August » 2009 » simmiecakes

When is My Next Trip?

I’m currently sitting in the Prague airport taking advantage of their s-u-p-e-r-s-l-o-w internet connection, and I thought I write up a little summary of my trip.

But first things first:

1. I am currently sitting next to members of the 2008 USA Paraolympic team. I’m pretty sure they are the archery team who just competed in the World Championships here in Prague.

2. You don’t have to take your shoes off here when you go through airport security.

3. Getting to the airport is pretty easy. Once you get to the green line, just follow all the people with the suitcases.

4. The subway in Prague is actually called the Metro. There are only three lines: A, B, and C and they are colored green, yellow, and red. My hotel was on the red line.

5. The letter ‘c’ in Czech is pronounced ‘ts’ like the tsadik in Hebrew.

6. Skoda (of the awesome car cake commercial) is a Czech brand. But Skoda means “what a pity” in English. Not hard to see why it hasn’t caught on in America.

7. The Czechs love their Crocs.

8. The best way to tell if someone is European is to look at his shoes and socks. It seems that most Europeans wear black socks and those super-stylish sneakers that look like bowling shoes. Like those Pumas everyone wears in America.

It’s been a good trip. I can hardly believe I’ve been here a week. But at the same time, I can’t believe I’ve been here a week! Last Sunday seems like ages ago and I’ve done so much since I got here. I’ve been to Vienna, Salzburg, and Prague. I’ve eaten more hot dogs in the past week than I have in the past two years. Turns out I remember a lot more German than I thought I did. Now it’s getting even more confusing to try to speak in either Hebrew or German. I think I am unintentionally teaching myself Yiddish.

I also now understand why everyone loves Prague. It’s a great city. It has great architecture, awesome sites, and a rich history. My three days here were packed and I’m sure I could spend another week here trying to see everything the city has to offer. Also, in comparison to Austria, the Czech people are super nice.

I did not love Vienna. I only had two days there and one day I was so completely exhausted that I’m amazed I stayed upright. I think if I had more time to explore the city I might have liked it more. We did not have enough time to really see any of the museums of really see all the sights. We just scratched the surface.

There is definitely potential for me to fall in love with Salzburg. It’s smaller than Vienna and just more accessible. It’s also the setting for The Sound of Music which just gives it bonus points. I’m disappointed I did not have more time to look around. I would have liked to see more of the sights and maybe even explored the areas outside the city. It’s just beautiful.

Having traveled with a group and alone, I have to say I prefer traveling with other people. While traveling alone affords you the flexibility to see what you want, when you want, having other people around makes it more fun. I doubt I would have been able to see as much as I did in Prague if I was with someone else, but sharing a meal is much more enjoyable.

Everytime I travel abroad, the travel bug bites me again and before I’ve even left, I’m itching to figure out what my next trip may be. I really do think I’d like to try living in another country at some point and it’s one of the few regrets that I have from college – that I never studied abroad. There are so many places I want to see and so many things I want to experience. I want to become fluent in another language; I want to see a penguin in Antarctica; I want to look over the blue roofs in Greece; and I want to see a giraffe in Africa.

But for now I’m content to go home. My plane is boarding and in less than a day I’ll be back. See you all when I get home!

Good Morning! Well, it’s morning for me. Maybe it’s still late night for you. Perhaps you are enjoying a good bit of Conan (oh wait he’s on earlier now…so Jimmy Kimmel?) or Stephen Cobert. Regardless, I’m about to brave the subway to the airport which is a little out of my 5 stop comfort zone, so we’ll see how this goes. If I make it back to America, it went well. If not, well…

Speaking of subways, this is what my (see, I’ve been here 3 days and it’s already my subway station) looks like:

subway

It’s not as nice as the German and Austrian subway systems but way better than the T in Boston. Maybe just a step above the Metro?

So, where was I? Oh yes, I just got back to Prague from Terezin.

Well, when I got back I was exhausted. Although it didn’t seem like it at the time, it was an emotionally draining experience.

I didn’t want to be in a funk all day so I decided to check out the one museum I missed up at the Prague Castle. The Lobkowicz Museum is a small museum displaying the collection of the Lobkowicz family. The Lobkowicz Family is from the 14th century and currently still exists. In fact, when walking through the museum, there is an audioguide (!) narrated by William Lobkowicz, who is technically a prince, but currently manages his family’s estate. William grew up in Boston because his grandfather was forced to flee Czechoslovakia during WWII so he’s the first non-British audioguide I’ve had. What’s even funnier is when his mother gives a little explanation of one of the rooms in a southern drawl.

The museum wasn’t very big, but has some majorly impressive stuff, like portraits of all their ancestors wearing jewels that are also in the museum. It’s definitely history come to life. They also have some original scores written by Beethoven and an impressive collection of armor and guns. In fact, Beethoven’s Fifth was dedicated to a Lobkowicz. The museum had gotten a lot of hype so I was skeptical, but it definitely lived up to it all.

andy_samburg

Also, I saw this picture like five times while walking through the castle. Does this guy look like Andy Samburg from SNL to anyone else??

trdelnik

Remember that Trdelnik I had the other day? Well this is how they are made. I had another one today, but this one was topped with sugar, vanilla, and almonds. Yum!

trdelnik2

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Gute Nacht, Dobrou Noc, Good Night.

