Having grown up in Slovakia, Vienna, or even Austria in general, have always felt like the cool neighbour – you know they’re always there, you might have hung out a couple of times, but they’re nothing special. You can visit them any time after all. You know, I’ve been to the city a few times when I was younger and the Vienna international airport feels like my second home now, flying in and out every couple of months. But my recent trip there opened my eyes. Maybe the city has changed over the years or maybe my appreciation as a child was not enough (which is more likely, since the impressive buildings are a few hundred years older than me). And thus, I’ve decided to bless the world with my memories from Vienna – the old, the new and the chaotic.
First McDonald’s
I don’t remember when exactly this lifechanging event took place or even the reason why I was there. All I know is that I might have been about 10 years old, it was a cold winter day (thinking about it, I’ve only been there in winter… I think) and I was getting hungry. Luckily, I wasn’t there alone and my mom, a woman who means business, was ready to take care of everything. It might have been my idea, it might not, but the next thing I remember is watching my mom as she was ordering me some fries with her broken German and dramatic gestures. She succeeded. And those were my first McDonald’s fries – a core memory. And maybe, just maybe that’s when I unconsciously decided to learn languages in the future.
The peace light of Betlehem or how I left something in Vienna
This story goes back to the time when I was a scout (kinda). Every year, the scouts in my village go to Vienna to bring The peace light of Betlehem to Slovakia. It’s a really nice tradition, when the light is passed from one place to another, from person to person, from house to house, so that you can have it in your home on Christmas. And I was about to witness the moment thanks to which the whole Slovakia can get it! Exciting stuff. But there was more to the trip – a tour of Vienna and Christmas markets (is it just me or Christmas markets are a thing that just makes sense in German-speaking countries so much more than anywhere else?).
The nicely warm coach left us on a parking lot and we were supposed to enjoy the Christmassy views while walking around the city. I don’t know how long we’d been walking when, all of sudden, I noticed something was wrong. My shoe was falling apart?? The sole was crumbling into pieces. But fear not, my mom has reacted quickly and tied the shoelaces around it so that I would still have it there… at least somehow. Until it stopped working, the pieces fell through the intricate shoelace barrier and I left my outer sole somewhere on the street in Vienna continuing to walk bravely just with a thin textile layer between me and the streets of the city. It was a little bit funny, because one shoe was bigger, which obviously wasn’t great for my back, but these things are funny when you’re a child, right? But not for too long, because the same thing happened to the other sole. It’s all about balance.
Lesson learnt: Be careful about putting your feet on the heaters in buses and trains, as that *might* melt the glue that’s holding your shoes together. The more you know~
Which way is Schönbrunn?
And now back to the recent events. The city welcomed me back by showing off its gravitational force, and I flew down the steps of the coach. My butt remembered this event for the next two weeks. Once I gathered my self successfully fighting off my tears, the adventure could start. And by “the adventure”, I mean dusting off my German knowledge, trying to figure where we were, how we could buy metro tickets and get to our hotel. Luckily, this was a bit more successful than my attempt to get off the coach and soon we were suitcase-lessly exploring the city. Do I know where I was? Well, Vienna, city centre, but that’s about it. All that matters is that we saw beautiful, beautiful buildings, most of them museums of some sorts, and could walk around in nice sunny afternoon.
But we wanted more! While we’re here, why not see everything we possibly can (from the outside, poor students with a strict time limit in an expensive city). Let’s see Schönbrunn! Frankly, as a fan of Sissi, I was quite excited about this decision, since I don’t think I’d been there before. So after a hang-out session with ducks in a park, we got on the correct metro line. And then we got off the correct metro line and got on again, just in the other direction, as, in the final stop, we realized we’d been moving further from our destination. Schönbrunn was okay, just a bit too busy, as the whole city. And how to celebrate a successful return to the hotel? McDonalds. And this, my friends, is what I call a full circle. ♥
However, there’s still one regret left – I couldn’t use the one and only phrase I remember from my German classes: “Ich heisse Lenka und ich bin zwölf Jahre alt.” Next time! (to have a full circle moment for my shoes as well)
