Vienna

So…after power walking to the Budapest train station, and having only 3 minutes to spare, we were all pretty sweaty, especially Javier. Now I only tell this story because while we were on the train, Javier mentioned that he was cold…and sweaty, a combination that he believes made him sick, while I tend to believe that…well, maybe he was already sick…either way, Javier became sick. But never fear friends…something as trivial as a cold cannot keep our Javier down! Good thing too, as there was more fun arriving that very night!

our neighborhood.

On arrival to our apartment, we quickly unpacked and proceeded to check out our neighborhood. As per the course, we had planned to find a visitor’s information point, and then a grocery store. As we were wandering the streets of Vienna, we found ourselves in the middle of a downpour. Luckily, there was a grocery store near by, and not just any store. This place was like the Whole Foods of Vienna, which of course inspired both me and Annette to opt for a dinner of cheese and wine. Javier had other plans, and bought an entire feast, which we prepared and ate at home, and was, in my opinion, a great way to start our trip in Vienna. We were planning to meet our friend, Jonathan Baylon (I only include his last name because for some reason, I don’t call him by his first name, and subsequently, neither does Javier) at the airport later that evening. Of course, we missed our train, floundered, and arrived about 10 minutes after he landed, but the ride gave us time to create the most hideous sign for him.

Annette, Baylon, and Jackie.

It started out simple enough, but with too much time and anticipation, it quickly turned into something a disturbed 10 year old would have created, but we had fun, and presented it to him rather proudly. It was SO GOOD to see him! For the past 2 weeks, it had been us three caballeros, and we were having an amazing time, but Baylon adds a very special dynamic that would only exponentiate the fun.

When we arrived to the apartment, the 3 of us were already a little sleepy, but Baylon insisted we all go out for “one drink.” So, out we went…

Side note about Vienna… like Prague, they allow smoking inside all bars…gross.

The next day, we walked around the city and found a visitor information center. There, we purchased tickets for different activities, and learned about a great little local restaurant close by. We ended up eating there two days in a row, and were introduced to strum, a lightly fermented grape juice. Vienna did not have any free walking tours 🙁 So, we opted for a hop-on/hop-off tour,

bubbly on the Danube.

which included walking tours and a boat tour. We hopped on a bus that took us in the direction of the boats, and once we arrived, we used our 20 minutes before the boat arrived to find and purchase a bottle of champagne and plastic cups- all Baylon’s idea. He was really bent on drinking champagne while on a Danube river cruise. I’m not sure if the pink sippy cups were what he had in mind, but they worked at we had a great time. I should mention that the three of us had already been on the Danube in Budapest, so we weren’t really feeling the need to repeat this activity, but we did so for Baylon, and I’m really glad we did. While going from the river to a smaller canal, we had to go through a lock. Now, I used to love watching the ships go through the locks in Ballard when I lived in Seattle, but I had never been IN the boat while going through a lock. I think I was the most excited person on that boat. It was really cool. We spent the rest of the evening walking through the city and found a really cool bar that looked like a library with smoking downstairs! On the back of the library wall was a huge screen playing soccer games, so Javier was in heaven, and we all enjoyed an evening of ogling the bar tender, or maybe that was just one of us, and debating meaningless things like, is it called a hot whiskey, or a hot toddy?

Pink

More tours…both walking and hopping on and off. I really enjoy these tours while I’m taking them, and it really is a great way to see the city, but they all kind of run together in the end. One of the cooler things we did was take the bus up to Schönbrunn palace, and walked through the gardens. It was a really pretty walk, and much of it uphill, so that when we were at the top, we could sit on the ledge and

Mozart Orchestra

see the whole city of Vienna below. Once back in the city, we looked for huge painted rabbits, curtesy of the Alexandria museum, had some dinner where we met Steve, one of Baylon’s friends, and the 5 of us headed over to a concert in the famous Golden Hall of the Musikverein, where we listened to a Mozart concert.