Whew, it’s been quite a week! And now it’s late so I’ll just start with how my day began.

old_town

I woke up this morning and it was raining. The sky was gray and the weather was raw which seemed appropriate for the day I had planned for myself. I got up early this morning, grabbed some breakfast (whoops, no good pictures…I’ll try again tomorrow), and caught the subway into town.

entrance

At 9:30 I boarded the bus for my tour of Terezin (or Teresienstadt). I had no idea what to expect from a trip like this. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be emotional, exhausting, shocking, or a something completely unexpected. It turns out it was a little of all of them, but not for the reasons I had anticipated.

terezin_entrance

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Putting My Packing Skills To The Test

Well, today was a big day. Lots to talk about. Maybe even some pictures. But right now I have to figure out how to stuff all this ridiculous stuff I bought into my suitcase.

Spatial relations, don’t let me down now.

Pooped in Prague

What a day! After a good night’s sleep, I was ready to let this city sweep me off my feet.

It occurred to me this morning that with all these photos of food I’ve been taking, I’ve never taken any pictures of breakfast. And man, is breakfast good. I had a lazy morning today and only managed to stumble down to breakfast about 15 minutes before it was over. So I walked in, filled my plate with as much food as I could and got down to noshing. Tomorrow I’ll bring the camera.

subway

After breakfast I took the subway into town. I feel like I’ve figured out the subway pretty well (ok, I know how to get from my stop to the center of town), and have figured out Prague enough to get around.This picture is pretty crappy, but I just thought I’d show you all where the subway lets me out. That’s right. While I love the Columbia Heights Target, the bullseye has nothing on this.

klausen_synagogue

I first made my way back to the Jewish Quarter so I could get a picture of the Klausen Synagogue (the picture above. It’s the one with the names of the Holocaust victims on the walls) and check out the Spanish Synagogue which I had missed yesterday.

spanish_synagogue

The Spanish Synagogue is big. Like way big. And inside it’s ornate. So scratch my comment yesterday about synagogues being understated. This one was not. The entire wall was covered with a red and blue and gold design with giant stained glass windows. Although, relative to some of the cathedrals I saw today, it was down right pauper-ish.

golem

In front of the Spanish Synagogue is a statue of Golem and some dude. I would say the dude is Rabbi Loew who according to legend created Golem, but that dude looks a little too modern. Golem is this creature that was created from the clay to protect the Jews of Prague. But like crazy, sophisticated robots always do, Golem started to turn on the people. So they had to deactivate him. Supposedly his body is still in the attic of the Old New Synagogue in Prague just in case, and the attic is closed to the pubic so somebody can’t sneak in and accidently cause mass destruction or anything.

charles_bridge_tower

This is one of the towers at either side of the Charles Bridge. The Charles Bridge is this big, giant, super famous bridge in Prague that spans the Vitava river. I had never heard of it before. But anyways, there’s all sorts of stuff about it and about how they built it and how it’s the most amazing bridge ever. It connects the Lesser Quarter to the Old Town and apparently all sorts of crazy things in history happened on it. The most famous being that back in the day they threw this guy John off the bridge. This guy John is John of Nepomuk who is a national saint here. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? I’m not really up on my saints.

marionette

But yeah, the bridge. It’s big. And when you cross it you pass by all sorts of people. There are like 8 guys in a row how do caricatures and dozens of stalls selling artwork of Prague. And then there’s the random dude with a marionette putting on a rather impressive display of puppet work.

castle_bridge

The Lesser Town is in no way lesser than the Old Town. Maybe it’s less old? I have no idea. Anyways, when I got there, I started walking up. Because up is where the stuff is at. In the picture above, on the far right, the bridge looking thing is, well, Charles Bridge. Then, moving to the right, the large green dome is St. Nicholas’ Cathedral and on the far right is the Prague Castle. That’s where I was headed.

st_nicholas_cathedral

This is St. Nicholas Cathedral. It’s a big church. Sometimes during these trips I see so many churches that I have trouble distinguishing them from one another. They all kind of blend in. This one is no different. Except it had a few fun statues inside. Like this one:

pope

I don’t know who this pope-looking fella is, but I wouldn’t want to mess with him. He’s totally ramming his stick thing into that guy’s neck! This cathedral was full of all sorts of holy looking guys totally killing other folks. These people didn’t take any crap.

castel

Then it was off to the castle! It’s up this long and winding street which I did not realize until I started walking up it. Actually, it wasn’t that bad. But it was super-duper hot. I’m not sure I’ve been quite as consistantly sticky as I have been this past week. Luckily I had an obnoxiously large bottle of water to keep my hydrated.

water

Also, I just realized I should have put a quarter next to that bottle of water for scale, because in this picture it just looks like a regular bottle of water. But it’s 1.5 liters. And it was like a buck. Because apparently water is cheap in Prague as opposed to Salzburg where it’s like 3 bucks for a bottle 1/6 of the size.

castle1

But enough about the water, lets get back to the castle. The Prague Castle is one of the largest castles in the world and has been around since the 1500s. The president of the Czech Republic works here. Kind of makes the White House look paltry.

guard

The castle has these guards standing…guard in front of it. I guess there is some sort of changing of the guard, but I missed it. These fellas have to stand there perfectly still for who knows how long. What happens if they have an itch? Tourists come and go and stand uncomfortably close to them to get their picture taken. I felt kind of bad. But not bad enough to not blantently take a photo of them all on display like that.

