I went to Vienna for one reason. My Uncle Mac.
Before I left to hop across the pond, we got to hang out and he told me that he was stationed there during the second world war. He told me that it was a beautiful city, and that if I like music at all, that I should go there. Well, I did! It was so beautiful to be there! Even though Kenzie, Andrea, and I kind of just wandered around, just saying that we got to go there is pretty spectactular, I think.
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| Kenzie, Andrea, and I on the train into Vienna from the airport. |
It all started with our plane ride from Heathrow to Vienna. We got to the airport on Wednesday, hung out, chatted, I did more work on my paper that was due today, and just chilled. Our gate popped up on the big electronic list and he headed towards it. It was while we were standing in line to get on the plane that we all got excited. It was then that it hit us. We were going to VIENNA! Like, as in Austria, as in the hills are alive, as in the country!! The flight was good; I got a nice surprise when I woke up from my snooze mid-air and there was a tiny little cupcake near my elbow on the tray station. It ended up being EasyJet's 15th birthday that day! What luck! Not only are they the number one low cost airline in europe, their miniature cakes are delicious! We won't talk about the absurd ratio between cupcake and frosting....it may have been something like 2:5. Frosting:Cupcake. But that's beside the point.
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| Stables of the Lippizaner Stallions. Odd fact: they refer to them as the Spanish horses there, not Lippizaner! |
We landed and ventured our way to our hostel, where upon being greeted by a really really good looking young man, (tee-hee) we headed to bed. It was around eleven or so at night. The next day, we woke up early to start our adventure. We saw A LOT! We went to a park and saw a statue of Mozart, walked around and wondered why there were so many stautes for this dude names Franz Joseph, and got to see the ACTUAL Lippizaner Stallions! It was so cool! I geeked out a bit. One walked right by us! Bah! I was in horse heaven!
Then, we toured the castle in Vienna, the Hofburg. This is where the last empirial family lived, the Hapsburgs. We couldn't take any photos, but trust me, it was really cool to see where the royal family lived. You remember that Franz Joseph guy I was talking about earlier? Yeah, it turned out to be either the last or close to last emperor of Austria before Germany took over. Oops! Our bad! No wonder there were so many statues of him.....At the castle, we learned a lot about his wife Elizabeth, or Sisi as she was known. I knew nothing about her previous to this, so I thought her story was really cool!
I learned that she married Franz J. when she was 15. She was obsessed with her fitness, and had her own set of gym equiptment set up in her room. She was so obsessed that she wieghed her self and never wieghed more than 103 lbs. Even though she was 5.8. Yeah! Tiny! Like, 20 inch waist tiny! Unfortunatley, sadness shrouded her after her son committed suicide. :( She eventually was assassinated by a man on the street with a three sided file. What's interesting is that she wasn't his primary target! The person he REALLY wanted to kill wasn't home, so after learning that the incognito Sisi was in the neighborhood......well, the rest is history. Kinda sucky.
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| Many of the streets were tree lined! It made the city look even more beatuiful! |
So, this all happened on Thursday last week. That night, Kenzie's parents were gracious enough to pay for us to go to a concert. A legit concert! Not one with electric guitars and moshing, but a concert that had strings and played Mozart and Strauss. It was reallt REALLY cool! That was the first legit concert I'd been to, and I really enjoyed it! It had the opportunity to be boring, but it incorporated a few ballet pieces to the music and arias every now and then, so it was different! By no means am I a snob when it comes to classical music; Andrea, Kenzie and Lauren know so much more than I do, but I must say that, from what I heard that night, I like Mozart better than Strauss. His music is more lively!
Oh! I almost forgot! Before the concert, we went the a pub and had Wiener Schnitzel! It was good! I had no idea what I was going to get, because the menu was in German, but I figured why not? It turns out Wiener Schnitzel is deep fried pork! I was leery about the pork, because it's not my favorite meat, but I kind of tasted like Dad's fried fish! I know, that sounds gross, but it's what it tasted like! Andrea and I also split an Austrian beer. We can't remember what it was called, but we do know that it was a wheat beer. Not very bitter, which we both enjoyed!
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| Did I mention that it rained Friday morning? Yeah, it did. There was one umbrella and it wasn't shared. :( |
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| Stephandom Cathedral! It took forever to get this baby completed!!That's why the part to the left looks newer than the right. Because it is! |
The next day,Friday, we walked around some more. We walked through a market, which was primarily produce, but also sold coffee and scarves and whatnot. I bought another scarf, and some coffee! :P Austria is known for their coffee houses, so I thought it fitting. We actually went to one after dinner the night before, before the concert , to have a traditional cake called sachuntorte? I don't know how to spell it, but what it is is three delicious layers of chocolate! Yum! Anyways, after the market, we went up to the Stephandom. It's this great gothic church! The roof of which, has some great details! It was here that we met up with my high school foreign exchange friend Gilbert!
Gilbert got some lunch with us, consisting of brats at the cart nearby, and walked us around town. He walked us to city hall, explaining that the "oldest" part of Vienna is inside a "ring" that the retro trollies run along. I put oldest in parenthesis because as Gilbert told us, so much of Vienna as distroyed during WWII,and that the ring has a lot of modern buildings. We walked along it and asked him stuff about Austria. It was really fun to see him!! He's still as tall as I remember him as! He pointed out what different buildings were and showed us the courtyard of the University of Vienna, the big school in the city. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings....wierd? Yes.
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| Me and Gilbert! Fun fact: I'm on my tip toes and he is crouching down....haha!!! |
Finally, Gilbert caught the underground with us to the train station, where we were headed to catch another train to Prague. He got off a few stops before us, give us all hugs goodbye and headed to the philharmonic! Fancy Fancy!! :P So, the two days in Vienna came to an end. After lots of pictures, shopping, and soaking up the Viennese culture, our five hour train to the Czech Republic commensed.
Vienna has a lot of history to it, that won't be forgetable. It's a city that combines old and new, creating a totally unique beautiful place. I'm so thankful that I got the chance to go there. The memories will stay with me for sure! Once I'm stateside again, I can't wait to show Uncle Mac the photos I took, to see if he remembers anything of when he was there, maybe I'll get a good story or two out of him!
Cheers!
Leash
P.S. The Prague post will be coming soon!
P.S.S. I think I've decided that I want to do toasts and cheers before meals....I think it's cool!
