Vienna

We started our day in Vienna by taking the underground to the center of town. We were kind of confused on where we were when we got off the underground, but we figured it out. We found some breakfast, very important, and then found the tour we had booked the night before. The tour goes around the city and you can hope on an off the buses when you want. We saw a lot of beautiful buildings but I can't remember what most of them were. We learned that during World War II many of the buildings were destroyed. When the war was over the city was in desperate need of housing so they had to build a lot of inexpensive housing. So, as you drive around the city you see these beautiful ornate buildings right next to these very plain and inexpensive buildings. It was interesting.

Cathedral - Parts are black from a fire many many years ago. 

Inside of Cathedral

random street with pretty buildings

We spent most of the day at the the Schonbrunn palace. It is on the outskirts of the city and was built during the Austrian Hungarian empire. It was the summer home for the Hapsburg dynasty. Marie Antoinette grew  up there. Which I was really excited about when I learned because when I was in high school I went to Versailles. :-) The Schonbrunn palace was originally pink and blue but it is now yellow. They are unsure when it was painted yellow but this specific color yellow is called "Schonbrunn yellow". We did a tour of the palace, the gardens, the garden maze and labyrinth, and the Gloriette. They were all incredible and beautiful. The labyrinth had a kinds of cool toys and the maze led to a lookout over the maze. It took us a little while to get through the maze but we eventually figured it out. The walk to the Gloriette was a bit of a hike because it is on a hill at the back of the property but it was worth it! From the top of the Gloriette you have an incredible view of all of Vienna. 

The Schonbrunn Palace!

The Gloriette on top of the hill. 

In front of the palace. We asked this random guy to take our picture. He didn't speak English very well so he asked Katie if she spoke Russian, which she does! He was pretty excited! 

The Maze. We got lost a few times...

The lookout over the maze. 

Rocky!

The view from the top of the Gloriette. 

We spent so much time at the palace we missed our bus but we figured out how to take the underground to the next spot of the tour and were able to get back on the tour bus. We saw a few more things on the tour and then found dinner. We ate at this place called the "Zwolf Apostelkeller." We were so glad we went! It is this authentic place that our friend Jessi Hansen, who did a study abroad in Vienna told us to go to. It was so good! It was in the basement of this building and it looked a little sketchy at first but it was so good and so much fun! I got traditional Viennese schnitzel, which is breaded and fried veal. It was absolutely delicious! Until I came to Austria I thought schnitzel was hot dogs, probably because of the restaurant "Wiener Schnitzel" in the states. They call hot dogs here frankfurters. They also do schnitzel with pork, which is what Bethany got. Katie got this plate with frankfurters and black pudding with some other kind of meat served over sauerkraut. I tried the black pudding. It wasn't at all what I thought it would taste like. It was good but I don't think I could eat very much of it in one sitting. When we were done eating, these 2 older men with a violin and an accordion came to our table and played music for us. We thought they would play Austrian songs for us but they asked us where we were from and told us they wanted to play American music for us. :-) They played "Home on the Range", "I've been working on the railroad", "Edelweiss" from Sound of Music (that is an American song, it's not Austrian), and "Do Re Mi" from the Sound of Music. I kept thinking they were going to stop but then they would think of another song and keep going! It was so funny! I'm pretty sure the man with the violin was looking at me almost the whole time while he was playing and he kept asking me if I wanted to play his violin. What can I say, old men love me! ;-) And I love them! (like I love my grandpa) ;-) This restaurant was probably one of my favorite things of our trip. It was so much fun! Thank you again Jessi!

We love schnitzel!!!

My boyfriend ;-)

After dinner we went to the gelato place that Jessi told us to go to. It's called Zanoni and Zanoni. Apparently they were the first ones to bring gelato to Vienna from Italy. They are supposed to be the best gelato in Vienna and they did not disappoint! I got a scoop of melon and a scoop of raspberry. It was amazing!! We ate our gelato in front of one the beautiful cathedrals and met a nice lady and her mom who were also traveling.

We took the underground metro back to our hostel. We left the center of the city about 945pm which is the latest we had been out since we got to Europe. I'm not going to lie, it was a little scary getting back. Mostly because when we got of the metro we were standing in the station trying to decide which street to go up to when this really scary lady with makeup smeared all over face and totally high on who knows what, probably multiple things, came up to me and started mumbling something. I started walking so fast and telling Katie, Liz, and Bethany to follow me. Man that lady was scary! I walked so fast the rest of the way to our hostel. It seems as if all the scary people come out the second the sun goes down. We made it back to our hostel safe and sound. I was so grateful! I was also so grateful because when we left this morning I had accidentally left my phone plugged in on the night stand. I was so worried about it the entire day. I was worried that it was going to stolen or fried from being plugged in. I had a silent prayer in my heart all day and told Katie, Bethany, and Liz to also say a prayer for it. I was so happy to find it safe and sound when we got back. More proof Heavenly Father was certainly watching over us the entire trip. We could feel Him watching over us every day.