Vienna 2; Us 0

Ok, at long last, some photos! These took absolutely forever to upload, but I can hopefully do Prague and Budapest today/tomorrow. So, Thursday before last, I took a train to Paris with Savannah, Elyse, Lindsay, Claire, and Matt. We got in around midnight, and since we had to check in for our flight by 6 am and the metro was about to close, the six of us took a very full cab straight to Charles de Gaulle. Our terminal was deserted except for a few other people doing the same thing. Savannah and Elyse sleeping.
The first thing I ate in Vienna--creamed spinach with an egg and potatoes, at a place recommended by the hostel staff after we checked in. Don't let the picture fool you; it was delicious.
Second thing I ate in Vienna--chocolate covered strawberries on a stick. I think this one speaks for itself.
Our hostel, which was really nice. I meant to take a picture of the lobby but forgot. Anyway, I'd recommend it if I remembered the name. Lindsay, Matt, and Claire unpacking
We happened across RomerMuseum on our way to a square where they used to hold medieval jousts. It was a tiny museum but kind of cool because the ruins are in the midst of so many other things that have been built on top of them. Pretty much all of Vienna is like that. Even though there are so many historic buildings, it still feels very modern.
We kept hearing carriages go by overhead while in the museum. They are everywhere in Vienna, just like dessert stands.
I'm not sure what building this, but it was pretty and so was the moon.
Singing bowls! in a market in the square we were looking for. I saw these several places too. Didn't buy one since our house already has two of them...
Aforementioned square and market
Very pretty Gothic church we passed by--Maria am Gestade. The really sweet lady working there was just about to close, but she let us in for a few minutes since "we'd come so far," and told us how this was one of the few Gothic churches in Vienna--most of them are Baroque--and it was really incredible that it had survived World Wars I and II since everything else around it had been destroyed. I didn't take any pictures inside since we were holding her up, but it was cool.
We were all pretty exhausted, so we took a tram that goes by a few of the big sights and hopped off to see the Danube. More about that later. Note to future travelers--there is no need to buy tickets for public transportation in Vienna. Aside from the metro we took from the airport, no one ever checked them during the three days we were there, and you can walk right through the turnstiles whether you've scanned a ticket or not.
One of many buildings with pretty painted facades
The next morning we hit the Floher Market, which is similar to the markets all over France (and Europe, it seems) as far as being outdoor and selling food, clothes, and antiques, except that the French markets are more bustling, I think. Everywhere we went the Viennese seemed so calm and quiet. They were really helpful though. Within our first few hours of being there, we had three people offer us directions in English as soon as we pulled out our maps. Also, the Austrian vendors really promote samples. This couple got flagged down and begged to come back and try something, and quite a few places had dishes with chocolate candy for the taking.
Unfortunately, we had just eaten breakfast and weren't hungry, but I bought a pastry anyway...when in Vienna...
Karlskirche, in the Museum Quarter
So many of the churches we saw in Vienna had those golden rods radiating from a from the altar. I'd never seen them before, but it's possible that's common and I just don't know anything about cathedrals.
The coolest part about this church though is that it's been under renovation for the past few years, and visitors can climb up the scaffolding all the way to the top of cupola!
There's an elevator that takes you about halfway up to a large platform, and then there are stairs to the top
Too close to get the whole ceiling in the picture
It was so cool to be right next to the frescoes. Heights usually don't bother me, but this was kind of unsettling, mostly because people were not heeding the sign that said 10 person maximum for the highest level, and the whole structure was swaying just a little bit.
Looking down...
After the church, we hit the tourist destination Cafe Central, where I had pumpkin soup, a cappuccino, and apple strudel.
The Hofburg--both of the palaces we saw in Vienna were awesome. Besides the Hall of Mirrors, I can't remember Versailles that well, but I was really, really impressed. I've forgotten so much about the Hapsburgs from high school history, so this visit was really interesting. There's a museum inside dedicated to Empress Elizabeth (Sisi) who was the wife of Franz Joseph I. I thought they were known for being uncharacteristically in love with each other as far as royal couples go, but apparently, she was really miserable at court and spent most of her time traveling. Although there's a lot of evidence that he was clearly very in love with her, no one is really sure how she felt about him. kind of sad
Next was St. Marx Cemetary. Here's Beethoven's gravestone. Other composers--Schubert, Brahms, Strauss...more I can't remember--are all here.
Mozart is buried in an unmarked pauper's grave, but this statue was erected next to the other composers in honor of him
Okay, so our first day in Vienna, we tried to go to Stephansdom, but the church was closed since there was some sort of conference for the clergy inside. While we were looking at our map trying to decide where to go next, we were approached by a guy dressed in traditional Viennese garb selling concert tickets. I figured we were just going to ignore him, but some people wanted to listen to Albert's (I scrutinized his name-tag trying to figure out if it was legit or not) spiel about the program, so we did. I was a little wary--when we were telling this story to Dad later, Savannah said she and I should have been standing next to each other because she also was unsure, although I'm ultimately glad neither of us was reasonable enough to talk everyone out of it--since we right outside a tourist hot spot and the "Vienna Imperial Orchestra" shouldn't need to send people out onto the streets to recruit audiences, but everyone else seemed gung-ho, and Albert was going to "make for us" a great deal, plus free champagne, and since it really wasn't that expensive, we decided to go. Oh, and there were other, older people who didn't seem the type to be easily swindled buying tickets. I figured we were either getting totally ripped off or not at all, and it seemed to be a real concert, so it never really crossed my mind that he might be just falsely advertising.

