We arrived in Vienna on Monday around 5 pm and got our rooms – this time I was in a room of 6 with Maesan and some new girls. We settled in and then headed out on the metro with Alex to the city center. She showed us around a bit and dropped us off at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Like Matthias Church in Budapest, this cathedral had beautiful tile work on the roof. We went into the cathedral, but didn’t stay long because there was a mass going on.
We were starving at this point, so we broke off into a smaller group and sat at the first restaurant that seemed reasonably priced and had things on the menu for everyone. I tried to be “authentic” and ordered the chicken schnitzel. Luckily, it’s almost exactly like fried chicken so I was thrilled!! Right up my alley 🙂 We ended dinner with gelato spaghetti, our third gelatos of the day! The waiter asked if we wanted cheese on it and I freaked out! Turns out, he was just making a joke and he got me good!!! After our bellies were full, we ventured to the part of the city by the Danube river, where Alex said the bars were. She kept warning us that Vienna wasn’t a party city, so as to not get our hopes up. Little did we know what was coming the next night… Anyway, we found a place called Bermuda Brau, had a couple of beers, and called it a night.
In the right picture is Leslie, Colton, Maesan, Alex (not our tour guide, he’s from NJ too), Stephanie, me, and Warner (he’s in the army!). In the left picture is me, Cecilia (from California), and Leslie!
On Tuesday, we got up bright and early and immediately head to Schönbrunn Palace, which used to be the summer palace of the Habsburgs until their fall in 1918. It was really cool to learn about the Habsburgs in their own palace, who included Napoleon (he married in) and Marie Antoinette. We had a hysterical tour guide from Austria named Vicky and she delighted in bringing us through the palace. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but I promise it was beautiful! After finishing up inside, we had some free time to explore the gardens and it was a wonderful sunny day to do so!
After the free time ended, Vicky took us to see the Hundertwasserhaus, which is an apartment building decorated in a very eclectic style. Each apartment is completely different. It looks like it would be something from Gaudí, but it’s not! After getting a glimpse, we ended at the open air market for lunch. We decided to get something quick and I was very unoriginal and got a chicken schnitzel sandwich. It was delicious and I tried to have schniztel every chance I got! Post lunch, my friends wanted to visit some museums (I tagged along, but wasn’t all that excited since museums usually aren’t my thing). First stop was the Kaiserliche Schatzkammer Wien (Imperial Treasury museum), which houses the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire, the cradle of the King of Rome, the dagger that was supposed to have killed Jesus, and the supposed Holy Grail (didn’t look like the one in Monty Python & the Holy Grail so I’m skeptical :P). It was actually pretty cool to see all of the jewels in the museum and I enjoyed it!
Clockwise from top left: crown of the Holy Roman Empire, King’s cradle, dagger that killed Jesus, and the Holy Grail
We took a break and went to Café Central, which has the famous Viennese warm chocolate cake. I was so excited to sit, have a coffee, and enjoy the cake. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! It was very rich and the perfect afternoon snack. The next museum stop was the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Art History museum). We hit every major item to see, but I just took some random pictures because if we’re being honest here, I was tired at this point and didn’t care for more art pictures. We hurried back to the hotel to freshen up before our orchestra, which I was really excited about. Again, we weren’t allowed to take pictures or record, but it was incredible to watch. There was an orchestra, two opera singers, and two ballerinas. Since Vienna is the birthplace of classical music, the show was phenomenal!
Clockwise from top left: the gang at Café Central (plus Madelyn and Adrian, minus Warner), a ceiling in the Art History Museum, front row for the orchestra, on our way to the orchestra!
After the show, Alex told us about a bar called Traveler’s Shack. She told us it was “a crazy bar” with all kinds of different shots, like those ones you see sometimes in Facebook videos that you have to get slapped first before the shot. Of course, this made us all want to go more, so onto the Shack we went. I think it was one of the most fun nights of the trip. Everyone was dancing and singing and having a great time. They had beer specials for this beer called Desperados – essentially a Corona but it was flavored with Tequila. Sounds gross, was a little gross at first, but after a few sips you get used to it. I’m not sure I’ll ever have one again, but it was fun to experience!
More to come next post! If you want to click back to Budapest, click here.
aventuras de alyssa 