st_vitus_cathedral

This is St. Vitus Cathedral. It’s like the mac daddy of cathedrals. I said that synagogue was huge? Just kidding! This thing could eat that synagogue for lunch. It has like 10 chapels inside with 20 or so giant stained glass windows, an enormous alter thing, and who knows what else that we couldn’t see. On the audio guide (which I somehow managed to score for free), it has 25 sections. 25! The whole castle as like 45.

windows

As over-the-top that it is, I have to admit it is very beautiful. My stained glass window picture taking leaves something to be desired though. (On another note, I saw some guy wearing a Threadless shirt in the cathedral. And I was wearing my traffic one. I felt like we had a small bond. I don’t think that feeling was shared.)

st_georges_basilica

My next stop was St. George’s Basilica. I’m not sure what makes a basilica and basilica, but it’s fun to type. I am also not sure that I have anything interesting to tell you about it.

obilesk

There was also a Washington Monument in the courtyard! Um..just kidding, the world doesn’t revolve around the US. I have no idea what this was for (my audioguide didn’t tell me. It just told me it was there.) but I thought it warrented a photo anyways. I also stopped in the Old Royal Palace.

palace

This is the main room in the palace. I would have thought it was used for banquets and balls and the such but my trusty audioguide told me it was used for jousting. How awesome is that! And jousting was totally for the ladies. No better way to entertain a lady than to have two guys ride toward each other with giant pointy sticks. Yay impalement!

golden_lane

My last little stop was the Golden Lane. For some reason the Golden Lane is part of the extra package you have to pay for. Which I did. When you go it, that’s pretty much it. It’s a little street with tiny houses. Like, I have to duck to get into the doors. I think someone said it reminded them of Diagon Alley from Harry Potter and I totally agree. Except there aren’t any cool joke shops.

kafka

But what the Golden Lane does have is Kafka! Woo hoo! Kafka apparently rented this blue house for a while back in the day and wrote a book while he was there. I bought that book. Because I was in the house in which Kafka wrote that book. And I thought that it never hurt a bookshelf to have a little Kafka on it.

coke

By then it was getting late and I was starving, so I decided to get some traditional Czech food for dinner. But first off, let’s look at this glass of Coke. What do you notice? Something is wrong here. Actually, there are two things wrong.

1. See that line? With the 0,4 l next to it? They are all about marking the volume of a glass, so you don’t get cheated on your beverage. In Austria they were precise in their filling of beverages – never over the line, never under. Apparently in the Czech Republic they care a little less, because I totally got more. Or, maybe it was at the line before the added the ice. Which brings me to number 2.

2. There’s ice in the glass! Usually you have to ask for ice! I’ve noticed in Europe they don’t so much care about drinks being really really cold. Instead they prefer them to be slightly chilled. I find that a slightly chilled beverage is less refreshing than a really chilled beverage. Not sure why this is. But anyways…they gave me ice without asking. Maybe they are just very good at anticipating the wants of Americans.

duck

For dinner I had roast duck. Roast duck is a Czech specialty. I had no idea. But I was pretty excited to eat something that wasn’t sausage, so I decided to give it a whirl. It was pretty good. I haven’t eaten much duck in my day, but this was pretty tasty. It was served with red cabbage (which tasted a lot like sauerkraut) and these bread things that they called dumplings.

ice_cream

After dinner I wandered down through the city, doing my part to bolster the Czech economy. The streets were teaming with tourists and people trying to sell you all sorts of stuff. After a while I decided to treat myself to a little gelato. My little cone cost about a dollar and while it was no Hodgies serving, it was still pretty good. I got the COOKIE flavor, mostly because it had the cutest label.

animation

By then it was almost 8 o’clock so I decided to hang around the Old Town to see the animation thing on the astronomical clock. Can you see it? There are some little figures up top that pop out. And that’s pretty much it. I wasn’t all that impressed, but people were applauding. Applauding. Either I’m totally missing something, or foreigners definition of entertainment is way different than mine.

After that I headed back to my hotel where I’ve been sitting around not typing this up. Tomorrow morning I’m heading to the Terezin concentration camp and the maybe the Museum of Communism. So you know, a light day.

Praha!

So, this morning started…early. Like 4 AM early. And I didn’t go to bed until 1 AM. Because I was too busy frantically trying to buy myself a train ticket for the upcoming crack of dawn. Even the guy at the front desk thought I was nuts.

But, I successfully got out of bed after my 3 hour nap, made my way to the train station, and found myself a seat in the 2nd class car, hoisted my suitcase full of candy onto the rack, and promptly fell asleep. So sadly I don’t have many pictures or stories to tell you about the 7 hour train ride from Salzburg to Prague.

Oh, besides the strapping young man that I met on the train. We talked, we chatted, we fell in love, and now I’m counting down the days until we meet again in six months. I hoping this experience is going to lead to a book and a movie deal, possibly with an option for a sequel.

I mean, hi Andrew, I miss you!