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I’d like to take a moment to introduce Steve. He and Baylon have been friends since they were young. Steve now lives in Oslo, and Baylon was visiting him right before he met up with us in Vienna. While visiting with Steve, they found out that they would both be in Vienna at the same time, since Steve was going to be here on business. Needless to say, we all got together, and we all loved Steve from the moment we met him.

metro. walking tour

One thing I love about this travel group is everyone’s independence. There was a time in Prague that Annette wanted to go on a microbrewery tour. Javier and I had done our fair share of brewery tours, and didn’t feel like going. Annette went by herself and had a great time. Javier and Annette wanted to go out and take photos at night in Budapest. I wanted to stay home. So, the two of them

Schönbrunn Palace

went out, while I relaxed at home. This time, Baylon wanted to go to a couple museums that none of us were really interested in, and we wanted to take another tour of the area of Vienna we had yet to see. So, the next morning, we headed in different directions. Annette, Javier and I went on a tour, checked out the central market, stopped by Sacher Hotel and picked up a few of the famous sacher cakes, and ended at Café Central, where some famous historical folks (Freud, Hitler, Lenin, and Trotsky), used to frequent.

at the Opera house

That evening, we went to the opera. Now, this was something we had all been waiting for, and probably our most anticipated event. We had chosen to see Don Carlo, put on the nicest clothes we had, which for Javier and I meant jeans and a clean shirt, and made our way to the opera. We were so excited, and when it started, we were completely enraptured in the whole experience. We were seeing Don Carlo in the Viennese opera house. Well, everything was moving along wonderfully, until… about 3 hours into the opera, and with about 30 minutes left, the curtains closed and a little man came on stage. He started making an announcement in german. Once he was done, we looked around and asked what had just happened. Apparently, the main character, Don

Carlo was sick, and the doctor said he couldn’t finish. Whaaaaat???? This can’t be happening. We were all in shock. Some of the other characters came back on stage, sang a few arias, and that was it. We missed the ending! At the time, I was quite upset, and I

exciting

wasn’t the only one. However, by the time we walked out of the opera house, I was really okay. I had been in the Viennese opera house, and heard opera. I wasn’t there for the story, although I was very much involved by that point. I was there for the experience. Javier and I actually talked about returning later on our trip, but once we realized that we wouldn’t really sit through the whole thing again just for the ending, it no longer seemed that important. All in all, the experience was wonderful. I sat in the opera house, and heard 3 hours of beautiful opera, and I am more than content with that. Besides, we had a most memorable night ahead of us, which took whatever less than elated feelings I had, and swept them away completely.

Javier had contacted a childhood friend of his who had moved to Vienna to start school, just a few weeks before. After our botched opera, the 5 of us went to meet her. When we met Zuni, she was friendly, but quiet, or maybe the rest of us were just much louder. We were looking for a place with no smoking and chicken fingers, which promptly brought us to the Hard Rock Cafe. Here, we started eating, drinking, and well, just being ourselves, which could be a little much for some people. Because, let’s just say, we’re pretty irreverent to begin with, and after a couple of drinks, well, it only gets worse… or better… depending on how you look at it 🙂  I was hoping we didn’t offended Zuni in any way, or make her feel uncomfortable. When we announced that we

good times

were moving the festivities to a gay bar, Zuni said she had to leave since she had to catch the last train home. We offered her our couch, and she stayed to play! I guess she liked us! When we arrived, the bar was small, and virtually empty. But there was good music, alcohol, and a pole- all the makings of a good time. There were shenanigans, and more shenanigans, but it turned out to be a truly great, and memorable, night.

I heard Zuni leave in the morning, and Javier got up to see her out, but seeing as it was like 9am and we only just fell asleep a few hours before, I couldn’t move. We finally woke up, when the cleaning lady arrived. We were supposed to be out of the apartment by 11, and had overslept! Running around like madmen, we packed up, showered, and she was nice enough to let us leave our stuff while we grabbed brunch. After a quick meal at Café Central, we grabbed our luggage, and made our way to Salzburg, all of us a little sleepy.

Too see more pictures of our trip to Vienna, Click HERE.