The Do Step is cheaper than the youth hostel, but still nice and clean. They do not serve free breakfast, but they have free internet. We stayed in a six person room, so we got to experience some room mates.
For dinner, we went to a Turkish restaurant which we found on Wikitravel. [I recommend wikitravel.] We had the most language difficulties here, because we couldn't read the menu and there were a lot of options. For some reason, we can't seem to shake our Spanish schedule and we continued to eat dinner around nine.
Day 1:
We Slept in a little, due to our extreme lack of rest the day before. First stop of Vienna was the graveyard. Here we payed our respects to Beethoven, Strauss, and Schubert. Next we went to the center of the city. Vienna has a "ring" that goes around the downtown area and marks the borders of the old city wall. We strolled around the ring and found the Opera house. We found a suave hotel were we got sandwiches for lunch. After lunch we found Palace #1, Hofburg Palace.
We did not go into this palace, we just enjoyed the ambiance. As usual, the most impressive aspect is the grand size of the palace, something I can not capture in photographs.
From here, we abandoned the ring and headed into the center of the city to find the Cathedral, Saint Stephen's.
Next we went to the Hundertwasserhaus. This was architectural art. It's actually an apartment complex as well as a few shops and things.
THEN, we went to the opera! We learned from our room mate that you can buy 3 euro standing tickets to the opera each night starting at 6. We went at about five thirty, but the doors were locked. We were just hanging out by a fountain when we realized that there was an extensive line on the side of the building. We waited for awhile and got our tickets. We went up to the balcony and everyone ties scarves around the railing to save his or her spot. With our scarves in place, we left to have a quick dinner of subway. [We budgeted our meals right?] The opera was very beautiful. We could only see about half of the stage and my feet kind of hurt, but on the flip side, we had screens with English supertitles, so we could follow the action. After the opera we went to a cafe and met the only rude person of this trip. This waiter was not open to questions about the German menu.
Day 2:
We started Tuesday by going to an amusement park slash fair. It wasn't very lively, but we rode a roller coaster. You paid per ride, so that was a bummer but the coaster was legit and we didn't wait in any sort of line.
We had "Happy Noodle" Chinese take-away for lunch and headed for the Schloss Schonbrunn Palace. We paid to take a tour of this palace, which was many rooms. There are extensive gardens in the back with a maze, which took some time for me. There is also a hill with a "viewing terrace."
From there, Vienna looked massive. I couldn't see the end of the city in any direction. We took some time to relax on the grassy hill and enjoy the view.
The Third Palace was the Belvedere. This palace is now an art museum, but according to me it is the most beautiful of all. At this point we were enjoying our free time and laughing about the funniest aspects of our trip.
For dinner we went to the Mozart Stube, another recommendation of our room mate. This was a traditional Viennese restaurant, with candles on the table and an antique piano in the corner. I got the schnitzel! It is basically fried turkey. My dinner was a special price so I also got pancakes with jam for dessert. The best part of this dinner was that it lasted for over two hours. After we finished our dinners it took many minutes to order the dessert and after the dessert we noticed our waitress taking a break, sitting at another table. We finally asked for our check an hour after we had finished our food. We didn't mind the time, because we had no where to be. The attitude about going out to dinner in Vienna is that you must relax and enjoy the experience. It is the custom to "linger." I think this is a good policy, especially if you are with friends and have no home to return to, like us.
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