Vienna Take Two

The following day we slept in a bit and went to Naschmarkt while Sean and Johnson were in class. We were going to get some items for dinner that evening. A short metro ride away it stopped us right in front of the market. I missed the markets in Europe and couldn’t help wish they had things like this in America. While we have many markets in the U.S. none seem to be of the magnitude Europe’s are.  All the produce, meats, spices, cheeses, hummus and more were a bit overwhelming at first. We saw a huge barrel of sauerkraut and knew we had to get some, so we decided to cook sausages that evening.  We got two types of sausage, some peppers and bread for the evening. For lunch we had a delicious cup of noodles from a vendor there.

When we got back to the apartment Sean and Johnson headed to Schonbrunn with us. They wanted to check out the Zoo even though I was more excited to see another Palace. This palace was designed after the Palace in Versailles, France. It was breathtaking and huge. We walked the grounds a bit and through the gardens was the Zoo. We walked over the wolf park and witnessed a walrus and seal show. After the zoo, we walked up the garden and stopped at the terrace that looked over the palace and the city of Vienna. We enjoyed a beer there as the sun went down. On our way back we passed by a grotto and took in the rest of the grounds.

 

                Back at the apartment we cooked up a meal for Sean and Johnson and they said it was the best meal they had made in their apartment, regardless of what that says about their cooking abilities I took it as a compliment. Once we were stuffed and finished all of the beer we got ready for Tequila Tuesdays at the Travel Shack. This is where Sean and a lot of people in his program frequent on Tuesdays. We headed out and braced ourselves for the Vienna nightlife. This was a little bar quite a ways from Sean’s apartment. The place was packed with mostly Americans until we found ourselves in a tiny room with many Europeans attempting to sing Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. We were in a European karaoke room. This room was pretty entertaining for a while and I must applaude them for the effort. In all actuality they probably sang better than I, even if they didn’t speak English. At the Travel Shack I also learned what the Chuck Noris shot was. I did not learn about it by taking one, but rather by witnessing one. As I stood in line at the bar I was caught off guard when the bartended slapped two of the gentlemen on the other side of the bar across their faces. My first thought was- damn I wish I could do that. Then my second thought was-what on Earth did they do? It wasn’t until later when I saw some promotion videos playing I realized they were taking the Chuck Noris shot, which was famous to this bar. It was fun to see Sean and his friends dancing and dancing a bit myself. Overall it was a great evening. When we got back to Sean’s apartment I insisted we have another Kaiserkriener. This was my first mistake of the evening, that or the tequila shots. The next morning the Kaiserkriener did not sit right and we did not make it up for our day trip to Salzburg. Although I was disappointed we didn’t make it, I had the best day in Vienna yet.

Sean's Home for the Semester

When we arrived in Vienna we were very excited to see what has been Sean’s home for the last three months. He lives with one of his fraternity brothers and lives near the bridge and many other things around the city. Although the apartment is not the cleanest, they have done a good job and adapted nicely. Since Sean had a presentation shortly after we arrived we followed him to his class so he could point out a few things on the short eight minute walk. Our first stop was to get the famous kabab he spoke so highly of. The vendor was located directly across from his class, so I can understand where the love comes from. Theykebab itself was delicious. I asked for the spicy sauce and should have warned Kyle because his mouth was on fire by the end of it. After our kebab we headed to Zara for a little shopping. I did not get anything, but Kyle got his very European jacket that he could not seem to remove the rest of the trip.  After our shopping we went inside St. Stephens Cathedral (below right). Although half of it was under restoration due to pollution’s effect on the stone, it was beautiful. The multiply colored roof shingles and gothic style architecture were simply spectacular. We wandered around inside for a bit and took a moment to pray. A thanksgiving prayer was much needed after the travels we embarked on. After St. Stephens we explored more of the city. Not far from St. Stephens was St. Peters Basilica (below left and right). This Although it didn’t look like much more than an old copper dome from the outside, the inside was designed in the Baroque style. This being one of my favorite styles of architecture I was sucked in. The colors, detail and gold were beautiful. From there we explored more of the town and I read along to our city guide so we knew what we were looking at. If I didn’t have the book we may have been some stupid Americans taking in Vienna. After a while Kyle decided to take us off the beaten path a little. This is where I stopped in a cute bakery and had myself two Macaroons, one raspberry and one hazelnut. They were absolutely delicious and if I am being honest this was the first Macaroon I ever I had, so I would say this was a good first tasting.

 

               

 

 

 

         We escaped the tourist and shopping area and headed to Belvedere Palace. Unfortunately this is not where they make the vodka. On our way we passed by the magnificent Vienna Opera House and Karlskirche (left).We were constantly amazed by the architecture and the city itself. When we arrived at the Belvedere Palace we gazed over the large garden (below left) and decided to get tickets to the art museum inside. When we entered the Palace it was completely white and ornately detailed. It was said Prince Eugene loved to throw parties in the palace since he was too ugly to ever marry.  I imagined myself at one of his parties though and wished for a second we still lived that lifestyle. We spent some time at the museum before we headed back to Sean’s place.

