1 and 2. A cute cottage, inside and out. Hello Friends!
How are you all? I’m doing well. I just got in from a school trip to Styria. This is one of the other provinces in Austria. Graz is the capitol (Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out there). The school subsidized many of the expenses so we got to see a lot things for not a lot of money out our own pockets. We left early Saturday morning and drove for a couple of hours to an open air museum, where we saw period houses from all different provinces of Austria. It reminded me of the Farmers Museum in Westminster for you Marylanders who are reading. The cottages were so cute, I kind of wanted one for myself.
Then we drove to our hostel to check in and had a short walking tour of Graz. Graz is the second largest city in Austria, but still pretty small. That was good though because we could walk everywhere and it felt very relaxed. We saw a couple of churches, one of which had a double spiral staircase. The only one in Europe… very cool. Then we went back to our hostel and had dinner. Many of us were pretty tired so we just relaxed for a couple hours before going to an Irish pub for drinks later that night.
On Sunday we got to sleep in for a while and then we went to a “spa”… or so we were told it was when we signed up. Turns out that by “spa” they really meant waterpark (lost in translation?) haha. But it was still really fun. It was kind of a family fun resort so there were about 7 pools and 5 hot tubs all with different features (one of the pools was windy with a current like a river!). There were also water slides and saunas. So it wasn’t what we expected but still very fun.
Then we got back on the bus and got back to Vienna around 5. Not many people went, only about 20 out of 150 in the program, but it was nice that way. I got the opportunity to hang out with people that I hadn’t really gotten to spend time with before that, and it never got “clicky” like Berlin did at times. It was a great way to get away from the stress of the end of the semester.
Okay, now I’ll back up a bit to the week after my parents left. Tuesday night was a really nice night for me. The English speaking church that I’ve been going to is hosting a series of evenings in the weeks leading up to Pentecost on the Holy Spirit. So I joined the woman leading the evening, the deacon and his wife and a few other parishioners for a night of prayer, discussion and reflection. It was so exciting and fulfilling for me to share prayer in a community again. It is something that I’ve really missed while being here. I know that I already grew from this past Tuesday and I’m looking forward to going in the coming weeks.
Other big news this week… I’ve discovered Mahler! Okay so I had heard Gustav Mahler’s music in bits and pieces before but never really delved into any of his pieces. We studied him this week in my Lied class and talked about how he incorporated song into his 10 symphonies. I’ve always had a hard time connecting to purely instrumental music, but I borrowed a recording of all 10 symphonies from our library at school and was hooked. Not only is the music itself gorgeous, but he asks his audiences important philosophical questions about life, death, love, and faith in a way that is nothing short of brilliant. It is truly incredible. This discovery was perfectly timed because it turns out that his sixth symphony is being performed in Vienna at the Musikverein on Monday night. I found out in enough time to get a standing room ticket and I can’t wait.
On Friday afternoon, IES had another student concert. I sang two songs by Gustav Holst for Voice and Violin. They are based on medieval sacred texts and are beautiful pieces, but deceptively challenging. The concert was long, but the program was really interesting and everyone performed beautifully as always.
Oh, I registered for my classes next semester and my schedule is SWEET! I have no classes on Fridays and only one class on Mondays and Wednesdays that starts at 5 PM! I feel like it is too good to be true, but then I remember how crazy my last 6 semesters have been (especially the 5 at UNH) and I think I deserve it. But I’m also really excited because the classes themselves are really interesting to me. Outside of my music classes, I’m taking “Social Welfare Policy “and “Technology, Crime and Society” to fulfill my science gen ed. I’m excited because I can learn about things in these classes that can apply to my service work. I’m also taking, opera workshop, my voice lesson, and “Music of the Classical Period”. All of this will allow me to devote more time to Oxfam, Catholic Student Organization, having a job, applying for post-grad stuff, spending time people, with any luck NOT BEING SUPER STRESSED! If you couldn’t tell… I’m pretty pumped. It will be a great senior year!
Well folks…I think that is all for now. I hear you are having beautiful weather over there, at least in New England. I hope you are finding time in the craziness of life to enjoy the sunshine. Talk to you again soon.
Love,
Caitlin
1. Me and Mom in the park in front of the HofburgHello Everyone,
Sorry it took me a while, but I’m here to report on the remainder of my visit with my parents, which was wonderful. Okay… so… after getting back from Salzburg on Thursday, we got a quick dinner across the street at a local Biergarten (small homey restaurants that serve traditional Austrian food and Beer) then walked to the church near my house for Holy Thursday Mass. It was good, but very long and German.
So the next day, for Good Friday, we found the English speaking Catholic community in Vienna and went to mass there, which was wonderful! It was great to be able to understand the readings and homily again and it truly is a community, something that the other churches I’d been to here really lacked. More to come about this later.
