Why Your Kids Should Study Abroad

The beautiful city of Vienna from the top of St. Stephen's Cathedral

OK, this post isn't really about why your kids should study abroad other than this: because if your kids are studying abroad, you should probably go visit them.

That's where I've been for the past month or so. No, I haven't physically been away that long, but mentally I've been preparing for our 12-day trip for weeks ahead of time.

Laurel is studying in Vienna with nearly 30 other students—including her best friend since childhood (Bess) and her roommate from college (Madelyn)— from Lipscomb University this fall. So... it seemed appropriate that Bess's mom, my dear friend Caroline, and I should visit them there. We've been planning this for six months, but we really started making our reservations just since August. We've had fun planning our trips, packing, getting our boys (who are both high schoolers) all set to make sure they did school while we were gone, etc. And then October 23 finally arrived, and we headed off to Europe.



We spent a total of four days in Vienna, two days in Salzburg, two days in Budapest, one day in Melk, one day traveling from Salzburg to Vienna to Budapest, and two days traveling to Vienna and back home again. I could easily devote a dozen blog posts to the trip, but here are just a few highlights.

First, here are the girls at the u-bahn (subway) stop which they use many times each day. This is the closest one to their house.

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Here are the girls at the American Institute, where they have most of their classes. They share this building with a dozen or so other universities.

And here we are eating käsekrainer (sausage stuffed with cheese) right from the stand right outside of their school, which is right by the Vienna Opera House.

The girls live 10 minutes away from the city center in a house with the other Lipscomb students as well as a dozen other students from a different university. Here are several of them cooking in the kitchen that they share.

So that's a look at their daily life: school, u-bahn, sausages, and their living quarters. We loved getting to peek into their lives a little bit, although for them, each day is different. They have classes generally Monday-Thursday and have weekends to travel.

Now… here is a short tour of what Caroline and I did in on our trip. Since the girls had classes most of the days we were there, we did a lot on our own. We toured the major sites in Vienna:

Inside the Vienna Opera House

Vienna Opera House

Schönbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburgs

Karlskirche

St.  Stephen's Cathedral

Top of St. Stephen's Cathedral

Albertina Art Museum

Walking back to their house via the Danube

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sigmund Freud Museum (the girls live in this neighborhood)

We joined the college group and visited Vienna's Central Cemetery on Nov. 1, All Saints Day

Central Cemetery

 Besides spending several days in Vienna, we took a weekend trip with the girls to Budapest! Wow! Budapest was so interesting! We enjoyed the famous thermal baths, ate some interesting food, took the subway past the last stop, shopped at a gigantic indoor market, saw lots of beautiful buildings, and ended with a trip to the Terror House Museum— a history of communism in Hungary.

Budapest at night -- the building to the right of the Danube is parliament

On the famous chain bridge

Szechenyi baths in Budapest

Entering the Terror House museum

Caroline and I also spent two days on our on in beautiful little Salzburg. We did the 4-hour Sound of Music Tour (well worth it!), saw a stringed quartet at Mirabelle Palace, hiked to the fortress, saw lots of churches, and ate a lot of delicious food!

No caption necessary. Fabulous tour!

Yep, this is THE gazebo from the movie!

Love locks on the Salzsach River. The fortress we climbed to is in the background.

View of Salzburg from the fortress

And for our very last day, Caroline and I took a quick day trip to Melk to see the famous Melk Abbey, founded in 1089. It was beautiful, and we only got on the wrong train once!

Melk Abbey is still an active monastery today

Pretty little town of Melk

And that's a quick view of our trip. I have, of course, hundreds of photos from each and every day, and I'd like to think that someday in the future, I would write a post for each day. But until then…

When you still have your kids at home, read to them about the world. I highly recommend Jamie Martin's Give Your Child the World. When they are older, encourage your kids to study abroad. And then… visit them.

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