Our First Taste of Vienna

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Ah, we finally arrived!

Vienna's airport seemed way smaller than O'Hare, and wasn't at all busy. We made our way to baggage claim, and easily found the taxi stands. We took a pretty expensive taxi ride to our hotel. That's the thing when travelling with Mom; she is almost 79 and is over the skimping in life. I probably would've taken the 16 dollar train, but the taxi was quite nice after such a long, sleepless flight. Our driver was nice enough, but we did hit some traffic and it took us about an hour.

I didn't have much of an impression of Vienna yet. My mind was so tired, it could barely form thoughts. We finally made it to Holiday Inn Vienna City, and checked our bags. We weren't able to check in for three hours, so there was nothing to do but explore!

Holiday Inn is located near the Naschmarkt, and we were both eager to explore that. After a short walk, we arrived. The first thing I saw was really cute baby sweaters. I had just learned that my friend, Ashley, had her baby, and was super excited to buy her something in Austria. The sweaters were actually made in Peru, but they were so cute, I just had to buy one. Vendors were paying much attention to us, as the market just opened and we were some of the few shoppers around. Although a few were a bit pushy, most were pretty nice, even offering us samples with no extra added pressure. One lady offered me a glass of water which was flavored with dried hibiscus. This was so delicious that I bought a large bag of the dried flowers for my stay. I would go on to drink hibiscus water every day during that trip, and I miss it to this day!!

We wandered around the market in wonder. The produce blew my mind. Everything was so LARGE!! There were super-fat stalks of white asparagus everywhere. Even the green asparagus was about three times the thickness of any I'd ever seen. Scallions, mushrooms, beans all seemed to be at least double in size. Other stalls sold dried meats, Turkish pastries, dried fruit, spices, stuffed apricots, peppers and other foods. There were a few wineries, olive oil stores, gift shops, cheese stands. Anything you could imagine.

The market does have plenty of places to sit and eat, but we were too early for most of them. I spotted a cafe across the way, and we left to get some breakfast. We had our first Viennese cafe experience at Cafe Savoy, an elegant yet unpretentious place. A very adorable waiter seated us and served us our first cafe melange and apple strudel. I am not a huge dessert person, but would grow to love the strudel. I did not understand the coffee here, so I ordered a cafe melange because I saw someone order it on a travel vlog during my research. It was quite delicious, and would become my go-to morning drink the rest of the trip. Oh, how I miss the melange!

After breakfast, we just wandered, without a plan. I had downloaded a maps.me map to help us navigate. My mom did not seem to understand how I knew where to go, and kept arguing with me that we'd have to ''ask for directions' or whatnot. It was pretty funny. She has been traveling the world with her friends for the past ten years, and I was looking forward to traveling with an ''expert''. I soon learned she was not the brains of the operation on any of her trips! Her experience would prove handy at times, but I would be the one figuring out the subways, reading the maps, and basically getting us everywhere.

We walked to a square and saw a stunningly beautiful church, called Karlskirche. I did not come across this in any of my planning, so this was a pleasant surprise. It also happened to be a lovely, spring day and purple tulips were blooming in the gardens. We wandered about for awhile, taking it all in until we decided it was time to check into our room

Back at the hotel, we were pleased to learn that the hotel staff had actually put our suitcases up in our room for us. Nice touch! We were pretty tired at this point, and started to get crabby. I could feel my brain not working. Mom says that she tries to stay up all day the first day, but that was not going to happen! We relaxed in our room and we napped a little, just enough to get some brain cells going.

Since we hadn't eaten anything but strudel, we decided to have dinner a bit early. I had mapped out a traditional Austrian restaurant nearby called Zum Alten Fasst. It was only a few blocks away, and was just perfect for our first dinner in Vienna. The place was cute and cozy, and rather small. The waiter said the place would be packed in an hour, so we came at a good time, considering we had no reservations. Mom had been looking forward to true wienerschnitzle, and I ordered spaetzle with a side salad. I didn't really like the veal in Mom's dinner, but mine was delicious! It was like a flavorful, grown-up, classy mac and cheese. My salad was amazing! I don't normally get excited over a side salad, but there were strips of raw zucchini, fancy lettuces and a really good, light dressing. Mmmmm! Mom loved the spaetzle as well. Our first dinner was a hit! Oh, and the waiter was adorable yet again. Good food and hot waiters would be a running constant throughout our trip.

We turned in rather early in an effort to re-set ourselves and get used to the time difference.

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Photos

Naschmarkt
Fabulous market with great-looking produce

Naschmarkt
Rows of olives, stuffed peppers and other treats

Naschmarkt
Little Easter-themed Sacher Tortes.

Cafe Savoy
Our first experience with an elegant Viennese Cafe

Karlskirche
Such a pretty church

Karlskirche
It costs 8 Euro to go in the church. We were tired and cranky after a sleepless night of travel, so took a pass.

Karlskirche
Tulips in bloom!

Zum Alten Fassl
My first Viennese meal... spaetzle and salad. Delicious!