Ryan's visit--Vienna

OK here we go!

Ryan left this morning at 4:30 a.m. after a five day visit. He came to Prague Thursday night. I met him at the airport at 8:30. We went straight to Old Town for dinner, complements of Grandma and Poppy :) (Thanks!) It was a beautiful night. A little chilly but little did we know Thursday night would be the best weather of our long weekend. We ate at U Prince, which is a hotel right in front of the Astronomical clock. It has a rooftop terrace with a fantastic view of the city. We split a bottle of wine and had excellent meals! It was a great start to the weekend!

We then went to my apartment to drop off some of Ryan's stuff. We walked around Old Town for a bit on the way to the metro, Ryan really seemed to like the city (thank goodness)! We quickly dropped off/picked up stuff for our weekend in Vienna and caught the bus at 12:15 a.m. The bus got into Wievn (Vienna) at 5:00 a.m.! Ryan had a crazy travel day but was a trooper!

We went straight to our hostel to see if we could check in early. They said we could check in at 1:00, instead of 3:00, so we dropped our bags in the luggage room and set out for the city by about 6:00 a.m.! Everything was still pitch black and it was probably about 50 degrees out.

Thanks to my Rick Steve's travel book we did a self walking tour of the city that took about an hour. Nothing was open, the streets were deserted, we were working on 3 hours of sleep, and it was cold and rainy, but we actually had a lot of fun! I really like how Ryan and I are the type of people who will go explore and learn regardless of the situation! Once the sun rose, some coffee shops started to open. We plopped down in one and ate the breakfast I packed for us (from Prague) we just sat for a while and planned out what we wanted to do that day.

First we went to Schönbrunn palace, the summer palace of the Hapsburg dynasty. It was the first thing to open so that's why we went! I am sooo glad we did! It is a huge 1400 plus room palace in the Baroque style, much like Versailles. The ticket included an audio guide so we learned a lot about the Austria-Hungarian history. The Hapsburgs ruled from the 1100s until 1918, and controlled pretty much all of Europe at one time or another. They also ruled over Prague for quite some time too. Maria Teresa, a key Hapsburg ruler, was the one who redecorated the palace in the Rococo (late Baroqye) style. She also renovated Prague castle in the neo-classicism style. Anyways, there is a ton of history in this castle. Including Mozart's first concert (at age 6) and the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

When we were done with the tour it was raining again! We walked around the gardens anyways, eating cheese wiz and crackers and feeding the ducks :)


Then we went back to the city and walked around to find Mozart's house. We didn't go inside because it wasn't open yet and we heard it really wasn't worth the cost.

Now that I think about it I think I have the order of things messed up so I will just list what we did.

We eventually checked into the hostel and napped. Right outside of our hostel was a really nice little bakery! Of course we stopped and got pastries before napping :) Then we ventured out again and went to the Jewish Museum and House of Music. The Jewish museum was really disappointing but the House of Music was really cool! It was an interactive museum where you learned about music, made your own music and learned about the famous composers who lived in Vienna at one time or another. The exhibit about the composers was really cool because they had original notebooks and scribblings of composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, etc. They also had old desks, pianos, clothes, and other artifacts!

We then went to a little suburb of Wien called Grinzing. It was supposed to be the best of Wien's Heurigers, or "wine towns," but I think we were a little late in the season! There was only once large tour group of Asians there, and us! At first I was disappointed, but after I got food in me it was kinda funny. We were planning on having a traditional Austrian meal but the restaurants were either closed or only buffet style. The one we found that we could sit down and get served at had a really disgusting looking menu. So we opted for the one Italian place in the town! :) It was an adventure that's for sure!

Then we made the 30 minute trip back to the city where we had the "world famous" Sachertorte at the Sacher cafe. This is where sacher cake was first concocted. It was pretty good, but Ryan and I agreed it wasn't the best cake we've ever had. At this point we were beat and started to head back to the hostel. However, as we were passing the Opera house we noticed a huge screen with a crowd around it. The opera that was playing live inside was projected outside for everyone else to see! We watched for a while but then went home because it was so cold!

The next day we woke up rather early for a tour of Wienerwald, or the Viennese woods. It was a cold rainy day, again, but we made the most of it. On the bus ride out we got to see the foothills of the alps and pass through the gorgeous wooded valleys. It was so pretty because all the leafs were changing colors! On the tour we stopped at a really cool monastery and the place where Rudolf II, killed his lover and himself. It was an interesting history lesson. We also stopped at the biggest European Subterranean lake. This turned out to be really touristy, and Disneyesque. It was fun though! The lake used to be a mine that got flooded. As a cool tid-bit the Germans used the huge mine to make planes, well actually they made Jews make the planes for them...anyways the tour was really fun and worth it. We ate our pb&j's and other snacks on the bus ride back.

We got back to the city and toured the Hapsburg place. It was a cool place where they had the entire table settings throughout the years laid out. Then there was a cool muesum about Elizabeth (Sisi) who was Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and wife of Francis Joseph I. She was an interesting person with a interesting history, and Vienna is obsessed with her. Google her sometime! It was another cool history lesson. We got to see the royal apartments, where Sisi and Franz Joseph, among other Hapsburgs lived. We then wandered some more, sat in a park for a while and then went to another famous desert cafe. The cake here was quite good as well! Then slowly wandered back to the hostel popping in and out of shops along the way. Later that night we wandered around the area near our hostel, ate dinner and called it an early night because we had to catch the 8:35 bus back to Prague.

Overall, Vienna was really really fun! We saw a TON in just two days. My main take away from the city...they are obsessed with Motzart and Sisi!

That's enough for now. I'll write about the rest of the weekend tomorrow. Unfortunately for me its back to "reality," I have three mid-terms next week!