But back to my adventure…I made it to Prague right around 11:30, just when my ticket said I would arrive. I stepped off the train, looked around, and had no freaking idea where I was. So, what did I do? I started walking. I figured I should get some moolah, and since the Czech Republic is not on the Euro, I had to get some Czech Crowns. I dragged my suitcase through the city for awhile in search for an ATM to no avail. So I dragged my suitcase back to the train station to exchange some of my dollars for crowns at one of the 437 currency exchange booths. I was reluctant because the exchange rate is notoriously poor at these places, but I was also desperate because I didn’t really want to just stay in the train station, nor did I want to wander around Prague looking for my hotel (which is actually outside of Prague, so goodness knows if I would have ever found it). But, it turns out the lady wasn’t paying attention or something because she gave me the exchange rate for Euros instead of dollars so I totally came out ahead! Score one for distraction!

Miraculously I managed to find my to my hotel without incident. My hotel is actually a little outside the city, 4 subway stops from the city center. First things first, I have no idea how to read Czech. Every letter has some sort of accent on it and there are more z’s and y’s and k’s next to each other that I feel like I’m eating ping pong balls whenever I tried to read anything.

After dumping my stuff in my room I got back on the subway and headed into town. Since I had most of the afternoon I decided to go to what I wanted to see the most: the Jewish Quarter.

The Jewish Museum in Prague is actually made up of a number of different buildings throughout the Jewish Quarter. The first one I stumbled upon was the Maisel Synagogue. Unfortunately taking pictures inside the buildings is forbidden, so I don’t have too many exciting photos. The Maisel Synagogue was originally built in 1590, but was damaged in a fire and rebuilt in 1689 and the rebuilt again between 1893 and 1905. Inside it’s fairly small with a bunch of display cases with Jewish artifacts and a description of the history of the Jews in Prague.

My next stop was at the Pinkas Synagogue. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I’ll go back and take one tomorrow. Inside is dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. The walls are covered with the enscriptions of the names of the Jews who were murdered from the Bohemia and Moravia area. There is also a display of childrens artwork from Terezin. The synagogue was actually damaged by water in the 1960s and had to be closed. The renovations were just completed in the 1990s, with each of the 80,000 names rewritten on the walls.

Just outside the Pinkas Synagogue is the Old Jewish Cemetery. The oldest grave dates back to 1439 and burials took place until 1787. There are over 12,000 gravestones, but probably thousands more people were buried there. Since there wasn’t enough room, graves just piled up on one another in layers. It’s an impressive sight.

After winding through the cemetary, the next building is the Klausen Synagogue. It was the largest synagogue in the Prague ghetto in the 1600s. Inside is a display on Jewish customs and traditions. The exhibits have artifacts relating to Jewish holidays, customs relating to birth, Bar Mitzvah, marriage, and daily life. Also, did you know that in Jewish law a woman who is widowed and childless must married her late husband’s brother? Apparently it was to ensure the family line would be carried on. But the brother-in-law can release the widow from this obligation by letting her remove a special leather shoe from his right foot and throwing it away. I hope it’s not a nice shoe. And do you think they make a left one too?

Right next to the Klausen Synagogue is the Ceremonial Hall. It was the mortuary for the Old Jewish Cemetary, so it’s appropriate that the exhibit inside is all about death and Jewish customs concerning death. Cheery stuff.

My last stop was at the Old New Synagogue. It’s the oldest active synagogue in Europe and was originally built in 1270. Inside it’s sparsly decorated with just bimah in the center and the ark at the front of the room. It’s interesting to see the contrast between the synagogues and the churches. Most of the synagogues are sparshly decorated with great architecture, but are a hundred times less ornate than the churches. Of course, they weren’t all built at the same time and each building is a reflection of the era in which it was built, but it seems on a whole that the synagogues are significantly more understated.

By then I was getting pretty hungry so I stopped and got a trdelnik. Yeah, that’s exactly how you pronounce it. I had no idea what it was, but it looked tasty so I bought one. It’s dough that has been wrapped around a wooden stick and then grilled and topped with sugar and nut mix. Mmm…tasty!

Since I was in Old Town, I had to stop and take a look at the astronomical clock. I have no idea how it works or how you tell time or anything from it, but there’s a very long Wikipedia page about it, so take a look and let me know what I’m looking at.

Apparently there is a moving puppet show on the hour, but I missed that. There are four figures around the clock representing four things that weren’t very liked when the clock was made. From left to right: a figure looking at himself in the mirror representing vanity; a Jew holding a bag of money representing greed (go stereotypes!); a skeleton representing, you guessed it! death; and a Turk in a turban, representing…Turks.

The Old Town Square is teeming with tourists. People walk down the street with big mugs of beer in their hands, and horse and carriages take families through the town. I also saw some Hare Krishnahs walking and singing through the throngs of people.

I spent a while wandering around the Old Town looking in shops. There are so many souvenir stands here! I think that all of these shops trying to lure in the tourists definitely take away from the sights and sounds of the city. It reminds me of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, but way way bigger and more prevalent. Also, when I went into the stores I was often tailed by an employee. I’m not sure if it was because of my backpack or what, but it was rather awkward.

So Prague is not the land of salads, vegetables, and light dishes. Nope, I’m still enjoying the hearty meat and potatoes fare. For dinner I got a Kolbasy which is a spicy Czech sausage with onions and sauerkraut. I’m sure my breath afterwards was fantastic.

Now I’m back at the hotel, ready for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow I’m going to finish checking (haha, Czech-ing, oh man, that was terrible) out the Jewish museum and then I’m going to explore the palace. I’m sure I’ll come up with a couple of other things to see while I’m out, but right now I’m looking forward to sleeping in my tiny twin bed.

Salzburg

fortress_night

The hills are alive with the sound of musiccccccccccc.

