Danke, Vienna.

09-abril-2009

21:19 VIENNA

One of the things that I adore about Europe is that you can bounce from one country to another in a matter of hours. After leaving the lovely Prague, we hopped on a 4-hour train to Vienna. We got in around 3pm so we had plenty of time for exploration.

After lunch, we made our way past a huge fountain, a concert hall (one of many) and then got to the Kursalon, where we bought concert tickets for the next now. How can you go to Vienna and not see the waltz?, after all.. We walked around the park near the hall for a while and my mother made a wonderful point. One of the things that New York City lacks is open spaces.. plazas, parks.. where you can just breathe. (Ok, I'll give you Central Park..)

The next day we went to see the Stephansdom, a huge cathedral in the center. It was close to St. Peter's Church, which was ridiculously decorated and getting ready for Easter as well. After that, we went to see the Hofburg Palace. It was gorgeous and quite impressive, unlike the Hapsburg Empire towards the 18th century.. (hehe history joke)
Since a lot of the food is fried in Vienna, we ended up eating at this vegetarian place called Wrenkh and it was delicious! The owner was also one of the waiters (and he had this awesome mustache that kind of made him look like one of the Three Musketeers) and since the menu was in German, he stood there and translated the whole thing for us.
After that, we went to the Hotel Sacher to eat some of the Viennese Sacher Tort. Another must. If you go to Vienna and fail to eat Sacher Tort, you will be very sorry. It's this cake that has this ancient recipe and is extremely sweet but tastes HEAVENLY. Mommy obviously agreed:

Then we went to the Kursalon for the concert. The hall was more like a private little room and the orchestra was tiny, making it that much more intimate and personal. The music was phenomenal and they even had dancers along with opera, so it wasn't just boring classical music. All in all, a lovely way to end an evening.

The next day we went to see the Alfons Mucha exhibit at the Belvedere Museum. I really enjoyed his art because it kind of reminded me a bit of animation but it was colorful and the technique was gentle and light.

After that we made our way to the Jewish Quarters and after looking for a ridiculously long time and getting lost, we finally found the only remaining synagogue in Austria. (And it was, of course, closed because of Passover. Nevertheless, we took pictures in front of it.) We also saw the Judenplatz where there was a Holocaust memorial.

On a lighter note, we had gelato for the first time! I know, why would you choose Vienna of all places to have gelato for the first time, as opposed to Italy? I don't know. We were walking down one of the busy streets and everyone had gelato, so we decided to get some too! I had mango and it was quite the blast of mango. Sooo good though.

Definitely the best spring break I've ever had.
-M.
(Oh yeah! And I met Papa Smurf!)