Hingelstad to Tingelstad

As my final blog post, this will serve to wrap up the last few days back in Vienna and to provide final thoughts on the experience as a whole.

Thursday, Feb 1st

After making some turtlenecks for the road, we headed to the train station one last time. We would be traveling to the starting point of our trip, Vienna. As there were just two evenings left, I made a small list of the things I wanted to do. The first on this list was to visit the naschtmarkt, Vienna's largest outdoor market. I headed there with Matt and Alex and we quickly realized it was primarily a conglomeration of food stands and small restaurants. This was, of course, no problem for us as we had yet to eat dinner. We strolled through the market and couldn't help but notice the mass of falafel stands. There were a few bakeries, cheese stands, and Asian restaurants, but by far the most common was the middle eastern cuisine. As we strolled past stand after stand of olives, baklava, shawarma, falafel, and hummus, the vendors eagerly tossed out samples in hopes of roping us into a sale. Alex accidentally ended up with about a pound of Turkish delight, even though his original intent was to buy just two or three pieces. We scored some falafel for an all-time low price: 20 pieces for €2! After a few more free samples of hummus and sausage, we settled on a little Asian restaurant that covered multiple cuisines. Alex ordered crispy duck noodles, Matt got dim sum, and I went with sushi.

We finished our trip to the market with just enough time to get back to the hostel and make our way to the final concert of the trip. We would be at the musikverein seeing a concert featuring works by Bach and Mozart. The pianist and conductor, Sir Andras Schiff, played incredibly well and even conducted while playing piano. His take on Mozart's C minor piano concerto and his encore piece were both awe-inspiring. This is a man whom I've seen play in YouTube videos, but to see him perform in person was truly remarkable. Matt and I tried to get his autograph after the concert, but unfortunately he eluded us.

Friday, Feb 2nd

Our last real day in Europe had arrived. We took one last class photo by the towering statue of Maria Theresa before visiting the massive State Art History Museum. After I thought I'd seen all the paintings on the first floor, I realized there was another wing full of them on the other side. I don't consider myself much of an admirer of paintings and this type of artwork, but I could have easily spent hours in here; the paintings were breathtaking. Eventually, however, we had to get on with our day to accomplish the last couple of things on the to-do list.

An artifact from the Greco-Roman exhibit.

Matt and I headed to the Cafe Frauenhuber to meet Jeffery for lunch. This cafe, pointed out to us nearly a month ago by our Vienna tour guide, was the site at which Beethoven and other composers premiered some of their works. We didn't get the chance to eat here during our initial stay in Vienna, so we made sure to fit it in this time. It’s a very formal cafe and definitely more expensive than what I'd grown accustomed to spending on meals. Nevertheless, all the street food I'd purchased up to this point allowed me to splurge a little and afford a nice meal at the tail end of the trip. I ordered a dish simply called “Spinach” on the English menu, which turned out to be spinach puree, a fried egg, and some kind of potato cake, and it was all very delicious.

Our last event of the trip was a group meal at a winery in Heiligenstadt (or, as Jeffery first called it, Hingelstad), the site at which Beethoven wrote the famous Heiligenstadt Testament. For this reason, the winery was a bit Beethoven-themed, providing a nice contrast to all the Mozart-themed things we’d seen in Vienna and Salzburg. The buffet from which we got to eat, for example, was called the “Für Elise Buffet,” and featured bread dumplings, chicken schnitzel, and sauerkraut, among other yummy foods. We even got to take leftovers, and only after boxing them up did we realize we wouldn't get a proper chance to eat them with our flight the following morning. Matt, MariHa, Caroline, and I then decided to leave Vienna with a little something after the city had given so much to us. We took our leftovers back to the hostel, gathered up what food was left in our rooms, and pieced together eight little care packages to hand out to the homeless people around Stephansplatz. They each got a medley of dumplings, strudels, potatoes, schnitzel, falafel, sliced bread, Nutella, and even some of Alex’s Turkish delight. Seeing the looks on their faces when we handed them the food was more than enough reward for our actions, not to mention the perfect way to end an amazing month in Europe.

Final Thoughts

There aren't really any words to adequately describe the trip, although through this series of blog posts I have attempted to do so. Everything exceeded my expectations, from the people I met to the music I got to experience and everything in between. The sights were incredible, the museums were fascinating, the food was delectable, and the train rides were even mildly entertaining. I fell in love with two cities and thoroughly enjoyed my time in all of them. I can't thank Dr. Powell enough for coordinating this fantastic program and for being the first professor to buy me a drink. I can easily say that this was the best month of my life and I will remember it for the rest of my life. As our tour guide in Salzburg told us, the best souvenirs are the ones we carry with us in our minds.