Vienna- The City of Lovers and Dumplings
We traveled to Vienna from Budapest on a Volanbusz, yes that’s right a Hungarian bus. A four hour ride cost just $25 for both of us. Surprisingly, there were only four people on the bus, and despite the fact that the bus was from a former eastern block country, it was probably the best looking and nicest bus we have ridden on this trip. After some strange looking bus station pizza, we slept almost the whole way to Vienna.
The first night we walked through town, discovering block after block of beautiful stone buildings full of carved statues and spires. The parliament building, Rathous (city hall), and burg theater were some of the more notables ones. We also came across a beautiful church. That night we watched a soccer match in an Irish bar downtown, before heading back to our hostel for some inexpensive beers and meeting Titus and Tobey from London. We sought out a more Viennese establishment and met Phillip and Norte, some locals. We ended up chatting with them till almost 4 AM about religion, politics, and every other subject under the moon. It was very interesting understanding the opinions and perspective of someone on the other side of the globe.
The next day we walked around the central park of Vienna and its museum district, especially the Hofburg Imperial Palace, where the Habsburg Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire ruled from, in the winter time. We toured the apartments of Kaiser Franz Joseph and the empress Elisabeth (also known as Sisi) as well as the royal table settings collection. In the apartments, we could see where the emperor and his wife lived, conducted business, slept, and generally survived. The apartments were lavish indeed, but almost equally impressive was the table settings collection. With stacks of gold and silver plates, as well as exquisite, gold highlighted porcelain, we saw how the emperors indeed ate like kings. What caught my eye the most was the centerpieces. These large bronze sculptures, covered with gold, were both huge and minutely detailed. We also saw the Statsoper, or city opera house, as well as the Stephansdom Cathedral and central square of Vienna. After a late meal of Weiner schnitzel and a sausage-filled dumpling covered in sauerkraut (a local traditional meal?) We stopped in a few other churches, whose names we did not write down, we retired to write some blog postings, upload pictures, check email, and for sure, call our mothers on mother’s day.
Apparently, the Viennese must love pizza and kebabs, because there is a stand on every corner selling one or both. The first night we had a kebab after wandering around the city into the wee hours, delving into the local nightlife. Our kabob was wonderful, from what we remember=)
One more note about food. Apparently everyone in Europe eats the same kind of breakfast. In every hostel we’ve been to, the offered breakfast is always the same. It usually contains the majority of the following items: rolls and/or sliced white bread, swiss cheese, salami and/or ham, nutella, butter, spreadable cheese, jam, watered-down juice, muscelli (grains and dried fruit) cereal and/or cornflakes, and some sort of coffee. While that sounds good and that it will do the job, you have to understand it has been our breakfast most mornings for the past month and it gets a bit old. Cold bread, cold cuts, cold cheese and cold cereal. The same kind of cereal, rolls, cold cuts, and cheese. However, this past hostel had three very very important and wonderful additions. They had 1. Hard boiled eggs. Not quite scrambled or fried, but they did the trick, 2. A Panini sandwich grill, and 3. An amazing cappiccino machine that Laura contimplated fitting into her backpack, but decided against when she realized she would have to leave her towel and make-up behind to do so. So Eric had a warm grilled salami and cheese sandwich, and a warm grilled egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast this morning. He still has a smile on his face from it. We are both excited because we think our hostel tonight will also have these luxories, as the hostels are both owned by the same company.
We have been adding a LOT of videos to the Youtube account, so that might be interesting to check out. Thanks to Amy and Chris for their great Christmas gift of the Flip video camera!!! (we love you guys)
Enjoy the pictures of Vienna.
Sincerely and until next time,
Eric and Laura
Laura with the big church in the distance.
Eric in front of a cupola.
Laura in front of the Rathaus (City Hall).
Laura in front of the Austrian Parliament Building.
Eric taking a nifty shot of him and Laura in front of some of the Habsburg Emporer's silver dish sets.
Laura in front of stacks of silver and gold centerpieces.
Laura in front of a statue at the Hofberg Imperial Palace.
Eric in front of a church at Hofberg Palace. I believe this one is the Stephansdom from the unique roof. (PS. Eric is wearing the shirt he picked up in Czech, It says "Beer is my fuel"- awesome souvenier, right?)
Laura in front of the main section of the Hofburg Palace. This part is now the Austrian National Library.
Eric in the center of Stephan's Square.
