You got your passion, you got your pride: Wien, Day 2

First item on the day’s itinerary was Schönbrunn, a Hapsburg summer palace in the Rococo style, which is my favorite because it’s got a lot going on at once. It had wonderful tassels!!! I love tassels. No, I am not a cat. The audio guide tour was pretty bad but the palace itself was really really nice and at least the audio guide was free. We walked around the gardens before taking the tour of the palace and much like Versailles it had a lot of different garden areas with different designs, but as it is not spring or summer, it was mostly green. The Gloriette at the top of the hill overlooking the palace and the city was a wonderful sight. There was a restaurant in it but that was definitely out of our price range. There was a Christmas market outside so we grabbed some lunch and we tried the punsch. I did not like it. Cooked, warm alcohol is so weird.

I ran around trying to find it and much to my disappointment the labyrinth at Schonbrunn was CLOSED. Here’s me showing how disappointed I was.

We had to rush back to the hostel to get changed because we were next headed to the Vienna Philharmonic! While Morgan and I were doing research we came across the Philharmonic and standing room tickets only being €5, we thought we’d try being cultured and stuff. So we got dressed in a flash and ran to the ticket office off the metro, picked up our tickets, ran to Musikverein, got to standing room with only a few minutes to spare. We were not gonna have a good view, but it’s an orchestra and we most importantly were able to hear it. We weren’t the only ones who had to take a seat on the carpeted floor during the performance. Once the intermission came up we got much better spots as they cleared out, which was awesome because I actually knew the last piece they played. Zarathustra! The venue was great and of course the music was world-renowned good.

#culture

We had hoped to get to the Imperial Treasury but it was dark by the time we got out of the orchestra performance so we had to skip that and headed to the Hotel Sacher where they invented the original sacher torte. I tried some hot chocolate with Austrian rum. One more go at warm alcohol. No thanks again. The sacher torte was good, but it’s a simple cake. I’m not saying it’s boring I’m just saying there are only so many ways you can make a chocolate cake with apricot filling taste different than the last chocolate cake with apricot filling, unless you change the recipe.

We went to the Museum Quartier next, which was currently hosting a trade or craft fair where everything was expensive. I learned what precisely up cycling was though so that was good. A little further across the street was another Christmas market, so not gonna not. Looked around some more, then headed to the penultimate cathedral I will see in Europe, St. Stephen. Would you know it, there was another Christmas market. More browsing! We also stopped by a bakery and I learned it was just too early to be buying a sacher torte to bring home. A couple more days and my dad would’ve been scarfing down sacher torte. So sorry, papi!

We headed to a place that Morgan found on Lonely Planet for dinner, a restaurant with its own brews. Dinner was so so yummy. We split ribs and a “farmer’s plate,” which had a variety of classic Austrian things, including but not limited to sausages. The beers were really good too. German speaking countries officially create my favorite beers.

Next morning we just headed to the airport and had a long day of travel. Vienna was one of the top places on my list so even though this trip wasn’t easy for travel or my wallet it was entirely worth it. Definitely on my list of places to see again! If only for some sausage and sacher torte.

Slow down, you crazy child: Wien, Day 1

As I always say, my life is a series of mild disappointments, Paris included. It was only mildly disappointing because I didn’t have the best time but dammit, it’s PARIS. It has also just dawned on me that I’ve never seen Passport to Paris or if I have I don’t remember it at all, and that’s disappointing, kinda. The Olsen twins were RECKLESS and they called their chaperone a foamhead. I’m gonna use that now. And I also just took fifteen minutes from writing this post by watching the movie. Joder, such talent!

But the thing is Vienna was not at all a mild disappointment!!! It was actually a wonderful trip, just me and Morgan, and it was a great follow-up to Paris. We had to sleep in the airport because of our early connecting flight to Munich but coincidentally two other students from ND were headed to Munich on the same flight so somehow it made it better. Our first flight was good, I slept and there was breakfast. One thing I’ve learned about myself on these trips is that I have become uncannily good at waking up the very moment the food cart comes by. After the first time I missed one, my subconscious considered it a call to attention, apparently. I also learned that I will not die eating in flight food. This has been a HUGE step for me. It might also just be that European airlines have better food? Whatever, I’m trying.

Wow, nothing has been said yet about Vienna. Second flight didn’t have food, joder. I slept on that one too though so I was actually not too tired from my total lack of sleep the night before at the airport. Once we took the shuttle from the airport (which has got to be the nicest airport I have EVER been in, and I’m a level 5 jetsetter on Foursquare) to Vienna proper, we had a bit of trouble finding our hostel but it’s fine because we stopped by a bakery and picked up our first slice of Sacher Torte of the trip. It is not the last. We finally found our hostel, which was run by a very nice Austrian woman whom we did not understand. She gave us some very useful maps though.

We headed off to find the Vienna Boys Choir. We knew where they’d be performing but there was no way for us to buy tickets online. We showed up and were just about ready to go in when we found out the tickets were just way too much for us. It would’ve been cool, but Youtube is free! So that was mild disappointment number one.

Outside the church where the Vienna Boys Choir was about to perform. This is me displaying my mild disappointment.

 

We saw a cool cafe nearby the church that they were performing at, and after a little bit of deliberating as to whether or not the place was a tourist trap, we took the bait and went in. Our meal was fantastic, and it turns out it was mildly a tourist trap, but Freud ate their once so that’s cool with me! The highlight was definitely dessert, which was these fluffed pancakes with a stewed plum sauce on the side. ABSOLUTELY delicious. And there was live piano music starting up so I was immensely glad we dropped in.

There were three poufs of (not so great) smoked trout mousse. I was mildly disappointed Caroline wasn’t with us to eat the third, although neither Morgan nor I ate ours.

Next step was the Christmas market. Well, not THE Christmas market, but A Christmas market. This one we went to first was in front of City Hall and the Rathausplatz. The stands were all very vibrant and everyone was drinking punsch from mugs, but we were too tired to try that just yet. We didn’t buy much because the best part of the market was the ornament stands. They were all glass, unfortunately, so we couldn’t buy those. It was so great just walking around and soaking it in. We then headed over to the Naschmarkt, which was apparently only a day market, but it was right near Cafe Drechsler, which is also quite famous, and was recommended by a friend. We tried Viennese wine and had some chilikasewurst and that was dinner. Austrian food is heavy on the sausage, if you didn’t already know. I think I ate about half a serving of fruits or vegetables all weekend. That’s the stuff of life. We had a long day ahead of us and we were pretty tired from the adventure so off to bed. More on this adventure in the next post.

Just LOOK at those Christmas market pastries. Mildly disappointed in myself for not buying one.