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WU WEIN - VIENNA, AUSTRIA>
SITES
- St. Stephens Cathedral (Stephandsom)
- Schönbrunn Palace (summer home of the Hapsburgs)
- Belvedere
- Staatsoper (opera house), Rathaus (anything along “the ring”)
- Museums quartier
- Hofburg Palace
- Spanish Riding School
- Haus der Musik
- Sisi Museum
- Donau Insel
- Albertina
- Café Central
- Natural History Museum
- Prater
- The Danube
TRANSPORTATION
“I used the U-bahn mostly (metra system) to get into the city or to the university. You can get really anywhere with that. The streetcars are also helpful, but I found that unless I knew exactly where to get on the specific one I needed and when, it was a bit of a pain. I would recommend using www.wienerlinien.at. I used this website a lot. It lets you enter in two locations and gives you a handful of routes you could take on public transportation to get there. Make sure you have your transportation pass with you at all times. They don’t always check, but if you are on at late at night or other times when the trains aren’t crowded, there is a good chance they will ask to see your ticket.” – Lillian Mehta
“Illinois study abroad costs include a transportation pass, a student pass good for the semester. This includes subways, streetcars, and night buses. Have your card on you at ALL times. Passengers are randomly checked and if you don’t have your card you will have to pay a hefty fine. I got around mostly by subway (called the U-bahn) and utilized the night buses when the U-bahn stopped running around 1 AM. It is super easy to get around Vienna and I relied mostly on public transportation to get to school. You can also rent City Bikes for a euro/hour and also a great way to see the sights while getting around! You will get familiar with the transportation within the first few weeks and then it’s smooth sailing from there! Vienna is not too big so a lot of places are also walking distance.” – Janet Lee
“THE U BAHN AND STRASSENBAHN. They are awesome. If you go your fees include an unlimited pass to both of these.” – Cara White
JARGON
“I couldn’t really tell you what phrases I picked up that would be helpful necessarily because you won’t remember/recognize them when you need/hear them. One thing I can suggest is that you pay attention to body language, or just judge the situation at hand. When you are at the grocery store, for example, and the cashier is ringing up your purchases, she will probably ask you something which generally means “Do you want a bag?” since you usually have to pay for bags. I had no idea what they were asking me at first, but once you figure it out, even if you don’t understand the words, you know what they are asking you.” – Lillian Mehta
“Austrians use GrusGott as a form of greeting, you’ll hear this in grocery stores and such. Other than that, learn some basic German phrases before going. TAKE A GERMAN CLASS WHILE YOU ARE THERE!!! YOU WON’T REGRET IT!” – Janet Lee
- bier bitte = A beer please
- Ein kebab bitte = A kebab please
ATTIRE
“I would say the general attire in Europe is a little bit nicer than what we are used to at college in the U.S. Guys were wearing button down shirts and ties or sweaters to class, more as the rule than the exception. There were people dressed casually too though. I never wore anything much nicer than a t-shirt and a hoodie, and I never felt underdressed. I wouldn’t wear sweats in public, but you probably could have. I wouldn’t say there is anything really that is frowned upon—at least that I found out about!” – Lillian Mehta
“While Vienna isn’t as fashionable as some of the other cities, it’s still Europe and trendy! The biggest difference to the States was what to wear to school. Sweats are unacceptable and people DO NOT wear hoodies. Students dress nicely (ranging from casual to business casual) to classes. Even if you are just going to the grocery store down the street, you will get some stares if you are in your pajamas.” – Janet Lee
“No one wears sweatpants, sweatshirts, pajamas, or anything other than jeans and above out of the house. People will look at you weird if you’re wearing any of these items. And girls need to be careful of skirts/dresses in bars.” – Cara White
DINING
“They eat a lot of schnitzel. I only had it once… but it’s everywhere. Also—KEBABS. They are delicious, and they are all over the place, three stands on every street corner practically. I would say most of the things in restaurants were meat (chicken, veal…) and potatoes kind of stuff, but you can also get soups and salads of course. I don’t really know about vegetarian options, as I never really looked for any. Austrians also love würstel (sausage).” – Lillian Mehta
“If you like heavy, fried food you will feel home here! Local favorites are schnitzel (fried veal or pork or chicken), French fries (pommes frites), potato salad (kartoffelsalat) and other mixtures of potatoes and cheese. There are vegetarian options but not found as frequently in the States. Pastries are amazing there, try the sachertorte, a delicious chocolate cake!” – Janet Lee
“Schnitzel, which is basically breaded and fried meat. It’s delicious. There are tons of kebab stands (basically a chicken gyro) and gelato.” – Cara White
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
