All My Days: Spring Break Pt. 2: Wien

We arrived in Vienna at 8:30 in the morning, after one very long and uncomfortable overnight train ride. It probably wouldn't have been so bad and we all may have even managed to sleep some if we had discovered that our seat folded down and out into beds before 7:45 am. But even though were were sleep deprived we were in Vienna, so it was hard to complain! We found our hostel, checked in and started to explore!

While the other walked around a bit, Kelly and I decided to visit the Hofburg Imperial Palace. This palace has been home to some of Austria's most powerful citizens including the Hofburg Dynasty which ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire and currently serves as the official residence of Austria's President, Heinz Fischer. My favorite fun fact about this palace is in 1755 Marie Antoinette was born here.

The Hofburg Palace is also home to an armory, historical musical instruments, and a classical statuary from ancient Ephesus.

This picture made me want to watch one of my favorite movies, A Knight's Tale...

" You have been weighed. You have been measured. And you have been found wanting."

When we ventured into the historical musical instruments gallery I had to get a picture in front of same very very old flutes...out of respect for my glory days in band and orchestra! Yes, its safe to say I will always be a band geek at heart. And I am completely okay with that. :-)

Later that same day we took the metro out to visited Schonbrunn Palace which had an absolutey magnificent garden!

A festival at the palace's entrance for the Easter Holiday the day before...

One of the garden's many fountains.

A cute shot of Katie with a great view of the palace and garden.

For dinner that night our hostel told us we had to try weinerschnitzel, Vienna's most famous dish. We found the best little restaurant just around the corner form where we were staying called the Mozart Cafe. Let me tell you, they cooked a mean weinerschnitzel! And as Sydney, my Southern friend, observed it tasted exacktly like "chicken fried pork." Yum.

The next day we explored the city some more...

Apple Love, its a powerful thing.

The first stop we made was the beautiful St. Stephen's Cathedral in the heart of the city. I loved the Gothic Architecture and the pictures below definitely do not do it justice. It stands on the ruins of two other churches, the first being a parish consecrated in 1147. Its one of the oldest structures in Vienna and has become one of the cities most recognizable structures. And not that I'm an architecure expert or anything, it was my favorite cathedral of the entire trip.

Views like this made me expect Quasimodo to peer out over the church's balcony. (It's quite possible I watch too many movies...)

After our cathedral fun, and on the recomendation of a souvenir shop owner, we tasted Vienna's most famous dessert, Sacer-Torte.

It may only look like a square of chocolate cake, BUT it is so much more than that! I'm not sure what exaclty is in this little chocalate-y cube of goodness but it is Divine, with a capital D.

After we came down from our sugar high, we made out way to Belvedere Palace, also home to a museum and beautiful garden. I wa most excited for this particular palace though because it houses paintings from some of my favorite artists like Klimt, Monet and Renoir.

Here are some of the paintings I was able to see in real life...

Klimt's The Kiss...

Part of Monet's Giverny Garden collection...

After I had my fair share of culture for the day, I went out to the garden's to meet up with the rest of my non-art-loving group. ;-)

We had decided earlier that morning that we would try and snag some standing tickets to the Royal Opera company for the performance that night. But before we waited in line for tow and a half hours we stopped at a Bratwurst stand for dinner. Again, YUM!

We really LOVE Bratwursts. All of the German-esque food was very much appreciated after our previous eight days of pasta, pasta, pasta!

Right next to the Bratwurst stand was this statue and park dedicated to one of Vienna's most famous musicians, Mozart. It's hard to make out in this picture, but the yellow flowers in fron of the statue are in the shape of a treble clef.

Emma and me being cute.

After our photo shoot with Mozart we continued our walk to the Opera house and on the way we passed a Steinway & Sons piano shop. Steinways are to pianos what Bentlys are to cars, so it was neat to peer into the window and see some of the world's finest pianos.

Finally we made it to the Royal Opera House. We had taken a tour the preivous day and were so excited to be back to see a show.

The following two pictures were taken from our tour the day before. The opera house has a rule that they never perform the same show two nights in a row, which means a lot of work for the stage crew who are constantly setting up and tearing down some very complex sets.

Here we are in out "standing room only" section, not bad four 4 euros! The show we saw was Wagner's Barber of Seville and it was fabulous! Being a former vocal performance major made me love it that much more and I am so glad we went.