Final Days in Vienna

Over the course of the last few days I have been trying to see everything in the city one more time before I leave.  While it may be hard to do, I was able to go do a few fun things and experience a few new things. Anticipation is building up, but let me tell you what I've been doing these past few days.

On Monday we went on our last group excursion to the Hundretwasser House here in Vienna. This is a large expressionist art inspired apartment house. It has quite a quirky design with no straight lines visible on the structure. When observing it you feel like you've been put into a story book where everything seems to be a fantasy. It is nothing like any of the other buildings in Vienna. Even on the ground, the ground was not flat, rather, artificial small hills and dips were created to make it not have any straight lines.

After we went and saw the Hunretwasser House we went and saw an art exhibit based off the expressionist artist Friedenreich Hundertwasser. Many of his paintings had a common theme of bright colors, organic forms, humans in nature, strong individualism, and the rejection of straight lines. I wasn't able to take pictures within the exhibit but you should definitely look him up if you are into expressionist art.

Once we finished up with the art gallery we had our final group dinner at Martins Biergartdle. Most of us order their famous house beer along with Cordon Blue and french fries (One of Austria's most famous dishes). We definitely had a traditional Austrain dinner that night, we stayed from 6:45pm to almost midnight. Traditional Austrian dinners can/usually last 3-6 hours and we were able to experience it on our final group dinner.

On Tuesday I decided to go to Schonbrunn palace and go to the Christmas Markets there to finish up my Christmas shopping for my family. This market is situated right outside the palace. From what I've seen, this Christmas market has the most food choices in Vienna. Before I started shopping I went around to a variety of different stands to get traditional Austrian food. The first stand I went to I bought a special seasoned chicken with vegetables topped with freshly cooked potatoes(Called Bandle-Pfandel.. something like that..). Apparently it was from the Danube Valley but the taste was great! It was quite different than the traditional fried Austrian food! Alongside my lunch I bought their famous Christmas Punch. This Punch was raisin and ginger flavored. Also, each bit of punch has a small additive of rum or some other type of alcohol. (Of course they must, I am are in Austria!)

The next food stand I went to had special waffles I needed to try! I bought a waffle with sugar and strawberry jam spread on top of it. It was quite delicious! I really enjoyed it. Once I finished the waffle I did a little bit of Christmas shopping for my family and then decided to walk through the gardens of the palace to the highest point to oversee the city one last time. During my time on top of the overlook I thought about how fast my entire semester went this fall. Also, I thought about the all the places I went throughout the semester. It was a time of reflection.

For dinner that night I went to my favorite Japanese Restaurant in the city. I know the owner very well since I went there around 10 times during the semester. He treated me and my guests to a great dinner. If anyone goes to Vienna I suggest going to the Japanese restaurant called "Yume". Best Asian food and service in Vienna!

Today I went around the city one last time. I began in the center of the city and saw Stephanzplatz one last time and walked around the Ring Strass (ring around the main city) and saw the main monuments. I saw the Parliament, Winter Palace, Karleschurche, Volkstheater, and Rathaus. I will definitely miss the architecture of the city. No where in the US can compare architecturally.

For lunch I went to one of my favorite restaurants called "Centimeter". They serve large portions here in Vienna! I decided to get the staple Viennese dish of Schnitzel (fried veal) with french fries. It was really good, I'm glad I was able to get something Viennese for one of my last meals. I definitely will be ready to detox my diet when I get back home.

Tonight we are going to our favorite Pizza place called "San Marino's" for one last hoorah. Then we are going to get some drinks at Martins before we have to go to bed. Our cabs are at 5am and we fly out at 715am. While I am not looking forward to the flight, I am ready to go home and am excited to see my family and friends!

Throughout the next few weeks I will be writing a few reflection blogs on my entire trip in here in Europe. I will outline all the best things I did and what I think about them! I will see everyone stateside!