This blog has all but been ignored since we got back, but we are determined to finish it at some point. Here goes.
Vienna was really just a stopping point between Prague and Budapest. When we were looking up flight info from Scotland to Prague, it was cheaper to fly from Scotland to Ireland to Berlin and take the bus, than any combination to get us to Prague. Hence why we went to Berlin.
This also impacted our time in Vienna. We had a flight to catch in Budapest already set. This meant we had a finite amount of days to see what we could see. In adding Berlin, we lost a night in Vienna. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it meant less time in Austria. I didn’t think that was such a big deal though. This was one of the more expensive stops along the way.
Vienna is an expensive town. Of course, if the first place you stop is a traditional restaurant serving schnitzel the size of a car tire, you’d think it was expensive too. We each got a beer, and Elizabeth had some sort of soup.
This may have been one of the hottest days on our trip. The restaurant was using misting fans for those of us who had to sit outside. So it would make sense to eat a boiling soup in these temperatures. I’m fairly certain it was the cheapest thing on the menu. At some point you just get tired of spending money. We were close to that point.
After sweating out the beer on the hike back into town, we made our way to the opera house. We’d seen one or two on our trip thus far, but nothing like this. The architecture in Vienna is second to none. There are so many beautiful buildings here, inside and out. We definitely did not have enough time to see them all. We were able to get inside for a tour, but we were not able to get tickets to the show. The tickets left were well out of our price range, and while we did consider it, we didn’t really want to go as backpackers. The Opera deserves a certain level of formality that we couldn’t muster at this point.
We had shipped all of our nice clothes back by this point and were rotating only a half dozen shirts betwixt the two of us. I don’t think Elizabeth even had a dress left. We didn’t think the pictures would look great of us ragamuffins catching a show when everyone else looks respectable. After lunch and the tour we went back to our hostel. We desperately needed naps and showers.
My notes say we had mass at some point on this day. Elizabeth’s notes: You didn’t even go. So mass at (Catholic Saint) St. Stephen’s Cathedral was (adjective) a little distracting. Only a section of the church is roped off during Mass so tourists (including Clay towards the end) were milling about some even snapping photos during the service. The architecture was (adjective) surprising to see when you hop off the underground and really (descriptive phrase) beautiful especially the detail in the roof design. We would see this type of design in Budapest a few days later. It was (adjective) sad to hear mass in (language) German for the first time and last time on the trip.
After mass, we headed out into town to walk around and enjoy the city. We hadn’t planned much since we were only going to be in town for 36 hours or so. We didn’t even set up a free walking tour. Other than the opera house and the Belvedere Museum, we were left to our own devices. It worked out for the best though.
While walking around near the opera house we had noticed a little food stand catering to the dinner and late night crowd. They were serving my favorite food, meat in tube form. That’s right, for dinner in Vienna we were having Vienna Sausages. Not the kind you ate as a kid, cold out of a tin can. These were the real deal. Hot off the griddle jammed in a warm bun. Watching the guys work, made me want to open up a hot dog stand.
We stood around laughing and enjoying the meal. This section of the trip was having a lot of sausage, currywurst/bratwurst/knockwurst in Berlin, some kind of sausage on the river in Prague, and now Vienna sausages. We were also able to have a nice beer with our meal, in a glass bottle no less.
It amazing the differences sometime between Europe and the US. Glass in Europe is everywhere on the streets without it devolving into madness. Every beer we had was in glass. Back home, a glass bottle anywhere near a street is illegal and you’re looking at maybe even a ticket.
So we’re enjoying the beers and brats and it began to rain. It was a sweet relief. The heat had been surprising and annoying. The rain managed to cool us off a little and it made us miss the thunderstorms back in Alabama. We were just barely covered, but Elizabeth stepped out for a second to enjoy it’s refreshment.
As we continued to stroll around town, we headed back over by the opera house, and wouldn’t you know, they were having a show that night. We had forgotten all about it since we weren’t going, but it turned out a lot of people want to experience opera in Vienna. With a hundred chairs or so set up in a plaza and a big screen dropped in front of one side of the opera house, people were enjoying whatever was happening inside the building.
