Bienvenue à Besançon: One Week in Vienna: Overview + Pictures

Happy Toussaint everyone! I got back from Vienna yesterday evening after spending a wonderful week visiting my friend Brooke. We got to do, see and eat lots of cool things, but as you can probably expect, an spending an entire week there means that I have lots and lots to tell you about and lots of pictures (425 to be exact, including the ones Brooke gave me). So this entry is going to be a quick list, plus some photos, and then I'll write another entry with some general thoughts, fun stories, etc.

Tuesday, Oct 25 (Dienstag)

Military History Museum with Joe (Brooke's friend she met here in Vienna)

Tour of the 1st district of Vienna by car (all of the buildings around the Ring, the road which traces medieval boundaries of the city of Vienna, and is now lined with most of the city's important buildings and monuments)

Lunch at Cafe Sperl (one of Vienna's more famous cafes, apparently it was Hitler's favorite, and will most recently be featured in a movie about Freud called A Dangerous Method which comes out in the US on Nov. 23) -- my dish was something like a risotto meets polenta, very creamy and delicious

The Sucession Gallery -- the building constructed to house the art of the Succession Movement, a group of Viennese artists at the beginning of the 20th century, led by Gustav Klimt. The part that interested me was the Beethoven freize, which unfortunately you're not allowed to photograph at all. The rest of the museum was ultra-contemporary exhibits, like a room full of mirrors.

Drinks at the Bisamburg heurigen (East-Austrian wine tavern, their version of a pub, but with very specific regulations as to when it can be open and what they can serve -- usually the most recent year's wine). This night we had red wine Sturm, a beverage made of wine which is not quite fermented and thus is sort of in between grape juice and wine. It's sold during a short period of the year, typically September through the end of October.

Wednesday, Oct 26 (Mittwoch) -- Austrian Independence Day

Parades and fair at the Hofburg Palace with Anna Butler, a friend from Wake who is currently the graduate advisor at Wake Forest's house in Vienna, the Flow House (this is the job Brooke did this past summer). -- So technically the Austrian restoration of sovereignty happened during the spring of 1955, but the treaty didn't go into effect until Oct. 26 of that year, so that's the day they celebrate. This event was sort of a weird combination of a fair (lots of food stands) and an exposition. There were parades of soldiers, but also exhibits with helicopters and military convos where little kids could sit inside and there were displays of information about the various aspects of the Austrian military (such as the medical corps, the emergency rescue teams, the HAZMAT units, etc). It was sort of a strange mix, and a little funny to see all of this set up in the courtyard of the Hofburg Palace. Brooke is holding up a langos, which she and I split. The fried dough had a delicious garlicky flavor (I thought it was going to be sweet, but this was even better).

Lunch at Cafe Central with Anna too -- I had a potato soup (not worth photographing), but we all got pastries for dessert and I thought mine merited a photo.

Karlskirche -- They're currently restoring the frescoes on the dome and so there's an elevator set up which takes you all the way up to the top! I've never been so close to the paintings on the top of a church before. You could see how the pictures were slightly distorted, so that they would appear normal from way down below. And at the very, very top, the "pillars" of the dome weren't actually marble, just painted to look that way! You can sort of see on the picture of the angel holding the laurel wreath how the "shimmery gold" bits were actually a completely different color, so that from all the way at the bottom it would just look like natural highlighting.

Stephansdome and a candlelit mass -- Brooke and I stopped in Stephansdome just to look around and happened to arrive right as a candlelit mass was starting (probably to celebrate the Independence Day). It was really cool to see the cathedral all lit up and full of people!

Dinner at a little Italian restaurant and then a coffee afterwards at Aumann (Joe joined for both)

Thursday, Oct 27 (Donnerstag)

Brooke went to her German class, I got some coffee at Cafe Mozart (across from the Albertina) and then went to the Museum of Vienna -- this museum was really interesting and well done, but I found it strange that the third floor did not have English translations for the German signs on the exhibits. I only went through floors two and three (Viennese culture from 1500-present), so maybe the first floor didn't have translations either. But it seemed odd that the second floor would have them while the third wouldn't...

Lunch at an Ethiopian restaurant (I promise I didn't twist Brooke's arm, she really wanted to try it and was pleased to discover I love Ethiopian food)

Walking around Stadtpark

Friday, Oct 28 (Freitag)

Quick coffee at Aida (a bakery chain in Vienna)
Walking around the 1st district (the picture to the right is me in front of a giant greenhouse which currently has a butterfly exhibit)
Wurst break! -- According to Brooke this wurst (sausage) stand by the Albertina is the best in Vienna. The Kaiserkrainer was quite tasty!

National Library -- I'm really surprised I didn't see this last time I was in Vienna -- it's absolutely magnificent. Totally Baroque and very much over the top as far as decoration goes, but how much would I love to belong to a library like that! It also had an exhibit on the different regions of Austria, which was really helpful for me because people would mention them (or I would read about one) and have no idea where it was located.

Dinner at Do & Co. with an awesome view of Stephansdome

Saturday, Oct 29 (Samstag)

Lunch at Kim, a restaurant at the Naschmarkt (Vienna's most popular market)

Art Fakes Museum by the Hundertwasserhaus (a house designed by contemporary Austrian architect Hundertwasser. He has a couple of buildings around Vienna)

"La Sylphide" (a ballet) at the Staatsoper (Vienna Opera House) -- it was awesome!

Salzburger Nockerln: an enormous dessert that Brooke absolutely insisted we get while I was in Vienna. She described it as "souffle-ish" and while at first I complained that description was unhelpful, it was actually quite accurate. I think the vanilla sauce was what made it so yummy. The whole thing is supposed to imitate the mountains around the city of Salzburg.