Laura with a gelatto in front of Stephansdom.
Laura, Looking beautiful outside the Statsoper.
The first night we walked through town, discovering block after block of beautiful stone buildings full of carved statues and spires. The parliament building, Rathous (city hall), and burg theater were some of the more notables ones. We also came across a beautiful church. That night we watched a soccer match in an Irish bar downtown, before heading back to our hostel for some inexpensive beers and meeting Titus and Tobey from London. We sought out a more Viennese establishment and met Phillip and Norte, some locals. We ended up chatting with them till almost 4 AM about religion, politics, and every other subject under the moon. It was very interesting understanding the opinions and perspective of someone on the other side of the globe.
The next day we walked around the central park of Vienna and its museum district, especially the Hofburg Imperial Palace, where the Habsburg Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire ruled from, in the winter time. We toured the apartments of Kaiser Franz Joseph and the empress Elisabeth (also known as Sisi) as well as the royal table settings collection. In the apartments, we could see where the emperor and his wife lived, conducted business, slept, and generally survived. The apartments were lavish indeed, but almost equally impressive was the table settings collection. With stacks of gold and silver plates, as well as exquisite, gold highlighted porcelain, we saw how the emperors indeed ate like kings. What caught my eye the most was the centerpieces. These large bronze sculptures, covered with gold, were both huge and minutely detailed. We also saw the Statsoper, or city opera house, as well as the Stephansdom Cathedral and central square of Vienna. After a late meal of Weiner schnitzel and a sausage-filled dumpling covered in sauerkraut (a local traditional meal?) We stopped in a few other churches, whose names we did not write down, we retired to write some blog postings, upload pictures, check email, and for sure, call our mothers on mother’s day.
Apparently, the Viennese must love pizza and kebabs, because there is a stand on every corner selling one or both. The first night we had a kebab after wandering around the city into the wee hours, delving into the local nightlife. Our kabob was wonderful, from what we remember=)
One more note about food. Apparently everyone in Europe eats the same kind of breakfast. In every hostel we’ve been to, the offered breakfast is always the same. It usually contains the majority of the following items: rolls and/or sliced white bread, swiss cheese, salami and/or ham, nutella, butter, spreadable cheese, jam, watered-down juice, muscelli (grains and dried fruit) cereal and/or cornflakes, and some sort of coffee. While that sounds good and that it will do the job, you have to understand it has been our breakfast most mornings for the past month and it gets a bit old. Cold bread, cold cuts, cold cheese and cold cereal. The same kind of cereal, rolls, cold cuts, and cheese. However, this past hostel had three very very important and wonderful additions. They had 1. Hard boiled eggs. Not quite scrambled or fried, but they did the trick, 2. A Panini sandwich grill, and 3. An amazing cappiccino machine that Laura contimplated fitting into her backpack, but decided against when she realized she would have to leave her towel and make-up behind to do so. So Eric had a warm grilled salami and cheese sandwich, and a warm grilled egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast this morning. He still has a smile on his face from it. We are both excited because we think our hostel tonight will also have these luxories, as the hostels are both owned by the same company.
We have been adding a LOT of videos to the Youtube account, so that might be interesting to check out. Thanks to Amy and Chris for their great Christmas gift of the Flip video camera!!! (we love you guys)
Enjoy the pictures of Vienna.
Sincerely and until next time,
Eric and Laura
Eric and Laura in front of a big church door. Not sure which church, but I think it belongs to Christ.
Laura with the big church in the distance.
Eric in front of a cupola.
Laura in front of the Rathaus (City Hall).
Laura in front of the Austrian Parliament Building.
Eric taking a nifty shot of him and Laura in front of some of the Habsburg Emporer's silver dish sets.
Laura in front of stacks of silver and gold centerpieces.
Laura in front of a statue at the Hofberg Imperial Palace.
Eric in front of a church at Hofberg Palace. I believe this one is the Stephansdom from the unique roof. (PS. Eric is wearing the shirt he picked up in Czech, It says "Beer is my fuel"- awesome souvenier, right?)
Laura in front of the main section of the Hofburg Palace. This part is now the Austrian National Library.
Yup, thats Eric.
Eric in the center of Stephan's Square.
Laura with a gelatto in front of Stephansdom.
Laura, Looking beautiful outside the Statsoper.Well, thats all for now. Tune in next time for Fussen and the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. Then we are off to Italy!!!
Chow!
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