, I found it quite nice to see that these centuries-old pieces reflected the exact same Bible stories that I’m taught today. Things might be different now, but the ancient artist and I know the same God. Quite weird to come to grips with.

We made it up through two more floors chronologically, following Renaissance work into Impressionist pieces. I wasn’t expecting to see Monets dotting the walls, but there they were. My particular favorite was called The Chef, which was a charming blue and salmon toned smiling cook. But! Most importantly, these floors hosted a large collection of work by Austrian Gustav Klimt. You’ve seen his work before — mostly The Kiss, which sat at the center of a room behind glass and a rotating crowd of people. It was surreal to see such a famous piece in person.

We planned on heading back into the city center for dinner, but when we came across the Sacher Hotel, we decided to hop in line and try our luck. This is a very nice hotel famous for creating the famous Viennese Sachertorte, which is a chocolate cake filled with a layer of apricot. Not my cup of tea, but Brelan wanted to try it. We did share a delicious pasta, and I got a hot chocolate that was a perfect end to the night.

On Sunday, we grabbed breakfast and strolled around the city by the Hofburg and the Museum Quartier. We did stop in the Votive Church, which was enormous and absolutely stunning. After grabbing lunch at an Asian restaurant, we hopped on the train and made it to the airport for our flight home.

Week 7: 10/7 - 10/13

In another life, I hope I was a Viennese princess

Week 8: 10/14 - 10/20

Week 6: 09/30 - 10/6

Charlotte Harrison