Vienna!: Die Eltern sind in Wien! (Teil eins)

Hallo!

Mom and Dad have been here for a couple of days and it has been crazy! We have been so busy. On Thursday afternoon, I met them at their hotel and we went to Kärtnerstrasse (the main shopping street) and ate dinner. Dad got pork schnitzel and he loved it! After dinner, we went to my favorite bakery (Anker) and got croissants and a krone...yummy!

Mom and I on their first night in Wien!

Mom and Dad's first encounter with Anker

Then on Friday morning we got up, had coffee and pastries, and headed to the train station to leave for Prague. The trains were a little confusing, but we figured out which platform was ours, got some delicious sandwiches and another croissant, and got on the train! We were a little surprised when the conductor came to stamp our tickets and told us "This train does not go to Prague. This train go to Poland." We were slightly shocked, but thankfully the conductor was really nice and told us how to get to Prague from where we were!! We got to see almost all of the Czech Republic and we even made some new Czech friends on the train, but we eventually made it to Prague on Friday night. That night we checked into our hotel (which was beautiful...a welcome change from my hostels!) and walked around Wenceslas Square. We saw a beautiful gothic church all lit up and the Astronomical Clock. Everything was so beautiful at night and the streets were empty...it was amazing! We walked to this incredible restaurant where Mom and Dad both got gulash and I got an enormous chicken schnitzel. We also had this bread with some sort of butter that was amazing. The restaurant was so pretty and old, strange American music was playing (as usual in the European restaurants I've experienced!) and we had so much fun.

Their first Viennese breakfast

so lost in the Czech Republic!

by the Astronomical Clock

On Saturday, we got up and had coffee and pastries and then went exploring around the city. We walked to the Charles Bridge and spent awhile just looking at all of the vendors and musicians. The bridge has an incredible view of the whole city and the Prague Castle. After a couple of hours, we went to eat lunch at Cafe Savoy, which was a beautiful place pretty close to the river. I had the most delicious goat cheese on toast, Dad got an amazing omelette, and Mom got split pea soup that she loved. I think that meal was probably my favorite meal of the weekend...it was so delicious and the building was so pretty! After lunch, we walked over to the John Lennon wall, which is a wall that people graffiti'd when John Lennon was killed. Ever since then, people spray paint and write whatever they want on it. I wrote a note to Leah and Sarah :) After the John Lennon wall, we took the scenic route back to our hotel and saw the Charles Bridge from a different view. After we got back to the hotel, we put on nice clothes and headed over to the Prague Opera House! We saw La Boheme, and it was absolutely incredible. We were in the eighth row and we could see perfectly. The opera house was an amazing building, and even the food at intermission was good!! After the opera, we stopped at this strange pizza place and had some pizza and then headed back to the hotel to rest up for Sunday.

Dad loved the sausage stands!

the view from the Charles Bridge

Cafe Savoy

Dad liked the beer, too!

the John Lennon wall

signing the wall for Leah and Sarah :)

the Prague Opera House...beautiful!

the three of us on the bridge

On Sunday, we had more coffee and pastries and headed into the Jewish Quarter. We saw the Old-New Synagogue, the Spanish synagogue, the Jewish cemetery, and a couple other synagogues that had exhibits inside of them. The cemetery was incredible...it was a very small plot of land that all of the Jews of Prague had to bury their dead in until the end of WWII. There were thousands of headstones all piled on top of each other. It was quite the site. After the Jewish Quarter, we had lunch at a restaurant right by Charles Bridge. (Another delicious meal, of course.) Then we went back to watch the strike of the hour on the Astronomical Clock (a guard played a fanfare and a cuckoo bird came out!) and then we went shopping until it was time to catch the train back to Prague. After the 5-hour train ride back, we ate dinner at a kebap and falafel place right by my apartment. It was so delicious! Then Mom and Dad went back to their hotel and I went out with my friends for Halloween. We went to a club where one of the leaders of my program was performing in a German rap group. It was quite the experience!! It was definitely a good HalloWien! :)

the Jewish cemetery had thousands of headstones in a very small space

one of the old synagogues in the Jewish Quarter

Dvorak was from the Czech Republic!

the Astronomical Clock

a Czech Harry Potter poster!

Monday was another full day! We got up and got some breakfast and went over to Schönbrunn Palace. We took a tour of the inside of the palace, which was built as a hunting home and then became the palace of Maria Theresia. Then we hiked up the the Gloriette, which was a beautiful structure that was built to be seen from the windows of the palace so that Maria Theresia had something beautiful to look at. Sounds like she was quite the diva! After we walked around the gardens of the palace, we went to a restaurant that was originally a cellar under the Albertina Museum, which is one of the most famous museums in Vienna. We had a traditional Viennese appetizer of ham, cheese, Liptauer (the yummy cheese stuff that I've talked about before), sweet pickles, and horseradish. Dad got Austrian beer that he liked and the food was delicous! I think I have yet to have a bad meal in Vienna! On the way home, we decided to stop by the Opera House just in CASE we could get standing tickets for whatever was showing. Lucky for us, we got incredible seats on the floor level of the concert hall! We saw a ballet called "Jewels of the New World" that had 4 short segments: one by Stravinsky, one by Schubert, one by Haydn, and one by Tchaikovsky. The performance was so beautiful and amazing!!!!!! I had never seen a ballet before, so it was really something else. After a very long day, I went home and Mom and Dad went back to their hotel so they could get up early and head to Budapest on Tuesday. I've got to do a little work now, but I will write about the rest of the vacation later! Until next time! Auf Wiedersehen :)