Europe Endless

It feels like only this morning I was in the lower floor of LAX, waving goodbye to my mom and sister and setting off on my first solo sojourn to a foreign country. But it's night now one day later, and I find myself typing this in the lounge of the Westend City Hostel, close to the heart of Wien.

Here's some thoughts I had while waiting for my connecting flight in London-Heathrow. I wrote them in a little notebook which I intend to carry with me throughout the month in order to document my experiences better.

"A few minutes ago I called Westend City Hostel to inform that I wouldn't be coming in until after 18:00. It took me a while to summon up the courage to call, I was nervous of speaking to an Austrian for the first time. Yet I got a 'Yes' after my tense "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" and the call went smoothly after that. The man on the other end said it was no problem, though I wish he had asked for my confirmation number so he'd know who I am. Hopefully when I arrive my bed won't have been canceled." [I ended up having no such problem, though I was mistakenly placed in a room with four middle-aged French women who had asked for their own private quarters. This was soon remedied by the competent and multilingual staff.]

Later, while passing time in Heathrow...

"It's weird to walk into a bookstore, pull a USA travel guide off the shelf, and read about California from the outside."

Had I not had a window seat on the plane to Wien, I might have written more in my notebook then. But as I am a guy who could spend hours just watching scenery go by, I was too distracted and excited to pull it out. Excited, that is, by descending towards the ground and seeing a river winding through farmland. I knew what it was, and immediately "An der schönen blauen Donau" started playing in my head. Eventually the city itself came into view and I tried to figure out where my apartment would be, based on the location of the canal from my perspective in the air. Finally, after so much studying and anticipation, I was seeing Wien for the first time with my own eyes.

(I'm sure you've noticed this, but I am using the German words for "Vienna" and "Austria" in this blog. I have no great reason for doing so other than it's part of my wish to not experience the location like a complete foreigner. This linguistic choice of mine may or may not change later.)

Navigating the airport wasn't much of a problem; English signs and simple pictures were next to the German ones, pointing the way to go. The conductor of the City-Airport-Train that took me to the city center (Wien Mitte) also spoke in both German and English as I watched traditional neighborhoods and modern industrial buildings flash by. The ticket machine for the U-bahn was accomodating to my lack of fluency in German, and finding the right U-bahn train to Westbahnhof was simple enough. I did have some trouble figuring out which street was which upon exiting the Westbahnhof station, but that was solved after I figured out where north was. After checking in at the hostel and relaxing a bit, I decided to explore a bit of the city I had just arrived in.

I set off along Mariahilferstraße, trying to formulate observations along the way. This particular street seemed like a somewhat trendy part of the city, with many colorful neon signs over the clothing stores and restaurants. I encountered two of the würstelstands that supposedly dot the city's streets the way that hot dog stands dot New York. I considered buying some sausage from one, but didn't feel competent enough to place an order in German. The vast majority of the words seen on Mariahilferstraße were unilingual, though I did hear some passerby speak in American English. Speaking of people, I noticed that most of them will wait at a streetcrossing for the signs to turn from red to green; they won't jaywalk, even when the street is a one-lane one-way road with no cars coming. I kind of like this orderliness, this refusal to flaunt a simple law. I shall see if it is prominent throughout the rest of Wien.

There is still so much more to see, and the program has yet to even begin...