mmm.. Vienna

Vienna was absolutely fantastically beautiful! It’s true what they say- Vienna is a smaller, fancier Prague!

We started off really early on Friday morning and took a lovely, relaxing train ride through the countryside. I slept, but I’m sure there were at least a few cows and goats passed.

When we arrived in Vienna, we checked in to our hostel, the West End City Hostel, which was very clean but a little cramped. 8 girls on bunks in one room…eeek. After we checked in and ate at a very cute café (Viennese coffee= soooo good), we went for a walk through the city center with our fearless leader, Professor Holub, who bears a striking resemblance to Professor Lupin. We walked down Maria Hilfer Straβe, which is the “5th Avenue of Vienna”, which I would say is an accurate description if 5th Ave had more stores selling Mozart balls. Then professor took us to the historic city center, where we saw giant, beautiful buildings, museums, and a statue to commemorate the Black Death. It was actually gorgeous and gold. Speaking of gold, Vienna is populated by more costumed characters than is necessary for such a tiny place. Everywhere you look there are gold Mozarts, caped guys selling concert tickets, CLOWNS, and all other sorts of unnecessary creepers. They molest tourists then ask them for money. It’s really not cute at all. After Professor wandered away, we went to see Stephansdom, which is a giant, very shiny Gothic-style church. There happened to be a concert that day, and we got there just in time to hear Shalon Havarim- it was a very interesting rendition.

Then we hit up Centraal Café, on Zuzana’s recommendation. Centraal Café is one of the historic landmarks of café culture and it is very elegant. There is a piano player, velvet couches, plenty of coffee, and most importantly, STUDEL. The most amazing strudel in the world, actually.

After strudel, we wandered the streets for a while until we discovered Barfin, which was a great little hookah bar with a very friendly waiter eager to practice English. He recommended some great white wine and even played Britney Spears music in our honor. Austrians seem to like American tourists as much as Czechs hate them.

Post- hookah bar, we grabbed some street falafel and called it a night.

Saturday morning we woke up super early to tour the government area with Professor. This was also an epic day in terms of weather as it was 60 DEGEES AND SUNNY. Note facebook photos for evidence that I took off my jacket outside! After a long walk and discussion about architecture, we found a lovely Easter market and had a lunch time smörgåsbord of homemade treats: cheese, bread, beer, pastry, etc.

Then we jumped on the metro to see the Shoenbrunn palace, former home of Maria Teresa, Emperor Franz Josef, and entourage. The palace has 2,000 rooms, one of which Sisi used for the sole purpose of brushing her ankle-length hair. Just one tidbit from the tour. After seeing just a tiny fraction of the palace, we went outside to stroll the beautiful gardens and lay in the grass to soak up the sun. Unfortuantly, a very angry Austrian came riding through on his bike pointing at a sign that implied sitting on the grass is not allowed… the ultimate BIKE COP!

Saturday night we went to a really delicious italian restaurant called Vipiano, which was like a gourmet dining hall on crack! They gave you a swipe card and then you went to the counter of your choice and swiped to order. When the food and wine magically appeared, it was delicious! After dinner we went to hear some quailty live jazz and passed out from walking exhaustion.

Sunday we woke up for some museum hopping and rain-trudging. It rained the entire day and was absolutely freezing, but Professor still wanted us to see lots of architecture that was very, very out of the way. Then we went to two of the best museums in Europe: the Belvedere and the Kunst. Both had incredible art and even a mummified crocodile! After more rain trudging, it was confirmed that absolutely everything is closed on Sundays in Vienna, so we had more falafel before getting back on the train to Prague.

This week, I have only 3 days in Prague to get all my work done before I leave for Budapest Thursday morning. I’m also battling a cold, which is really making me feel gross and icky. However, I finally won the battle with the printing system at school today and I am finally able to print! 1 point for Jo!