That’s right, I’m in Salzburg. Land of Mozart and Julie Andrews. I can’t believe it’s 11 PM already – the day flew by.

mozart
Calvin and Annie were gracious enough to let me hitch a ride with them to Salzburg so I didn’t have to take the train. More on the train later. The ride from Vienna to Salzburg took about 3 hours and I think it was a nice ride, but, because I’m me, I slept for most of it. I’m not sure if Maddie or I slept more, but the backseat of that car was mighty quiet.

wiener_schnitzel

We got to Salzburg around 2 PM and quickly began my whirlwind tour. But not without stopping for lunch first. Since I just conveniently left Vienna, land of the wienerschnitzel, I decided that now was an appropriate time to finally get one myself. Turns out Salzburg wienerschnitzel is not as good as Wien (Vienna) wienzerschnitzel. It wasn’t bad, just nothing to write home about (which apparently I’m doing anyway).

mezzo_mix
But I also found Mezzo Mix! I love Mezzo Mix! It’s like a cross between Coke and orange soda, but doesn’t especially taste like either. And I had to get a pretzel to round out my brown brown meal. I need some vegetables.

mozart_birthplace
After lunch we started by exploring the Old City. Not only did we find Mozart’s birthplace, but we also found his house. His birthplace is almost impossible to miss as it says “Mozart’s Birthplace” in giant letters on the front of the building.

salzburgdom
As we made our way into the Old City, we came upon the Salzburg Cathedral. All I can say is that is one big church. We were unable to go inside because there was some sort of performance going on in the courtyard area that you needed a ticket to. And possible a pair of lederhosen. I have never seen so many grown adults wearing tiny leather pants or traditional Alpine dress. Not quite as jarring as the Anime convention in Baltimore, but still a little unexpected.

On the other side of the cathedral is a courtyard where they sell souvenirs and overpriced bottles of water. There is also one of those giant chessboards with pieces that come up to my knee. As I was standing on the chessboard to get my picture taken, I was challenged to a game of chess by another visitor. Who is 10. And is named Julia. And is from Stuttgart.

chess
This picture is me in being schooled by a 10 year old in the middle of Salzburg surrounded by spectators. Julia is the one in the green shirt and hat. I had an American family doing a play-by-play of my chess game and a old Spanish man trying to help me in a foreign language I don’t understand and vaguely pointing in the general direction of the board.

Julia pretty much had me beat from the get go, but it was really fun to play. I blame my lack of skill on my mother who stopped playing with me when I was 12 because I kept beating her. That’s right mom, I’m calling you out on your lack of chess skills.

After my grand defeat we headed up to the Hohensalzburg which is the fortress that protected Salzburg for a whole lotta years. In fact, it was so good it was never actually attacked. And the one time someone tried to take it over, it was simply surrendered. So either the Austrians are a bunch of wussies or Napoleon knew what he was doing.

salzburg

The fortress itself wasn’t actually that exciting. It did afford some amazing views of the city though. I could see churches and palaces and summer residences and other summer residences and castles and the Alps.

alps
I also went on one of the more disappointing audio tours in my experience. It was short, it was crowded, and it didn’t actually teach me all that much. Did you know the Fortress has a big organ? Well it does.

The fortress also has a few tiny museums, one of which is the Marionette Museum. The museum itself was 2 small dimly lit rooms which a bunch of puppets. Do you know what kind of atmosphere that created? Creepy. It felt like puppets were going to jump off of the walls and beat you with their little wooden hands. But we stayed long enough to make Calvin take this ridiculous picture with me.

mozart_house
By then the day was winding down so we decided to make one last stop at the Mozart Wohnhaus (Mozart’s residence). It another one of those small museums that had a few pianos there, some fact here, and lots and lots of letters written to, from, or about Mozart. As we got in towards the end of the day, the employees were pretty much following us through each exhibit so they could turn off the lights and pack up as soon as we were finished.

And then…dum dum dum…we found it! Sachertorte! We actually found the Hotel Sacher which is where it originated. And it actually originated in Vienna not Salzburg, but it’s stil the original. We stopped to eat at the café so we could get our Sachertorte, but being responsible people that we are, we had dinner first.

salad
And do you see what is on this plate? Vegetables! I was starting to forget what green things were after all of this meat and potatoes. My salad was particularly delicious, helped in part that is was not some sort of ground up meat stuffed in a casing and boiled.

For dessert we finally tried the elusive Sachertorte. Sachertorte is a chocolate cake with a bit of apricot filling, iced with a super rich, dark chocolate frosting. It can only be purchased from 4 locations in Austria (or online) and actually costs and arm and a leg (I gave them the right leg and left arm so I could still write). To be perfectly honest, none of us were really head over heels about the Sachertorte. The cake was dry and the flavor wasn’t particularly decadent or anything. But now at least we can say we’ve had Sachertorte.

On the way back to the hotel we walked through the Mirabell Gardens. They were quite beautiful at night, so I can only imagine what they look like during the day. Durng the summer they have live music playing weekly and tonight we were fortunate enough to get to hear some.

band
I know this picture isn’t particularly good, but I had to take it. Because at the very moment this picture was taken, these kind folks were playing Copacabana. IN LEDERHOSEN. What possessed an Austrian band to break out the Barry Manilow I will never know, but Barry Manilow being played by people in high socks, leather shorts, and velvet vests is not an image I will be forgetting anytime soon.

