The phases of Traveling

I tend to experience a a number of phases in my state of mind when traveling to new places. The first phase is one of excitement and reveling in all the new and different opportunities. This phase lasted about a week or so, from when we arrived on the 7th until about the 14th or 15th, essentially after our full week of activities when we started to have oodles of time to occupy. In that first week, we played the role playing game, learned about facilitating stakeholder meetings (to ensure that everyone that wants to can be heard), and practiced observing social processes in a qualitative manner. It was really quite interesting. We had our final meeting with Craig, the PI, on Friday, since he was returning to the states on Saturday.

On Saturday I spent some time inside (I believe writing my last blog post!) and then Ilonka and I went out to explore a bit. We went to the beautiful church that is near our hostel, and then walked around this part of town for a bit. On our way back, we happened upon a lively street festival, with food vendors, beer stands, and live bands. We stayed for a while, ate a very garlicky lango (essentially fried dough), had some beer, and listened to the music. The final band was a guy on drums and a guy on the accordion with some pre-recorded backup-beats. The drummer would sometimes pull out what is apparently called a "Jew Harp", an instrument played with the mouth almost like a harmonica but with a totally different sound.

A church near our hostel.

The accordion player from the band.

On Sunday I went to the Catholic Mass at St Stephen's Cathedral with Vicky. It was a good (and free!) way to see the inside of the church, whereas before I would've had to pay to get past the back of the building. I was surprised that communion was offered to the whole congregation, but they moved very quickly through all the people that line up (I was not one of them, I could've been refused if I held my hands incorrectly!). There was also the organist playing awesome music and a soloist who probably sings in the opera. I think half the people there were tourists, and half the tourists were there for the music. A crowd formed around the organist after the service was finished to listen to him play the "exit" music, and clapped when he finished. It was really an awesome display.

Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral for Mass

One of two organs in the Cathedral

After church, we met with a few more people from the group to head to the Kahlenberg, where you can get a view of the whole city, the Danube, and the mountains surrounding the city. We took two subways and then a bus to get there, about a 45 minute trip altogether. Once we arrived it was worth it. The view was spectacular, and it was even a fairly hazy day. We headed down the City Hiking Trail 1a towards Nussdorf to tackle some of the Heurigen, which are wine taverns. One of the places we went was where Beethoven stayed in 1817. The taverns and the area of the city we were in were both really beautiful, and I was with good company. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Vineyards on our walk down from Kahlenberg

Some of the old towns we walked through. It didn't quite feel real,
but almost felt like we were in Old Williamsburg. But this place
was definitely real and not built for tourists.

Monday I spent most of the day getting little bits of work done. I went into the Plenum to read papers for Thursday, but came back right when finished because there was no internet and it was pretty cold (and I was the only person there). It was good to finish the readings for today early in the week, but I think this is when I started to enter the second phase of traveling. Luckily I had a brief pick-me-up when Ilonka, Noelle, and I went to see Bizet's Carmen (look it up, you have definitely heard at least two of the songs in it). We had standing room tickets with a pretty decent view for only 3 Euros, a deal that can't be beat for the budget-weary traveler.

The boxes in the Opera House

Me after the performance!

Tuesday again was spent mostly working on small tasks for my research, e-mailing with my advisor trying to figure out Presence, a data analysis program. In the evening I met with Jack, the president of the Vienna Alpine Club (who happens to be 77 years old) to go to the climbing hall. I didn't manage to take any photos, and only went up the wall four times, but it was really awesome. The hall was huge, with lots of routes to tackle. There are only two problems: first, most of the routes are for lead climbing, which I've never done (and never belayed for), and it's 15 Euros for me to climb. Luckily, Jack was happy to start teaching me how to belay for lead climbers, which is a totally different technique than for top roping. But it was fun! A bunch of the group went for dinner afterwards, and it was really great to spend some time with some locals (although one girl was from Winnipeg, small world!). Unfortunately I didn't manage to get any photos.

Wednesday was spent yet again trying to figure out analyses that I'm working on for various projects. I became overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do here, but mostly in combination with the amount of sight-seeing I'd like to do, even just in and around Vienna. There is so much to see and do here that it's hard to focus on getting my own work done, and it's especially difficult because I can't simply pop over to Larkin's office to get help on different problems I'm having.

So the second phase of traveling for me is becoming overwhelmed by the tasks I am charged with completing in a short amount of time, but also the eventual realization that I'm completely out of my comfort zone. I'm not in my own bed, I don't have the same kitchen facilities to cook my own food, no one understands my language and I don't understand theirs, and everything is just so different. I'm not certain, but I think if I came here with an unlimited budget, with no tasks to be completed, I would not go through this phase of absolutely hating being here and wishing I was back home. This happened while in Kenya, when I moved to Saskatchewan, and when I went to Russia. This is usually when I start searching for jobs in my field back in NYS, even if I won't get there till after finishing my PhD.

For now, I'm just trying to not bite anyone's head off, trucking along with the work that needs to be done, and planning a few weekend trips that will hopefully put a spring back in my step! Even though I feel grumpy right now, I'm betting I'll feel better in a few day's time.