Artis Hotel Vienna

... had a waitress and two witnesses to her poor pronunciation. :)
It was good value though, for 10euro we both had oodles of food. Additional kilos here we come!
As we were leaving, Dani got out the language guide book to try and say thank you and goodbye in a more articulate way to our couple friends. The lady says to Dani, as we were leaving "aufweidersein", saving Dani the trouble, (I knew that's what it was, I've seen the 'Sound of Music', but wanted something ...

May 1st is a national holiday - Labour Day - for most European countries. Austria is no different which meant all the shops were shut, bad news for me as I walked down Mariahilferstrasse window shopping during my last hours in Vienna. It's very hot today, more so than yesterday, but still as windy. After checking out and popping my luggage in storage for the day, I took the U-Bahn to Schonbrunn, an eighteenth century ...

... detail one day. The Ottomans (Turkish Empire) referred to Vienna (Wien) as the city of the 'golden apple', but as the Lonely Planet guidebook explains so accurately, Vienna is at the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe and is more akin to a big wedding cake: "a vivacious, multilayered concoction, stuffed with galleries, museums, exhibitions and a sensation of resuscitated times past". I cannot agree more. Most of the buildings were built in the last two centuries, but were ...

... last resting place here. The glorious double casket of Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, sculpted by B. F. Moll, is of particular artistic merit. After, I went to the amusement park in Prater, where they have the Giant Ferriss Wheel. It goues up almost 200 feet in the air. It was a bit scary, But the view was really nice. After I went back to my hostel at around 17:00. Then I went with one of my roommates to dinner at a restaurant around Stephensplatz.

... and took something away from the experience not being able to sit comfortably and see the whole stage but it did not effect the audio aspect of the opera and we all absolutely loved it. However we only got to stay for the acts 1, 2 and 3 as we could not stay for act 4 at the risk of missing our over night train to Krakow, Poland which was leaving at 10.30 pm. We left the opera early and caught a taxi back to the hostel to pick up our bags ...

... We arrived late and all the shops were closed so settled for this overpriced markety place where we bought a pasta and sauce. Another Japanese guy ho we met in our dorm had bought some much tastier morsels, so we decided to all cook together and share. Aside from the food we've had in restaurants, this was probably the most substantial meal so far. It was also really cool to meat someone form Japan. Later David, myself, the Japanese guy and the American all had a very ...

... building was really impressive, but we still had no clue what it was, so asked a local and it turns out it is where the President lives - slightly more impressive than 10 Downing Street I can assure you! Wondering through the gardens we then stumbled across a music festival in front of the Rathaus (or townhall). It was amazing!! Loads of food and drink, and some opera being played on a big screen. I'm not a fan of opera, but this was pretty good! Having walked most of the day ...

... a buffet and naturally, kegs of Stiegl beer set up for our party. The students, the host families, and the SC faculty were all there and a jovial time was had by all. We ate bratwursts (I had two...SO good!), some vegetable dishes, and then a dessert buffet to end the festivity. But oh... the festivities were only beginning. We returned to our new favorite place on Earth (Murphy's Law, of course) for a good time. The first hour or so mostly consisted of us utilizing ...

... I left towards the end. The only thing I found interesting was the amount of hard work they had put into the whole thing. Months of practice, every move, every gesture was meticulously choreographed. How can so many people know every move for 94 minutes? The patterns of movement around the stage was far from simple or repetitive. But for what end? Back to camp and a wrong turn took me into the bus bridge over the ...