Vienna

Servus grüß Sie hallo hi!

(That's a real greeting, or at least that's how I was greeted by one Austrian shop owner. It was pronounced in a single breath and with no hint of irony...)

As I told you Julius and I spent Christmas in Vienna. Vienna is such a fascinating place that I don't think I can fit everything into one blog post, so I'll split it up into several posts.

• Vienna in general (That's what you're reading right now)
• Castles of Vienna
• Museums of Vienna
• Bratislava (Yes yes, I know, Bratislava is not even in Austria, but we went there on a day-trip from Vienna)

Okay, let's get started. There's really only one thing you have to do in Vienna. What's that, you ask? Apfelstrudel, of course! Or well, to experience the Viennese café culture, if you want to put it more generally.

 

So we did that.  Many times. For some reason Julius insisted that we go to this place...

It's not just the cafés that are worth visiting. Restaurants and street food alike, it turns out that Vienna is a great place to find good food. Who knew?

In between coffee breaks we went to see the Hundertwasserhaus. It's an apartment building designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. (Yes, I know, what a name.) It's a fascinating buildning, it looks like something out of a cartoon. It probably looks even better in the summer when all the ivy and the trees on the roof are green. I pity the people who live there, though. While it looks like a fun house to live in it can't be fun to live in a house that's permanently surrounded by tourists.

Like most imperial capitals Vienna is full of beautiful architecture. There are fancy buildings everywhere.

Here's Julius enjoying running up and down an arcade in the town hall. Judging by the Gothic architecture you might think that it's an old building but it isn't really. It's from the late 19th century.

The picture below was taken in the same place, but I accidentally picked the wrong setting on the camera and turned him into a ghost... Don't worry, he eventually recovered.

It's not just the architecture that's interesting. Outside the opera house we ran into this guy. It's giant pink rabbit! I want one of those at home.

In fact, we made quite a few new friends in Vienna. Like this guy. He said he was from Croatia originally. I think we met his cousin when we were in Rijeka.

Here's Julius making friends in a souvenir shop.

Okay folks, that's all for today. I'll be back soon with more about the castles of Vienna.

Bis bald!