Professor of political science, Peter Meilaender, along with a group of 15 students traveled to Vienna, Austria for two weeks over Easter Break. In 2013, he had originally brought students to Vienna through an honors program called Contemporary Contexts that was replaced with the London program. Since then, Meilaender has been eagerly awaiting the chance to return to the beautiful city.
When organizing this trip to Vienna, Meilaender said “There are two ways to organize a trip like this: to travel around a lot in order to see as much as possible in the time available, or to stay in one place and get to know it more intimately.” This trip focused on knowing the city more intimately, focusing in on history from 1880-1920. Kelley German ’17, attended this trip and said she “wished we [the students on the trip] could have [visited] the neighboring countries around Vienna. Since it was a two week trip, we really only had enough time to do things in Austria . . . Overall though, I fell in love with Vienna immediately, so I really didn’t mind spending all of my time there.”
On this trip, the group saw a lot of different parts of history and Vienna culture. According to Michael Green ’18, they “covered a lot of ground during this trip and saw a lot of amazing places – all of the major galleries, museums, parks, palaces, theaters, etc.” The students were in Vienna during Holy Week as well, so seeing the Cathedrals and attending a service in the Cathedral of St. Stephen was also a perk of this trip.
A highlight of the trip seemed to be the coffee. Rachel Zimmerman ’18, said that “the coffee was wonderful” and Meilaender noted the group would often stop at “the coffee houses, for which Vienna is famous.”
Besides the coffee, travelling abroad was a growing experience for all. German spoke of the relationships formed on this trip. “When you go on a trip like this” German said, “when you fly across the world and spend two weeks in a foreign country where you are with people who will sing do-re-me around a fountain in Salzburg and drink tea and cake in the same cafe every day, you get really close. People that I never saw on campus before, people that aren’t in the same major as me or even the same year as me, I now get to call my new friends.”
Even Meilaender found the dynamic rewarding and said it “is very rewarding to watch the students–especially ones who have not done much traveling before- grow in confidence as they discover that they can make their own way around a major world city in a foreign country.”
Vienna was an amazing city, rich with history and a culture different from our own. If you didn’t get the chance to go this year don’t worry, Meilaender said he is “considering spring of 2018, so students should begin saving their money now.” Green said it best “It was a wonderful opportunity to travel to an amazing city with a fantastic group of people.” Some advice from German before you go, “if you go, get a hot dog. They are a foot long and they give you a whole loaf of bread!”