Four days in Vienna was the perfect way to end an unforgettable summer of traveling. Much of this, I attribute to having the most excellent of tour guides. I haven't seen Ozan since I re-visited Ankara early in 2006. In the past almost-two years, he's been working in Vienna, and so he knows his way around the city. He is also one of those fantastic friends that always wants to make sure you are having a good time and are well-fed, and can provide excellent conversation and a sharp sense of humor to go along with any experience. And, of course, he is easily able to satisfy my yen for all things Turkish by supplying or being able to find the food, raki, music, tea and language I crave. In fact, Ozan and I are considering planning to avenge the 1683 Ottoman defeat and reconquer Vienna--as great as this place is, it would be even better under the Turks :)
After arriving at Sudbahnhof and dragging our bags (for the last time!) to Ozan's apartment, he made us feel right at home by fixing up some Turkish coffee and reading our fortunes in the coffee grounds--there is, I do believe the grounds said, more wandering in my future. Ozan thought it was Japan, I argued that it kind of looked like Mozambique. When we finally mustered the effort to get out of the house, we were not disappointed. Dinner was my first taste of authentic Wiener Schnitzel and the best beer I've had on this trip at the Seven Stars Brewery. We then wandered our way around town, stopping by the greenhouse at the Hofburg Palace, which has been converted into a restaurant. There was a private party going on in part of the greenhouse that was an actual ball--people were waltzing in ballgowns and tuxes--who knew that still happened? We tried to take pictures through the windows, but were thwarted by the guard. Consolation: glass of wine at the restaurant.
After a night stroll down the fancy shopping street near St. Stephan's Cathedral, we ended the evening the best way anyone can: ice cream! Tichy is the best Italian-style eis that Vienna has to offer, and it is, quite luckily, right on the way back to Ozan's house, at the Reumannplatz square. One literally was not enough. They had Aschanti (peanut) flavor, which was sooooo good when combined with the hazelnut or chocolate and raspberry. Ozan had two, Jaime and I split our second one. The sad part is, this is not available year-round, so next time I return to Vienna, it better not be winter. Otherwise I will cry at not being able to get this ice cream.
On Friday, Jaime and I were able to sleep in for the first time in awhile. When we finally rolled out of the house at 11:30, we decided that we had enjoyed our culinary excursions so much on this trip, why not continue? We figured out how to get to the center of town by asking directions (we hadn't been paying very close attention the night before), and after only one small subway mishap, we used our handy dandy map to navigate from Karlsplatz to the Naschmarkt. And how was the cuisine? Scrumptious! This is vacation, and Jaime and I are definitely using the money we've saved on lodging to try it all! Pickles from a barrel...then lunch at a little market cafe (scallops and potato pureed with wasabi, mango lassi on the side)...then some falafel and dried fruit samples from some stalls...then a purchase of blackberries to eat with our Turkish dessert...and a pomegranate for later. Maybe I should turn this into a foodie travel blog.
Ozan should have joined us earlier after getting off work, because the shopping street with 70% off sales was too much to resist. For Jaime, who was coming from a small German town with limited shopping, and me, who hadn't seen shopping this easy since New York last spring, we easily succumbed. It was just one sweater though! And fall is coming! We also found a cute outdoor market where we enjoyed some bio (organic) milk that was being handed out for free all weekend to promote living organic. Free milk is a strange thing to be handing out, but for someone coming from Africa, I loved it!
When we met up with Ozan and his friend Cem, we took a quick look inside Stephensdom. The cathedrals all start to look the same, but the unique thing on this one was the statue of a proud Vienna priest standing on a vanquished Ottoman on one outside corner--of course the Turks knew where this was. After re-energizing over Vienna's version of a cappuccino (melange) and apfelstrudel, we did the requisite wander inside the ring road, impressed by the grandeur of all the Hapsburg imperial buildings. Outside the balcony where Hitler gave one of his famous speeches, there was a large farmer's market being set up for the next day. It was strange to think of the historical events that had taken place here and royal grandeur in the midst of eggplants, carrots, and tractors, but did make for some interesting photo opportunities.
After dinner near the Rathaus, it was time for another cultural experience: the opera! I'm not an opera aficionado, but the opera of the evening was "The Magic Flute," and it's hard to pass up the chance to see a Mozart classic in Wolfgang Amadeus' home country, especially when it's only 3 Euros for standing tickets. While the wealthier Viennese like to look nice, they also know the riff-raff and second class citizens also enjoy the fine arts, so the opera has implemented an excellent system for young people like us who want to see the opera, but don't want to pay a lot. We arrived an hour before show time, waited in the standing room line, and secured spots on the balcony for the three hour show. Yes, three hours is a long time to stand, but the intermission does provide a chance to rest your legs, and the opera was so excellent, we didn't really mind. Who knew Mozart had a sense of humor? He was also somewhat racist and sexist (ok, it might have been typical for the time), but all the funny animal costumes and superb arias made up for it. I've decided opera is much better than ballet (you actually understand what's going on), translated subtitles are funny, and fantastical operas are especially fun as they remind you of being a kid again.
