Vienna, Austria

Vienna - the Capital of Music as known in the world. However, do you know what is the meaning of Vienna or Wien (in German)? It means wind, which sure is true. Quite a windy city indeed! Good thing it is summer, so the wind actually feels nice under the sun. I stayed in the city for 11 days and I must say, I love the ambience here. Most of the time I was working as a co-organiser for a summer course organised by a student organisation at TU Wien. I learned to take the subway, the tram, the night bus to go around the city, and I slowly became part of the social infrastructure. The city is full of historical architecture, palace and museums, as a photography lover, there is never a dull angle and moment even when you are just waiting for the bus.

I am a dessert lover so I have to visit the Hotel Sacher to enjoy a piece of famous Sacher cake. I also ordered a cup of chocolate which tasted unbelievably good. The chocolate was not sweet at all, yet it has a strong fragrance which totally satisfied your desire for chocolate.

During those 11 days, I made a good friend from TU Wien, Yan. The thing I like about traveling is because you always get to meet new people. You are more open-minded because you are in a foreign place, out of your comfort zone and you feel like anything can happen. This is the moment when you are going to make friends, when you see kindness from strangers, when you exchange perspectives and experience with each other, when strangers becomes friends.

I went on a hike to the mountain called “Schneeberg” together along with Yan and the participants from the course, it is the toughest hike I have ever done. We chose the shorter route and it took us 10 hours back and forth. It is also quite dangerous with some very narrow paths and giant ant colonies. You have to keep your eyes on the path and in the front at the same time, which is very exhausting. However, it’s quite worth it when you get to see the view.

There was an international party in the summer course, where people have to represent their own countries. Yan and I were representing China and Hong Kong respectively and she lent me one of her Cheongsam, or 旗袍 in Chinese. I hadn’t worn one since I was 6 years old! I was super excited and we both looked amazingly Chinese during the party, which was probably why everyone wanted to take pictures with us, but we had a great time! I have always been quite international, open-minded and I am not exactly a traditional Chinese. It felt quite strange but good and right at the same time when I was wearing the Cheongsam. I am proud to identified myself as a Chinese. As my dad once told me, “No matter how far you go in life or where life takes you, never forget where you came from.”

Time flies and especially when you are traveling. It's the last night before I leave Vienna for Budapest and I did what I have longed to do ever since I learned Vienna as the Capital of Music from my school readings. I went to a Mozart concert!! It was at the Großer Musikvereinssaal, one of the finest concert hall in the world. The acoustic was amazing and it looked marvellous. It might sound a bit silly but I felt like I was a royalty because the concert hall is full of sparkling crystal lights and gold colours. The architecture and interior details including the walls and ceilings are all so fine, it felt like only VIP were allowed in the concert hall. Of course it is not true, everyone who bought a ticket and dressed nice are allowed, which included many tourists. The orchestra did a very good job, they played all the famous songs from Mozart as expected. What I didn’t expect was that the conductor was very playful, he invited the audience to participate in the music together with claps. I was very impressed by his action, he definitely lightened up the ambience and connected with us which made the music even better. After the concert, on our way back, we passed by a public outdoor cinema. It was showing a black and white movie with some street stands a a full house of people watching it. I really like to travel like that, seeing not just the touristic things, but also the local side of the city and culture.

I couldn’t find a better way to end my 11 days in Vienna than that.

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