Forever Exploring
- Cori
- Sep 18, 2017
- 3 min read
This past week has been crazy when it comes to the weather! We have some really hot days, and then the next day it will be windy and stormy. That kinda makes it hard to make plans because you never know what tomorrow will be like even with the weather apps. So a lot of times it is just planning as the day goes on...
On the few days it has been sunny I was able to visit some places I've already been to to get some better pictures of. It is pretty crazy how a cloudy day versus a sunny day can really change the view of a place. I visited the City Hall, Volksgarten, Maria-Theresien-Platz (Natural History Museum and Art Museum plaza), and the Neue Burg. I didn't take tours of any of these places, but I went with a friend who knew quite a lot about these sites and told me the history of them. First, the Neue Burg is the Vienna New Castle made for the Emperor Franz Joseph in 1869 and later was inherited by his nephew, Franz Ferdinand. It is shaped like the letter "C" (but was originally planned to be shaped like the letter "O"). It couldn't be finished because of the cost and the start of World War II. Next we visited the Natural History Museum and the Art Museum garden (we didn't go in because we are getting a tour later on in the month). It was very beautiful and filled with students sleeping in the sun on the artist painted chairs.
I took a tour of the Belvedere Museum and Castle and again learned more history of Vienna along with some famous artists who lived here. The castle itself was the winter residence of Prince Eugene in the mid 17th century, was later sold to Empress Maria Theresia, and then turned into a museum. It currently holds the piece Kiss by Gustav Klimt (which was my personal favorite).
Our Orientation group took a day trip to Graz, Austria, which was about a three-hour bus ride down to the south/east. Unfortunately there wasn't really anything special about the city itself, but the history was very rich. It is the second largest city in Austria (going from 1.8 million in Vienna, to 270,000 in Graz) and was the home of the most important family in Austria: the Habsburgs. However, I really did like the famous Clock Tower at the highest point in their city. But enough about history... The most important thing I have done this week is go to the Zotter Chocolate Factory! I can't tell you how much chocolate I ate because just thinking about it makes me sick. The Zotter family that owns the factory is all about organic, economically friendly, mostly-vegan chocolate and they really do it right! Well, except for the odd chocolate bars they have like Fish-head and Cheese flavored... We ate different flavored chocolates in all stages of its creation, made our own hot chocolate, and visited the exotic zoo they had on property as well. Of course I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy eating and dying of a sugar-overdose.
And the last thing we did was go to the Haus Der Musik (House of Music), which was a really fun, and interactive history museum of the musicians of Austria. And we finished off that tour with a beer and Grasshopper appetizer at an Australian restaurant called Crossfield's Australian Pub.
Again, it has been a pretty laid back week so far mainly filled with tours and solo exploring, so nothing too exciting yet. However, more trip planning is currently taking place as we speak, so let's see what this weekend holds!
Comments