I think, based on ten minutes of research, we saw Turandot. I’m pretty sure that’s it. Long story short, a fair few people die. It’s set in China, sung in Italian, all happening in Austria. And us Americans could barely figure out what was happening, but that didn’t stop us from making a few guesses. Thank goodness for Wikipedia or we might have never figured out all the plot twists. In spite of our limitations, we had a blast. It misted a little, but not enough to rouse us from our seats. I wanted another sausage, but I was worried about not being able to find another spot to sit.
We enjoyed the opera til the bitter end and then headed off to bed, ready for our only full day in Vienna.
We were up early and ready for cake for breakfast. Nothing defines Vienna like cafe’s so along with our own little walking tour of the city, we were on a mission to find some of the best, i.e. most expensive, cafes in all of Europe.
First stop, Hotel Sacher, for the Sacher torte. I’d had this early in the trip, and didn’t realize we were in the home of the sacher until we arrived. Chocolate cake, apricot jam, chocolate ganache icing. Maybe the best way to start breakfast. Everyone else was having eggs, toast, probably some fruit. Lame. It might not have been the best version, but it was the most expensive by far.
From there we started the journey of taking pictures of big buildings as I read off their details from Wikipedia. I think that’s how most tour guides do it anyway. Eventually we made our way to the Belvedere Musuem. One of the first art museums ever, an old palace, and current home to a lot of old art, we made our way through somewhat quickly. The place is massive and it would have been torture to attempt to see it all in a day so we perused through much of it, not staying too long in front of anything in particular.
One caveat to that is the Klimt section. That’s one of the big reasons why people visit, to see the largest collections of Klimt’s in the world. They do not have Lady in Gold so just forget about the movie. His work is quite impressive. Not all of them are singular, but many are. It was fun to see work by an artist you’ve heard about, seen prints of in college dorm rooms, but not seen the work in person.
As we were leaving, it began to drizzle and then came a massive down pour. I had found a lunch spot for us right next to the museum so we stayed relatively dry as we headed in. Another traditional place, it was going to be expensive. But I expected it to be good, we had nothing else to do that day, and we didn’t want to walk around in the rain the entire time anyway. So it was perfect.
Except when we walked in there was a bit of a line. Fine ok, we’ll wait a few minutes. The line disappeared quickly though and we were up, except we were down. The host wanted to seat us in the basement. I wasn’t having it. I looked around at everyone on the main level and they looked local. The groups in front of us had been Asian and they had been shipped down to the bowels of the restaurants.
I didn’t want to be some tourist passed off to the far reaches of the restaurant. I asked about a table on the main level, a level that had windows and sunshine (albeit behind the rain clouds). The host says there aren’t any. So I show my Americanness and stomp out.
I pitch a fit for a minute or two in a corridor with plenty of colorful language. Elizabeth just sits there, stomach growling waiting for my temper-tantrum to subside. It does and then I sit down to stew. My back-up restaurant is a 15 minute walk, with the potential for horrible weather to rain down on us at any point. Neither of want to risk it, but my pride is preventing me from going back into the place we’ve just left.
After a a minute or so, I concede, apologize to her and we head back in. I go back up to the server and tell him we’ll sit downstairs.
He tells me that the basement is full now. And I almost lose my mind. I’m ready to burn Vienna down. As I try to keep my composure and to see if we can just wait until a table in the basement opens up, the host then says, “But we have a table up here now.”
WHAT?!!!!!
Apparently, the restaurant was just busy for lunch. I was too busy playing conspiracy theorist to just wait a few minutes for a table on the main level to open up. Elizabeth glared at me and I had a sheepish grin as we sat down.
The food was mediocre and expensive. The beer was too. Classic Vienna.
We spent the rest of the day taking pictures, eating more at cafe’s, and walking around.
We closed out Vienna like we had the night before, having a Vienna sausage and laughing. This time at me.
cornetravel 
It is beautiful. The fit you threw sounds like something you dad would have done.
LikeLike
This is your #1 fan here!! I was so excited to see another post. Love reading about the adventures you 2 had in your travels. When you finish with this blog you should just start another one.
LikeLike