Getting lost!

Corn on Pizza?!

This particular assignment was actually one of my least favorite. I personally am kind of a control freak, so not knowing where I am, especially in a new city my first week, is honestly completely terrifying. Fortunately, as we were told before coming to Vienna, and based on what I found out while being lost, there isn't really an unsafe place to go in Vienna (except for maybe Schwedenplatz at night by yourself if you are a woman). This is so unlike the U.S., or at least most California metropolitan cities that I have been to. Davis is a relatively safe area, but where I grew up in Santa Cruz, if you find yourself in the wrong alley at night, it can be extremely dangerous. That's why, during my first few days in figuring out things about Vienna, I found I was just extremely happy to be there. Not only are its buildings and parks just breathtakingly beautiful (except our building of course), but it is just a very pleasant place to be with nice, beautiful people to be around. I also love how different all areas of Vienna can be, based on what district you are in. For example, you can find yourself in the slightly touristy, but absolutely breathtaking area of the first district, which has breathtaking buildings, great (and expensive) shopping areas, and fancy restaurants. Or you can find yourself in more residential apartment building areas, like where we got lost, which has great little cafe's and small shops. While we were there, we went to a cafe which had an outside garden for us to sit in. Because we didn't know any German at all, with the waitress not knowing that much English either, it took us a while to look at the menu, while relying on my pocket translator for help. It turns out that this translator for food was useless, so we just settled on ordering Pizza off the menu, and hoped for the best! It turns out, the Viennese like to put corn on their pizza, to Catherine and I's surprise, and it was an interesting, but all together tasteless addition. 

This assignment of getting lost in my first few days of Vienna really helped loosen me up for the other days to come, when I felt more lost in the new city, and was really a more relaxing and fun experience rather than stressful.