Venturing further to Vienna

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Road trip; Monday morning, green fields, three friends and an open road, this is how I journeyed to Vienna. The trip was intended to take a total of four-five hours, but we decided to stop in the small town of Salzburg on the way. It was such a cute town and it was amazing that for its size it held over 150 churches. When we finally found a parking spot the sun seemed to escape the clouds and provided us with a very sunny afternoon. Due to the wonderful change of weather we decided to take a horse and carriage ride through the city with a driver born and raised in the town. He told us about Mozart that lived here and now has a music school in his name, he informed us about the museums and the modern sculpture and art that had been added to the city with such nice detail.
After the ride we pet the horses and then went for coffee at the University of Salzburg coffee shop. After my coffee and simit (covered in yummy jam) was finished it was time to hit the road again and head to Vienna. The remainder of the drive seemed with every glance out the window that I was in some make believe land filled with green grass, small wooden houses with red roofs and the alps in the background. It was still crazy to me that I was out of the city and out in the world and I could not even want to close my eyes incase I would miss something.
Upon arriving in Vienna we met up with a friend of a friend, Ajdin, who visited and stayed in my flat back in Istanbul. Initially we were in the completely wrong part of town because the address, when typed into the iphone, was changed by the stupid auto correction that always thinks that it is right. We finally found the place, were reunited with hugs and two kisses and then went to get something to drink in the city center. Immediately, while walking along the streets, we discovered sign after sign and advertisement after advertisement indicating a McDonalds, what McDonalds was selling, how far to a McDonalds, or where a McDonalds was located. Their McDonalds not only was filled with funny breads and hamburgers that we do not have in Canada, but they also had a McCafe which actually carried coffees and teas similar to Starbucks! After getting over Vienna’s obsession with American food, we also found that it had pretty good places to eat and drink itself.
We ended up sitting at a beer garden where another housemate from Istanbul was visiting some friends as well. We sat and talked and ate apple strudel which was amazing because it had just enough crust and the perfect amount of apple filling. Conversation flowed easily in both German (which I have now learned many words from) and English as we discussed Europe and Istanbul and such things. I think the conversation and debate would have gotten much more heated if we had drank more but soon the garden turned off its lights, closed and asked us to leave.
Home to our new temporary beds on the floor is where Nadine and I went. Exhausted from our car ride it was not hard to fall asleep and dream of the adventures we would have the next day. In reality, my dreams could not even have anticipated all that I saw and enjoyed on that Tuesday. We took a bus into the city center and from then on my camera was flashing and my mouth was wide open as I was continually in awe and amazement of the beautiful city around me. Such history and old structures, so many epic buildings and gorgeous stone, huge palaces and parks and the most perfect mixture and adaptation of old and new architecture that I have ever seen in my life. Parliament after university after church and after museum all had me wishing to wonder more and leave never. I had fallen in love with this city, and was falling harder with every new street we took.
We ended up meeting with Ayline and her friend for lunch in a very modern restaurant that was in a glass rectangular box sitting on a small path of grass. We could see everything and everyone walking by and so we sat and looked and ate our warm meals and coffee. After we hit some shops, I bought some earrings and then Nadine and I decided to indulge our sweet tooth into one of Vienna’s know specialties called the Sachertorte which is similar to a chocolate cake but with much much more chocolate. It made me have such a sugar high and also fuel me for some fun at a park we found and in an amusment park, home to the biggest Ferris wheel, in Europe close by. Its always the most fun when we get to play and act like a kid so that is exactly what we did. When the sugar high wore off and we got too cold to ride any more rides (although we did do bumper cars and go carts and a virtual tour of Vienna) it signified it was time to eat again.
We met up with more locals from Vienna for an Austrian type of pancake that was more like a baked pita filled with your choice of toppings. It was warm and delicious and I devoured it entirely while engaging in conversation with my new found friends that I also discovered were architecture students. They showed me some of their projects they had with them and informed me of their small tuition fee of 16 euro per semester. They were crazy lucky because A) schooling is so cheap and B) because their schooling takes place in such a city of history and culture. Who needs a textbook when you can learn more from the walls around you?!
The rest of the night we went to a indoor bar this time to drink, followed by headed to a club for our last night in the city. The club was called ride, it was dead, it was dirty, but it was hilarious due to its atmosphere of drunk young people not even knowing what they were dancing to anymore. Due to this fact we requested some terrible songs for the DJ and danced along like kids without a care in the world. I had a great night and was already saddened, as my head hit the pillow, of the idea that tomorrow was my last day in my architectural dream land.

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