Vienna visits

One of my favorite things about this trip has been our Vienna visits. Each week our humanities professor gives us a list of churches, parks, museums, and other sites around the city to visit and we write about them in our journals. When I first found out about that part of the course, I was very overwhelmed. However, when I started visiting I discovered that I loved going to out-of-the-way places in Vienna that I might not normally see.
For example, today we went to the Minoritenkirche. It is a beautiful church, as is the Michaelerkirche I visited last week. Though Stephansdom is a stunning work of architecture, I find it a little overwhelming. The interior is so full of paintings and sculptures that I get distracted and feel that I can't quite absorb everything I am seeing. The Minoritenkirche and the Michaelerkirche are a perfect balance of ornate beauty and quiet simplicity. I think the Michaelerkirche is my favorite, but I do love both. The Minoritenkirche is not as common a tourist site, which is refreshing.
I have also loved going to the parks around Vienna. I think I have been to all of them at this point, and they are all lovely and they all have something different to offer. Burgarten is close to our school and is perfect for studying, while Volksgarten has some beautiful sculptures and a huge rose garden. Schonbrunn is on the outskirts of the city and boasts some exquisitely manicured lawns and flower beds. Augarten lies in the shadow of two large towers left from the Nazi occupation. My favorite park, however, is Oberlaa. To get there you have to take the U-bann to the end of the line, and then you take the Strassenbann to the end of its line. That's what makes the park so perfect, though... I feel like I am out in the country when I am there. The air is fresher and the park is much bigger than the parks in the downtown areas. Most of the people at Oberlaa are older Austrians; in fact, the park is not even listed in our extensive Vienna guide book. I love going places where mostly locals go. I feel less like a tourist and more like a regular human being.
I don't want a single day to go by without seeing at least one cool thing in this city. There are so many wonderful things to see and do that I honestly don't think three monthes is long enough. I still have a list of museums to go to and cafes to visit. I know that weekend travel is one of the biggest blessings about this trip, but honestly I feel that discovering Vienna is more important to me personally. I am starting to think that it takes monthes, even years, to really absorb a city and its culture. I will get to see lots of cool places on the weekends, but I won't become part of the culture in those places like I am here in Vienna. I hope that as each day goes by I can make this city a little more my own... it has so much to offer me.