Yesterday I got back late from my weekend travels to Vienna! My exchange partner from high school, Krissi, lives in Vienna, or Wien which is it's real name, and I knew I wanted to go visit her since I'm only a country away in Deutschland. It was about 7ish hours by train, but do-able and a nice weekend trip even though it went by way too fast!
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| In the backyard at Schönbrunn |
I left Tü early Thursday morning and got to Wien around 3ish and Krissi met me at the bahnhof, the first time we'd seen each other in over three years! She had to go to class that afternoon, but I keep myself occupied walking around the city, eating ice cream and Manner cookies, and taking a ton of pictures. I climbed up the 300-something steps of Stephansdom in the middle of the city and got a nice albeit foggy view of all of Wien. That night we went out to dinner with her boyfriend, Dani, and came home and watched Germany's Next Top Model. ;)
On Friday, Krissi and I met up with another friend Julia, that I met three years ago during Christmas break in Lech, and her boyfriend for breakfast. Unfortunately Julia was going to a wedding later that day, but it was fun to see her again and catch up on each others lives! Afterwards, Krissi and I explored the city a bit more and she showed me her university, which is literally a five minute-walk away from the Opera house! Then we went to Schloss Schönbrunn, the famous "summer house" for the royal families back in the day, including the beloved Empress Sisi. It really was a beautiful castle as the name indicates, and the backyard was ridiculous! That night we went out to pizza with a boy who I also know from Lech and some of his friends. Being all from Austria, they obviously spoke German, but the dialect was seriously hard for me (and Krissi!) to understand.
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| Schnitzel! <3 |
On Saturday, we went to a flee market with one of Krissi's girlfriends, then went out for Wiener schnitzel for lunch! It was seriously one of the best meals I've ever had-- it's essentially just thin veal, breaded and deep-fried, and so incredibly delicious! Hopefully I will be able to find it just as good outside of Wien, so I don't have to wait to return to have it again!! After lunch, we went and bought a Sachertorte, a famous Austrian chocolate cake, from THE Hotel Sacher and headed to the Belvedere art museum where Gustav Klimt's most famous collection is kept. The art museum was in yet another beautiful castle, almost overpowering all the artwork inside! That night we went to a handball game between Wien and Bregenz, the town where Dani is from and one of his friends from home played on the team, so we sat on the away side of the arena. It was a little funny for me to watch such a foreign, very European sport since it looked a little like basketball, but also not! It was quite an intense atmosphere and unfortunately Bregenz lost in the final minute...
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| Krissi and I at Belvedere |
It was really great to see Krissi again and other friends from Austria, and also cool because we spoke German the entire weekend, since we've previously spoken a lot of English when we were together! Wien was a really awesome, old city and I totally understand why Krissi chose to study there-- it's big but not too big, and has more interesting things to do than you'd ever need! It was also really cool for me to see since there are sooo many old buildings and interesting things to look at wherever you turn, something we don't get a lot of back in America.
