Eistraum and Kahlenberg

Trip Start Jan 09, 2007

Trip End May 11, 2007

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Flag of Austria Vienna, Austria
Saturday, February 3, 2007

Since returning to Vienna, I'd mostly just been doing homework while not in class. Yesterday, though, me and Keagan decided to try to hunt down a record store. We started late, and after the disappointment of the overpricing of the EMI store on Kärntnerstraße, we gave up on that and just wandered all through the first district. It was great fun, and it's always cool to explore the city and find interesting places (or just marvel at Stephansdom). After walking through the Burggarten (palace park) and walking out in front of the Hofburg (imperial palace), we noticed some purple light and green lasers coming from the Rathaus (town hall). Naturally, we were curious and headed towards it. It turned out to be a huge skating rink they set up during the winter months right in front of the building. There was a huge rink, several imbisses (food/drink stands), and an area where people were playing this game that we couldn't quite figure out. We kind of wondered where the ice came from and how we never had noticed this whole structure while walking by the place by day

"Original Budweiser on Tap"

. It was pretty awesome.

Today we decided to get up sort of early and go to Kahlenberg, which is this mountain in the very northern city limits overlooking the whole city. We took a bus up there and hiked around for a bit and eventually began descending. We saw a sign for a Heuriger (wine tavern), and as there were vineyards all over and we'd heard good things about these establishments, we went in search. The first one we found while on a narrow road that literally means "iron hand road" wasn't going to open for a bit, so I photographed their cats and we continued to the bottom of the mountain to this tiny town called Kahlenbergerdorf (which is actually still part of Vienna). We found another Heuriger down there and each enjoyed a cheap but delicious glass. We then ascended the next mountain over, Leopoldsberg, just for fun. From there we took a bus back to the nearest U-Bahn station. Instead of going home, we stopped at the Naschmarkt (the huge open-air market), which on Saturdays extends even farther with a huge flea market, of which not a single item sold had any value. It was kind of funny. (I take that back, as I did see a used copy of The Velvet Underground and Nico, but I swear, that was it.) I got the most massive falafel sandwich I've ever seen (no more expensive than normal, but they took like half a loaf of bread, opened it, filled it with four massive falafal balls, and stuffed the rest with vegetables - how awesome can you get?), and then I got a bunch of other random delicious stuff that you don't find at the supermarkets. Awesome. After all the Indian restaurants I've seen down here, I'm really getting a hankering to head to one of them. Well - I haven't even gone to any of the multitudinous Chinese/pan-Asian restaurants here, of which there are many. Anyhow, I must now spend my evening reading what I think is postmodern Viennese literature contemporaneous with James Joyce.