Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The other day I took my first official trip to Vienna. I had been there a couple times before, but didn’t see the city that much. The first time was when I flew into Vienna International airport and the second was with Martin to see the World Records day. We went to the Schweizer House for dinner, and we went to the amusement park where the records day was being held. It was really fun, but I didn’t see much else. Petra invited me to come to Vienna with her and show me around the city and sites. We left after class around noon by her car and I came back at 1am or so by train to the dorms. It was only about a 30 min drive by car to her house, and then we walked to the subway station to take to the city center. We saw so many sights and museums during the day. Most of the exhibits were closed since it was Saturday, but the weather was beautiful.
We stopped by a shop called “Manner” that sold the special wafer candy exclusive to Vienna. It is a wafer that has a layer of chocolate (or another flavor) and then a wafer on top of that, and then more chocolate, and this process continues for 10 layers or as many as the maker chooses. Then it is cut into rectangle pieces and packaged. Petra said that in Terminator 4 there was some Manner being eaten and everyone was excited because it is becoming famous.
We then stopped for some coffee at a great little coffee shop. I had some espresso and she had green tea. Although I did come across two Starbucks in Vienna I didn’t go there for coffee… only because I wanted to experience the coffee culture in Vienna. Starbucks is not nearly expected here because Vienna already had a very rich coffee culture prior to Starbucks. They had a little bit of trouble when trying to establish a store here because there was quite a bit of resistance from people. But eventually one was built, and now there are 9 or so in Vienna. I took a picture of two of the Starbucks. I also bought a Starbucks Austria mug! That makes 8!
Next we walked around town some more and saw more beautiful buildings and an art exhibit with a house turned upside down on top of one of the buildings. I pictured this in the Vienna Pictures. One of the famous cathedrals right in the town center had “05” engraved on the outside of the building. Petra was explaining that this had a lot of meaning. It was engraved during World War II when the Germans invaded Austria and took over for a period of time. As you may know, Austria is “österreich” in German. The ö with dots over the letter is a special sound unique to the German language. It can also be written “oe” and mean the same sound. So when the “05” was engraved it was basically standing for OE, the first letter in OESTERREICH. O being o, and 5 meaning the fifth letter in the alphabet, E”. So O5 means OE means OESTERREICH means AUSTRIA. When the Germans took over no one could say anything bad or against the government or they would be dealt with. When 05 was engraved on the side of the Cathedral it was meant to show that “Austria is still Austria” and give some hope to the Austrian citizens without the Germans knowing what 05 meant. There seems to be still some bad blood between the Austrians and the Germans. I think now it is more because of the perceived arrogance that the Austrians feel Germans have toward them. There is a picture of this famous 05 under Vienna pictures. Also, Vienna in German is “WIEN” pronounced “VEEN”.
After more sight-seeing we went to see a movie. There was an international film theatre that showed all of there movies in English. I would like to go see a German movie next time though. The movies here are about 6 months behind the release date in the US! We saw “Banditos” with Penelope Cruz. It was not a good movie at all! Very shallow. But fun none the less. After the movie we went to a great Sushi place to eat. It was quite good. Sushi has become extremely popular in Vienna within the last 3 or 4 years.
After dinner we went out to a pub. It was quite loud, but we were able to talk a bit. When we left the pub we walked around Vienna at night and spoke in German to each other. She was speaking very slowly for me and it was nice. People walking by probably thought I was her retarded brother or something.
Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen I am so glad to live so close to it!
- comments