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| Summer Palace! |
We woke up early to get started on our full day in Vienna.
Nora had laid out an itinerary for us, and Julie and I immediately began
comparing this to our map. Lesson
abroad: You should try to, and you will, become a pro at navigating yourself
literally anywhere in the world. Julie and I make a good team. I was
shocked to figure out that I actually have a really good sense of direction.
While she claims to be the opposite, Julie brings a sense of positivity and
bubbliness that constantly reminds me of the little redhead girl in Frozen (I
swear its more than the hair color). As I get frustrated and she gets more
familiar, she offers a national championship-worthy pep talk and pick up where
I left off. Anytime we are confused, we discuss our way to the answer without
freaking out. (This is surprisingly less common than one would think). We have
figured out how to get literally anywhere without getting annoyed at the
situation or each other, I legitimately could not picture a more solid
traveling pair, and the first time I am traveling without her will be very,
very, strange.
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| Belevedere Palace! |
We started with the summer palace, with gardens that give
Versailles a run for its money. This was a great place to walk in the morning
and it was a beautiful, albeit a tad hot, day. After this, we had a little bit
of difficulty finding our way to the Belvedere palace for modern art exhibits
and were somewhat short on time, but again, it was wonderful to see such
interesting architecture and walk the gardens. We headed back to the Opera to
meet Nora for lunch. Arriving a few minutes early, we stopped into the Hotel
Sacher to see their infamous Sacher torte. While Nora had
suggested we go to a
place with better, cheaper, Sacher torte than the flagship, reaching our limits
with pasteries we decided to just split a miniature piece. While I am not a
cake girl, it was a nice cultural experience and the icing was delicious. Nora
then led us to a famous Austrian pub, Siebenstern,
where we ordered authentic
Austrian food. I tried some old school spinach gnocchi, Julie had a mushroom
and potato soup, and the rest of the group sampled what Nora referred to as
“mac and cheese on steroids”, a type of gnocchi with incredible cheese,
caramelized onions and pieces of ham. Everything was great, and I finally even
found a beer that I (somewhat) enjoyed, called Radler which mixes beer and
lemonade. Slowly, I am figuring out to how act like a Central European! We rolled
ourselves out the door and we continued our Vienna tour to Stephansdom and
Karlskirche. I am convinced Vienna has the most beautiful architecture in the
world, and although many people have consulted me that it is “less fun”than
other European cities it definitely has a cultural experience that I wish I had
had more time for. There is plenty to do and see, and while it might not be
Ibiza, I actually prefer that type of experience. One of my favorite parts was
Nauschmarkt, the open air market outside of our hostel with about 700 stands.
Going in, I did not realize the Turkish influence on the market, but it had ALL
sorts of authentic food from this part of the world. With free samples every
three feet, we tried every kind of dried fruit you could imagine, some
authentic Turkish delights (thanks for the idea, Munt!) falafel and more. I
found myself a 5 euro dinner from falafel, a stuffed date, and a giant bag of
dried fruit consisting of cinnamon apples, orange peels, coconut, and
watermelon (by far the best dried fruits, seriously, we tried everything). Again,
finishing all of our sights a little bit early, I enjoyed resting my feet in a
hammock at wombats and munching on my awesome bag of snacks. We took student
agency home, by far the classiest bus line, and arrived home around 1 am. It
was a wonderful, full, day J 
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