It's been a wild couple of days

The past few days have been wild for me, to say the least. This is my first time traveling outside of the US, and going to a completely new place, with people I do not know very well if at all, has been pretty nerve wracking, but honestly still very exciting. I'm the type of person that gets a considerable amount of anxiety about trying new things because I have no clue what to expect. Just going to the airport on Sunday was a lot for me, but I did my best to talk to some people and focused on getting where I needed to go. On top of that, I am not a huge fan of flying, but the 10 hour total trip to Vienna was not as stressful as expected! Unfortunately, I was unable to sleep and by the time we'd arrived in Vienna, I was completely exhausted, and still had not spoken to most of my classmates. I also had no cell service, so trying to contact my family and friends to let them know I was safe and sound (and tired), was a no-go.

At this point, my traveling experience had been a little bumpy. Once
we got to our hostel (and found out check-in time wasn't for another hour), I went with a group to find lunch at a small café, which was actually super nice. After checking in, I went out again with a few other people to explore the area around our hostel, which seemed to be a large strip mall. It was misty and cold, but really cool to see life in Vienna and get to know some of my classmates, as well as who I am rooming with! That evening we went to an underground restaurant called the Twelve Apostles, which served traditional Viennese food, wine, and beer. When looking at the menu there I saw vegetable strudel, and the first thing I thought of was toaster strudel, but I knew what they were serving could not possibly be that. I asked the waiter to explain to me what it was and he told me it was multiple layers of vegetables and mashed potatoes. It was actually really tasty and I'm glad I got it!

Considering that I was extremely sleep deprived, I was very tired on the way back to our hostel and ended up going to bed by 9:30pm. This was good though, because I wanted to be at least a little bit more rested for the next day's adventures, which included a(n awesome Austrian donut) tour in Vienna around St. Stephen's Cathedral, finding a small café for lunch and figuring out how to pay as a group in euros, going back to St. Stephen's Cathedral to look inside, and going on a tour of the catacombs that resided underneath the cathedral and the square surrounding it. We ended the day with a performance of Light and Love; Letters and writings by Clara and Robert Schumann. Despite my lack of understanding of the language and storyline, I really enjoyed the performance. My favorite part of the day however, was seeing and going inside of St. Stephen's Cathedral. As we came up from the U Bahn station earlier that day, I was amazed to see the cathedral right there, and I was amazed at it's size. Every inch of the cathedral was extremely ornate and seemed so thought out. Our tour guide even explained to us that the animals and their wild looking expressions were purposeful as to keep darkness or evil from entering the building, as well as the word of God. I probably could have spent a couple of hours wandering through and around the cathedral, if things were not blocked off and time permitted. Even without sleep, I've enjoyed my time in Vienna so far, and can't wait to see what the rest of the month holds.