“The two main things I ran into were regarding store hours and over-the-counter drugs. First, we are used to everything being open late in the U.S.—til 9pm at least—during the week, and also stores are usually open on Sunday here. In Europe, things close at 5 or 7 during the week and then aren’t open at all on Sunday (or many other random national holidays that we aren’t expecting). You get used to it, but at first it is a challenge to plan ahead to when you might need to go to the grocery store so that you don’t run out of food on the weekend. Second, they tell you before you leave to make sure you have all your OTC drugs because you might have to get them at the pharmacy once you are abroad. So I did what they said and brought my cold and allergy medicine. The trouble came when my bag got lost on one of my trips and when I finally got it back, my meds had been stolen out of the bag. They were right—you really can’t get simple cold meds at the store. You have to go to the pharmacy, which is a pain, and then talk to the pharmacist, which is difficult when you don’t know very much German. Bring lots of cold meds and don’t pack them all in your suitcase when you go on trips!” – Lillian Mehta
“Honestly, I felt more reverse culture shock coming back the States. There are some minor differences, like the fact that Austrians take their dogs everywhere: restaurants, stores, school, etc. And the dogs there do not bark! It is so crazy. You’ll find that the Viennese aren’t the friendliest in customer service areas, probably the biggest difference to home. Waiters at restaurant take a long time and can be rude. At the grocery store they expect you to bag all of your own groceries at lightning speed. Don’t expect the same level of customer service that you’re used to. There are no free refills of drinks, and you have to ask for tap water (litungswaser).” – Janet Lee
“The Viennese were pretty rude. Actually not that much of a culture shock, it takes a while to get used to everything being in German instead of English. You live in an international dorm so you’re around English speaking people most of the time though.” – Cara White
ENTERTAINMENT/ NIGHTLIFE
- Köö—A chain of pool halls they have all over the city. Nice place, lots of pool tables, and just regular tables if you don’t feel like playing pool.
- Loco—fun, make sure you go at least once (same with Ride Club probably, but I actually never made it there)
- Flex—if you are a girl, make sure you go with guys, but also bring other girls. It’s kind of shady.
- Go to a symphony or opera or something while you are there. You won’t regret it.
- www.haydnkino.at A movie theater that shows movies in English
“There is SO much to do in Vienna! Cultural, athletic, nightlife, SO MUCH!!! Culturally- Museums, cheap student tickets to the opera, Vienna philharmonic, amazing classical music, art shows/exhibitions… Clubs… For a list of clubs see “Janet’s Guide to Vienna” on the College of Business study abroad website! Guarantee you will never have a dull moment.” – Janet Lee
“Vienna is known for its opera, there are tons of bars and clubs. The university sponsors nights out and has a cocktail stand for a month in the summer J” – Cara White
HOUSING
“I lived in Haus Erasmus. It was one of two student housing locations and I definitely would live there again. I liked having a non-American roommate (the other place only has single rooms, which I will admit might be nice but it was cool to meet more people this way) and we made a lot of cool European friends. It is closer to the city center, a little farther from the university but it is easy to get there on the U-bahn. It is really close to two U-bahn stations, one being Westbahnhof which is a main station in the city and also where a lot of trains leave from to go to other major European cities—very convenient.” – Lillian Mehta
“I lived at Haus Erasmus, an international student dorm. Illinois gives you two options for housing: Haus Erasmus and Haus Panorama. I loved living at Erasmus because it is an AMAZING location, short subway ride to school and very close to the heart of the city! I also loved meeting people from all over the world at Erasmus. There are a lot of North Americans that live at Erasmus, but provides for some crazy times. The rooms are double and you would have a roommate.” – Janet Lee
“Haus Erasmus. It was the best. Live there. 5 min walk to the main train station.” – Cara White
BUDGET
“Outside of tuition and all the fees we already paid to the university, I spent around $4,000 while abroad. This included my travel to other countries, food (granted, I wasn’t eating out all the time or buying big meals to cook myself), shopping for clothes/gifts (I didn’t really buy that many gifts), movies, nights out, books, anything else I spent when I was actually in Austria. I never really stopped myself from doing something because I was afraid it cost too much (unless it was completely outrageous) only because I figured it was a rare opportunity for me to get to do all these things, so I might as well do them.” – Lillian Mehta
“I did not set a budget. While I was there, the Euro conversion was at 1.6 so keep in mind that I spent a LOT more than some other students at different semesters. Outside of program costs, I spent about $10,000. This included everyday food, buying supplies when I got there (kitchen stuff), books, going out, cultural stuff, traveling, hostels, etc.” – Janet Lee
“I didn’t set a budget and I spent a ton of money because of the exchange rate. And I traveled a ton while I was gone. I’m still in denial about it I haven’t added up exactly how much I spent.”
