Vienna: A bit of culture, a lot of salad

Giant crow at the Belvedere gardens. I realize you can't get a good idea of the scale of that thing from this picture, but I promise you he was huge.

If this blog has taught me one thing it's that my tendancy towards extreme procrastination extends far beyond the realm of schoolwork. Sigh... In anycase, this is a Vienna recap for all to read! Huzzah! So, let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). I arrived in Vienna late in the afternoon and went to the wrong hostel. In my own defence there are two Wombat hostels in Vienna, both within walking distance of Westbahnoff. Anyway, I arrived in my correct hostel with a little bit of help from the staff at the other Wombats hostel and all was well. Let me just say that the room was awesome, the beds were comfy, and the bathroom was ensuite. And there were only four beds in the room, which meant competition for the bathroom was minimal (people who were with me in Amsterdam know how unpleasant a 10 to 1 girl to bathroom ration can be, especially when all you need to do is pee). Anyway, I lucked out because all of my roommates were awesome as well. I was pretty tuckered out when I arrived because I had had something of a late night/early morning in Salzburg, so I just went into my room, met two of my roommates (Maggie and Steph) and read some more about mountaineering disasters. I actually fell asleep, but luckily I was awakened by the third roommate (Anna) arriving. She and I decided to go get a bite so we went to this cool place called Centimetres where you order your bread by the centimetre (get it?). We both got salads, and they were giant!

The next day Anna and I had breakfast and then we went out to explore the city. It was rainy, but I didn't mind. It was really nice to have someone to explore with because I am usually on my own (I always meet people in the hostels, but the majority of the time we do our own thing during the day and maybe hang out at night). We actually got lost, as is typical of me, and ended up in City Hall. Oops. Anyway, we eventually got sorted out and we decided to go to the Sisi Museum (which was suggested by LonelyPlanet). It was actually really cool and probably one of the best museums I've been to. It is a museum dedicated to the life of a nineteenth century Empress of the Hapsburg dynasty. She was quite unconventional, and even ahead of her time in some ways (she excercised everyday, which was not only uncommon at that time, but also frowned upon, especially for women). Anywa, I recommend that museum to anyone who has plans to visit Vienna in the near future. You won't be bored.

After the museum we went for lunch at this all organic restaurant. It was great! I had hummus and tzaziki and some falafel and... mmm. It was really good. Then we went back to the hostel and met our other roommate, Steph, for supper. We had sushi, and that was also delicious (although I was boring as always and got vegetable sushi and miso soup). We all went home after.

I got a bit of a late start the next day. Anna left early, so it was just Steph and me. We both did our own thing during the day time. I walked around the city and visited numerous churches. I don't remember a single name. Then I headed back to the dorm to meet Steph, because we were going to see the Weiner Hofburg Orchestra. It was great! There were five opera singers, as well as the orchestra and it was all very entertaining. There was also a running gag between the conductor and one of the percussionists, that was hilarious. Check out the video below.

Opera singers performing their encore.

Exterior of one of the many churches I visited. This one had full skeletons of martyrs taken from the catacombs in Rome on display in giant reliqueries.

On my last full day in Vienna I was on my own, because Steph left for Salzburg. I was pretty happy because there was no rain, so I decided to go to the Belvere palace and see the gardens and to see Klimpt's "The Kiss". The Upper Belvedere actually has a lot more art than I had anticipated, so I spent a while in there looking around. I also spent some time out in the gardens, which were beutiful. Then I went to get some supper. I ended up getting a salad, which was a little excessive, because I had been eating excessive amounts of salad for about a week, but it really hit the spot. I didn't even have room for desert, which was kind of a bummer because the tiramisu looked really good. Then I took the train to the English theatre to see if I could catch a showing of Harry Potter. I was about two and a half hours too late, so I went back to my room, showered, met my new roommates, who were all lovely, and read more about mountain disasters. The next morning I was off on another excessively long journey (with plenty of transfers, ie. no relaxation time) to Cesky Krumlov. More on that later.

The Upper Belvedere Palace.

Cheese dumplings for lunch. They tasted pretty good, but they really don't look very appetizing here. I think I only managed to eat half of this.