A Typical Day in Vienna

Warning: The title of this post may be misleading. Read on at your own risk.

There’s no such thing as a “typical day” in Vienna. One of the things that I love about Vienna is the variety of things that happen around the city, so each day brings a new adventure. But, in the title I promised a blog post about a somewhat typical day, so I decided to choose a day to describe.

Here is what my day looked like on a Monday in December:

I wake up at 7 a.m. on Monday mornings because I have to leave my apartment at 8 a.m. to allow myself enough time to commute to the secondary school where I intern. To get to my internship, I take the U-bahn from my apartment in the 5th district to the school that I’m placed at in the 19th district. I am at the school for five class periods. I usually teach one to two lessons each Monday—always a music lesson and sometimes also an English lesson. This particular Monday, I taught two lessons. My first lesson was a music lesson about reading treble clef note names and my second lesson was an English lesson about how people identify with the place where they live.

After I am done with my lessons, I take the U-bahn back to the center of Vienna because I have classes in the afternoon at the IES Abroad Center. This particular Monday, I stopped at the Karlskirche Christmas Market on my way back to the IES Abroad Center and browsed all the different Makers’ stalls. There were stalls of ornaments, soaps, journals, jewelry, food, drinks, and so much more. I also got a hot chocolate to sip while walking around the market. Soon, it was time for class, so I headed to the IES Abroad Center where I have my classes. I have two classes back to back on Monday afternoons.

After class, I had plans to go to the opera with several of my roommates, so I walked over to the Wiener Staatsoper and picked up my ticket from the box office. The doors were already open, so I checked my backpack and my coat at the coat check and went to find my spot. I had a standing room ticket in the Gallerie (my favorite place to watch the opera from). My roommates were coming from their various schedules, so they arrived a bit after I did.

The opera, Tosca, was AMAZING, and after it was over, we headed back to our apartment. I cooked and ate dinner, did some homework, and called it a night.

I guess, in a sense, a “typical day” in Vienna does exist, because each day brings new adventures and surprises, so if you expect to have a day full of variety, you can get close to experiencing a “typical day.” And of course, there are routines that develop as well, but the variety of different events you can experience in Vienna is abundant, so if you’re looking for the right opportunity (and sometimes even if you’re not looking), you’re bound to find something new going on in Vienna to experience.