Vienna... beautiful!

Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen yet. All the buildings are old, classic, detailed and simply breath-taking. The german spoken here is quite different, a little like the german spoken in bavaria, so I had a little trouble understanding the people. We were staying at an old roommate's from Carsten. He was living really close to downtown and the museums quartier with his girlfriend and 2 other roommates. The museums quartier is really coo, with all the museums and cool retro shops, in Electric Avenue. A must see. I was really glad because I really hit it off with Ingrid, the girlfriend of Peter, my bf's ex roommate. I was SO proud of myself after I spent most of the evening alone with her, speaking only her austrian german together, and actually having meaningful, serious conversations... and getting along really well. that was definitely a victory!

the first thing we visited was the Stephansdom, a church in downtown Vienna:



I overcame my fear of heights and went with the others up to the tower were you can walk around and have a view of Vienna... It's not inside! When you go up, you take an elevator and wait downstairs inside... when you are finished, you must wait in line for the elevator, standing on nothing but a metal cage-like floor... You can literally see the street way below between your feet. Here is me, holding on to the churches'wall for dear life...

NOT fun

There are SO many smokers in Germany and Autria.Everywhere: stores, bars, restaurants you name it, there is smoke there. Here is a picture of an ashtray in the Vienna public transportation:


We then visited Schloß Schönbrunn (castle Schönbrunn). This is absolutely a must see in Vienna. Incredibly beautiful castle, but beware of tourist-traps: for example, they'll try to tell you you have to buy a combo ticket to visit the castle, gardens and whatnot, but actually the gardens and grounds are free, and you can pay for each activity serparately. We ended up paying abour 3 euros each instead of this combp ticket for 17 euros...
Here is a garden at the back of the Schloß:


the gardens and the Gloriette:



the maze gardens (Irrgarten):



And finally, the Schloß itself:



beautiful.

The Vienna city hall:



Then we visited Schloß Belvedere, please if you are in Vienna visit this first, and Schönbrunn after, or else it seems really small but actually isn't. This is a statue in the gardens, I really liked it because it reminded me of the two sphinx in the never-ending story, through which Atrayu must pass to get to the oracle ( I am at the moment reading the Never Ending story in it s original version, german :)


The Museum of Natural History... if you plan on visiting it here, plan at least two full days... there is SO much to see here! and SO beautiful!



places like Vienna are why I LIVE for travelling.. If you haven't been there... GO!