Neu Donau (New Danube)

With a few weeks left in Vienna and finally some sunny weather (after a month of rain and clouds), exams have come into season, and so, like any good exchange student, I've shoved my notes into a broken desk and donned my swimsuit for days in the sunshine along the Neu Donau. A canal carved from the dreamy azure river set to music composed so perfectly by Strauss. A flood control from the waterway that stretches into many European capitols I've visited this semester: Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade. The Danube. It is a wonderful place to enjoy summer. My friends and I have had our fair share of picnics and beach towel talks on the grassy bank. We've swam across, waving at the small sail boats that drift passed us, had algae fights, and the girls have floated in the five-pointed star fish formation. One or two of us may have jumped off the pedestrian bridge--after checking with the locals to know where to land of course.

I think my favorite thing about the Donau is the diversity. With a nearby mosque, there are plenty of women covered head to toe with at least three generations of their families gathered for immense barbecues sitting quite nearby a solitary topless woman lying prone and immersed in a good book. There are young people, old people, bikers, swimmers, dogs, and babies. The last time I was there, I got to see a fit older man roller-blading with Nordic walking sticks in his underwear. I'm pretty sure he was a wizard.