The Sights and Sounds of Vienna

So now I am finally back in Dijon. Here's a more specific list of everything that happened during this past weekend in Vienna (keep in mind the weather was in the high 30s with an intense wind and occaisional rainshowers, I understand Eastern European fashions a little better after this weekend - and it's early October!) Oh, and in case you forgot from the previous post, the people in the picture above are, from L to R: Alison (studying at the BU program in Geneva with Claire, she graduated from Stanford last spring, Claire, my roommate from Wake last year, and Jeremy, also a junior at Wake, he's on the guys' Ultimate team and is studying abroad in Vienna this semester with the Wake program):

Friday

• Schloss Schonbrunn: this was the Hapsburg's summer palace. Doing the full-length audio tour was probably a smart decision considering how cold it was outside. Our hair in the picture gives you an idea of how windy it was. The picture taken from the back of the palace, overlooking the gardens and the Neptunbrunnen (a giant fountain of the god Neptune) and the Gloriette, a neo-classical structure on the top of the hill.
  
• Naschmarkt: this market broke some of my stereotypes about German/Austrian food. When I think of Austrian food I think wurst, wiener Schnitzel: lots of cheese and lots of meat. I was therefore surprised at the extent of the produce selection in the markets. It seemed that there were even more colors and varieties than the fruits and vegetables I see at the market in Dijon. There were also lots of stands selling dried fruit. One vendor offered us a sample of dried grapefruit - the bright green color was a little disconcerting, but it tasted great. I was also pleased to see my name ("Frisch") everywhere. I took a picture of a sign for fresh squeezed juices, although this certainly wasn't the only one with my name on it.
• Hot dog mit Kaserkrainer from a Wurstelstand (a sausage filled with cheese served in a French-bread-esque bun with mustard, it was delicious). Jeremy warned me before I bit into it that the cheese might explode out of the end, hence my look of trepidation in the photo.
  
• Coffee break at Cafe Diglas: I had a Franiskaner (which apparently is a specialty of Vienna/Austria but tasted to me like coffee with whipped cream on top, which was fine because it was so cold anything warm would suffice) and the four of us split two apple strudels. Apparently apple strudel can be served hot or cold. This one was cold, and not bad, although sort of like cold apple pie. Maybe I'm spoiled by my mom's apple pie, or maybe this just wasn't the best interpretation.
• Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral): this monument is at the center of Vienna and it was the highlight of Jeremy's tour of the city. He's taking an architecture course, so he was able to point out some of the building's architectural highlights - and also some of the fun facts. The picture of him gripping the handle depicts the origins of "base" for the game of tag. Under the old rules of "sanctuary," anyone within the church building couldn't be seized by the police. If you were holding the handle you were considered within sanctuary, so apparently homeless people or beggars would form a chain with one of them touching the handle, whenever the police arrived to chase them away. Hence the idea of "base." Very cool.
  
• Hotel Sacher: we did not actually go inside, but this hotel is where the famous "sachertorte" originated. It's a chocolate cake covered in apricot jam and then coated in chocolate. Claire ordered a slice when we went to Demel's on Saturday, and I tried a bite. I thought the cake part was a little dry, but the apricot and chocolate flavors went very well together.
  
• Staatsoper (Vienna Opera House)
• "Chocolate detour" at Neuhaus chocolate: I knew I liked Jeremy before this trip, but when he suggested we take a "chocolate detour" in between checking out the Staatsoper and the treasury, I liked him even more. I was a little bummed to discover Neuhaus also has locations in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Syndney, etc. I always try to see and do things specific to that location, but with globalisation and whatnot, sometimes that's more difficult than just avoiding Starbucks.
• Burggarten (garden behind the national library)
• Secular and Ecclesiastical Treasuries of the Hofburg Palace: This is a very long name for "the place where they keep the crowns." It was definitely very cool. Almost as impressive as the crowns were the capes with designs done totally in pearls.
  
• Petsaule (plague column)
• Holocaust memorial by Rachel Whiteread
• The Wake Forest Flow House!

Saturday

• Passed by the Kunsthistorischen Museum (which faces a monument of Maria Theresia, the empress during most of the 1700s. She's a pretty huge figure in the history of Vienna, and this statue shows her demure and subtle nature, facetious). Note Claire and Alison's impersonations below.
• Morning exercises at the Spanish Riding School: This was probably one of my favorite parts of Vienna. I grew up watching a movie called "The Miracle of the White Stallions" (Disney, 1963) about the Lipizzaner horses during WWII. It was really cool to see them in the Winter Riding School, the arena attached to the Hofsburg Palace. The first thing I noticed upon entering the hall was the unmistakable scent of horse. Even in a grand building with marble walls and crystal chandeliers, horses still smell like horses. As a rider, it was interesting to see how some of the crowd-pleasing tricks are not as difficult to execute as the less showy ones. For example: switching leads every other stride (which gives the illusion that the horse is skipping) is not that difficult, or at least, I know how to ask a horse to do that and could probably do it with a little practice. But I have no idea how they train the horses to "trot in place" (picking up their alternating front and hind legs without advancing forward). We also saw a horse stand on its hind legs (on command), which was very cool.
  
• Demel pastry shop: someone recommended this place to Alison and I'm very glad they did. It sort of reminded me of Angelina in Paris. Claire, Alison, and I each tried a different kind of hot chocolate (vanilla, plain, and chili, respectively) and a different cake. We all got some variation on chocolate and Claire got the famous sachertorte. Jeremy explained on Friday that "torte" means cake in German and "cake" means torte.
  
• Albertina museum and "Impressionmus" exhibition: since I am taking an art history course on Impressionism, I really wanted to see this exhibit. I wasn't dissapointed - not only did it have lots of beautiful works, but it also explained a lot of the historical/economic context behind the Impressionist movement: like the developpment of paint tubes, the standardization of colors via synthetic pigments, and the mass-production of standard-sized canvasses.
  
• Schloss Belvedere: another palace with a museum of mostly Austrian art. The picture of the funky statue was taken from the back of the Belvedere, facing the gardens and the second building below (which housed the orangery and other parts of the palace)
  
• Dinner at "Centimeter": this restaurant/bar is a chain in Vienna (and possibly in Austria too, I don't know), but it's inexpensive and I just wanted some Wiener schnitzel. The portion size was enormous, but the Wiener schnitzel (breaded pork or turkey cutlet) was delicious. I washed it down with a Hausbeer. I really don't prefer the taste of beer, but since I am ever in pursuit of the authentic cultural experience (or as close as is feasible), I gave it a shot. It tasted much better in conjunction with the meal.

So this morning I ate a quick breakfast at the hostel, walked to the subway station and took a tram to the airport. I left the hostel at 9:30am and arrived back in Dijon around 9:40pm - 12 hours of travel. But during those 12 hours I read the highlights of "Le Figaro" (a French newspaper), wrote in my journal, wrote a letter, and finished "La Dame a la Licorne" (the book I have been working on since I bought it at Mont-St.-Michel). It was a highly successful weekend! Now, bed!