Vienna, I miss you.

Greetings from Hudson, OH!

Well, I am finally home after 10 weeks, 42 concerts, a 9-hour flight home, and a 6-hour drive home from Toronto!  Yesterday, I - along with my two huge suitcases, duffel bag, clarinet bag, and purse - arrived in Toronto, where I happily greeted my parents, who drove me home to Ohio.  (Those of you who know my mom know that we made a bit of a scene in the airport - squealing and jumping up and down)!  I fell asleep around 6 pm in the car (midnight Vienna time), but upon returning home, gave my parents their presents from Vienna!  Their favorite gift was a Sacher Torte, which I brought home - wrapped and packaged in a little wooden box - from Cafe Sacher in Vienna.  After almost collapsing at the kitchen table from jet lag, I went to bed only to wake up at 5:30 am (10:30 am Vienna time).  As I was wide awake, I sent a few emails and did some organizing.  Today has mostly been showing my parents pictures, unpacking, and chatting with my mom about my experiences.  I am also about ready to go to bed, as it is 10:30 pm Vienna time...haha, but I am going to try to stay awake long enough to go out to dinner with my parents at one of my favorite restaurants, Aladdins!

I thought I would take this blog post (my final blog post) to write a bit about my daily life in Vienna and the sights and smells (and of course tastes!) I am going to miss the most.  This will be mostly pictures and captions.  During my last few days in Vienna, I tried to take pictures of everything I could so I could capture and share memories of my daily life in Vienna.

Our room!  (Shivani's bed is on the left, mine is on the right)

Our kitchen

Door to the girls' apartment

MargaretenStraße - the street on which I lived!

Cute park by our flats - the City of Vienna puts up hammocks in parks for the summer!

Poster for a Vienna Philharmonic concert - I love seeing posters for classical music concerts in metro stops!

One of our beautiful classrooms at IES (in an old palace called Palais Corbelli)

The BIPA - where one purchases toiletries 

The Billa, aka the grocery store

The Opera Toilet in the Karlsplatz metro station - for fifty cents, one can use the facilities while listening to opera music

Our U-Bahn stop

My stop on the U-4 line 

The Heiligenstadt line goes into the center of town, while the Hütteldorf line goes out of the center

Bratwurst stand near IES

Kartner Straße - one of the main streets in Vienna (IES is on a side street of this street)

The Wind Music section at Doblinger Music Publishers, the best music shop ever!

Naschmarkt (the open air market)

Delicious dried fruit from the Naschmarkt

Inside my favorite café, Café Hawelka

My favorite Vienna coffee - a "melange" (coffee with milk) 

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Outside the Musikverein

Inside the Musikverein

Outside the Staatsooper (photo credit Elizabeth Shribman)

What I am going to miss the most - our amazing FSP!
Back: Jason, Avery, Drew, Remy
Front: Maggie, Matt, me, Amy, Shivani, Anna, Danielle, Paul, and Richard

As you can probably tell, I really miss Vienna.  I miss strolling the streets of the city, navigating the U-Bahn system, and figuring out useful German words.  I miss seeing people carrying instruments everywhere, reading classical music posters on metro stop stations, and passing by the Musikverein and Staatsoper every day.  I miss attending numerous concerts (42 total!), learning about music history with great professors, and studying clarinet with my amazing teacher.  I miss being able to travel around Europe, visiting friends in Prague and London, and learning about the cultures in cities such as Salzburg, Bratislava, and Budapest.  I miss sharing a flat with five wonderful girls, sitting on the terrace with the guys while we ate dinner/played guitar/sang together, and going on countless adventures with 12 other musicians who understand the power of classical music and who have become wonderful friends.  

This was a truly amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Although I plan to return to Vienna (and Prague and London and many other cities in Europe - I can't wait until my next European adventure!), I know that never again will I have the chance to have quite this experience - spending 10 weeks with 12 other Dartmouth musicians, learning about music and each other, and absorbing many experiences in Vienna together.  I am so grateful to my parents for enabling me to go on this experience, as well as my teachers and friends in Vienna for giving me such a priceless experience.  

Yet, now it is time to spend two weeks at home before heading back up to Hanover for Sophomore Summer at Dartmouth.  I can't wait to see my Dartmouth friends again and to spend the summer in beautiful New England!  Until then, I have several loads of laundry to do, as well as lots of scrapbooking, visiting with friends and family from home, and, of course, reflecting on my time in Vienna.  

Thank you to everyone who followed my blog!  It meant so much to be able to share my adventures with you!

Vienna, Ich liebe dich.