vienna.

hallo,
i got into vienna on thursday at 8am. steffi met me at the train station and we went to breakfast. steffi is best friends with one of my friends, elliott. he studied in austria a few years ago and so when i told him i was going to vienna, he was so kind to hook me up with steffi. she is one of the nicest people in the entire world and i am so grateful that she has let me stay with her. and also thank you to elliott for lending me your friend.



the weather was so gorgeous so steffi and i went to see a few sites. around the corner from her house is the kunsthauswien. it was really really neat. then we took the metro to the center of vienna. we saw st. stephen's cathedral (which happened to be having mass with the bishop) and i think it might have been more beautiful than any cathedral i saw in italy.

i saw my first starbucks in europe, but refrained from going in.

we saw the opera house with this great wien sign outside.

we saw this guy who is goethe, a famous poet.




then we went to the hofburg palace. this little statue of mozart was so cool with the music sign in flowers in the grass. this place was sooo massive. and then seeing the balcony where hitler made his speech when he overtook austria gave me such chills.

i think my favorite part about vienna is all the green park areas. AND it is the cleanest place i have ever seen. i did not see one piece of trash all day. there are a lot of women pushing their (cool european) strollers around. also this water fountain is awesome.

we saw this statue of a woman who reformed the school system in austria. i thought it fit to take a picture with her.
we saw parliament and asked this girl to take our picture. she obviously didn't think that we wanted anything in the background. fail.

that evening we went to take care of steffi's horses at the horse stable. it was about 25 minutes outside of vienna. absolutely GORGEOUS. if you don't know, i'm a bit nervous around animals. it takes me a very long time to warm up to them. i stood back for most of it, but i did touch one of them...
i was thinking about how this one's bangs are in his eyes and how i have bang issues too.
but then this one has the right cut for bangs.
and look at this PIG. it looks like a sheep.

so then it started raining so we went into the little bar. i had my first "spritzer." it is half sparkling water and half wine. quite delicious. then franz (the owner of the horses steffi cares for) decided i needed to see how REAL beer is. it is much stronger than "that american light beer." so they got me a very small one. and about 4 more small ones. and yes, they are much stronger. then franz and markus started getting a little frisky with me so we decided to go.

it rained so much that the subway flooded and we had to take the tram to the bar to meet up with another friend of elliott. when we got there, the austrian soccer team was there. they came in second place and so they were celebrating the end of the season. i went up to them and asked which one was the best player and got a picture. it didn't come out very well, but oh well. look at my hand gripping his leg. haha. then we had some hotdogs. it was so yummy. in a baguette instead of a bun and the most delicious mustard i have ever ever ever tasted.

the next day i went for an incredible run along the canal here. it felt SO good. then we went to franz's 60th birthday party. austrians sure know how to drink. my belly got so full on austrian food, though so i couldn't fit much alcohol in. the only problem is that they also know how to smoke. and my poor allergies got really stirred up. here is a picture of me and the birthday boy and some of me and steffi. oh and! they had some cacti so i felt at home :). franz told me he was IN love with me. it is so lovely being an american girl. i told him he reminded me of my grandfather.


steffi made franz a beer cake--60 different beers. it was such a creative and cute idea. i think he dug it.

today i went to the modern art museum. it was a really great exhibit about mass media from 1960 to 1980. john lennon and yoko ono, ant farm, andy warhol. really really really great documentaries. my brother would have LOOOOVED it. i wished he were there. and they had a whole room of warhol's old tv shows. i didn't even know they existed. there was one that taught you how to apply makeup. and i swear it was EXACTLY how my mom taught me how to do it. i was so proud that i already knew. anyway, i loved it. i spent about 5 hours there.

then i was a bit homesick so i have to admit that i got a chai tea latte from starbucks. don't stone me.
in the middle of the park you can weigh yourself for 20 cents. i didn't want to have to strip in the middle of the park so i didn't do it.

lastly, if you want--you can eat some tunYfish. hahaha.

and i had my first macaroon. i see them on my blogs all the time so i decided to try. they are just "ok."

tschuess (said like chuse),
e.