sunnyday: Wien

Cakes, colourful houses and classical music... how can you not love Vienna?!?

Friday night was all about food and drink. We trekked out to a brilliant little restaurant called 'Stomach' (thanks to Lonely Planet), then went to the local (i.e. closest to our hotel) pub for drinks. Not a fan of the smoke, but they played everything from yodeling to Christmas carols to Shakira. We learnt from the 'wo-man' waitress that drinks were half price as they were celebrating their 6th birthday, but much to Roshan's disappointment we headed home before the sun came up.

For some unknown, annoying reason, I did not sleep on Friday night. It's not an absolute essential in Vienna though, because the morning chill keeps you awake. We made our way into town and did a little walking tour (thanks to Lonely Planet again) before stopping for an amazing torte break at the Sacher cafe. I shared a dessert platter (i.e. 4 layers of platter), all of it amazing! We made our way down Wien's Walk of Fame, where Mel Gibson and Big Bird are replaced with Tchaikovsky and Puccini. Then I crashed.

On Saturday night we found ourselves a little concert in Lutherische Stadtkirche (a Lutheran church) - we heard an amazing 20th century Hartmann violin concerto sandwiched between some sing-along choral works by Brahms, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Reger. After finally trying a Vien Schnitzel (not worth the effort), I crashed again. I guess 20 minutes sleep in 38 hours just doesn't cut it.

Sunday found us a little more organised and we headed straight to the Kunsthaus. Hundertwasser had very interesting concepts along the lines of 'Straight lines are godless and bad for the soul' and was a big proponent of tree tenants and grass on roofs. Although I wasn't such a big fan of his paintings, I have to admit that the little model hobbit-like village did look very appealing... There was also Albert Watson's Frozen photography exhibition - the photos of people, amazing and not, were captivating!

I had time to visit the Toilet of Modern Art (see pic on left) and squash a 2 cent coin into a souvenir before we took refuge from the cold. Despite originally mistaking it for vinegar, I am now a huge fan of pumpkinseed oil. And the pumpkinseed pesto pasta I had for lunch did not disappoint. Simon had a brilliant idea to hire bikes and we braved the roads, stopping at the old ferris wheel for mulled wine and chestnuts. As the bike was quite tall, I had a lot of difficulty stopping and starting; I showed off my unique method of falling / leaping off the bike to everyone else's amusement. Our last stop was the Demel Cafe (Sacher's rival), where I had a 'Choco-Baileys' and some more to-die-for cakes...