To break up my holiday trip in Prague, I whipped through the snowy black hills of Czech Republic into Austria on a comfy bright yellow StudentExpress bus for a day in Vienna.
Arriving in the evening, I met up with my charming Couchsurfer Lorenzo and dropped off my bag before he took me on a nightwalk through the stately city center. This chilly stroll was without a doubt one of the grandest promenades I've ever taken. A few times Lorenzo walked off not realising he was leaving me frozen with my jaw dropped to the white marble pavement.
(disappointing disclaimer, wasn't able to replace my nicked camera til morning)
I am going to admit for the first time on the record, I hadn't heard of the prancing white horses of the Spanish riding school until Lorenzo ushered me into the hallway outside their stable and urged me to stare through the dark windows until I could roughly see a ficker of a white tail.
"Did you see? There!" Lorenzo whispered excitedly.
"Umm...yeah...I think so..."
I didn't want to admit I was then just humoring him, that in fact I wasn't one of the many dreamy-eyed horse stalkers who arrived in town to grab the closest seat in order to pull a justin-bieber-like-fan impression in the crowd.
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| To be fair, these horses wouldn't get out of the photos.. |
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| "Vanilla sauce? I can't say no.." |
White wine and a cheese strudel with vanilla sauce later, I was ready to be fitted for my own costume, preferably made of curtains (okay i swear, I'll limit to only one Sound of Music reference).
In the am, as soon as I could get my boots on after filling a tummy with brioche, I was off again to make a daytime tour of the magnificent government buildings, roman and greek statues, and city halls.
The one must-see for me, especially after hearing all about the chocolate pistachio mozart balls sold in every side alley and horse cart in town, was Mozart's apartment next to St Stephan's Cathedral.I adored wandering the creaky wooden floors of the three floors imagining the great composer agonizing over his next concerto or applauding himself for his latest minuet. Pity they didn't have his real piano, though.
My next feat was to find the ever-tantalising dish of schnitzel. I believe when a minimum of five people advise you to do something in a city, your will is handed over to the tourism lords and you obediently follow the conseil.
I soon snuggled into a red velvet booth in a schnitzel cafe, with a window view of one of the grand theaters of Vienna (as I began to question what wasn't in fact eminently grand about this city).
The schnitzel was, I'm quite sure, one of the best meals of my life. Complete with a sweet beer which you could easily convince me was squeezed from fresh lemons and scrumptious salty pretzel bread. Yum.
And back off again to marvel at the town.
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| "Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words." -Goethe |
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| The Museums Quartier |
As this was my first visit to a German speaking city, every street sign or menu I saw seemed to me to be some kind of terrifying ancient curse. I think if my mother had been German, I would have been very disciplined. The ultimate was a warning sign, whatever it said, I wasn't going near that area.
Although I did grin at the occasional street sign which seemed to be named after a character from Lord of the Rings.
Next time I plan to go to the opera, of course. After a big plate of schnitzel.
To the left and below, the renowned opera house in the background. Sorry for focusing instead on Mozart and pretty colors...
Then there were cute little loveable fuzzy pink pigs absolutely everywhere. This took me probably a whole ten seconds to work through. Pigs...why...pigs? Ah. In a mildly Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. fashion, so it goes.
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