I'll be back, Vienna
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2009
1
11
33
Trip End
Jun 18, 2009
Vienna,
Austria
Monday, March 9, 2009
It was freezing our entire spring break. The pictures look lovely, but the temperatures wavered around 40 degrees the whole time with the sun only peeking through the clouds once or twice. It was very nice coming back to southern France and having the sun shining as I got off the plane. I'm know people are supposed to go somewhere warmer for spring break, so I'm not sure what we were thinking. Since we were on a budget, we saw a lot of museums and palaces from the outside. This allowed us to see a lot more things, though, since we weren't inside wandering around huge buildings full of art.
Our hostel in Vienna was very nice and pretty famous. It had a lot of students and the breakfast buffets, like the other hostels were very filling. We even stole some bread, ham and cheese for lunch most days (again, we're poor students).
The first night in Vienna we decided to see an opera. I know, you're thinking, you can't afford lunch but you can afford the opera? Well, we can because you buy standing tickets for 3 euros! We stood at the very top of the opera house where we couldn't see much but the beautiful architecture and hear the voices. We also each got a translator that told us what the singers were saying in Italian. I loved the performance of La Boheme, but standing for three hours after a long day of walking was tough.
My favorite palace over the whole trip was the Shonbrun palace (sp?). It was huge with pretty gardens (I can't imagine what they would look like in the spring) and a hill in the back that overlooks all of Vienna.
We also visited a market and tried Viennese cake and I bought a scarf. They had tons of food and things to cook with and it made me want to shop for a big meal and then eat it.
Then we went to the Belvedere palace where I didn't see any actual art in the museum, but I went in the gift shop and found out that a ton of paintings that I've seen before are from the same artist, Mucha, and I bought a couple postcards to remind me.
Our hostel is very nice. Usually you are in a room with eight to twelve people in it but this hostel had four bed rooms, so my three friends and I got our own private rooms for a very low price. It was nice not having to worry about other people in the room. While I was getting down from the top bunk I stretched my leg a little too far to bypass someone's luggage and pulled a muscle in the back of my knee. Not good news at the beginning of a long trip full of walking. Luckily, it only hurt when I straightened my leg fully when I was walking and it went away after a few days. Our group split up for the night and my friend Lina and I went out to a cool restaurant called Vapiano that is similar to a Move and Pic. I'm not sure what a Move and Pic is, but maybe you do. You get a card at the register and go to a chef, tell him what you want and he makes it right in front of you. Then he charges your card and you pay afterwards. I got great pasta with tomato sauce and cheese. They even grow their own herbs right in the restaurant! I also got a Viennese coffee for dessert.
Comments
Great trip!
What a beautiful place, looks like you had a great time! xox