Before the service though, we went to Schloss Schönnbrun (the most visited place in Austria) This massive palace was the summer residence of Empress Maria Theresia and her predicessors. When we got there we walked around the gardens a bit then went on a tour of 40 of the rooms. Afterward, we walked up to the Gloriette, a viewing terrace at the top of the hill in the gardens that has a fabulous view of the city. This is also a place that my voice teacher at home, Dr. Cook, spent a lot of her time during her year as an Au Par in Vienna, so it is a place that is close to both of our hearts. That night, I made my cous cous again for dinner, per mom and dad’s request.
On Saturday, we went on a tour of the Hofburg palace. This was the winter residence and workplace of the Hapsburg ruling dynasty. There, we also saw the imperial dishes (they had a prettier name for them, but I forget what at the moment) and a museum dedicated to Empress Elizabeth, also known as Sisi.
Sunday we went to Mass at the English speaking church again, which was a really beautiful service. From there, we moved my parents into the hotel/apartments that they would stay in for the next few nights (since my roommates were getting back). Then we went to dinner at a really great restaurant called Plachuta.
Monday, we all slept in a bit and I met up with my parents at a Starbucks in the inner district. Then we went to the Stephansdom so that I could give them a personal tour based on my knowledge from Art and Architecture class. I then introduced my parents to the glories of Viennese street food: Kebabs. Finally, went went to the Vienna natural history museum, filled with fun animals, plants, and minerals.
Tuesday seemed like it would be a low key day, but turned out to be pretty special. I had to go back to class that day, so my parents took the day for themselves. They walked around the grounds of the Belvedere Palace and walked the entire length of Mariahilfastrasse (a really long street… there’s shopping there). Then, around 6:30 they met me at IES for my “coaching”. After hearing so much about her, and wanting to hear me sing, they asked if they could sit in on my coaching with Greta. When I mentioned this to Greta a few weeks earlier, she suggested that we put together a mini recital for them. So I reserved our recital hall at the center for that night, and after letting them to the room, went and changed into my nice, black dress and said “SURPRISE!” They were thrilled. We did 5 songs for them total, the two Mozart pieces that they had heard me talk about performing, and 3 others that Greta and I have been working on together. My parents loved it. My mom said that she cried more in the last 5 minutes of me singing then than she did in the entirety of my Jr. recital. (Let’s see how she does at my senior recital…) I was so glad that they enjoyed it and I know that Greta really enjoyed being a part of it too.
Wednesday, I had class all day again. So mom and dad took the day to go to the top of Leopoldsberg (the mountain with the pretty church and incredible view of the city) and they had a picnic up there with food from the Naschmarkt. After I got out of performance workshop at 7:30, they met me at the center again and then we went to the café near my house just to visit before the end of the night.
Then, Thursday it was time for them to go home L After my German class, I met up with them at their apartments and accompanied them to the Westbahnhof where they would pick up their bus to the airport. I wish I could have gone with them to the airport, but I had to go to a voice lesson at 1. So we said our goodbye’s and they went on their way. It was so nice to have them here and spend my spring break with them. As cool as it is to travel to far off countries, I had just as much, if not more fun staying in Austria and showing my parents my city, with out the distractions of flights and long train rides. I miss them, but I know it is less than a month until I’m home and see them again!
Just a brief update on the rest of my week: Friday was me and Aaron’s six month anniversary! So we stayed up late talking on skype about all kinds of things. It is kind of strange that we’ve now spent more time physically apart from each other than we have physically together, but it has still been wonderful and neither of us would trade this time for the world.
Then… Saturday… I got to go see the Vienna Philharmonic. IES gave each of the music students a free ticket and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go. It was incredible. I know I risk sounding ridiculous right now, but I’ve never been one for orchestral concerts, especially Haydn (of whom they played 2 symphonies) but it was incredible. The hall of the Musikverein is gorgeous and the sound fills the room in such a way that you can’t even tell where the music is coming from. It’s strange but cool. Then there was the whole realization that I was in the presence of one of, if not the best orchestras on the planet! I was in a standing room section, so I couldn’t see much, but it was quite an experience to be in the presence of such fantastic music. Surely one I’ll never forget.
Oh! One more thing. I got my grant! I found out Tuesday that I'd received a second SURF grant that I applied for to continue the work that I did in West Virginia last summer. This grant will give me the funds to transcribe and archive the interviews that I conducted last summer with residents of WV on their emotional reactions to music. I'll deposit the finished manuscripts in the special collections of UNH and West Virginia University so that other researchers may be able to use them. I'm going to be published! I'm pretty pumped about it :-)
Okay, folks. Time for me to head out. I don’t have too much going on this week, but I’m going on a school trip to Styria over the weekend so I’ll tell you all about it when I get back. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and are enjoying the season. I know that I am. Talk to you all soon.
