We have met some wonderful people on our travels and this is one of the reasons we were looking forward to Vienna so much. Exactly two years ago we were in New York and we met Anja in the New York Hostel. We spent 4th July with her and Patrick, which is the American Independence day. 2 years on, we find ourselves getting off the train in Vienna and Anja is waiting on the platform for us. After greetings we followed her to the metro and then on a tram back to her apartment. 
Our next nice surprise was meeting Anja’s lovely housemate Claudia. Claudia is actually from Stuttgart in Germany but has been living in Vienna for six months. You wouldn’t realize it though, the two girls are such good friends, you would think they had grown up together. 
Today is the 30th June, so everyone knows what that means! Our lovely hostesses had even baked a cake for Damien, so after arriving at the apartment, we were served coffee and cake, yum! But it just keeps getting better, the girls had decided to take us to an Austrian Brauhaus for dinner and drinks. For dinner Anja and Damien had Wiener Schnitzel, Christine had an Austrian stew and Claudia ate one of the biggest mixed grills we had ever seen! This was of course all washed down with a few beverages. We were joined at the restaurant by Sandra and her friend Felix. Sandra is another friend we have made on our travels, we met her a few weeks after meeting Anja, on our Scotland tour. 
Claudia hasn’t been in Vienna all that long, but she definitely knows the city well. After a bit of a sleep in, she took us on a guided tour of the city. We felt very s
pecial, with our own personal guide and photographer. We wound our way around Vienna visiting all the sights. There was the Jud Museum (jewish) which had a large concrete book sculpture out the front to commemorate all the people and there stories, who were lost during the war. The Alte Universitat (old university) with the Jesuitenkirche next to it. This was an old church with a fascinating 3d painting on the dome roof and also had some incredible twisted stone columns. We wandered along the Donaukanal which is the river running through the middle of the city and has a beach bar, cafes and graffiti art along it. Next was the Ruprechtkirche, a small church with skeleton inside a clear coffin, the Fleisch Markt (meat market) and Stephans Dom which is the centre piece of the city, a big old gothic style church. 
We stopped for a late lunch break in a Turkish pita shop, not very Austrian, but very tasty. The weather had turned so our next stop was in H&M so the girls could buy some new jumpers. Back on the tour our friendly guide led us to the Alte Hofburg, which is the old royal palaces and has some nice fountains, roman ruins, horses, drive way, court yards and gardens. We continued long past the Naturhist Museum and Kunsthist Museum to the Museums Quarter. This area has a heap of different museums in it, but being a bit late we just walked around, looked in some of the shops and found a small gallery to visit. 
Headed
back toward the tram stop after an exhausting day we saw the Parliament Building, Rathaus (town hall) which they were setting up a large outdoors film screen for next week’s film festival, the new Universitat and a very traditional Vienna Coffee Shop. We will be around for some of the festival, so might be able to see a show if we get time. We took it easy once we got home, no one felt like eating, so we just watched Black Swan, ate cake and chocolate and then showed the girls Australia’s best movie, The Castle. 
Again we went to bed late and woke up late. After messing about the apartment and having lunch we headed out again wi
th our guide. Today we were off to the Schloss Schonbrunn (royal palace). None of us were keen on fighting with the busloads of tourists on a tour of the palace, so we headed to the gardens which are beautifully manicured. The gardens extend up a hill, and from the top you get a nice view of the palace with the city in the background. The weather still wasn’t great so we headed for a traditional coffee shop. This was located near a market area, firstly a flea market selling all sorts of junk and secondly a produce market selling spices and foods. 
Having been in one of the ugliest parts of Vienna (Flea market) we headed to one of the nicest places, the Opera House. We have been a bit unlucky, all of the shows finished at the end of June for a 2 month holiday. But we could get into the foyer to see how nice the opera house is. It is very Grand! Over the summer they have various other performances, and tonight Seal was performing, which interested no one. Instead we headed to Prater Park for some fun! This is a green park with amusement rides, food stands and bars. There are heaps of rides, some of which have been there for a very long time by the look of them, but we did find one that took our fancy, The StarFlyer… It is basically just a swing chair that spins in a circle, at 70km per hour and as it spins you get hoisted 72m in the air. It was good fun and had a really nice view of the city at sunset. After our ride we wandered around the park for a little while, ate something which was a bit like a pancake, dipped in batter, deep fried and covered in salt and garlic, although was pretty good. Once we were all done with our thrill seeking adventures we headed home for a home cooked pasta. 
Sunday was very lazy and we slept in way too late. Damien cooked up a big breakfast for everyone which went down a treat. By the time we got moving it was actually too late to go to any of the Museums as they would be closing soon. We decided we had to do something productive so we headed to the train station to organize our tickets to Budpest the following day. We were very glad we did this as the guy at the ticket office was able to work out some very cheap return tickets, but meant we had to be on the 8am train. From the station we headed for a wine bar. This was very cool as it was set in the cellar of an old building. It was a bit dark and dingy but had wonderful character about it. From there we headed home and cooked the girls and Dominic (Anja’s boyfriend) a Spanish feast of Potatas Tortia, meat, cheese and grilled vegetables. 
