Culture Shock

…maybe that’s a little extreme

But still, after about 20 hours of travel, we made it to Vienna! I can still feel the plane on my body.

But honestly, I don’t even care. Totally, completely worth it. Here are some pics from this first day, which I know is what y’all are really most excited for:

Before I get into the bulk of pictures, lemme tell ya, I’ve never experienced culture shock quite like this before. Not in a bad way – this city is gorgeous and super, super clean, people are biking or using public transport to get absolutely everywhere, and everything is ridiculously picturesque – but never have I ever had to survive in a place that didn’t speak English. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad about it, it’s just a strange sensation to attempt to order something or communicate with someone when you speak as little German as I do. I thought I was being all prepared and on top of it by using Duolingo (which did help, don’t get me wrong), but spending a couple weeks on a language apps is much different than living in the language. Even attempting to navigate the public transportation was a challenge. We ended up figuring it out and by the end of the day I think we had a solid grasp on it. It’s actually pretty similar to NYC’s subways system, so it wasn’t terribly hard, but I was proud of us anyways. Jet lag hasn’t been too crazy yet, but we’ll see how well I can get up in the morning.

Here’s a picture of just outside our hostel, a&o! It’s not too shabby of a place, though I will miss the air conditioning – but I won’t complain about the free breakfasts.

I also ate the most amazing hummus of my life.

And then we went and explored more of the city center, which is where there are more random cool things to come across and discover. Luckily I have some rad friends with me and the group of us is pretty much up for anything. (Not pictured: a beach party on the canal we stumbled across???) I doubt I’ll be able to do a full recap every day like this, but I was just TOO excited. Vienna is beautiful, guys. I can see where Johann Strauss got his inspiration for his Vienna Waltz. I am so lucky.

Love Always, Val