             

 

 

 

 

 

   When we arrived back at Sean’s apartment we got ready for the evening.  Our first stop was for wine and cheese at a recommendation by Rick Steve’s himself. The staff was very friendly and the Venetian wine was delicious.  Sean wasn’t the biggest fan of all the cheese, mostly because it wasn’t cheddar. From there we headed to Sean’s favorite bars. The bar was closed so we went across the street to grab a Guinness. Once Dick Mack's was open we headed there and enjoyed a couple 2 euro Guinness. It is true what they say, it does taste much better in Europe. After a while there we headed back to Sean’s place, but not without stopping for a Kaiserkriener. What the hell is that you ask? Well it’s Vienna’s gift to Europe. They take a baguette and stuff a sausage in it with ketchup and mustard. I loved this, for the first night anyway.

 

Brews in Brugge

 

                Our second day in Belgium we took a day trip to the town of Brugge (also known as Bruges).  The town was about an hour away from Brussels and was much smaller. Now we debated the idea of getting tickets since no one ever checks one. We were running late for the train and in a hurry. Everyone got there tickets, or so we thought. We found our spots on the train and took a little nap. I awoke by Connor tapping me and saying we need to move. When I got to my sense I also noticed the attendant next to me asking for my ticket. It turns out we were sitting in first class (first wrong) and I did not have a ticket, I only had a receipt from some other ticket (second wrong). He let me off the hook and still made us move.

                Upon arrival into Brugge we walked into the main town from the train station. We entered off of an old hospital which they have made into a museum. Then we made our way through the main city road. The town was very quaint and beautiful. It was a breath of fresh air compared to Brussels. There was chocolate, beer and waffles everywhere- our kind of place. We stopped in somewhere fast to grab lunch. Kyle and I ordered our food and went back to the table. Later Connor and Sean brought back their dishes. Sean noted they must have gotten his order wrong because he ordered lasagna instead of spaghetti. Shortly after they heard their number called, I guess you could say again since they “heard” their number before. Sure enough when Sean brought back the food it was the correct order. Connor had been eating a Salmon sandwich when he ordered a Italian meat sandwich and Sean dug into his spaghetti. After a lot of back and forth about what to do with the food a final decision was made: to set it at the table next to us and pretend nothing happened. I hope you all see the flaws with this decision as I did. Sure enough, the waitress came back and saw it. She gave a deep, frustrated stare at Sean and said “This is not your food!” Sean tried to apologize, but his blue eyes did not soften her any. We finished eating and got out of there as quickly as possible.

 

 

                We made our way through the town and found ourselves winding through many tiny cobble stone streets with cute shops and restaurants lined along them. We stopped in ‘T Brugsch Bieratelier, which drew us in by their sign outside reading “Smile you’re on holiday and the sun is shining!” The place was small with a lot of wood and had a nice cabin like feel to it. We decided to all split several tastings. We ended up getting a sample of each of their beers and enjoyed everyone. After the bar we made our way to Halve Maan (Half Moon) brewery to schedule a brewery tour. We had some time to kill before the next one, so we decided to explore a little more. We found ourselves a beer wall with many famous and true quotes about beer, a lookout over the canals and a wonderful town square called The Market. The buildings framing the square were all very colorful with a large palace at the end of it. We went and enjoyed some beers at the Duvel bar where we enjoyed the balcony looking over the square.

               

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made our way back to the Halve Maan and thought we better grab a beer for the tour at their restaurant/ bar next door. When we met the rest of the group for the tour they informed us we could not take beers on the tour. As a natural reaction Connor and Sean looked at each other as said “Well, we better chug!” All three of the Halve Maan employees standing there shouted “No! No! This is not a beer you chug, the alcohol content is too high.” Sean became a little defensive by the fact that someone was telling him how to drink his beer. None-the-less, we finished our beers before the tour and our tour guide poked fun at Sean the entire time. The brewery was very old and unlike any I have seen in the states. Our tour consisted of climbing up and down ladders and watching our heads. I quickly understood why they do not allow beers on the tour. At one point on the tour we went up to the roof and were able to look out over the entire town of Brugge. At the end of the tour they rewarded us with their famous Brugse Zot. As a souvenir we purchased four large bottles to enjoy on the way home and throughout the rest of the evening.

                Sean and Connor grabbed one waffle for the way back to the train station and we headed back to Brussels. Of course, we sat in first class and dozed off until they told us to move. Upon arrival in Brussels we went straight out to dinner and to the bars. I did not want to waste any time heading back to the apartment. We enjoyed a meal at a place near the Grand Place including mussels of course. We decided to have some wine as a change of pace from the beer.  Nearby the restaurant we found a bar that had been recommended to us called Au Bon Vieux Temps, so we stopped there for a beer. After dinner we headed out to see the famous Manneken Pis (little boy peeing). He was a small statue on the corner of a building and we were all surprised by how small he was. While we were there we stopped at a bar across from the peeing boy called Poechenellekelder (puppet cellar). They had many puppets hanging around, which was sort of creepy. The atmosphere was nice though and there were a lot of people around. Next we made our way to Delirium Café once again. This time we stopped at a bar across the street to change things up a bit. Here we met a very large man and struck up a conversation with him. We thought it may be a good idea to strike up a political conversation with this fellow, and it turns out he does NOT like Americans. While the guys were debating and I was listening we met a confidant named Robert. He was a conservative from London who helped us in the debate/battle against this big man. After the man had left we bought Robert a beer and headed back to the Delirium café. Sean met some fellas celebrating a birthday and we all enjoyed the endless amount of Delirium, maybe a little too much.

