FINALLY! I hear all the intermittent readers out there heave a huge sigh of relief at not having to see “Oops” at the top of the page anymore. Well, guess what? It’s a relief for me too. I’ve been wanting to update for the longest time… and I know it’s slow going… I haven’t exactly been diligent, and I apologise for that. So here goes.
We spent a week in Vienna, Saturday 9th to Saturday 16th. I know it’s been 2 weeks since we got back… but these things take time yes? 
Glad you understand. There will be lots of photos, most of them not very good… but pictures are pictures… I just want to share with you all my experience in Vienna Austria, and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.
click on the pictures for larger view if you wish
Day 1
We arrived pretty early in the morning, and as we weren’t able to get checked in to our apartment, we stowed our luggage away in a locker at the train station before heading off to a market in town called the Naschmarkt. Naschmarkt is bustling and lively and there were heaps of interesting things to see, though mostly food. Many farmers and grocers selling their produce, others selling antipasti, dozens of varieties of stuffed and pickled olives, candies, fish, cheese, meats and so on.
funny guy decided to pose for me
After the market, we thought we’d stop by and explore the old city center and find the tourist info center. From there we wandered off to see the opera house, we were looking for a ticket office as we’d booked some seats for a ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet and were hoping to be able to pick up the tickets early, but we couldn’t find it. We were however stopped by a man peddling tickets (it’s his job) for a concert at Schönbrunn Palace’s Orangerie. We refused at first but eventually bought a couple of tickets anyway, the concert would be at 8pm and it was already about 3pm. We headed back to the train station to collect our bags and to check in to our apartment. There we unpacked our things, showered and rested for a while before going to check out Schönbrunn and maybe have some dinner before the concert.
Schönbrunn train station
At Schönbrunn we tried to check out the palace and gardens, but tuned out the ticket office was already closed and we had to make do with a couple of pamphlets and a small map of the property. It is absolutely massive! We figured we could take a nice walk then have a nice leisurely dinner at the restaurant there before heading to the concert. Things don’t always turn out how you plan though. The place was much bigger than we’d anticipated and we didn’t get round to seeing much at all.
When it came time to have dinner, we thought a couple of hours would be sufficient and since there weren’t many people at the time we arrived, perhaps 3 other tables occupied, we were pretty confident. Turned out though that we would be left waiting for over an hour for our meal to arrive and only half an hour to eat it all while not rushing… needless to say we had no time for dessert. The food though was wonderful, and I don’t think I will be forgetting it in a hurry.
delicious desserts, which I didn’t get to taste… I wanted the middle one, I didn’t even learn its name 
The most delicious filet steak, almost 2 inches thick, wrapped in bacon, cooked to perfection and drowned in cognac and cream sauce! Oh and of course veggies and potato croquettes on the side
Kwang had a stuffed schnitzel with boiled potatoes and a salad… looked suspiciously like a Cordon Bleu to me… It too was delicious nevertheless
After dinner we made our way to the Orangerie where the concert would be held… Concert being classical music by composers Strauss and Mozart. Lovely stuff, though photos were prohibited inside the building so there is unfortunately nothing to share of that experience, though you have my word, it was thoroughly enjoyable. The memory itself would have been much better if I hadn’t dropped and broken my camera that night… of course it was a specific kind of broken so I didn’t realise until the next day. After the concert we headed back home for the night.
The opera toilet… it plays opera and classical music while you do your business… I did not pay to go in there… but if you’re ever in Vienna and want to see it, it’s at the Opernhaus entrance of the train station at Karlsplatz.
Day 2
Sunday and practically everything is closed with the exception of museums and other relevant tourist attractions. We had slept in quite late and went out for brunch, which turned out to be the most awesome sausage in the world… called a Käsekrainer… it’s a regular bratwurst served with ketchup, mustard and bread, but they slice it up into bite sized bits for you and inside the wurst you find generous chunks of melted cheese! This is not your regular supermarket variety cheesy sausage… no siree, it was heaven in your mouth, and sooooo very satisfying!! I was beginning to really like the food in Vienna, what with all the little tidbits we sampled at the Naschmarkt, and then dinner at Schönbrunn, this wurst was another star in my book of good food in Vienna.
the delicious Käsekrainer… behind it is my wurst, it was good too, spicy mmm 
After our hunger was satiated by cheesy wurst, we figured we’d spend the day at the zoo. I took plenty of photos and if it were up to me, there would be a dedicated post for the zoo itself. Vienna’s zoo is at Schönbrunn and is wonderful… almost as grand as the palace without being posh of course. Bt it’s not up to me whether or not I get to write a dedicated Zoo post with hundreds of photos… no… it’s up to my camera. Now just before heading to the zoo, I noticed that the camera was broken. Not physically broken mind you, the camera has travelled all over Europe and been dropped many times so physically it’s pretty battered anyway. What happened was with the last drop at the Orangerie the night before, I was still able to take photos but something went wonky with the digital sensors and I could no longer use the zoom function. I can only take photos at a distance, and to “zoom” I would have to physically walk closer to whatever it is. if I forgot and did use the zoom, all I ended up with was a white “picture”… not that there was no photo being taken, it was grossly overexposed, I could lower it and get a vaguely grey image, but what’s the use of that? Of the photos we took at the zoo, about a quarter were white… that is we forgot that we couldn’t use the zoom… old habits die hard! Of the photos that weren’t ruined, about half were too far away and I can barely identify what’s in it myself, let alone explain to you that that brown speck in the left of the photo is a tiger and so on etc.
