Henry #3: May 29

We could not have asked for a better first full day in Vienna. We got up at nine and consulted the front desk of our hostel for some good breakfast restaurants. The lady kindly gave us the name of a place on one of the main streets near the hostel. Unfortunately for us, when we arrived at the supposed address of the restaurant all we saw was a boarded up window, which indicated that the restaurant clearly did not exist. We didn't let this faze us and went directly to a nice looking bakery next door. We sat down at our table and were quickly rushed to order by our incredibly impatient waitress. When Cedric and Christian did not immediately know what they wanted, she stormed off in a hurry to her next table. She did not return for another ten minutes and then finally took their orders. Since Parker, Sam and I ordered earlier, we got our food first and had finished eating entirely by the time Cedric and Christian's food arrived. Frustrated by the impatience of our waitress, we decided not to tip her, which is not unusual in Austria. After we had all finished, Cedric and Christian were still hungry, so they went to another bakery. Cedric bought a Pain au Chocolat and Christian bought a giant loaf of bread that would later be named Carlos. Finally satisfied by our breakfast meals, we made our way to the metro station, only to find that we had left our tickets at the hostel. We ran back to the hostel, got the tickets, and headed straight back to the train station in order to catch our bus tour at noon.

Upon arrival at the bus stop from which our tour would be leaving, we realized that this bus tour was a little bit more upscale than our previous ones. All of the seats had nice leather and we each had our own individual headsets. As we waited for the bus to leave, we listened to Mozart and other pieces performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra over our headsets. There was not a cloud in the sky as our bus left the station, and it was clear that many of us had a new favorite city in Europe - Vienna. Our tour started in the area around the historic center of Vienna, allowing us to see landmarks such as the Albertina Museum, the Secession Building, and the Museum Quarter. After seeing much of historic Vienna, our bus took a twenty minute break at Hundertwasser Village. The village was an apartment complex oriented around souvenir shops and a bar with a stream flowing through it. After looking around for about fifteen minutes in this unique area, we headed back to the bus. Our tour then headed across the vast Danube River, which starts in Germany and ends in the Black Sea, and into the modern center of the city. One of the most dominating landmarks of the horizon is the TV Tower, similar to that of Berlin. However, the unique thing about this tower is the fact that it has a bungee jumping platform for the dare devils who visit the city. After crossing into the modern center, we quickly turned back around and headed back across the river and into the historic sector of town. Our tour bus took us up narrow streets, showing us various well hidden spots for lunch and dinner. After spending some time on this less travelled roads, we made our way back to where we started and completed the tour.

It was about 1:30 when the tour was over and we were all hungry for lunch. having just been informed of some secret restaurants, we decided to eat at a place known for its goulash. Goulash is a beef stew type meal that is recognized as an Austro-Hungarian specialty. Everyone was satisfied with their meals, especially the bread we got on the side. As usual, many of us were not completely full after lunch, so we decided to go to Stephansplatz for some ice cream. We immediately found what we were looking for, as we ate some of the best ice cream I have ever had in my life. The two most popular flavors were chocolate and nougat, both of which were AMAZING. After we finished our ice cream, we decided to head out to Schonbrunn Palace, the home of the Habsburg family. When we got there we went straight to the ticket counter to find out how much longer the museum would be open. Unfortunately, palace was going to close at six, which did not give us nearly enough time to see all that we wanted.

After our failed attempt at seeing the Schonbrunn Palace, we decided to head back to the Museum Quarter to see the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Kunsthistorisches Museum houses many famous artists' paintings, including the works of Caravaggio, Durer, and Van Eyck to name a few. Luckily for us, admission to the museum was free for students, so we quickly made our way throughout the museum in the remaining hour we had before it closed. It was very exciting for me to see many of the works I had learned about in Art History. One of my favorite paintings that we saw was Breugel's Hunters in the Snow, a painting which records the immense perseverance of the working class during one of the coldest and snowiest winters in European history. Breugel was known for painting works that praised the quiet dignity of the working class, and it was really exciting to see one of his works in person. We continued through the museum, looking through sketches by Durer and paintings by Steen until we were basically asked to leave by the intercom.

We then made our way to the Austrian Parliament Building, a Neoclassical form of architecture constructed to recall the great powers of Democracy used by the Greeks. In front of the building is a large statue of the Greek Goddess Athena, symbolizing victory. As we were sitting in front of the building, Cedric and Christian quickly erupted into an argument over GDP as Sam, Parker, and I chuckled as we listened.

Having had a day full of touring, we decided to head to dinner at another place our hostel had recommended. When we arrived, we realized that the restaurant was far too fancy for our liking, so we decided to go to Galaxie, the same restaurant we had eaten at yesterday for lunch. Our meals were incredible, but as usual, we were still craving more after dinner, so we headed out to the local convenience store to look for some ice cream. After finishing our ice cream, we went back to our hostel to get our laundry that was in desperate need of being washed. We went to a traveller's bar that apparently had a washing machine, but they then redirected us to another hostel that had multiple washers that we could use. We arrived at the other hostel at ten and began our laundry, which would take about two hours. While we were waiting, we blogged and planned out our day for tomorrow. When our laundry was done, we went back to our hostel and slept well, knowing we had clean clothes awaiting us the next morning.