Love,
Caitlin
Sorry that these are out of order. I was trying to sort through both my pictures and my dad's.2. Being goofy on the Fortress
3. Being goofy again
4. Me and Mom atop the fortress
5. Me and dad on the fortress
6. I was tired…
7. At the Innsbruck train station
8. St. Peter’s cemetery from above
9. St. Peter’s Cemetary ground level
10. Salzburg at night
11. The Sound of Music Tour bus. (Julie Andrews looks like she’s going to sneeze)
12. Von Trapp house (the back yard)
13. Mirabel gardens (the fortress is at the top of the mountain)
14. Us and the Alps
15. Mountains
16. Mom and Dad on the fortress
17. Salzburg- fortress on top
18. Ladies and Gentleman… meet my father- Mr. Joe Tourist
19. That’s Innsbruck
20. Maximillion’s Tomb
Hello Again,
All three of us are back in Veinna safe and sound after our wonderful exploration of other parts of Austria. We arrived in Salzburg in the early afternoon and found our hotel. After settling in, we set out to for Salzburg’s Altestadt (Historical District/Old City) On our short walk, my mom had her first encounter with the Alps. There were times on the trip that I wasn’t sure if she came to Austria to see me or the mountains because she was so excited about them, and understandably so. They were stunning. The towering snowcapped peaks were awe-inspiring.
Once we reached downtown we were all pretty hungry, so we went to a sweet restaurant with outdoor seating and my dad was introduced to Tapfelspitz, a boiled beef dish that he could not stop raving about. My mom and I had beef goulache, which was also quite good. After dinner, we walked around the area a bit more and proceeded to stumble upon the Rodeo Drive of Salzburg, needless to say… we did a lot of window shopping, but it was still fun. After that, we walked a little while longer (and got gelato of course) because the weather was simply beautiful.
On Tuesday, we took an early train to Innsbruck and arrived there around 11. Our first stop was to see the tomb of Maximillion of Hapsburg, an emperor of Austria. Let’s just say ol’ Max thought rather highly of himself considering the tomb took nearly 40 years to construct and is so large that a new church (The Hofkirche) had to be built just to house the thing. The sarcophagus itself is enormous, covering some 60 square feet with 24 panel reliefs depicting scenes from his life on the sides and a bronze statue of faithful Max praying on his knees on top. But as if that wasn’t enough, the sarcophagus is surrounded by 24 larger than life-size bronze statues of family members, buddies, former Austrian rulers, and great rulers throughout history (i.e. King Arthur). If you couldn’t tell already, I, personally, think it’s… a little much. But Max’s goal was to become immortal by demanding such an extravagant burial, so I guess he got his wish.
Later that day, we took a horsedrawn carriage ride around the city and the driver pointed out a few more important sights. After that, we checked out St. Jacob’s Cathedral, which was one of many stunning cathedrals in the Renaissance/Baroque style that we visited. We did some shopping throughout the day for souvenirs to bring back to loved ones at home. Also, mom and dad finally got to buy their own coocoo clock. I remember my mom talking about wanting one since I was little, so she was really excited about it. Then we got back on the train and headed back to Salzburg for the night.
On Wednesday, we made our way up to the Salzburg Fortress. I’m ashamed to say that I’m still not entirely sure what it functioned as, but for our purposes it was a giant white medieval castle on top of a mountain that overlooked all of Salzburg. The views of the city and mountains were incredible. Upon coming down from the fortress, we went into the Salzburg Cathedral and walked through the Mirabel Gardens (as see in the Do Re Mi song in The Sound of Music) which was an appropriate precursor to… The Sound of Music Tour! Salzburg would not have been complete without it.
This four hour bus ride showed us (among other things) the two houses used for the Trapp family house, the gazebo that was used for “I am Sixteen going on Seventeen” and the church that Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer were married in. The church that they used is in a town in the lakes region of Austria where they make the best Apple strudel on earth. My family and I are not necessarily Sound-of-Music-Crazy, like a lot of other people I know, but it was a great way to spend our afternoon.
On Thursday, we spent a little more time in Salzburg before heading back to Vienna. I had seen a picture of St. Peter’s cemetery in a book and really wanted to see it, I know… me and cemeteries, (my roommates laughed at me when I told them) but this one was really pretty too! Just look at the pictures. This was also the cemetery that the family hid in, in the filming of Sound of Music. Then we finished up some last minute souvenir shopping and head back on the train.
I know that was almost a week ago and I’m just posting it now… I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to upload things to the internet at my apartment so I had to wait until I got back to school today. I’ll post about the rest of our stay in Vienna in a couple of days. My parents both send their “Hellos” to everyone reading. We’ll write again soon.
Love,
Caitlin (Mom and Dad)
1. Me and Dad at the Naschmarkt