Our next nice surprise was meeting Anja’s lovely housemate Claudia. Claudia is actually from Stuttgart in Germany but has been living in Vienna for six months. You wouldn’t realize it though, the two girls are such good friends, you would think they had grown up together. Today is the 30th June, so everyone knows what that means! Our lovely hostesses had even baked a cake for Damien, so after arriving at the apartment, we were served coffee and cake, yum! But it just keeps getting better, the girls had decided to take us to an Austrian Brauhaus for dinner and drinks. For dinner Anja and Damien had Wiener Schnitzel, Christine had an Austrian stew and Claudia ate one of the biggest mixed grills we had ever seen! This was of course all washed down with a few beverages. We were joined at the restaurant by Sandra and her friend Felix. Sandra is another friend we have made on our travels, we met her a few weeks after meeting Anja, on our Scotland tour. Claudia hasn’t been in Vienna all that long, but she definitely knows the city well. After a bit of a sleep in, she took us on a guided tour of the city. We felt very s
pecial, with our own personal guide and photographer. We wound our way around Vienna visiting all the sights. There was the Jud Museum (jewish) which had a large concrete book sculpture out the front to commemorate all the people and there stories, who were lost during the war. The Alte Universitat (old university) with the Jesuitenkirche next to it. This was an old church with a fascinating 3d painting on the dome roof and also had some incredible twisted stone columns. We wandered along the Donaukanal which is the river running through the middle of the city and has a beach bar, cafes and graffiti art along it. Next was the Ruprechtkirche, a small church with skeleton inside a clear coffin, the Fleisch Markt (meat market) and Stephans Dom which is the centre piece of the city, a big old gothic style church. We stopped for a late lunch break in a Turkish pita shop, not very Austrian, but very tasty. The weather had turned so our next stop was in H&M so the girls could buy some new jumpers. Back on the tour our friendly guide led us to the Alte Hofburg, which is the old royal palaces and has some nice fountains, roman ruins, horses, drive way, court yards and gardens. We continued long past the Naturhist Museum and Kunsthist Museum to the Museums Quarter. This area has a heap of different museums in it, but being a bit late we just walked around, looked in some of the shops and found a small gallery to visit. Headed
back toward the tram stop after an exhausting day we saw the Parliament Building, Rathaus (town hall) which they were setting up a large outdoors film screen for next week’s film festival, the new Universitat and a very traditional Vienna Coffee Shop. We will be around for some of the festival, so might be able to see a show if we get time. We took it easy once we got home, no one felt like eating, so we just watched Black Swan, ate cake and chocolate and then showed the girls Australia’s best movie, The Castle. Again we went to bed late and woke up late. After messing about the apartment and having lunch we headed out again wi
th our guide. Today we were off to the Schloss Schonbrunn (royal palace). None of us were keen on fighting with the busloads of tourists on a tour of the palace, so we headed to the gardens which are beautifully manicured. The gardens extend up a hill, and from the top you get a nice view of the palace with the city in the background. The weather still wasn’t great so we headed for a traditional coffee shop. This was located near a market area, firstly a flea market selling all sorts of junk and secondly a produce market selling spices and foods. Having been in one of the ugliest parts of Vienna (Flea market) we headed to one of the nicest places, the Opera House. We have been a bit unlucky, all of the shows finished at the end of June for a 2 month holiday. But we could get into the foyer to see how nice the opera house is. It is very Grand! Over the summer they have various other performances, and tonight Seal was performing, which interested no one. Instead we headed to Prater Park for some fun! This is a green park with amusement rides, food stands and bars. There are heaps of rides, some of which have been there for a very long time by the look of them, but we did find one that took our fancy, The StarFlyer… It is basically just a swing chair that spins in a circle, at 70km per hour and as it spins you get hoisted 72m in the air. It was good fun and had a really nice view of the city at sunset. After our ride we wandered around the park for a little while, ate something which was a bit like a pancake, dipped in batter, deep fried and covered in salt and garlic, although was pretty good. Once we were all done with our thrill seeking adventures we headed home for a home cooked pasta. Sunday was very lazy and we slept in way too late. Damien cooked up a big breakfast for everyone which went down a treat. By the time we got moving it was actually too late to go to any of the Museums as they would be closing soon. We decided we had to do something productive so we headed to the train station to organize our tickets to Budpest the following day. We were very glad we did this as the guy at the ticket office was able to work out some very cheap return tickets, but meant we had to be on the 8am train. From the station we headed for a wine bar. This was very cool as it was set in the cellar of an old building. It was a bit dark and dingy but had wonderful character about it. From there we headed home and cooked the girls and Dominic (Anja’s boyfriend) a Spanish feast of Potatas Tortia, meat, cheese and grilled vegetables. 
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