But now it’s late and I should be heading to bed. Tomorrow morning if I can figure out the train schedule I’ll be heading to Prague. If I can’t, well, then I’ll be heading to Prague tomorrow afternoon. Internet access is going to be questionable, so I’ll try to keep you as updated as possible.

Anyone know what Czech food is like? Is there a carrot in my future?

Vienna, Day 3

*Whoops, my German isn’t as good (bad) as I thought it was. It’s Naschmarkt, not Nachtmarkt. My bad.

So today was the whole reason I’m on this trip: work. After all of our galavanting through Vienna, today we went to visit our supplier, buried ourselves in documentation, and worked until our fingers bled. We worked from sun up to sun down, hardly taking a break to breath some fresh air. As we toiled away in the dark room, piles of paper stacking up, animated arguments heating up, and garbage bins filling up, it seemed unlikely we would ever finish.

IT WAS AGONY.

nachtmarkt

Ok, just kidding. Work went well today. No major issues and we finished up at a perfectly reasonable hour. After we got out of our meeting we decided to head down to the Naschtmarkt*. The Naschmarkt is an open-air market where they sell all sorts of fresh produce, nuts, spices, and other random foods. Unfortunately we got down there as many of the stalls were closing up, so we didn’t get the full experience.

apfel_gspritzt

We did manage to find a place to eat though. The group I’ve been traveling with is great in that we’re all very enthusiastic about seeing Vienna and really trying to get the most out of our short time here. We’ve been eating at a lot of traditional Viennese restaurants and I’m not sure any of us could have anticipated just how much meat, pork, or potatoes we’ve consumed in the last three days. Finding cold drinks has been a bit of a challenge and today I ventured out beyond the usual Soda Zitrone (tonic water and lemon juice) to some Apfel G’spritzt which is apple juice and tonic water. They sure do love the bubbly water here.

beir

Of course, beer here is actually cheaper than water. And if I drank beer, I think I would be in heaven. This is the beer Obi got. Doesn’t it look refreshing?

goulash

For dinner I decided to go a little crazy again and I ordered the Austrian goulash which came with the world’s most enormous dumpling, a crazy octopus shaped sausage, and an egg. The meat itself was pretty tasty, but the dumpling left a little to be desired. I didn’t want to waste it though:

dumpling

Mom, aren’t you so proud of me?

spaetzel

Annie and Annette got some goulash too. Except their goulash came with spätzle. Spätzle is this sort of egg noodle dumpling things that usually get served with some sort of meat. The first time I had spätzle was with my German family the first time I went to Germany and I think I ate like half the pot because my German mother kept filling my plate I didn’t want to be rude and not finish it. It was delicious, but I think I was incapable of moving for the next 12 hours.

After dinner we decided we all wanted cake. So we went on a mission. We had been told the day before that during the summers, down by the Rathaus (the city hall) they played a video of some sort of classical music concert while people gathered and socialized and had some coffee and cake. So we thought that would be a perfect place to wind down the evening.

museum

We’re slowly but surely (and just in time to leave) learning our way around and we made our way through the Museum Quarter on the way to the Rathaus.

volkstheater

We also walked by the Volkstheater (People’s Theater) which is the closest U-bahn stop to our hotel. We must have walked by this building a good 8 or 9 times before any of us bothered to take a picture of it. Apparently we’re a little too wrapped up in ourselves.

parliament

On the way to the Rathaus, we passed the Parliament building. It is an oddly captivating building and we all ended up spending a good amount of time there taking pictures, playing in the fountain, and just taking in the magnificent surroundings.

rathouse

We finally made it to the Rathaus where the music was playing, the food was cooking, the people were mingling, and not a slice of cake could be found. I also realized that I really do need a tripod. After walking around for a while, we decided to head to a cafe across from the Rathaus and next to this theater:

theater

I have no idea what this theater is, but I was just pretty darn proud of my ability to take a clear picture without the flash at night. So there.

landtmann_torte

The cafe we eventually found ourselves at is called the Landtmann Cafe. We were really on the hunt for Sachertorte which we were unable to find. Instead we all indulged in a variety of different cakes and strudels. Calvin got the house special which is the Landtmann Torte. It’s a layer cake with layers of marzipan and I think apricot jam. It was a truely beautiful slice of cake. And really really almondy. The taste was almost too overpowering.

berry_torte

I got some sort of wild berry torte which was quite excellent. The berries were a bit tart which went well with the sweet cream and cake. I’ve decided I’d like to find a nice Austrian cookbook so I can hopefully recreate some of these amazing dishes (maybe not the dumplings though). After we were full of cake and coffee we made our way back to the hotel. Our feet were dragging. Three days in Vienna will take a lot out of a person.

Now I’m packing my stuff and getting ready to head to Salzburg. I think I might watch a bit of The Sound of Music to prepare myself. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have lots of fun updates and have located the elusive Sachertorte!

