Hello again from Vienna! I'm so glad that you all are actually reading this! It really makes my day to see your comments, and get your e-mails! So, today was my second full day in Vienna. I had the realization this morning that....wow...I'm in Austria! So cool!
I woke up a little on the late side this morning at about 9:30. I took my time getting moving as did Katherine, and Rob and Rachel. Katherine and I left around 11:00 for the center of the city. We went to the Museums Quartier. It's this entire block, enclosed by a giant building, with museums all over. There were probably 5 or so large museum buildings inside the outer ring of the block!
I was planning on buying a duo pass, which would get me into 2 different museums for fairly cheap. However, we got to the first one, and it was under construction so only 3 of the 8 floors were actually open. I was quite disappointed with it. It's the Museum of Modern Art here (by the way, the logo looks much like the MoMA logo of NYC)....so I was expecting great things, but it turned out to be not as great as I'd hoped. I normally don't have a problem of what is considered art (as most of you already know) however much of the 'art' in this museum seemed to be in bad taste. A lot was very avant garde, which is great, but the bottom floor especially was...well...slightly disturbing. There were some pretty graphic photographs of bloody, naked bodies, and experiments and such. Needless to say, I hurried through that section and left.
On to the second museum of the day...This was called the Leopold Museum. I was very excited to go here because I'd read about an exhibition of Klimt's works. There were some wonderful artists other than him featured as well, however when I finally found the section of the museum with Klimt's works, I was disappointed to only fine about 5 or so....and only 1 signature famous piece. My favorite ended up being one of his I'd never seen before, called Attersee. Its a beautiful seascape....somewhat impressionist in the feel of it.
After the museums it was about 14:30 and Katherine and I split up for the rest of the day. I went wandering from the Museums Quartier to the Opera House, which is insanely beautiful! And from there I ended up wandering up the street towards St. Stephensplatz (the church square). Along the way I was hungry so I found a nice sidewalk cafe and sat down for a delicious pizza and diet coke. I had a great time just sitting there, writing in my journal, and watching the people go by. I was surprised by how busy things were for it being a Sunday. I guess not everywhere in Europe shuts down completely on Sundays! I had a fabulous time just wandering the center of the city. It really is beautiful here. The architecture is amazing....the style is much like what I saw in France, however there are many more colorful buildings here....I even came upon a bright yellow church!
One of the best parts of my day today was when I got to St. Stephen's again....I went inside (for the 3rd time now) and I took some great photos of the building, the architecture, and even better, the people. As I was wandering, the 17:00 mass started. I even filmed a little of it. It was very interesting to just do some people watching while I sat at the back of the cathedral. There were many tourists taking pictures but there were also many natives (and non-natives most likely) coming in for the mass.
After more wandering (and much picture taking) I headed back to the hostel to rejuvinate a bit more. I got a nice coca light (or cola light here....I'm still used to France.) And layed on my bed for about 30 minutes. After which I got up and went for another walk....my destination: Zanoni's....which serves the best ice cream in all of Austria apparantly. It was delicious....I got a cup with 3 scoops (nutella, straciatella, and mango) for only 2 Euro. I was planning just to walk for a little while until I finished it and just work my way back toward the hostel, however I'd only gone about one block when I ran into Rob and Rachel!
I cannot describe how great it is to see someone you know in a foreign city! We talked for a few minutes, and they were off to find some dinner, so I went along with them. We walked to a delicious pizza place where they'd been the night before. I was only going to have a coke while they ate, but Rachel couldn't eat all her pizza....it was insanely massive, so she shared quite a bit with me. It was great getting to know some new people....they're very nice and friendly. Rob just finished his degree....he's an engineer! And....(Mom and Jolynn you two will love this!) his brother plays for Cork's soccer team! They were playing Canada today, so he and Rachel kept getting text updates from their parents. Apparantly they were ahead, but lost in the last few minutes.
So now, I'm about to sign off here and go into the "Wombar" (the hostel bar) for drinks and a game of pool! Great times....I hope to hear from you all very soon and have a fabulous day! Love you all!
1 comment:
How very metropolitan! Your trip sounds great. Cathy and I just got back up the mountain after our sports weekend. We watched Real play the Galaxy. It was a great game because they were so evenly matched - both teams stink. And Cathy and I were the only Real fans so we yelled a lot of instructions to the team. If only they'd followed them...they would have won.
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