The insanely beautiful weather and wonderful good fortune continued in Vienna. I had a simply gorgeous time in this very, very livable city. I've since been many other awesome cities, but the beauty, comfort, and high livability quotient of Vienna left a strong impression that remains in my mind. I arrived into what would be my first taste of European train stations. The Vienna train station felt like a super clean and brand new mall compared to the train stations of Croatia and Hungary. (I suppose those now are more reminiscent of a World War I era movie set.) But I bypassed all the shopping (back on the more expensive Euro here) and made my way to my host, Christian's place.
As I said my good fortune continued and I am sure I found the best host in all of Vienna! I felt right at home on my giant shiatsu mat able to practice yoga any time of day.
On my first afternoon, Christian and I hit up the Naschmarkt for picnic food and headed to the Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens to enjoy the sunny weather. Though I haven't yet been to Versailles, I've got to say I'm sure it is very similar. Über-wealthy royalty needed to escape the city and they would have been "unsafe" taking a stroll on a public street or garden, so they had to build their own massive garden about half the size of Central Park. It was very beautiful for sure and today holds a zoo and small open air amphitheater for concerts.
Christian helped me create "plans of attack" and possible walking routes for each day and I found the city very, very walkable. Everything was so close! And actually when I wanted to move from one end to the other the subway was more convenient than ever because, I kid you not, the subway comes every 2 to 4 minutes! It runs incredibly often! (Christian informed me that people who work in Vienna pay an extra two euros a month as a subway tax... Not so bad really for amazing public transportation!)
I visited St Stephen's Cathedral (whose stones came from the Bosnian quarry of my hitchhiking ride in Croatia!) while mass was in session (in German!) actually and unfotunately on that Sunday no tours were offered in English. This was a bit of a bummer because I had hoped to be able to walk on the roof! But it was still beautiful especially in its fairly central location within the historic (another UNESCO site) Vienna city.
I have to mention that horse drawn carriages are ubiquitous in the center of Vienna, which actually became a nuisance to me. Vienna's Grabenstrasse boasts some of the most expensive stores in Vienna (Versace, Hermes, you name it) but it just stinks of manure! Carriages pass by every couple of minutes and I couldn't help but think about the poor people who were expecting a pleasant ride and instead had to plug their noses due to the smell!
I walked around the city exploring and just taking in the sights. I visited Hofburg Palace (home of the Hapsburg Empererors), Parliament, Stadt Park, St Charles in Karlplatz, Albertinaplatz, the Opera House, Museums Quartier, St Peters church, Karntner Strasse - their super busy pedestrian only road, and City Hall (the site of their Pride event just the day before - major clean up as underway still!). And one early evening I met up with another CSer who had wanted to surf with me in Tampa the week after I left in March. But it was neat to get to still meet and she showed me an awesome part of Vienna along the Danu Canal (an offshoot of the Danube River) where lots of "beach bars" are located - they import sand!
Crazy bike rack near Museums Quartier, but I think it was too cool that it intimidated people from using it and they all opted to use the more boring and traditional option in the background.
City Hall with its leftovers from the Pride Parade the day before.
Famous Viennese Cake Shop (this is not a dress, but a cake!)
And I made plans to come back on other days to see an Opera and the morning exercise of the Lipizzaner horses at the Spanish riding school. The Opera House and other classical music venues throughout the city offer very cheap standing room tickets. At the Stadtopera, they offer for sale on the day of the performances both a 3 euro ticket (off to the side nosebleed seats) or a 4 euro ticket for almost-up-front and center standing room "seats". At the time I didn't know the difference between the two but when it was my turn in line and I was asked to choose a ticket knowing only the prices, I opted for the 4 euro ticket because, hey, it was only one euro more. And I made the right choice! The location was sweet! And they use this unique system with scarves to save your place so that you can still hang out by the bar or mingle outside before the performance but still save your primo spot. I caught Elektra and thankfully (1) it was one of the shorter operas and (2) there was a translation provided so I could follow along. Next time I would love to catch a ballet performance at the opera house... I was just two days too early.
On my last morning I re-visited the Spanish Riding School, which is actually within the Hofburg Palace complex, and enjoyed their morning exercise. I honestly don't know anything about their training, practice, exercise schedule (I could have taken a tour that day and found out though I bet), but I was amazed that if this was their exercise for the day that each horse only got 20 minutes with their trainer. Perhaps this was just more for show, but I would think there must be a lot more behind the scenes practicing going on. No photos were allowed, but this wasn't my first (or last) time breaking that rule.
Two memorable food experiences came out of Vienna, a city known more for its non-vegetarian cuisine. First, was a falafel place Christian recommended called Maschu. It was out of this world. (They do boast a slogan 'best falafel in the world', but I would even elevate that claim!). The sauces were delicious...sort of a sweet-mango-salsa slaw and they add pesto to their falafel turning them almost bright green! Just amazing! So I naturally had to go back again on my last day too!
The second "dish" was a dessert, surprise surprise. A massive ice cream sundae covered in fruit. In fact it had probably two-thirds of its volume and weight coming from the fruit rather than the ice cream. The deliciousness of this sundae has since inspired many home made versions over the past two months. Almost to die for! Fruit is sooo in season every where I travel here in Europe. Peaches, plums, and so many other versions of plums I have been introduced to in Portugal and France.
Clearly didn't want to have to share it!
Oh, and had to take a photo of Dino's, where we went one night for drinks. I never knew it was a classic American bar name, but Dino's lives on. Though, this place was far more classy, lacking a dance floor, and had about 100 cocktails to choose from. Tough decisions...
Miscellaneous notes.....
Austria might still be leading the pack with some of my favorite trains on their OBB (pronounced "oo baybay") national rail system. The trains were very new, über-clean, plenty fast, and it didn't hurt that in first class I got a KitKat bar each time a ticket agent came by!
According to Christian, politics here just go back and forth and nothing ever changes because people don't stick around long enough. My education regarding the EU continued as well. The EU, which formed around 1990, has really no teeth and enforcement capabilities for all of the laws and rules it creates. Even Germany and France, the two largest members with the most influence, regularly break the rules on national debt limits and the only punishment is a fine from the EU which is quite a counter effective punishment. According to Christian, there are too many sensitive issues that the EU doesn't end up doing anything about and ends up just being a giant sinkhole for money with all of its inefficiencies. Of course, the EU was created for good reason following the Cold War, as a means to try to prevent another World War. Its first goal was to equalize economies and bring everyone to the same level, but every country has too much debt so phase one of the EU still isn't complete.
Austria has a strong economy and has survived the recession fine. However it has only 8 million people compared to Germany's approx 80 million, so it retains a very small voice in the EU. (2.5 million live in Vienna)
Per Christian, my generation and the X or Y generation prior to mine have bucked the institution of marriage in Austria and are no longer entering into marriages. Two of his close friends and his brother have kids, but are not married to their partners. He says this has now become incredibly common.
In my opinion, it is easy to tell a German accent from an Austrian one. Austrian accents are much softer sounding - nowhere near as harsh as the German.
Finally, you can bring dogs on the subway in Vienna. This was very shocking to me at first, but have now seen it throughout the continent. You can also take strollers on escalators! Again, this was shocking to me at first, but I have now seen it countless times. The shock has worn off as I realize Americans really must just be rather brainwashed into being overly cautious in our very litigious and heavy-parenting-focused society.
This rock along the Danube River perfectly represents my feelings on the city as well!
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