A Weekend in Vienna

in the opera house
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Now that Contiki was over, it was time for me to start the next chapter of my travels. I flew to Vienna from Rome on the Friday afternoon where I was to meet up with friends from Calgary who are living in Switzerland for the year. It was really nice to be in cooler weather and not have pushy Italiens shoving things in my face that they want me to buy. A much nicer and relaxed environment. I arrived much earlier than them and so made my way to the hostel on my own, involving figureing out the transit system, which wasn't too difficult. On the final bus I saw a fellow backpaper and assumed that she was going to the same place as I so I made contact and we figured it out together. She was from England and just beginning her backpacking trip.  We hung around the hostel together while I waited for my friends. It was SO lovely to have a private room where I could be by myself and shower in a private bathroom and not worry about the security of my things! The hostel was right beside a palace of some sort and had an awesome view of the city.

The view from the hostel
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The next day, my friends and I set out to explore the city. The first thing we did was go to the Sommer palace, built by the Hapsburgs. It was a smaller version of Versaille really, and we managed to spend a good part of our day there. We did an audio tour through the rooms and learned about Maria Teresa and her many children, including Maria Antoinette. The gardens were impressive and included a little maze area for kids (and us) to play in. Part of our package ticket was an apple strudel demonstration including a free sample. It was awesome, the lady was stretching the dough with her arms and elbows in an impressive manner and the sample was delicious.

The palace!
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Finally we left and found a pizza place off track that had huge pizzas for 4 euro, it was an impressive deal!!! Then we headed into the city where we hopped on and off a tram that does a circle route around the city where we saw some really interesting buildings. Vienna is a really pretty city. That night, we set out to find us some Wiener Schnitzel to try and Viennese beer. We found an outside pub and had our fill. Then we headed back to the city hall where there was a huge screen set up where they show Operas and Symphonies, it was so neat! There were tonnes of outside food places and such. It was so nice just to sit and watch and listen.

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The next day we set out to see the rest of the city before we had to head to Switzerland. We did a tour through the opera house which was partly destroyed in the war and so is half 1800s style and half 50s...it was an interesting mix. But it was cool to see Mozart and other wel known composers noticed throughout the house. There is also an impressive Cathedral (St. Stephen's) that has neat tiled roofs. The last thing on our to do list was to have cake! They were everywhere and looked so delicious and we just had to have some. So we scouted out the best place to get it and all had a piece. mmm so good!

The private garden full of orange/lemon/lime trees
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Then we were off to the airport to go to Zurich.