Vienna, Day 2

schoenbrunn1

This morning I woke up before my alarm all proud of myself for, well, waking up before my alarm. I made my way downstairs relatively early to enjoy me some good Austrian breakfast. And man was it good. It was buffet style so I made a couple (or 3 trips). Started off with just some bread, cheese, and meats. Then I had some bread with some jam. German bread is so good – it’s hearty and filling and substantial. Then I had a bit of fruit salad and some watermelon. Then I had some olives. And then I had some muesli with yogurt and some of the reddest strawberries I’ve seen in a while. It was so good. I passed on the sparkling wine with breakfast because 9 AM seemed a little early to be working on the glow.

candy

After breakfast a couple of us went to the local supermarket to pick up some candy. I got a whole bunch, which I am currently trying not to eat. I’m not sure it’s going to all make it up until I get home. It was pretty funny though – easy to tell who the tourists were, because we were the ones walking through the grocery store at 9:45 AM with armfuls of candy. Yum!

schoenbrunn

Finally, a little after 10, we started out daily adventure. Carl’s cousin, Kevin met up with us at our hotel and took us to Schönbrunn, which is the Habsburg (the Viennese monarchy) summer palace. To sum it up – it pretty much reminded me of my house. You know, a few gilded rooms here, some precious wood inlays there, a ballroom, and a couple of dozen custom portraits. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside the palace, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

handstand

We got to take an audio tour (and man do I love my audio tours. Just ask Elizabeth about her trip with me to Stirling in Scotland) which gave a nice overview of the palace and walked us through the monarchy in Austria. Monarchies are cool! For some reason hearing about who married whom and who was heir to which country, blah, blah, blah, totally facinates me.

emu

Afterwards we walked around through the gardens in the back of Schönbrunn palace and got a bite to eat. Right next to the palace grounds is a zoo (which just so happens to be the oldest zoo in the world. It was built for the monarchy. For reals, can you imagine being like, “I think I’d like a zoo near my summer home.” And done.). We didn’t go in, but we did meet a friendly emu.

cheese_lunch

For lunch I got some sort of cheese dish that I cannot remember. I was under a lot of pressure and had to make a snap decision, which lead to, well…a somewhat disappointing meal. I didn’t really (and still don’t) have any idea of what I was actually eating, but suffice it to say, it was underwelming. Seriously, on that plate is three blocks of cheese. What kind of cheese, I have no idea. It was sort of a waxy texture and didn’t taste like much. I didn’t notice it being too offensive smelling, but Kevin described it as, “oh, it’s the cheese that smells like rotting death.” So I’m pretty sure everyone was glad I ordered it. It’s drizzled with pumpkin seed oil and possibly some other stuff. I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the bread and pickles that came with my death cheese.

hundartwasser_house

After lunch we took a variety of different forms of public transportation to head for the hills. On our way up, we stopped by the Hundertwasser Haus. The Hundertwasser Haus is an apartment complex that has become one of the most notable attractions in Vienna. It was designed by an architect named Friedesreich Hundertwasser who had a unique vision for the area. It’s a crazy building with trees integrated into the design and tile mosiacs splashed all over the exterior. There are a number of buildings in Vienna that have been retrofitted in the image of Hundertwasser, but this by far is the most impressive.

vienna

After an U-bahn ride, a tram, some walking, and a bus ride, we finally made it up into the hills. I think it’s the last part of the Alps near Vienna and we were able to get some amazing views of the city. While at the top of this mountain-hill thing, we saw a nice Polish church, and saw a fountain that supposedly had healing water. So now I’m either immune forever or I’ve been baptized. Let’s hope it’s the former.

winery

We took the scenic route down and got leisurely stroll down the mountainside. In this part of Vienna there are a lot of wineries. We must have passed a good half a dozen during our meandering.

grapes

group

Near the bottom, we stopped at a heuriger to have some wine and get some dinner. A heuriger is local wine establishment where one stops in to drink that vineyard’s wine and have some good food. The food was served sort of cafeteria style where you walked up to the counter, pointed to the food you wanted and got a generous portion to enjoy with your wine.

wine

The group of us shared a carafe of red wine and a carafe of white wine. Being the wine connoisseur that I am, I enjoyed it very much. To protect my colleagues, I will abstain from posting pictures of the dancing on the tables and the baskets on the heads.

chicken_potatoes

For dinner I got some roast chicken and potatoes with bacon. Those potatoes were amazing. I’ve been getting a lot of crap on this trip for all the pork I’ve been eating (it’s nearly impossible to avoid in Vienna) coupled with my, you know, being Jewish, but it’s totally been worth it. I am going to publicly declare right now, I LOVE BACON. And put them on potatoes. Delicous!

tomato_potato_salad

I also got a side of tomato salad and potato salad. Yes, I realize I had a side of potatoes with my chicken, but at the time I wasn’t really paying attention. The tomato salad was awesome. The tomatos were fresh and sweet and they were covered in a tangy dressing that wasn’t too overpowering. The potato salad was served cold and dressed similarly to the tomatoes.

The atmosphere of the heuriger was relaxed and lazy. We took our time eating while live music played softly in the background. It was an excellent way to end a long, tiring day, leaving us feeling satisfied and content.

beethoven

Turns out we were also in Beethoven’s old stomping grounds, so much of the surrounding area is dedicated to him. In fact, the heuriger that we ate at was a former residence of Beethoven.

Then it was back to the hotel just in time to collapse. Tomorrow is our meeting with our vendor (oh yeah, work…that’s why I’m here in the first place), so I’m not sure how much sight seeing and interesting things I’ll have to report on tomorrow. Wish me luck at the review!

Vienna, Day 1

vienna

It’s been a long day. I haven’t had a proper sleep in about 36 hours. It’s been fun though, so no complaints here.

