I'm home!
I lived in Vienna two summers ago for a study abroad and loved every single moment of it :)
It's kind fun to know my way around and act as a tour guide- showing Meryl all my old haunts...she is probably sick of me telling her stories about that summer every five minutes, but she hides it well.
We took a flight from Amsterdam to Vienna. We got in late so we basically just spent the evening sleeping- or not really sleeping- just talking.
The next morning (yesterday) I took Meryl to one of my favorite places in Vienna:
Schonbrunn Palace
It was a summer palace for the Hofburgs...and it's absolutely stunning!
Meryl was just documenting here that the mint-green shorts made it to Europe and it's finally warm enough to wear them!
She got a little artsy
Ok back to the palace- we walked around the extensive grounds
Saw the fountain
And took a bazillion pictures...
Honestly, I'm not too worried about taking pictures in Vienna only because I spent almost every day for three months taking pictures of this city for a photography class.
So....I have literally thousands of pictures of this place...
having said that I still took a lot of pictures... how can I help it- I'm in one of the most beautiful cities in the world!
Here we are about to go into the mazes- we thought the labyrinth sounded pretty awesome and I'd never been before so naturally, we had to go.
On the way in we grabbed a snack (we didn't know how long the maze would take)
These cookies are probably the best thing you will ever taste- hazelnut wafers that melt in your mouth...heavenly.
Ok so I'll give you the short version of this story, but basically we went into this maze pretty confident.
It didn't look very big and we are college grads - we're smart right?
It couldn't be that hard...
Wrong.
So wrong.
This is a picture we took holding my camera over the top of the hedges just to see where we needed to go.
It didn't help.
We finally had to follow some guy who took pity on us to the center lookout thing.
We were hapless, but loved every minute...we couldn't stop laughing over how much our internal compasses had failed us...
Meryl exhausted by the end:
A view from the top- it's harder than it looks I promise...
So we finally made it out of that maze and headed to the next one- it was more of a leisurely walk with activities in it...
I think this mirror part was supposed to be exciting, but we never could figure out the purpose...
These are bouncing boards... these were relatively unexciting as well...but I thought they were cool- obviously my face says it all
Here we are benching on the grounds of Schonbrunn
Leaving the station
And then we made it to the center of the city...
This is the Karlkirchse - or St. Karl's Church
We walked by the Opera house and saw the Marriage of Figaro- or at least a few minutes of it.
Vienna is so cool- you can go to the opera in the opera house or you can watch it outside on the huge screen they set up.
Then I took Meryl to the LDS institute building for FHE.
We spent a LOT of time here a few years ago so it was good to be back and see a few familiar faces :)
Next we headed to my favorite pizza place in the whole world to get some curry pizza!
Looks delicious right?
Tust me, it is.
Our last food stop for the night was Zanoni & Zanoni.
Best gelato in the world- hands down.
Biscotti is my favorite flavor and Meryl is official a fan
On our way home I took Meryl by some of the sights in Vienna so she could see them at night.
It's beautiful during the day and in some ways, even more beautiful at night
The is the Imperial Palace
and the Rathus
The next day...today actually- we started out going to the Naschmarkt. It's basically an outdoor food market during the week and a HUGE flea market on the weekends
Our next stop was Stephansdom.
It is basically a huge cathedral at the heart of Vienna.
Today was kinda cool because the inside was lit up with muti-colored lights
Next we went back to the Staatsoper or the state opera house for a tour.
I've been to an extremely boring opera in this place- but I've never taken a tour...the tour was much better that the opera let me tell ya.
Only the central part of the building wasn't destroyed during the bombing in WWII so the central staircase is in the old the design and the rest of it is more modern from when it was reconstructed in the 50s.
The tour took us back stage....they were getting ready for a performance of The Flying Dutchman
One night of the year they put a stage over all those seats and connect it to the front stage for a huge ball.
It sounds fantastic- of course it's 250 Euro just to get in- and if you want to rent a box out for the night- it costs 18,000 Euro!
crazy huh?
A tiny part of me still wants to go though...
This chandelier weighs 10 tons... 3 tons of it is just crystals
After the Opera house we went back to Stephansdom for a tour of the catacombs
They wouldn't let us take pictures down there, but it was creepy... we saw mass graves for victims of the plague (bones and everything).
Our next stop in the shopping district was Demal.
It's the most famous chocolate store in Vienna
This is a wedding dress made out of their chocolate... 'nuff said.
I'm not a huge fan of just plain chocolate, but we wanted to document it all the same...and Meryl enjoyed getting some treats there :)
We walked back though the Imperial palace on our way home...I love all the green and gold
I showed Meryl where I used to go to school- that's the opera house right behind me... such an amazing location
Meryl felt the need to document my Vienna 'fro.
It's back!
ok it's actually not that big...but it gets curlier and curlier in the humidity and she thinks it's funny
Next we went home to change and head to my host mother's house for dinner.
This is the 40a bus stop... I miss it!
Elisabeth became my second mom while I was here....she really took care of me and we had some amazing conversations.
She is a highly educated woman and I loved learning from her...she told me tonight that I became her daughter that summer and I couldn't have been happier :)
She cooked us a fantastic meal (bringing back memories of getting so full at her home I thought I was going to go into a real food coma)
Isn't she the cutest?!
At the end of our visit she just hugged me and blessed me with so much happiness and success- she is the kind of sincere person that makes you feel special all the time.
I was so terrible at learning German while I was living here- when I mentioned that tonight however, she told me she knew I was talented and I worked hard at it and that she was proud of me... how wonderful is that?
Seriously, this woman is a saint and I love her so much!
Two days down and one day left
I love this city!
Love,
Ale
2 comments:
Yay, Wien! And the mint green shorts...such a perfect place to wear them.
GAH!!!! ok, i'm sorry i have to comment on every single post. this just made me SOOO sad i'm not there!! You better tell her that I say hi. Can we please plan a trip across europe when you both get married and we can all bring our husbands?! And remember that the 40a only stops running at 5:30 pm on christmas day :)
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