The blurry photo above is the set-up inside what we assume is a high school although we were really not sure because all of the architecture in Vienna is so pretty that it seemed a bit more historic. There were ping pong tables outside though, whatever that means. As soon as we walked in, we knew this was not going to be at all what we were expecting, but it was so grossly different from what Albert had promised us that it was really hilarious. There was one member from the Vienna philharmonic--a violinist--there (we were under the impression there'd be many members), and when the super campy host asked who spoke German, only about a dozen or so people raised their hands. There was definitely no "gold, silver, and bronze" seating--we were supposed to be getting a deal on some bronze tickets, since Albert told us the gold was too close to the stage we'd be uncomfortable having to look up--and the photos in his brochure of the performance hall had so been photo-shopped. Nevertheless, the professional violinist was great, and the amateurs he was performing with were pretty good, plus they were so excited to be there that they were fun to watch. They played lots of well-known pieces, including one I've been trying to learn in voice for a while, and the vocalists were impressive. Only the dancers were really a let-down. Well, and the host who made some of the worst jokes I've heard in a long time.

During intermission, we went downstairs to the "lobby"/hallway that had been set up with little tables and a make-shift bar to get our champagne (hey, everybody else had coupons too!). We had already decided that this was totally worth the money just because it was so funny, and then I started looking at a book they had left out for people to write comments. Most of them were really, really positive (quite a few people--most of them Asian, all foreign, I am sure--gave a standing ovation after the show), a few of them were really negative, and then there was one that said something like "Great music. But beware the salesperson Albert. He is a con man who will sell you half-price tickets that do not exist!"
So, we were really laughing by the time we got back on the metro to go home, and then Savannah, who was designated navigator for the trip, was looking at the map and realized that the night before we hadn't actually seen the Danube. We had seen a small canal that connects to the Danube. We stayed on the metro a few more stops to get a view of the actual river, and then called it a night, deciding we didn't want to risk being tricked again by Vienna.
Our last day in the city we went to the Schonbrunn Palace, which I somehow forgot to upload a picture of. If you want to look it up, there's a shadow of yellow named after the custom-made color of the exterior paint. Again, the palace was really cool. The Schonbrunn was Maria Theresia's summer residence.
We walked through the gardens and did the small maze. Lindsay and Savannah needed a bit of instruction, so we directed them from the platform in the center.
This one's slightly out of order, but here's a picture of The Kiss by Klimt, which is all over accessories all over Vienna. Seriously. There's a Klimt collection at the Belevedere, which we went to see after the Schonbrunn.
View from the Gloriette at the far end. There's a photo of the back of the Schonbrunn at least.
Gardens between Upper and Lower Belvedere. We unfortunately only had time to do the Upper. There were several works we've studied in my art history class there too (David, Courbet, Daumier), so those were cool to see.
Upper Belvedere
Stephansdom. All of my pictures inside are terrible, sorry. We went back on our third day in Vienna (we did see Albert outside from a distance, but we were pressed for time so we didn't approach him and ask why he hadn't showed up to drink champagne with us during intermission as promised), and saw the church and catacombs. The tour guide alternated between German and English, and I would love to know who taught him English because he had the craziest mix of accents I've ever heard. Matt was actually really good at imitating him. The catacombs were pretty creepy. Apparently, when an urn starts to leak (the entrails of the Hapsburgs are housed there, although the hearts are elsewhere, I think? I should look this up), the best solution is to just put it inside a larger urn and seal that one. gross. Also, fyi, there is wireless in the catacombs. Lindsay was able to update her facebook status via Blackberry to say how scary it was.
After Stephansdom, we went back to the hostel. Matt, Claire, and Savannah grabbed their bags and ran to catch a train to Prague. Elyse and I had a few more hours there before our night train to Prague (as did Lindsay since she was flying to Switzerland to visit a friend), so we killed a little time in the hostel, talking to the bartender. Here's a picture of some sturm I had. It's a partially fermented wine from Vienna that really just tasted like white grape juice, but it was good. There was a sign warning customers that it was stronger than you'd think and telling them not to drink more than two glasses. I can't figure out if that was a joke or not because one glass didn't seem strong at all.

I talked to an Australian girl in the hostel that night who's in her second gap year, which she's spent traveling all over the world with a friend, except for a few months when they ran out of money and had to go home to work for a while. They did four cities in Spain in four days, although they usually spend two days in a city. It was so crazy to hear how many places she'd been. I'm sure that's an incredible experience, although I can't imagine traveling that way for so long. I think I wouldn't be able to appreciate what I was seeing anymore, no matter how awesome it was. She said that started to happen to her about month 6. I wonder how long I'd last...