In general, the aforementioned Viennese seem to think I'm one of them, however. I guess I really do look German; those familial roots of the Synders/Harders/Bolbachs are really showing through! Almost every time that I've entered a museum/cathedral/bar the Austrian working in the location has spoken to me in German and has seemed to expect German in response. I've responded with an awkward pause and then usually an eloquent "What?" which has led to the Austrian saying, "Oh. You speak English," and then transitioning into a language I understand. They all also seem to think Katie and I are sisters. Simply because we both have blond hair and speak English. We walked past a guy on the street today advertising a concert who said, "Hey, look! Sisters!" No, dude, we're not.
Vienna is a pretty interesting city. It's very uniform in it's architecture. It reminds me a bit of Paris minus the black iron gates over every window (that sounds totally snobby, sorry about that). It's elaborate but not overly so, and it's a very easy city to navigate. We spent most of our 2.5 days wandering and checking out buildings and we never got too lost, despite our crappy maps.
Classic Vienna architecture.
And some more!
We spent the first day exploring the city. And walking, walking, walking. Also eating. We tried Vienna's famous Sacher-torte, which is a classic Viennese chocolate cake with whipped cream. It was delicious, and we got to eat it in the original bakery/hotel where it was created.
Sacher-torte!
The cafe of Sacher Hotel.
We also spent a lot of the first day exploring Vienna's biggest cathedral, St. Stephen's, which was started in the 1100s and was never really finished. It has an amazing tiled roof (which was redone in the 1950s in the original style after the roof was destroyed during the bombings of WWII), but it's fairly dark and creepy inside. We took a tour of the catacombs (unfortunately I couldn't take pictures) and saw some truly freaky stuff. There were rooms with the coffins of people of the Hapsburg family and of cardinals - and there were also tombs/rooms just filled of bones of plague victims. Our tour guide made sure to assure us that the plague was no longer contagious just in case there were any germophobes in the groups. But really, seeing rooms overflowing with skulls and femurs is pretty creepy. There was also an ossuary (a room with organized bones) that was equally creepy because way-back-when they had sent prisoners down into the mass graves to clean the bones and stack them up neatly to make space for more bones. Ew.
A not-so-creepy picture of St. Stephen's
The exit from the catacombs.
Great view of the fancy and tiled roof of the cathedral.
The rest of the day was spent walking and exploring more cathedrals, parks, and buildings. Vienna has a lot of domed buildings, as an aside. And then in the evening as we were walking past the Opera, we decided last minute to try to get standing-room tickets. We were told that you could get cheap tickets at the last minute - and we got some for three euros each (even though we were wearing jeans and tennis shoes). By chance, the opera was The Barber of Seville, aka the opera with "Figaro" and most opera songs you've heard, so even though we couldn't really see anything from our standing section, it was really cool to be there. There were even subtitles in English (on the bars that we could lean against in the standing section) that we could read so we knew what was going on. We made it through the first half - and then I went to the bathroom at the end of intermission and didn't make it back in time before the second act started. I was subsequently banned from re-entering, despite the fact that Katie and my purse were still inside. So I was banished to sit on a couch in the coat check room (I unlaced and relaced my shoes and braided the tassles on my scarf) until Katie got concerned enough that I hadn't come back into the opera and came out (with our purses, thank goodness) and was directed to my couch. She said she felt like a mother picking her disobedient child from the principal's office. But, hey, for three euro, I can't complain.
Vienna Opera!
Super elaborate inside. I felt like a total scrub in my jeans and Converse sneakers and went as quickly to my seat as possible.
"View" from standing section.
Today we spent checking out the castles in Vienna. One, Schonbrunn, was the summer residence of the Hapsburgs; it was slightly outside of town. It had incredible gardens; they were definitely the best part of the castle. The other castle, the castle the Hapsburgs spent most of their time in, was in the center of Vienna, the Hofburg Castle. Both castles were really cool and interesting, but unfortunately we got a lot of repeat information. They both focused on the lives/reigns of Franz Joseph and Elisabeth, who ruled in the 1800s; while the couple was interesting (Elisabeth was totally nuts, actually), there were plenty of other interesting people who lived in the castles, like Maria Theresa (Marie Antoinette's crazy mom), who would have been interesting to learn about as well. But that's my only complaint. Both castles were totally worth checking out, and I enjoyed them both.
Except the Hofburg had a whole floor dedicated to dinner plates and cutlery. Seriously. It was so boring.
Schonbrunn, the summer palace. Not too shabby for a second home.
It's hard to tell because it wasn't sunny, but the gardens were enormous and absolutely amazing. There were mazes and normal gardens and a zoo and that crazy building at the top of the hill.
The leaves were changing color so it was so pretty!
I couldn't get the whole Hofburg palace in one photo!
Vienna was much cooler than I expected it to be. No one had told me they didn't like Vienna, but no one had raved about it like they do about Prague or Florence or something. But I really liked the city! It was pretty and interesting and easy to explore! I only wish I could have seen it in the sunlight!
Tomorrow we have a flight at 6 back to Paris and then a couple train rides back to Perigueux. We don't start classes again until next Monday, so I don't know what I'll do for the next week. Hopefully I'll be moving into my new apartment! But you can't be too sure...
Cheers!
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