Vienna

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Wow, I loved this city. I had my doubts about going; I honestly didn't have an initial attraction to the city and didn't understand why Chase was insistent about visiting Vienna. I thought I might as well go - how often would I be able to go to Vienna with someone who speaks excellent German?

The whole time I was there, I was amazed at how wonderful everything was. First of all, it was worlds cheaper than Paris. We actually stayed in a hotel, and it was less expensive than all the hostels in Paris. The hotel even had a full kitchen. And the restaurants were affordable, too (another big change from Paris). The food was amazing - and not just the Austrian food. We also had Italian and Indian, and I was convinced to eat sausage (again) and Wienerschnitzel. The Wienerschnitzel restaurant that Chase chose was actually an old, authentic Viennese establishment. There was no music or ambience, the floors and tables were wood, and the portions were enormous (see picture)!

Equally famous are the Viennese coffeeshops. I had one of the best lattes of my life in one of these, not to mention all the torte I ate! We became particularly attached to a certain little "socialist" coffeeshop in the city. It is right across the street from the powerful Austrian socialist party, thus it receives a leftist clientele. The owner of our hotel reccomended it as a real coffeeshop, free of tourists. It was true - none of the servers spoke English, and everyday we were there I had to wrestle away the copy of the International Herald Tribune from an Austrian who was slowly reading it as a second language.

Vienna is a beautiful city - in a way even more beautiful than Paris. The buildings are all old and built with a certain grandeur. It's also comparitively small - it was easy to walk everywhere downtown. We spent a lot of our time walking along the beautiful "ring", which is a ring of trees and wooded area that circles the whole city.

We did our fair share of tourist things too: Belvedere Palace (home of many Gustave Klimt works including "the Kiss" - i thought all of the klimt looked so different in person), the Hofburg complex (which literally had us in awe every night we walked through it), Schonbrunn Palace (which was preserved very well historically), and St. Stephen's Cathedral (we climbed to the top of the tower to see out over the city).

Vienna is also much more open to globalization and American influences than France. The Gilmore Girls is a really popular sitcom there, and I tried to watch it even though I couldn't understand a word they were saying. Another result of this globalization is that I saw beautiful old buildings that were suddenly turned into McDonalds and other chains on the bottom.

All in all, I loved this city, and I can't wait to go back one day.

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Photos

Part of the Hofburg Complex at night.
Walking through this area is like a dream...one can see so many different old monuments, cathedrals, palaces. It's so wonderful.

Belvedere Palace
This downtown palace has been turned into a museum that houses lots of Klimt, among other things.

View from the tower of the cathedral.
It was a long climb up a narrow, stone staircase....and an even longer, dizzier climb back down.

Grand gallery in Schonbrunn Palace.
Cameras were not allowed here, so this picture was taken in haste! This is where the balls were held throughout history in Vienna, and where the Kennedy-Kruschev negotiations where held in 1961.

Good example..
...of a beautiful old Viennese building affected by globalization. I can't stress how often this occurs here - much more than in Paris.

Outside of the socialist cafe...
...Vienna is run by the socialist party, so having a socialist cafe is not as huge of a deal as it would be at home.

Inside the socialist cafe...
Which has not been renovated since the 1950s.

wienerschnitzel!
i would never have imagined a few months ago that i would be able to eat a piece of fried meat...but alas...my portion that you see is the "small" and chase's is the "regular". i got about a third of the way through.

Comments

[Amandoo]

Chouette a la max
Laura!!! That's crazy fou great...you really make me want to go to Vienna, because I know how much you love Paris and to say it's more beautiful- oh la la! I also adore les lattes, so yeah, I'm bout to travel Europe (right). I miss you! Say hello to France for me!!!