No kangaroos in Austria

I honestly did not think I would like Vienna very much.  Today definitely proved me wrong.  Last night was spent on the floor of a train compartment with my jacket and rain jacket as a makeshift blanket and a small U-shaped inflatable pillow.  Let's just say my back hurts and not complain any more than that! 

The first lesson I learned was that it is very easy to forget you're in Austria and think you're in Germany.  The best examples I can think of are Belgium and France, US and Canada.  Language is the same and it generally looks similar (or doesn't look OBVIOUSLY different). 

For breakfast, we found a quiet, homey cafe that served me an omlette with carrots, broccoli and green beans.  Sounds weird but it was actually delicious.  I also had a large cup of hot chocolate that really hit the spot.  The lady working was really nice and helped translate the menu for us monolinguists.  Breakfast was the longest relaxation period we had all day, until dinner about 13 hours later.

Immediately after breakfast I had to buy a toothbrush.  I have found that as long as I can brush and floss my teeth, change my underwear and throw my hair up into a ponytail, I feel great.  Think of it as the backpacker's version of a shower.  Well on this leg of the journey, I forgot my toothbrush.  Thankfully I found one that only set me back about a Euro, so we could keep on keepin on. 

From up close, it is hard to appreciate the immensity of Stephansdom.  Inside, the church was dark and mysterious.  I saw the place where Mozart was baptized and the massive organ located in the back (that's a musical instrument, not a body part). 

Vienna sightseeing for us consisted of drooling over the designer wares in the shops leading up to the Hapsburg Palace.  The palace is now a pretty interesting museum.  It had all of the dishes and linens that the Austrian royal family used during their reign.  Then, we went through an exhibit on one of the former Austrian Emperesses, "Sisi" as she was known.  I really would like to learn more about her-she had some interestingly odd characteristics, which always makes for good reading. 

After the palace we went on a wild goose chase for some building that Emily remembered from her previous trip to Vienna.  I thought it might be the Kunst Hause Wien, but we got there and apparently it was not what we thought it was. 

So we walked down to the river, which was about a stone's throw away.  The Danube was definitely not blue on this day.  I'm not sure if it ever is very blue, but the pervasive cloud cover that had followed us all over Europe was present again on this Monday. 

The Heidl chocolate museum was next on our list.  It was outside the main area of Vienna and it took us awhile to get there.  When we finally did, it was quite a surprise that the tours were only given in German.  Since we had come that far already, we figured, what the heck?

I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I suppose for 3 Euros (1.50 of which we got back to spend at their store), I shouldn't have expected much.  We enjoyed one shoko-bananan (chocolate banana candy) and watched a film which was, of course, in German.   Then a girl our age walked us around a large room that explained the process of making chocolate-from picking the beans to eating the good stuff.  Thankfully there were posters on the wall with English writing.  This part sounds interesting in theory, but I got kind of bored.  Next, we trudged upstairs and were able to watch the busy worker bees through a large window.

All you could see the people doing was packaging already packaged chocolates.  They did redeem the tour with ample amounts of chocolate for us to try.  Afterwards, I got some awesome dark chocolate bites with "nut toffee" in them.  It wasn't toffee that you would normally think of--it was more chewy and even better than I expected.  I also got another secret stash of chocolates that I'm bringing home as a present.  I intended to use both packages as presents, however the nut toffee slowly disappeared over the next week!

Stuffed full of chocolate, we headed to the Osterreichische Galerie.  It consists of two former palaces-Upper and Lower Belvedere.  Each of these palaces have 19th and 20th century art.  The most famous artist housed in the museums is Gustav Klimt.  His most famous work is called "The Kiss".  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gustav_Klimt_016.jpg)  The paintings by Klimt are really interesting takes on portraits.  Normally I don't enjoy just plain paintings of random people, but Klimt takes the portrait and adds random colors/shapes to "jazz" it up. 

For dinner, we found another cute place on a side street, off the beaten path.  What tipped me off to its authenticity was, like breakfast, the menu was completely in German.  While having my native tongue on the menu is so convenient, it's also a red flag for a touristy restaurant.  Kirsten and I split Wienerschnitzel (OF COURSE...)  and it was delicious.  I'm glad we split it, because the portion was massive. 

All three of us were ecstatic for our night train.  I know, given previous history, this seems like quite an anomaly.  There were several factors involved in our excitement: 

1. We had a bed (even though it cost our wallets dearly, it was all that was left)

2.  We had our own room with just the 3 of us, i.e., no weirdos.

Our excitement increased even more when we found the personal sink, closet, scented face towel, bottled water and chocolate filled croissants!!  I slept very well that night, despite the odd feeling of being in a bed that moved.