- Cara White
CLASSES
“I planned it out so that I didn’t need anything to transfer, I just needed elective hours. The classes I took were:
- Life in Britain and the U.S.—actually really interesting, and my favorite class
- World Englishes—boring professor, wouldn’t recommend it
- Conquering Global Market: International M&A—pretty good, same material as parts of BA449
- The Language of Marketing: Selected Issues—not terrible, very similar to BA320
None of my classes had any homework, and attendance was not required, although I know other classes were different. There was an exam for exchange students at the end of each of my classes—all much easier than the exam for regular WU students (they had much more prep work and things to do for the exam). The teachers were all nice, they tried to include as much class participation as possible I think, but often I felt pretty excluded (which was fine I guess) being a native English speaker. The thing was I already knew all of the answers so I just kind of sat there so the other kids could try (questions about synonyms or difficult English words, for example). I didn’t have any group projects, except sometimes in class the teachers would have us work with our neighbor on something during class, but nothing else.” – Lillian Mehta
- “Strategic Management- business elective (3 hours) (can be BADM449 if senior standing)
- German Level 1 A- German 101 (4 hours)
- Negotiation Management- business elective (3 hours)
- Current Issues in Nonprofit Management- (business elective)
Classes were very easy. It was great to be in classes with students from all over the world. The school in Vienna has block classes. All my classes were block style except for my German class which met once a week. The other ones only met a few times during the semester but for extended periods at a time. I even went on a weekend trip with my Strategic Management class. Workload is light, classes are interesting, and exams are infrequent!” – Janet Lee
- “Gender and Diversity in the Workplace
- Strategic Management
- Nonprofit Management
- European Law and Economics
I got all business elective credit. Grading scale is 96-100 is an A and 80-96 is a B, so I would take things pass/fail if possible. But I was in class for a total of 12 days the entire semester. Vienna rocks.” – Cara White
PREPARATION BEFORE STUDYING ABROAD
“I kind of did what they suggest you don’t do. I studied abroad in my last semester, which causes a little problem in terms of graduation. Transcripts don’t get sent back and transferred correctly for a few months after you complete the semester, so I haven’t technically graduated, even though I have completed all my requirements. Also, I was not back for my actual graduation, but I can just go to the next one. On the plus side, I didn’t have to make sure any of my classes transferred over, which caused a few of my friends problems. While I wouldn’t necessarily suggest going abroad your last semester, I would try to make sure you aren’t going to get screwed up by requirements. If you can afford a semester of all elective hours, do it. The classes will be much easier, and it will save you a lot of stress.” – Lillian Mehta
“I am an ACCY major and was ahead in ACCY classes by one semester. When I came back, I was back on track with the normal ACCY schedule.” – Janet Lee
“I was a semester ahead in business classes so I basically took the semester off.” – Cara White
TRAVEL
From Vienna, students traveled to:
- Athens, Greece
- Prague, Brno- Czech Republic
- Venice, Florence, Rome, Verona - Italy
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, the Black Forest- Germany
- Barcelona, Spain
- Zurich, Basel- Switzerland
- Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz- Austria
- Bratislava- Slovakia
- Croatia
- Ireland
- Nice, Avignon- France
- Slovenia
- Budapest, Hungary
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Monaco
Cheapest place to travel to:
“Salzburg is easiest, because it is only three hours by train and if you have to go anywhere West of Vienna, you basically go through Salzburg, so you can easily stop for a few hours to see the place. Anywhere not on the Euro seems cheap when you are living on the Euro (unless you go to England). Switzerland is not cheap, nor is Sweden—but I definitely recommend going to Sweden. Greece is fairly cheap once you are there I think, but it’s harder to get to.” – Lillian Mehta
“It was easiest to travel throughout Austria. From Vienna it is super easy and cheap to get to Prague in the Czech Republic and Budapest in Hungary. It is easy to travel all through Europe, by train or by cheap flights.” – Janet Lee
“Eastern Europe. Language is pretty tricky, but everything is much cheaper. Most places we went people had English so it wasn’t that bad.” – Cara White
Airlines:
“RyanAir—yes it says 1 Euro flights, and actually some of them are, but obviously they tack on fees so it will be more, but in reality you could pay only 50 Euro for a flight somewhere (which is what I did to get to Stockholm). Also, SkyEurope is cheaper than some other airlines, although it is definitely not as cheap as RyanAir. I had a Eurail Global Pass as well (10 days in 2 months). I thought it was convenient because you don’t have to buy a ticket whenever you go somewhere; you just bring the pass with you.”
