Day 23, Vienna, Austria

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Day 23: Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Vienna, Austria.

The bus takes us into town first thing in the morning and we are free to wander until the 1st excursion (a Schnapp's tasting if I remember correctly, needless to say, I didn't sign up for it.)

We first walk by the Parliament Building where the statues of Athena and Nike can be seen. Around this time, I start feeling kinda crappy and think that we should have picked up some cold medicine for me as well as Taryn. We wander into the Vienna Christmas Market but given the time, only a few stalls are open. We peak around and decide to move on. Mainly so that we could keep moving in the cold- we were all freezing. We ponder, ever so briefly, at the Vienna City Hall which turns into an advent calendar this time of year.

Next up was the Votive Church(I think it was the Votive Church, don't quote me). We went inside and even though it was a stone church (as they all are) and had no heat, it was better than outside! As usual, amazing architectue and paintings. I have Taryn snap a picture of me outside showing how warm and lovely the day was.

I then make the mistake of leading the charge because I want to see the oldest chruch in Vienna, the Church of St. Rupert, or Ruprechtskirche. We get to that location, and we can't see a church. We walk around the block, we can't see a church. Someone finally asks a cop where it is and he points up a narrow alley where we find the church, hidden on all 4 sides by buildings. To add insult to injury, it was closed, so we could only take pictures of the oldest church in Vienna. At that point, I hand over my map to Ashton and tell him I'm mapped out. We stop by another church, St. Stephen's, and then decide it's time for lunch.

We stop at a local restaurant where most everyone in the group orders goulash, I order vegetable soup. Considering how crummy I'm feeling at this point, I was happy with my soup. The kind of goulash I'm used to (we'll call it Mom's American goulash) is ground meat, elbow macaroni, tomatoes and green peppers. The Austrian version (therefore, probably the correct version) looks a lot like pot roast. Regardless, everyone seemed to enjoy it and we were soon back out in the cold- and now it was snowing. Very pretty, unless you feel like crap.

The gang heads towards a famous chocolate shop (whose name I can't remember and I've packed my map away- oh well) and they decide to hang there for a bit and have dessert. At this point, I decide to head back to the hotel. Luna gives me the lowdown on what I should do, and like a moron, I halfway listen and head out the door. Already I'm so turned around I can't even figure out how to start walking to the metro. I stumble thru a nearby archway and find myself at the entrance for the Hofburg Palace. So, since I had wanted to see it anyway, I hop in line and buy a ticket. First up was the many many many many (get the gist) different sets of dishes that the royal family used. I quickly glanced at all that and headed upstairs to the royal apartments. It was very opulent, but interesting to see the work out room that Sisi had created for herself. She was on the fitness band wagon before it was popular. The Austrians love their beloved Elizabeth, aka "Sisi", and revere her to this day. I felt a little bad for her because, from what I read, she shied away from publicity all her life, and now, even in death, she can't escape it. Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handy.

At one point during my walk thru of the apartments, I think my fever may have kicked in, because the rooms were spinning pretty good. I still wasn't feeling that steady as I headed out the doors of the Palace and went in search of the Metro. I find it, and head down. I was looking for the blue line and having no luck (and honestly feeling like I could cry- I just wanted to go to bed!). I finally asked someone and at first they didn't understand what I needed, then they pointed up. It ends up, the blue line is the tram, not the metro. Something Luna (and the others) told me but my distracted mind dismissed. Go me.

So I head up and find the tram that I needed and the automatic ticket machine. There was already a couple there staring at it, but they motioned for me to go ahead. I think they were hoping I'd show them how to use it (no idea where they were from/what they spoke), I disappointed them big time. I finally just started hitting buttons and was getting the machine to react in what I thought was a positive way. Then, it stopped reacting. The lady reached over and hit a few random buttons and a picture of a person and a dog showed up along with a sign that indicated I could put money in/get my ticket now. Good enough for me. So, i bought a ticket for me and my invisible Fido, thanked the couple, and hopped on the tram. It took a while to get to my stop, and I nodded off a few times- not a good thing to do when you can't understand what is being said and you're counting the stops. I get to the hotel, strip off my snow soaked jeans and sweater, and climb into bed and instantly fall asleep.

Natasha came back to the hotel about 4 hours later and I stumbled out of bed to join them for dinner at the mall across the street. We head over and find that all the stores and, from what we can see, all the restaurants are closed- it's 7pm, they closed at 6:30pm on a Saturday night. Vienna doesn't overwork it's people, I'll give it that. We head back to the hotel where the boys opt out on dinner all together, Luna is feeling sick and calls it a night, so it's myself, Natasha, Luna, Taryn & Lauren for dinner at the hotel restaurant. We enjoy some good ol' hamburgers and make it an early night as well.

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Photos

St. Stephen's
All churches are blurring at this point.

Comments

[Chris]

You washed all the dishes in the palace?
Pesky illness!! Hopefully, it's not consumption.