Today I decided with a group of students to rent bikes and ride along the Danube. This is a trip that Kathy (our instructor) always higly recommended in class and stressed was "relaxing and a good way to get to know the city." It is always difficult, however, to coordinate a large group of individuals with different ideas of where they want to ride as well as different biking levels. All of the Davis students, of course, assumed that the group as a whole would be expert bicyclists becaue the biking culture in Davis is so prevalant. At one point there was actually talk of riding to Melk, which was quickly shot down after our hodge podge of riders and skill level were reevaluated.
The trip did work out, however, as we ended up biking on an island that was created in the middle of the Danube by dredging the river. The river life on the Danube reminded me of what life is like on the American River in Sacramento, just with a lot more nudity. Nudity is not something that bothers me, however, and I probably would have gone topless had it not been for the group of boys that I was with and their amount of maturity on the subject. There are numerous restaurants and pubs along the river that a biker can stop of for nourishment, and I liked the amount of kids water attractions (slides) that were set up at various intervals along the water front.
The Danube is very beautiful but it is not blue, no matter what the song says. I swam across a stretch of the river with Anthony, another student, and it was refreshing to bond with someone who came on the trip for the same reason as me. (SCHOOL!) We had a really good conversation about our lives back in Sacramento and Davis, significant others and what we were both hoping to take out of the summer abroad program. After having such good conversation it was difficult to go back to the group because there were individuals who seemed to forget that just because they don't understand German does not mean Austrians don't understand English. One of the major difficulties that I had throughout the entire trip was staying away from the stereotype of a "typical American", which I found myself in a lot when hanging out with the group in its entirity.
Anthony, another student and myself rode our bikes back into the city (which was very calming) to the bicycle shop that was across the street from the famous Ferris Wheel. I took some extra initiative and got to know the locals at the shop, who were young adults about my age. They invited the three of us out to a techno club, but I have never been one for clubbing. It was cool to get to know people though and realize that even though I did not speak the language I could get along in the city just fine.
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