I’m sure many of us are familiar with the lyric carried out in one of Billy Joel’s hit songs: “Vienna waits for you…” I just never realized how much that sentiment would ring true for me until I arrived in this very city a few months ago.
Study abroad. The opportunity to live in a new place for a semester whilst simultaneously traveling around the world and enhancing your education. I have had the pleasure of an opportunity to complete my exchange in Vienna, Austria. People have told me, “Oh what a beautiful city”, “The architecture is amazing”, and “You’re going to love it!” But nothing could have prepared me for the actual experience. Nothing anyone told me could have come close to the magic, and wonder, and gratefulness I feel every day when I wake up.
My housing accommodation happens to be directly next to a Music University in the heart of the city. It can be a casual Monday afternoon and the sounds of opera, piano symphonies, and classical pieces on a cello can be heard throughout the halls. Afternoon cake and coffee is not only recommended, but celebrated. Standing on the left hand side of the escalator is shunned. A night “out on the town” doesn’t start until at least 1am. You’ll have to ask for the bill at a restaurant if you want to leave. So many little things that make this city so wonderful. The culture is embedded within every aspect of the city. The Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House) is just a 7-minute walk from where I live, across from the Albertina Museum, a hop skip and a jump from the Musikverein, and only ever a few subway stops away from more museums, parks, and incredible food.
The way a city has the capability to take a weight off your shoulders is amazing. Vienna embraces you, if you let it. It welcomes you and wraps you in and you feel like you can call it home. I feel like I can call it home. Now granted, people also “warned” me about the cold, standoffish Austrians who won’t like you because you don’t speak German. But no one has ever been that rude. They keep to themselves and won’t go out of their way to be overly friendly or engaging like so many of us Americans default to in a social setting. Just relax and let the city and the people absorb you. Don’t try to force anything.
I have been traveling to other places as well. It's so convenient to just get on a plane or a train and go anywhere in Europe. I’ve been to Amsterdam, Budapest, Barcelona, Prague, and Stockholm thus far. Each city has something new, incredible, and unique to offer, and no two are alike. I always spend a few days in each city and get a feel for its heart. Embracing the culture and partaking in as many activities as I can in a 72 hour or so time frame. But I can’t lie when I say that after a long day of traveling, I am relieved to be back home. I can breathe a sigh of relief.
I’ve talked a lot about the city itself but have failed to make mention of the amazing people it is filled with. The friends I have made during this time are, to put it simply, the best. The way we were able to form these bonds and kinship so fast blows my mind. I feel like I have known these people forever, and I’m certainly staying friends with them after exchange ends. We can just be ourselves around each other. Every person on exchange is in the same boat. There’s no walls we have to put up, there’s no worrying if you’re “doing the right thing” or not. Everyone is here for the enrichment of culture, for self-growth, and for pushing the boundaries of what you thought you could ever do. If you had asked me at 16 years old if I ever saw myself living in another country for half of a year, I would have thought you were insane. You ask me now: I don’t want to leave.
Abroad is something that you can’t describe to someone. No matter how hard I try, no matter how many eloquent words or flowery sentences I put in this paper, I won’t be able to do my experience justice. It’s a feeling. It’s such an emotional, intimate experience there’s no way I could possibly put it into words. But I would encourage anyone who is ready for a challenge, embracing of change, and welcoming to self growth, to consider studying abroad. I will look back so fondly at these months as some of the best of my life.
Vienna has become a part of my life. It is my present and it will follow me to my future. As I sit here writing this, I’m reflecting on the fact that I now have less than two months left in this city. It saddens me greatly. It feels like a breakup. And I know that the entire flight home I will be sobbing and wishing I didn’t have to leave. But at the same time, I know: Vienna waits for you. Vienna hasn’t seen the last of me, and I know she’ll be waiting there in all her glory when I return.
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