Half of the HAEF fellows took an adventure to Vienna, Austria this weekend. Vienna is a beautiful city. I highly recommend it to any travelers out there.
After we landed and checked in to our hostel, we asked the front desk for some advice on where to get our first Viennese meal, and he directed us to a place a few streets over. This restaurant was big and beautiful and the waitresses were all dressed in Oktoberfest inspired "wench" outfits. It was somewhere between authentic and campy, but either way it was totally enjoyable. The beer here came in two sizes: Really Big and Pretty Big (1 liter or 1/2 liter). I ordered the 1/2 liter (which I got made fun of by our waitress for not finishing. Lesson: Austria will judge you for not finishing beer) to accompany my-- wait for it -- Wiener Schnitzel. For those of you who know me personally, you know that I am a veg. Yeah, we have pulled out all the stops on that one for the time being. The Wiener Schnitzel (LT, I absolutely cannot believe that I defecated on the Fortune Cookie Song in such a way!) was huge but "fine" at best. Blasphemy, I know. I'm sure I just had sub-par Schnitzel or just was not used to, well, meat. I'll have to try it again (Will I?) sometime. I couldn't finish that either (Lesson: Austria will judge you for not finishing meat. Got harassed by the waitress for that one, too).
The table we were sat at was absolutely monstrous, so the waitress warned us that she would have to seat another party there, as well-- Hibachi style. We LOVE making friends, so we were more than okay with this, and the guests that joined us were two girls from Australia who were on an eight month holiday and visiting their friend from home who was studying in Vienna. At the end of the meal, they invited us to join them in meeting up with him to which we readily agreed because there is no better way to visit a city than with an insider's guide. What this meant is that we went on an underground pub crawl of sorts. There were these bars that were inside other bars that took you down a million winding stairs (the places were so labyrinthine that Greg went looking for the bathroom and wound up outside and around the block) and led into these dark, smokey rooms with LOTS of foosball tables, no music, and QVC on every television screen. By the end of the night, we had quite the international event going on. At one point, we were sitting around the table with Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, French, Australians, and Americans. Just the thing we were all of us looking for by being international travelers.
The next morning, we began exploring the city. Fueled by apfelstrudel and some coffee, we started walking the Ringstrasse, which is the road that creates an outer perimeter of Vienna. We would walk down this road until we saw something that we wanted to investigate and then go check it out. We saw lots of beautiful buildings (the architecture is just stunning), parks, and gardens. These included things like the National Library, the Museum Quartier, and The Burggarten, to name a few. We then took our sightseeing over to Naschtmarkt, which is an outdoor food extravaganza. We took turns buying some sort of new, delicious-looking, different, authentic type of food and then sharing it among the group. The big winner was a sweet pepper stuffed with some kind of mysterious cheese. It was here that we got some frankfurters with mustard and bread. Like I said, all systems 'Go' on the meat front for the time being.
That night brought us to what we thought was a 'happening' part of town, but we were clearly mistaken as the streets were deserted and things were closed. Robyn and I dodged into a cocktail bar and asked the bartender for a good, close food suggestion, and he pointed us about a block away instructing us that the place he was indicating was famous.
We soon found out why.
This was possibly one of the best meals of my life. Beef goulash and dumplings and eggs. The most hearty thing I have ever eaten, to be sure. Everything was very authentically Austrian and there were clearly no other non-Austrians in this place. Jackpot. We closed the meal by sharing a piece of Sachertorte, which is acclaimed as the "national cake" of Austria. Delicious. Travelers, Cafe Hummel in Vienna. You won't be disappointed.
Does it seem like I have been talking almost entirely about food? I have. I'm okay with it.
That night we found a bar on this cute little mews. While there, this group of something like eight Austrian men wheel in this huge tree stump. Where did they get this stump? That is a fantastic question to which I lack anything resembling an answer. Next thing I know, they are pulling out nails and a hammer and just going to town hammering random nails into this log. Now, call me crazy, but why does this seem like the worst bar game possible? Nevertheless, when in Rome... and I gave that stump a good whack or two myself.
Waiting for the underground later that night, these two young guys all of a sudden jump ONTO THE TRACKS and plug in their iPod to some sort of jack (?) that was apparently down there and are now pumping music all through the platform, and they started this underground dance party in the metro. It was one of the most absurd things I have ever been a part of.
And then the cops came. No, but really. These two police officers came and demanded that Greg erase any pictures of them that he might have taken for reasons that we didn't really understand. Something about worrying they would lose their shift? Apparently they were concerned that anyone seeing those pictures would report them as not having been monitoring their territory or something. The whole thing was just ridiculous.
The next morning we toured the beautiful Schonbrunn Imperial Palace. The royal apartments were this endless series of gilded spectacle, the history was fascinating (e.g. Franz Joseph married his cousin! And who knew Marie Antoinette was Austrian? I probably should have known/remembered that, but for whatever reason this came as news to me. She was married off to King Louis XVI of France as an act of peacemaking.), and the gardens were infinite and absolutely gorgeous. They included statues, a maze, a gigantic marble fountain, and the most perfectly arranged flowers proudly displaying the white and red of Austria. I could have stayed there for hours. Unfortunately, it was about this time that it was time to go to the airport. And that is exactly what we did.
Best part of getting back to Athens? Warmth. I packed about 99.5% preparedly for Vienna: Thermal shirt, check. Hooded jacket, check. Leather coat, check. Scarf, check. Annnnd sandals. Yeah, my toes were beyond numb by the end of the weekend. The forecast had advertised 62 and sunny; it was definitely 42 and cloudy. Vienna, you bugger you. Just full of surprises.
2 comments:
Never eat veal.*
*Unless you're in Vienna.
You are not a failure!
Just wanted to note that I appreciate your use of "mews".
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