                The next day Connor headed back to London and Sean, Kyle and I did not wake up until around 2:00. We finally caught up on some much needed sleep. We decided to take it easy and headed to the Atomium, which is a large Atom like structure built for the 1958 Worlds Fair. We first went to the fun park in the area to get something to eat. We also saw a glimpse of the Mini Europe park from our Restaurant, unfortunately it was closed. Then we headed back to the Atomium structure. The structure was designed by Architect Andre Waterkeyn. It stands 335 feet tall and has nine 59 foot diameter stainless steel clad spheres connect to for a unit cell of an iron crystal. It shows the crystal magnified 165 billion times. Unfortunately we missed the ride up to the top of the Atomium, but we walked around the area, enjoyed a waffle. We were able to see it as dusk where it was lit up, it was simply spectacular. On our way back we walked through the Brussels park and stopped and wandered at the amazing structure and fountain. We walked through some new neighborhoods on our way back to the apartment.

            

 

  Once we arrived at our apartment we got some pizza for dinner. We had an early flight to Vienna the next day so we needed to get to bed early. We started planning out how we were going to get to the airport for our 7:00 AM flight and began to get a little worried. The airport was an hour away and we had to get to a train station which was not walkable from our apartment. We could not book a taxi because you had to 24 hours in advance and none of the trains went to that station that early. We concluded we would need to wake up very early and walk to the train station and hope to find a cab on the way. Luckily, we caught a cab not even half a mile into our walk. We got there and there was a taxi service who offered to take us instead of the bus system. I admit, I was a bit skeptical of the taxi service, but we arrived in record time. The travel was smooth and we made it back to Vienna in time to get to his presentation Monday afternoon.

Duvel Beer, notice the bubbles in the D-shape

 Looking out over the Market Square Seanyboy and I in Brugge on the Canals

 Our tasting bar!  Looking out over Brugge from De Halve Maan

  Travelling with this fine fella

 The guys for the weekend

  Connor and his beer at Au Bon Vieux Temps

 At the Atomium

  Sean and I outside of the Atomium

The Adventure Begins

Ever since studying abroad I could not wait to get back to Europe and travel- to see more, to explore more, to grow more and to discover more. When my brother decided to study abroad in Vienna, I knew I had to take advantage of him being over there and visit. There was also another bonus to this trip. This time I would be traveling with my boyfriend Kyle. We were both excited to take the adventure together. I was a little worried that only one of us would survive the trip. However, we came back together and better than ever. Mostly thanks to his calmness and patience.

We left on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Brussels International Airport early Friday morning. I had arranged an early check-in to our Airbnb apartment, “Le Petit Manhattan”. We looked up what train stop to get on and Kyle had a very horrible map with a black dot of where the apartment was. Although I had the address on my phone we thought we could use our map without using our data. Every person we asked, even the police officers, pointed us in a vague direction which ended up getting us even more lost. To add to the heaviness of our (my) baggage and lack of knowledge it was pouring down rain. When my feet started to hurt and I felt like a drowned rat and after we left our second convenient store with no answers we decided to use a taxi. The taxi drove us about 5 blocks to the apartment; we knew were close all along!

When we arrived we took in the views and decided a shower was in order. The shower in this apartment was equipped with colorful changing lights, music and water coming from every direction. The apartment itself looked over the city of Brussels and was very nice. When Connor arrived we thought it best to go explore some of the city before Sean was due in. He had some suggestions from a friend as to where to go, so we headed out for our first Belgium brew. We arrived at a cute little restaurant and enjoyed our first beer in Belgium! We bounced around a cute little neighborhood after that, stopping in bars that looked appealing and enjoyed a beer, some cheese and frites. Then, we made our way back to the apartment to meet Sean. Sean also got lost on his way to the apartment.  He found us all by luck: when we got back to the apartment Sean called Connor (luckily because both had wifi). When I thought he may be getting close I went downstairs to keep an eye out for him, two minutes later I saw him. We got settled in then decided to see some more of Brussels.

We went to the famous Grand Place, which is a beautiful square tucked in the city. It was beautiful all lit up at night. We decided to eat at a place nearby and on our way to the Delirium Café. Here we had our first mussels in Brussels. After, we made our way to the famous Delirium Café. I think all of the boys had a little glimpse of heaven at this bar. The café took up an entire block essentially and had people flooding out into the street. There were many different rooms throughout the bar and the beer menu was a magazine with over 3,000 beers. Being that Delirium Tremens is Kyle’s favorite beer, we indulged in these first enjoying the fact they were much cheaper as well. It was fun to try all of the other beers by Delirium as well. On our way back to the apartment we picked up a couple more beers for the way home. The first day in Belgium was a success.

Cheers!

The Grand Place At  Night

How the Evening Ended