Sucks. Cos I did really enjoy the zoo, we fully spent about 5 hours there, leisurely weaving our way through the exhibits, enjoying the sun, the hustle and bustle of the zoo in the weekend. Of course we enjoyed the animals there. Plenty of resting shady spots, plenty of food, we were never wanting. always something to nibble, to drink, ice cream an cafes.
(right) at the hippo house. (left) Langos, a deep fried bread/pancake sprinkled with yummilicious garlic salt.
This cute sunbathing otter was playing with that pebble, but I was too late to take a video. he dropped it shortly after this photo
I did not feed the animals… I swear! (honest, that’s not my hand)
How many times have I told you, don’t pick on elephants!!!
cow fish… MoOOoooOo~~
The zoo was super duper enjoyable, and after that we went back to town, and had some unspectacular Chinese fast food for dinner at a restaurant chain called Mr Lee’s Quicklee or something along those lines. And that was the end of our 2nd day in Vienna *happy*
Day 3
Monday started a little earlier than Sunday. Monday though is the day most of the museums around are closed. But that didn’t matter cos we started our day at Hundertwasser Haus, designed by the now pretty much famous Hundertwasser architects, who have designed fountains and numerous other buildings including even a church! Hundertwasser Haus and Hundertwasser Village (name of a small shopping arcade) itself is difficult to describe the place, it’s incredible… uneven, brightly coloured, mosaicked and looks oddly pieced together from many mismatched pieces… trees growing out from windows and vines on the walls outside. The floor inside is uneven, wavy and fun.
on the way to Hundertwasser Haus,we got a little lost and sidetracked, and I managed to get a pic of this “catfish” under a bridge I thought it was cute
(right) Hundertwasser Haus seen from outside. (left) entrance to Hundertwasser Village
Hundertwasser has a themed toilet too. Made me wonder how many of these toilets are around and about in Vienna or Austria?
a nice cafe bar in the center of the shopping arcade… can’t see it in this pic, nut the pillars have water running down them and the side of the bar itself has little water features too.
After Hundertwasser, we went back into town, and first order of business was getting a new camera. That we did. Not the best, and not exactly everything we wanted but a nice compact camera, decent, and although we had intended to steer clear of another Canon, that’s exactly what we did not achieve. It seemed pretty cool initially and a reasonable buy but later on we discover at it gets pretty lousy (very grainy/noisy?) pics with high ISO… but I’m no pro, so not too much to complain about otherwise.
outside the Albertina
We intended to visit the Kunsthistorisch Museum (museum of art history) but found out quickly it was closed and we’d also stumbled into film set. No wonder it looked so grand… horse carriages and red carpet etc. We then turned right around and headed for the identical building directly opposite, the Naturhistorisch Museum (museum of natural history, obviously) and did not regret it
classic
goddess of fertility
one of the lamer things we (read: HE) did on this trip…
god of fertility (this one is for men)
grand staircase
At the cafe in the museum of natural history, we had these most awesome “hot chocolates” which is probably more rightly called custard, cos it’s thick and you can’t really drink it, still super duper awesome!
After leaving the museum of natural history at about closing time, we wandered the streets a little bit only to be ambushed by some rain. So we thought it was a good time to look for shelter in the form of dinner. found a nice cosy little cellar restaurant with dodgy signboards advertising Viennese specialties… and we gave it a go. Pretty good meal I must say. I had a set menu of boiled (stewed) beef in a pot with roasted potatoes and beef broth with vegetables (also in the pot) and sliced pancakes, and apple strudel for desert. YUM. Kwang had a veal wiener schnitzel (true Viennese specialty), and sauerkraut, which is actually pretty good, considering all the bad rap going around about eating warm pickled cabbage…
And here ends my first Vienna update. More coming soon……… I hope.
In any case, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the works on display there, so no loss for you and a few Euros for me. After the disappointment at Albertina, we had a little sushi buffet lunch and headed over to the Kunsthistorishes Museum (Art History Museum), which was closed for filming the last time we tried to go there. Now this place was a whole lot nicer than the Albertina in my honest opinion. Spent the entire afternoon there.
