Schlaflos in Vienna

Hm, I should rename the blog 'Vacations in the key of Cb...'

I just got back from Vienna, Austria, where Eva, Jen, Karin and I have spent 4 days living the high life and escaping the Swedish midsummer. I already have several reasons to go back :)

Some of the Happenings:

Thu 21/6: Arrival

Eva, Karin and I fly down to Vienna. The first thing to welcome us to Vienna and Hackengaße 20 (our hotel address) is a Sandstorm (!), followed by Rain and Thunder so intense that trees are broken, debris fly across the city, our hotel room windows howl, parts of Germany get flooded, and Barbra Streisand's outdoor concert at Schönbrunn has to be postponed one day.

After the Madness, we wind up eating great Thai food at a restaurant called Bangkok. Heading home down Mariahilferstraße (=Massive Shopping Street) 'round midnight, we decide to eat ice cream at Paolo Berlotti's where I somehow manage to order my cone in a not-so-smooth blend of three different languages (english, german and italian). I must have sounded gravely confused, but the pfirsch and grüne apfel Gelato was fantastically delicious. Vielen dank, Signor Ice-Cream Guy. :),

Fri 22/6: Midsummer's Eve (which we fail to notice)

Jenny arrives at midday, thus completing our troupe of tourist chicks. We mercilessly dump her stuff at Hackengaße and go for the maximal Vienna tourism dose - the summer castle Schönbrunn (which I keep mishearing as Tjörnbron). This is a great big hunk of castle surrounded by a giant garden park, where the mighty Habsburgs (e.g. Kaiser Franz Josef with his beautiful wife the empress Sisi) spent their summers. As our guide tells us, at least four times, empress Sisi wanted to "stay young and beautiful forever". The fifth time, we are also told that she wanted to be "young and beutiful AND SLIM" forever. Nice life aspiration.

Schönbrunn is a cheery shade of buttery yellow, which, we agree with each other, contrasts nicely against the... increasingly dark purplish sky... Oh no. We quickly assume, from yesterday's experiences, that it is the Viennese 5-o'clock storm that is upon us. We skedaddle out of the castle grounds and manage to reach the U-bahn just when the day's water torrents start pouring! Barbra's Schönbrunn audience will probably get pretty soaked. I certainly hope she won't sing 'Don't rain on my Parade' for them...

We end the day with dinner at "Kristian's Monastiri", a posh italian restaurant (opposite Bangkok). On the way home, I discover that a part of me will remain in Vienna forever... My umbrella is gone, probably riding the U-bahn somewhere.

Sat 23/3 - Midsummer's Day

Better weather today! We voraciously spend the early part of the day at the Naschmarkt flea market, jostling with tons of people and buying peculiar things like litchi fruit and toe rings. I buy the tiniest possible Vienna souvenir for €0.50 at a button stand. (picture to come). Back in the city, we take a fika at the posh-fancy bakeshop Demel, where we find a cake that looks like Kofi Annan.

In the late afternoon sunshine, we ride the 38 tram to the lush green wine district of Grinzing, where we wander uphill on steep cobblestone streets until we reach Reisenberg wine keller, and sit down on the sun-heated wooden benches on its outdoor terrace. We are high up on a hilltop, overlooking the Vienna skyline - and, coincidentally, also an Austrian wedding party, where all the men (and one chihuahua) wear lederhosen and the ladies dirndl-dresses. They make our day and definitely give the Austrian landscape extra oomf.

We admire the beautiful view and share two bottles of local white wine, getting very, uh, *inspired* as time goes by (and louder, I suppose). After a lot of inspiration we decide to head down to Grinzing village to eat a proper dinner (with wine). A lot of skipping takes place on the walk downhill. I won't say by whom. At the restaurant, we have a fantastic dinner accompanied by a huge group of austrian partygoers on the terrace above us who sing the Blue Danube waltz and yell a lot. You'd think they were as inspired as we were. :)

Sun 24/6: Last day - overlooking things

I sneak into town ahead of the others to go to church at the cathedral at Stefansplatz. At mass, I struggle with trying to understand the priest's german homily, feeling like I'm getting about 20% of it... when suddenly I understand completely. Everything he says suddenly has meaning. It takes me 10 seconds to realise that he's switched languages to italian. I don't realise this until he says the main points again, but in english. Aha.

To get a final view of the city to beat all others, we travel to the Donauturm (tower) and see a fantastic view of the city. I'll admit that we spent some time spying down on a couple having a picnic on the lawn 252 meters below us...

Finally, before heading to the hotel to pick up bags and go to the airport, we have one last Viennese (italian) ice cream - this time, I manage to order more or less in pure italian.

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Next stop: Copenhagen and Malmö...