Vienna!

Hello everyone! I just got back from an AMAZING trip to Vienna with my friend (not boyfriend, just friend!) Tobi. We had a blast. As soon as my pictures are uploaded, I'll edit this post and put in a link to the album, but for now, here's the play-by-play of what we did:

We had a very early morning flight on Thursday - took off at 6:15, but because of that it was cheap! - and landed about an hour later, it was a very short flight. We went right to our hostel (Wombat's, for those who've been to Vienna or Munich before), which was very easy to find, and checked in, but we couldnt get into our room yet because it was too early, so we just locked up our stuff in the luggage storage room, then headed out to find some breakfast. We walked along a big street that would be a shoppers paradise! Then, we ate breakfast at... McDonalds. I'm not kidding. My first meal in Vienna was at McDonalds. It was Tobi's idea. We were walking, and really hungry, and then there was a McDonalds there, and he was like "actually I could eat here" because you can get a hot breakfast for cheap. I laughed at first but then was like "okay whatever!" so we ate there and I have to say one thing - McDonalds in Vienna actually has GOOD coffee! It was like totally weird to be eating an Egg McMuffin with a nice tasting cappucino! Haha so anyways, then we kept on walking, and eventually wound up in the Museum Quarter, where I saw an amazing thing... a drinking fountain!!! They don't have those in Berlin anywhere!!! So I was excited. Then, we came out through this little tunnel/archway thing, and then all of sudden, there was the "old city" of Vienna, in all its splendor. It was quite a sight. We crossed the street and walked through Maria Theresia Platz, with its beautiful garden and big pretty buildings on both sides, then through the old city gate into the Hofburg. We just wandered through there more or less aimlessly for a couple hours probably. It was way cool. Then all of sudden we realized we were hungry again and it was 12:30, so we decided to cut through the Stadtpark (which is also gorgeous!) and then grab something to eat. We just had a light lunch at little cafe, then headed to the Schönbrunn Palace. We did the tour there, which was pretty cool and not too long, which was good cuz our feet were tired, then walked out into the INCREDIBLE gardens there, which are also, by the way, ginormous. We walked, got some ice cream, walked some more, stopped to admire the view, walked some more, bought a coke, sat on a bench, walked some more... you get the picture. It was like a landscaper's paradise. We slowly meandered our way out of the gardens through the back way sorta, because there was a greenhouse back there that we thought we might visit. When we got there, it was closed, so we decided it was time for dinner and then sleep. For dinner we headed back to the Hofburg area and ate at an Italianish place. Then we wandered some more, thinking we might stop for a coffee somewhere, then realized we were too tired for coffee and decided just to go back to the hostel. Oh yeah, in the course of our wanderings we saw some cool churches, like St. Stephans (the big ginormous famous one) and St. Michaels (I think?) and actually, Thursday was a big Catholic holiday (Corpus Christi? I have no idea what that is) and since Austria is super duper Catholic, there were all these processions in the street during the morning. There was a big outdoor procession and sort of worship service in front of St Stephans church that was huge. It was interesting to see. I think there were some pretty important clergymen there, they were all decked out in the fancy traditional robes and everything. There were two things about the procession that made us laugh though - one was that there were some men carrying these little canopy-things over some of the important priests, but the guys carrying the poles weren't dressed fancy like the priests. One guy was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said "I <3 Jesus". The other funny thing was that when they sang, there was a guy singing the music over a loudspeaker, but he was a horrible singer! It made us giggle. That was an interesting experience.

On Friday we slept in late, then headed for the Belvedere, which was pretty awesome. It's a really beautiful palace which now functions basically as a big art museum, and they had some good stuff. Afterward we stopped for coffee, wandered a bit, then to decided to go ahead and have dinner. We found a great Italian place and had pizza, then went to the Haus der Musik ("House of Music"), which is this random, kinda funky museum having to do with sound and music. The first thing you go through is called the Sonosphere, which is slightly Space-Age in decor, and you learn all kinds of stuff about how sound is made and what makes different sounds sound different. They had some cool computers with headphones where you could observe all these different aspects of sound and do cool stuff. For example, for some of my readers: You know how in "Come Sweet Death" you hear all those notes that people aren't really singing? There was a cool demo on that. Another one that was really spiffy was the one that explained tone color (what makes a clarinet sound like a clarinet and a piano like a piano). You could gradually spin a "tone color wheel" and it would change the overtones gradually from one instrument to another. After that part, there were some exhibits about the main, big famous (German/Austrian) composers: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Mahler... I think those were all the ones they did. They had things like original copies of scores and concert programs, replicas of the instruments they used (mostly pianos, but also some violins and an occasional flute or oboe), and general factual information. In this section, they also had a thing where you could virtually conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. I didn't do it because we were pressed for time going through the museum and there was another lady there doing it (quite badly by the way, it was really funny!), but Tobi did. There's a conductor's wand that you use that shoots like lasers or something, something like that. And if you're really bad, the orchestra members like boo you or just get up an walk out (you see them on a TV screen). I thought the concept was quite amusing! The last part of it was kinda weird, it was called the Brain Opera and you could make all kinds of weird sounds and music and such by doing really simple things, like moving your arms. You could also "compose" a soundtrack of natural sound samples. All in all, the museum was kinda funky, but definitely entertaining. Very hands-on and unique. After that we were thirsty, so we found a restaurant and sat and chatted awhile, then headed back to the hostel.

This morning we woke up a bit earlier, checked out, stored our luggage again, then headed off to the Sisi Museum in the Hofburg. This was a cool museum because it's kinda three museums in one: first you see the imperial silver collection, then you see a museum on the life of the last Austrian empress, Elisabeth ("Sisi"), then you visit the imperial rooms (where the emperor and empress actually lived). It was a good mix, and no single part was too long, so you didn't get bored from seeing too much of the same thing. After that we were very hungry, so we started walking, and what's right in front of us, but a Starbucks. And Tobi was like, "Actually, I could go for just something at Starbucks" (it was one that has sandwiches and stuff too) and I was like sure, taking note that it was the German among us who suggested it, not the American! Anyways, you would not believe how expensive everything at that Starbucks was!!! The cheap drinks, like a tall cappucino, were 4 Euros at least!!! It was quite ridiculous. We decided to just deal with it because we were hungry and thirsty, but then we had sort of a stroke of luck. Both of us were out of cash, and their credit card machine was broken, so we had to go to an ATM and get cash, and for the inconvenience, they didn't charge us for our drinks, only for our sandwiches. So we basically got a half-off deal, which meant it cost what it would normally cost at an American Starbucks. :) Afterward we hit up the Albertina, an art museum currently featuring an exhibt on the artists of the "Brücke" (literally means "bridge"), a group of German artists who sort of joined forces around 1906 to start experimenting with new, modern techniques that "broke the rules". It was a neat exhibt. The museum also has a few smaller works by really famous older artists like Dürer and Rubens, and downstairs is a really nifty photography exhibit. It was cool, but after that we were totally museum-ed out. And in need of coffee. After some more coffee (NOT from Starbucks!), we made our way slowly back to the hostel to pick up our stuff, stopping briefly to see St Stephans one more time on the way. We went ahead and went to the airport from there, figuring we'd just get there early and find some dinner there, which is exactly what we did. And then we flew back to Berlin, and now I'm back here at my apartment! And that was my super cool Vienna adventure.

So, like I said... photos coming soon. We had a blast. :)