VIENNA Recap

Hello again Lovers, Family, and Friends!

Today I returned from my mini-Eurotrip.  France, as you may know, is really into vacations ... and my first 10-day vacation occurred after 10 days of teaching.  Convenient.  I took the opportunity to be spontaneous (!) and join my roommate, Steph, on a trip to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin.  We spent two and a half days in each city, and each one was amazing....  I'll do one post/city, ya ?

Vienna was only a week ago but it feels like it was forever...
Steph and I practically jumped off the plane, happily accepting the for-tourists-only maps and magazines that were offered to us by stewardesses at the Vienna airport.  Woohoo! We were in a whole other city!  In a whole other country! After a flight that takes the same time for me to go DC-Boston!  We had even crossed another country (Italy!)  CRAZINESS!!

1) VIENNA'S METRO

The craziness of Vienna continued when we hopped into the airport subway station, or, maybe I should say, the shiny, clean future:

The city of Vienna also provides reading material for your trip, which I sampled:

In many of Vienna's metro stations, you can watch the news while you wait on REALLY BIG SCREENS.

2) VIENNA'S FOOD

Ok well I am a vegetarian so I could not try the famous weinershnitzl, but I did sample the delicious Fritattensuppe (basically broth with crepes in it, mmmm) :

Steph and I went to Naschmarkt, or the Snack market for lunch.  Among the many Eastern spices, dried fruits, and specialty stalls, we found the following:

Yes, that is octopus.  18 Euros/Kilo.


3) VIENNA'S ARCHITECTURE

Basically every building that we went to looked like a palace.

Here I am at Parliament:

(Can you spot me? My all-grey ensemble means I kind of blend in...)

At the Rathaus, a very ugly name for the very beautiful municipal building:

4) VIENNA'S ROYALTY
Steph and I visited the many palaces of Vienna.  Among our discoveries were the extensive cutlery collection of the Hapsburg empire:

(Literally there were rooms and rooms of silver and gold cutlery and plates. This is just a mere taste!)

This is how they would set their tables:

In the gardens at the Schonbrunn palace:

5) VIENNA'S MUSIC
Vienna is the city of music.  Aside from seeing the room where Mozart played his first concert and being harassed by men in 17th-century garb asking if I wanted to buy concert tickets, Steph and I attended the opera (standing room) for 3 Euros!  We couldn't see anything (and didn't stay the whole time) but it was beautiful.... the building cannot compare to the Opera Garnier in Paris, but that's my favorite building in the world, so we'll give Vienna some credit...

6) VIENNA IS ARTSY AND SO AM I:

7) MISC

Steph and I got lost many times in Vienna and each time followed the same few steps: wander, consult the map, consult Steph's iPhone, and consult her iPhone compass.  During our wandering and consulting, we saw signs saying "Einbahn" with an arrow and wondered what they meant.  At some point, we met some Swiss Germans, Oskar and Claudio and asked them what "Einbahn" meant... "One way!" they replied.  Steph and I burst into giggles, and O + C wanted to know why.  "We thought it was a specific place!" we told them.  "So if we had told you that it meant 'help center' you would have followed it?"  "Every time..."

Later gators, thanks for reading
xoxo
Samantha