Wiener Blut

Hi guys!:) Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday!

I just came back from Vienna yesterday evening and I had a woooonderful time. My Mum came to visit me and we spent five days in Brno and then two days in Vienna. I'll make a post about what we did in Brno another time, I don't want you to drown in my words, so now it's just Vienna.

This was my first real stay in Vienna. It's only 1.5 hours away from Brno by train, and a little bit longer by bus, but I always just came there for a day, first around Christmas and then in May when we went to see the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. But for me staying a bit longer this time really changed my perception of the city; I had not realised how beautiful Vienna actually is before. Anyway, so here is what we did.


Wiener Schnitzel

There are some things you just need to eat when you're in Vienna. This is one of them. It's huge, and not exactly cheap, but sooo worth it, especially after a bus drive and dragging your luggage to your hotel! We had this in a beer garden and it was so nice and relaxing.

Rain, rain, rain

It was really warm in Vienna, but at some point in the afternoon it started pouring down, and there even was thunder and lightening. We went to a metro station and kept out of it, but I've not seen that much rain coming down in quite a while.

The National Library of Austria

A friend (thank you, Marie) had told me how impressive this library is, so we went in there. It really is stunning. There are books and books and then some more books, and there is an exhibition as well. All the walls and the ceiling is painted, and the architecture is just amazing. It was too warm though, I had to it down very ten minutes or so because the heat was really pressing down on me. My Mum and I were wondering if anything is being done to actually preserve those books; this humidity cannot be good for them. Unfortunately, no one gave us an answer, or even wanted to, it seemed. 

Reading

We both read a lot. I read a book I had bought in Vilnius in a second hand bookshop, "The English Patient" by Michael Ondaatje. It was absolutely fantastic. You might know the film with Ralph Fiennes, Julie Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth and Willem Dafoe, which is also very good. I'm glad I read the book though. Most of the time, things are different in films and something of the book is missing, and I didn't think that would be the case until I got to the very end. But no spoilers. Anyway, our hotel had a lovely lounge where you could sit and read. They also had a turtle. Below you can see the view from our window.

Stephansdom

By the way, some of the names just sound strange to me in English, that's why I put them in German. In English it's St Stephen's Cathedral, and it is just very impressive. We didn't go up, too hot for that. Also, we found a sick bee or wasp or something and saved it. I hope it suvived.

The Capuchin Crypt

This was one of the best parts of the whole trip. In the capuchin crypt all the emperors are burid - emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, kings, archdukes... Franz Josef I and Sisi are there, Maria Theresia, and sooo many others. It was really impressive and interesting (I feel like I'm repeating myself) to see that, having read about these people in school and in books. If you go to Vienna, I would definitely advise you to go there. 

Café Demel/Sachertorte

Again, this is just obligatory. There has been some argument about the name of the cake and its origin - the inventor, Franz Sacher, was trained in the Café Demel, and invented the cake there, and then he opened up the Hotel Sacher and took the recipe there, so then the two cafés argued about who had the right to the cake. It's amazing anyway.

Hofburg

The Hofburg was the main residence of the Habsburg Family. Today there is an exhibition there. First you get to see the Silver Collection, which is just lots and lots of plates, glasses, cutlery, nakins, pots, pans and more. It is all really beautiful though, and very expensive. You can see that this is also part of food culture. That doesn't mean you need expensive plates, but just using some that look nice, table manners, dedicating time to what you eat, conversation, putting your phones away when you have a meal, not eating out of trays or containers, not using plastic forks and knives and straws (I hate straws!!). If those people could see how people eat at McDonald's, the would be appalled.

Then you get to the Sisi Musum (written with one s, not with two, no matter what they did in the films). Most people just heard of her because of the films made in the 50s, myself included. It was interesting to hear more about her because films tend to romanticize things a lot. The exhibition is really well done.

And the last part was the Imperial Apartments. Again, sooo much luxury, they had everything there it seems. But I found it really interesting. Taking pictures was not allowed, which is why there is nothing here.



Almost seeing Mozart's violin

We wanted to go the museum of old instruments. But it is closed due to construction work being done. So we missed Mozart's violin, sadly. We'll just have to come back.



Zum Schwarzen Kameel

Again, a really cool café! It's 400 years old this year. And their bread is amazing!!!

What would Vienna be without music?

Not Vienna. When we were at the Stephansdom, some guy sold us tickets for a concert (he was really good at his job). It was brilliant. Six players (1st ad 2nd violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano) played some of the greatest hits - "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" by Mozart, "The Summer" by Vivaldi, the "Meditation" by Jules Massenet, parts of Verdi and Mozart operas, "Wiener Blut" and "An der schönen blauen Donau" by Strauss, and lots of other pieces. The last one was the "Radetzkymarsch", also by Strauss, and the "Hungarian Dance No 5" by Johannes Brahms. I loved it.


All in all, I had a great time! Vienna is incredibly beautiful and you can really feel it used to be the centre of an empire. It was magical and I feel lucky to have been able to spend a few days there. Will wrap it up here though, I am tired and have a cold to recover from. Sorry for typing errors. Have a good night:)