Making our way east to Wien

So the other morning Jen and I decided it was time to continue on our way to Vienna.  We packed up our bags and started walking through the train station, looking for an Apotheke along the way to try and help with Jen's cough.  When we were about halfway through old town, I saw a group of guys in traditional garb with instruments.  We arrived just in time to see them start up and march off through the streets!  It was a lot of fun, even if the euphonium player was having some issues...  After watching them turn onto some other streets, our search began anew.  Eventually we found one and got Jen taken care of again, and then we were off to catch our train.

The train ride is only a couple of hours long but beautiful, so I spent most of it just watching out the window.  I was excited to come back to Vienna, as I'd had less than 24 hours here last time and had a blast.  We had booked a hostel less than a block away from the train station, which was really convenient.  Originally we had planned to take that day as an easy day, but as those of you who know me are aware, that is not likely to really take place for me.  I ask what is playing at the Wien Staatsopera and am told tonight is Madame Butterfly, the one I had missed last time.  Jen quickly agreed that we should try to see it.

We looked on the map they gave us and it had several restaurants marked for traditional Vienese food, so we determined we would have enough time to eat first and headed off to the closest one, schnitzelwirt.  Luckily there were some food descriptions on our map too, cause there was no English menu here.  I decided on the Schweinsbraten with nodel and salad. It is a traditional roasted pork served in a broth, with a dumpling.  And the salad was interesting and delicious!  cabbage, potatoes, onions, a little sauerkraut, and beans all in a wonderful vinegar.  We practically inhaled it!  My dinner was just as good, though I think I prefer the nodels in Salzburg.  Then we saw the schnitzel being delivered to the table next to us.  Talk about HUGE portions, and the schnitzel was only 6.50€!   I think that's when we knew we'd be coming back the next night too.

Realizing what the time was, we hurried off to the Opera house to get in line for the SRO tickets that were 5€, only to be pleasantly surprised that they were now 3€.  We were concerned that we might not get in, with how long the line was, but we made it no problem.  The lady who had been next to us in line had seemed a little aloof, but when I expressed interest in the show, she quickly warmed up.  She spoke very little english, but looked at the program and told us that the singers were good ones, and what the next shows would be about.  She also showed us how to use the little screens to get english subtitles so we could follow the opera better.  Then we settled in for the show.  Poor Jen had to leave at one point because she had to cough really bad, and they wouldn't let her back in.  Luckily she was only minutes from the intermission when this happened.

In the second half, we heard this loud thump to our right.  We couldn't figure it out at first, and then we realized a gentleman in the last row of seats had passed out.  I have never seen people move so quickly!  Six people were immediately working together to get the doors open and carry him out into the atrium (the concert hall was VERY warm and may have been the reason he fainted) just outside and got him taken care of.  We checked later and learned he was just fine in the end, but still, that was some unexpected excitement at the opera!

Yesterday started off slowly.  Jen slept in, and I went exploring for a little cafe.  It was a perfect morning!  Just cool enough to be comfortable, quiet, and beautiful.  I wandered around for an hour and a half, before stopping at a little bakery/cafe on the street.  I got an interesting looking pastry, and it was so delicious!  It contained chocolate, and an amazing vanilla cream, all dusted over with powdered sugar.  Definitely a good decision.

Jen was still getting ready when I got back, so I looked into things to do a little bit.  And I found  Zentralfriedhof.  I'm one small area of this cemetery were Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss, Schubert, Schoenberg, and a memorial to Mozart (he was buried in the next cemetery over).  I couldn't pass the opportunity up!  So Jen and I got on a tram and headed the 30 minutes out to the cemetery.  The guy at the first entrance, was just flat out rude to us.  He waited til I came up to ask him a question, then started drinking his can of pop while glaring at me the whole time as I waited for him to finish.  Then he shooed us away like we were annoying him.  So we went to a different entrance, and the man at this gate could not have been more different.  While he spoke almost no english, he was obviously delighted that we were here to pay respects to people, promptly got us a map of the cemetery, and pointed out the location of all the names I was interested in, smiling the whole time.

 On our way out we were trying to find the S-bahn, and he tried so hard to be helpful, but we just couldn't understand him.  We asked another guy at a restaurant across the street and he just yelled 'Neicht english!' at us.  Sorry, but all I needed was a finger point in the direction we were going, not a conversation in english.   I found him to be unnecessarily rude.  So we just decided to walk along the tram line to the next S-bahn station where we knew they crossed.  Luckily this worked out well for us, and after a 20 minute walk we easily found the next station and headed into old town to look for Freud..

We wandered passed the old churches to the outer ring and found Freud's old apartment which is now a museum.  But entrance was 8€ and we weren't willing to pay that.  But it was still cool to have seen it.  I told Jen she needs to watch 'A Dangerous Method' which she will love.    Then we headed off for dinner, wandering through the main parks on the way.  We saw two boys, one trying to teach the other to tightrope walk on some strapping they had hooked to some trees.  The one kid was really good, jumping right up and walking, the other was obviously new, but doing very well.  He was trying to learn how to jump up and hold his balance.  We stopped and watched for awhile, and after a couple misses he looked at us a little embarassed and rambled off in German.  We just told him we were very impressed, and on his next one when he almost got it, we made sure to clap.  He was flustered, but you could tell he was still pleased.

We tried to hit another restaurant that looked good on the map, but it was closed for road work, and since we were only a block from the one before that had been so good, we decided to try it again.  We were seated at a group table with two gentlemen, who were painters.  One spoke english quite well and quickly struck up a conversation.  When he asked where we were from and we told him Washington state, he asked the usual Seattle?  The real surprise was when we said no and he followed up with Spokane?  He has apparently been there several times before for work.  We spent ahile chatting and he helped to translate the menu we didn't know and was overall very friendly.  I gave him the name of the bagelshop and told him to come in next time he came to Spokane.  He seemed prettyxcited about this, saying he didn't know very much about places to eat in Spokane, as his stays were always so short.  He aslo expressed surprise that we had found this restaurant, as it is apparently a loval favorite.  This made me happy that if we ate at the same place twice, this was the one.

Then we ordered our schnitzel.  I got the full portion.  Jen got the kids portion.  Jen's was huge.  Mine was gigantic.  I almost managed to eat it all though, it was so good!  Jen took pictures for comparison, and it was like night and day.

After dinner, I broke down and went to the apple store here.  Since my devices are all apple, I decided it was worth the money to buy a European USB converter plug for the wall.  I feel it is not a purchase I will regret, since my American plugs have trouble fitting into my converter and fall out regularly.  Now I won't have to deal with that anymore.

When we got back to the hostel, I was chatting with Kevin, a friend I made my first time in Reykjavik.  He is military and has been living in Germany lately.  He spent the last several days in Slovenia, and saw that I was in Vienna.  Currently he is driving up, and we are going to do a day trip to Bratislava today with him.  I'm really excited to see him again!  We had such a fun group in Iceland, and it will be great to hang out with one of them again.  He'll stay the night here and then head back home  to Germany tomorrow.   So we are killing a couple hours time before he gets into town.  I got him a red bull so that he would be good for more driving today.  This will be country 29 for him, and 19 for me.  Not that we are counting or anything.  I'm just sad he has me by 10 countries at this point.  At least that gap will be narrowing more this year.