– Lillian Mehta
- www.skyeurope.com
- www.ryanair.com
- www.flyniki.com
- Student Universe
- Eurail (train)
- OeBB within Austria (train travel)
- Air Berlin
Hostels:
”If you go to Athens, you HAVE to stay in the Hostel Aphrodite. It is probably one of the lesser nice hostels you will stay in but it’s really not bad and it is totally worth it. There is a bar in the basement and it’s small enough where you have to talk to people and it is so much fun, even if you don’t usually go out to talk to strangers. Just about everyone who stays in hostels is outgoing and friendly. The YMCA hostel in Basel, Switzerland is really nice—so I would guess any other YMCA’s are nice too. There isn’t much to do in Basel, so don’t go just for the hostel…” – Lillian Mehta
Fun things to do in the other countries:
- Athens—if you can go when its warm out, definitely go to a beach, and obviously the acropolis and all the ruins
- Munich—Beer Challenge (I didn’t get to do this because it was a Sunday and there weren’t enough people to go, but I have heard it is really fun)
- Black Forest—go to Triberg and see Germany’s highest waterfall. If you go in the wintertime, it is SO pretty with all the snow and ice.
- Innsbruck—Schloss Ambras. It is actually part of the castle and royal palaces in Vienna, and there are some weird and crazy exhibits there. Plus, Innsbruck is gorgeous.
- *Any city you go to, I would recommend going to the top of whatever church or bell tower or something that you are able to go to the top of, because you will get a great view of the city
- http://www.neweuropetours.eu/
- Go to the South of France. It’s gorgeous and everyone passes it up to go to Paris. Nice is really cool and then definitely do a day trip to Monaco.
FAVORITE MEMORY
“I went to Athens with one other girl from the program in Vienna and our last night in Greece we decided to spend the night down in the bar of the hostel instead of going to sleep early like we did most other nights after long days of sightseeing…that night a group of students our age from Sweden had just arrived at our hostel. After meeting them and hanging out for a while in the bar, about eight of us decided to go explore Athens nightlife. We knew our way around by then, but we usually took the metro to the downtown area, but since it was too late at this point, we just ended up walking—about 45 minutes. The center was crazy and totally crowded, nothing like I had ever seen before (you think Green St. at 2am is bad…) and we found this little salsa club on one street. It was a little weird, because it was mostly people in their early 30’s who were there, but it was so much fun and we stayed for about an hour and a half and then went back to the hostel. The Swedes were actually doing a long trip around Europe, so a week or so later they stopped and saw us in Vienna, and then later we made a trip to Stockholm. Make friends with whoever you can (that isn’t creepy), it’s nice having contacts around the world.” – Lillian Mehta
“While I was in Vienna, Austria was hosting the European Soccer Championships. Downtown Vienna was converted into a “fan zone” with big screens showing the games. Fans from all over Europe came and dressed to win! My friends and I decked out in our Austria gear and went to Fanzone for the Austria-Turkey game. Austria is not a very good team but when they scored a goal all of Vienna went nuts!!!!! It was probably one of the most memorable and amazing times I had in Vienna.” – Janet Lee
“3 week spring break all over western Europe. So many memories I had such a great time. I wouldn’t trade my semester abroad for anything.” – Cara White
ADVICE
“You don’t regret the things you do, you regret the things you don’t do. Take risks.”
– Lillian Mehta
“While abroad it is really easy to stick only with Illinois students or other American students studying abroad. While those friendships are some of my closest friendships to date, I really encourage you to meet people from different countries and especially your host country. Meeting people from all over the world was definitely a highlight of my experience and I cherish my friendships all around the world and know that I will someday see them again! (Sounds really corny I know, but make the most out of your experiences and meet as many people as you can! Don’t limit yourself!)” – Janet Lee
“Do it. Don’t worry about money. You will make unforgettable memories and meet people from all over the world.” – Cara White
***While in Munich, you definitely need to go to the Hofbrauhaus! It is totally cheesy and touristy but if you go to Munich and you don’t go… you’re missing out. You just have to experience it, even if it’s only for 20 minutes…which it won’t be, because you will stay all night.
***While in Austria you definitely need to go to Salzburg and go on the Sound of Music tour!!!!! It is absolutely amazing. Salzburg is a beautiful city and the tour will complete your life, I PROMISE. DO IT. YOU KNOW YOU WANNA.
***While in Berlin, you definitely need to go on the free walking tour!
All answers provided by:
Lillian Mehta
Janet Lee
Cara White