We arrived at the airport and quickly got a taxi to take us to the hotel. There are 7 of us plus a baby and surprisingly everything went pretty smoothly. Having a boss who speaks German with you also doesn’t hurt. We got to check in early and drop our stuff off before we decided to head out for the day.

An hour later and freshly showered, I was ready to see Vienna. I was also ready to take a good long nap, but I couldn’t let that stop me. Our hotel is right next to the museum quarter so we headed over there first.

museum

I forget what museum this is, but it’s the one across from the Museum of Fine Arts. To be perfectly honest, this picture just came out better.

maria_theresia

This is Maria Theresia. She’s a big shot around here. She was the only woman to rule during the Habsburg Monarchy and totally rocked out. They like her. Which is why she has a ginormous statue in the center of the Museum Quarter. And our hotel is the K+K Maria Theresia. Also, apparently she really like green and yellow.

hofburg_palace

From there we headed towards the Hofburg Palace. The Hofburg palace started as the palace for the aforemention Habsburg Monarchy, but since then has expanded to house a bajillion different things including performances of the Viennese Boys Choir and the Spanish Riding School where you can see horses break it down.

hofburg_palace_1

Stephansdom

Then, we started hitting up the churches. Because this is Europe. So you practically trip over churches. The Stephansdom (or St. Stephan’s Cathedral) is right in the center of town and pretty awesome. Just like in Scotland, when they are doing renovations, they put a tarp with what the building should look like over all the scaffolding. I like how they try to make it less of an eyesore that way.

stephansdom_inside

Of course, the inside wasn’t too shabby either. The stained glass windows were beautiful, but I couldn’t get any closer because a mass was starting.

Vienna1

Annette and I decided to leave the wimpy boys down on the ground and climbed up the tower in the Stephansdom. I was 137 meters (or 450 feet) up and who knows how many stairs. Let’s just say I was a little (a lot) out of breath when I reached the top. But the views of Vienna can’t be matched, so I think we decided it was worth it.

frankfurter

When we came down, the guys had decided it was time to eat. I was pretty excited about this, since the last thing I had eaten was that cheese on the plane. I had a Frankfurter Würstl with some pickles and bread. Basically it’s a hot dog. It’s kind of funny though – in Vienna (Wien) the call the Frankfurter Würstl and in Frankfurt, they are called Wieners. It was pretty good and I felt very authentic. And ripped off. Because that plate of food was like $8.50.

oper

We quickly passed by the Opera House. We also got told about that evening’s concert in three different languages, but I don’t think any of us had the patience or the will power to even think about attending a performance. They give tours too and I think if I had more time I would check it out. I took a tour of an opera house in Germany and learned if I’m looking for a quick buck, all I have to do is cut off all of my hair, because apparently that stuff comes at a premium.

karlskirche

We definitely had not fit our chuch quota for the day so we headed to Karlskirche. Besides it being Carl’s church, it has some pretty amazing paintings inside. It also has some unsightly scaffolding which allows you to get up close and personal with the paintings but kind of ruins the overall impression.

ceiling

However, I was able to hone my Jew-dar to find the bit of Hebrew in the place. (It wasn’t exactly hidden, more like the focal point of the incredibly ornate alter.)

hebrew

Then came the building we had been talking about all day. Ok, Obi had been talking about this building all day. I had no idea what it was. Turns out it’s called the Secession Building and has all sorts of architectural significance that I don’t quite grasp. But it doesn’t have a pretty giant gold ball on top!

succession_building

At this point we’re all practically melting into the street, so Carl leads us back to the hotel. But not until we see what I’m referring to the Viennese Walk of Fame. Hollywood has all those movie stars, Vienna has composers.

walk_of_fame

stars

So, Leonard Bernstein wasn’t actually directly next to Mozart and Beethoven, but he was the third coolest person I saw on the street.

Finally, we got back to the hotel and before my head hit the pillow I fell asleep. I didn’t want to be too jet lagged so I only allowed myself to sleep for 45 minutes. Miraculously this worked and I actually got up and took my second shower of the day. After a couple of hours of relaxing and prodding ourselves to stay awake we decided to head out for dinner. Conveniently dinner was just around the corner.

tafelspitz1

It was a nice restaurant with a seriously rude waiter. I have a feeling the term “dumb Americans” was running through his head the entire time we were there. There was lots of authentic Austrian cuisine so we dove in and gave it a try. I got Tafelspitz which is meat simmered in a broth and served with potatoes and horseradish applesauce (so good!) and a sour cream with horseradish dip. I pretty much had to stop myself from licking the plate. I also got a $10 bottle of water. Yes $10. That water better make my pee magical or something for ten bucks.

weinerschnitzel

Annette got Wienerschnitzel, because, well we’re in Wien, and somebody had to get it. She said it was really good too and I don’t think she left a bit on the plate either.

goulash

Calvin got Austrian Goulash which came with some ridiculous dumplings and the most intricately carved hot dog I’d ever seen. When I first looked at it, I thought it came with octopus which seemed like the least likely animal to find on that plate.

And then! I found it! APFELSTRUDEL! It was on the menu and there was no way I could pass it up. It came out warm and gooey, with a flakey crust and juicy apples. Ah the perfect end to one incredibly exciting, interesting, tiring, long day.

apfelstrudel

Tomorrow is more palaces, more food, and more pictures. I’m also going to look for some souvenirs. Any requests?