Post-opera, we grabbed a couple beers at an Irish-style pub (only mine was made with Oregon hops...yum!), then went back to the apartment for an abridged raki night--when you want to get an early start in the morning, one raki is plenty.
Saturday morning was a slightly overcast, which meant that after an amazing Turkish breakfast of menemen, it was the perfect time to go to a museum! I had to do one in ten days in Europe, and the Albertina was the perfect choice--I love impressionism! The exhibit featured all the usual suspects (Monet, Manet, Cassat, Renoir, Gaugin, etc.), and also really excellent explanations of how the movement originated and progressed, and was made possible by the invention of portable paint tubes that allowed open-air painting. The museum also had an enjoyable modern art collection, palace rooms to explore, and some awesome photography, including a "one-minute sculpture" series of people doing weird things in normal environments. We were so inspired, that while wandering by some giant manicured bushes in the Museum Quartier, we decided to try it ourselves. Then we got silly. Check it out:
Following a mid-day melange and cakes at Aida cafe, we made our way to Bourgestrasse to check out a gallery owned by the son of my friend, Bonnie, who I'd served in Peace Corps with. The Galerie Inoperable had just opened an exhibit on bicycle-inspired art, which consequently re-inspired us to do what we had been planning and trying to do since we arrived in Vienna: rent bikes! But first, in what seemed to be emerging as a pattern, we got distracted by Turkish food. Our justification for stopping by Etap restaurant was that we needed fuel for the bike ride, and we got plenty of it! Mercimek corbasi (lentil soup) probably would have been enough, but when is just mercimek ever enough? We each ordered an entree--I gobbled up the manti (ravioli) drenched in yogurt sauce, and Jaime and Ozan polished off their respective saslik and Adana kebabs. Oh, and we got complementary salad, and couldn't turn down the tea--we needed the digestive aid if we were wanted to be able to pedal at all.
Bike rental in Vienna is not as easy as it should be--to get a city bike, you have to register at the kiosk with a user name and password, swipe your card, enter your address, and promise your firstborn child to City Bike Wien. It took us at least 20 minutes to rent the bikes, but once we had them, we loved them! We rode down to the Hauptallee--a long, tree-lined lane through a park. We were afforded views of the giant ferris wheel in the Prater fair and horse-drawn carriages, rode along a canal, saw people playing softball (in Europe?) and walking or running with their dogs (there is no place like Europe to make you feel like you need a dog to complete your life), and even caught a glimpse of the Danube before riding back into town along the canal. We sat down to have one beer at a funky streetside bar, but good conversation turned it into three or four. We then decided we hadn't had enough Turkish food for the day if we hadn't had dessert. We had to return to Etap! The waiters welcomed us back with a friendly hos geldiniz, and brought us happiness in the form of kazandibi and kunefe. We were completely stuffed, and so decided to forgo the Tichy ice cream until our final night.
The last day of vacation is always bittersweet, but we tried to make the most of it. First stop (after a quick cafe breakfast, of course) was the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of those darn Hapsburgs. The palace used to be outside the city, but after several hundred years has been absorbed into the outskirts. You can wander around the well-manicured gardens for free, all the way up to the Gloriette on the top of the hill overlooking the palace and grounds. We also paid to go into the labyrinth and mazes on one end of the garden, and found these to be far superior to the Hanover maze from a few days earlier. You really could get lost in dead ends, and around certain corners, there were games to play, or water that squirted you as you were crossing little bridges. I felt like I was in Alice and Wonderland. We enjoyed apfel gespritzers on the garden terrace, and chased squirrels back down the hillside past some schon brunn (nice fountains), then we started the trek out to Weingut am Reisenberg, a winery affording panorama views of all of Vienna from its perch on a hillside west of the city. Ozan's girlfriend, Lydia, joined us for several glasses of Riesling and appetizers as we watched the sun sink lower over the skyline. While the ferris wheel, churches and palace are all very nice to look at, the most interesting sight to me was the municipal waste facility that featured a giant tower that was so glittery and colorful, it looked like it belonged in Las Vegas. Is this an incinerator? What is it for? I wish I knew.
We ended our final night in Vienna in a similar fashion as the first night we had arrived. The Seven Stars supplied us with a few pints and some grub before we stopped off at Reumannplatz for more Tichy sublimity. Again, Jaime and I had one and a half--this time we tried the speziale (hazelnut covered ice cream with fruity filling), in addition to our old aschanti standby. Raki provided the perfect end to a perfect summer, as we viewed the pictures from our holiday, reminisced, and shared alternately melancholy and happy stories in true Turkish tradition.
Now it's back to responsibility and (semi-) reality in the Princeton bubble. I'm sure a little culture shock awaits, but hopefully a few adventures as well. I will sporadically continue this blog while in school, and should be traveling to Vietnam at the end of October, so stay tuned for more travel tales.
P.S. Check back after this weekend for updated pictures--and by then, I should have finished typing up my stories from Cape Town and Mozambique from August. Stay happy and travel...J
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