friday night i went to irazu with mark, eric, cecile and lindsay. afterwards we went to the violet hour where jon met up with us. then we went to rainbo and closed it, hit up flash taco and sat in wicker park for awhile.
saturday i got up early and went to brunch with katie and jeanie at lula cafe. we stayed and talked for a long time until we thought they might kick us out. then matt picked me up and we drove to evanston to see ‘wall-e’ which was so cute. we had dinner at cross-rhodes (greek fries!) then a couple drinks at the hopleaf. some of my sorority sisters were having a dinner there so i stayed and hung out with them for awhile. afterwards i went down to old town for a party that one of cecile’s soccer friends was having. josh’s apartment is crazy – it’s huge, there’s an awesome kitchen and the rooftop deck and view is spectacular.
today i got to sleep in! hooray! i went to kuma’s for burgers with cecile, trent, matt and katie. then this afternoon – pitchfork! ahh, delicious abbey pub curry fries. we stayed until the end so i could see spoon then booked it to the furthest south bus stop we could get to, so we could get a seat. and now – early to bed so i can be ready when my mom picks me up in the morning.
We started our first full day in Vienna with a trip to Schönbrunn Palace, the Habsburg’s summer residence. The rooms were very beautiful and the tour was really interesting. We learned a lot about Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph I. I bought a book about the Palace and a lot of postcards (which later were all lost in the mail). We didn’t have a lot of time after the tour to look around the gardens behind the palace so I had to make the most of my time. I ran down the main garden axis to the the other end to take photos of the fountain, then ran back all the way to the bus, which was parked on the street in front of the palace beyond the big entrance court. When I got back to the bus, Roberto, our driver, gave me a bottle of wine from his stash for my birthday.
After Schönbrunn we ate lunch at a coffee house near the hotel. I had a veggie strudel that was delicious and some very rich hot chocolate. We got a few desserts to share and concluded that the Linzer torte is not all that great (or maybe we just didn’t get a good slice).
In the afternoon we had our walking tour of Vienna. We saw St. Stephens, the Hofburg, the plague monument, the Lipizzaner Stallions’ stables and even a few of the horses-in-training. We also saw the royal church and the royal library.
That night we skipped the optional excursions and went out for Aunt Pat’s birthday. Amy and Laura had planned ahead, and made reservations at the Danube Tower revolving restaurant. The weather didn’t cooperate – it was raining a lot and the language barrier resulted in our cab ending up way off course. But, once we got to the Tower, the views were spectacular and the food was delicious. We even received champagne and cakes for our birthdays!
it’s cold in san francisco. like, real cold. wasn’t it just unbearably hot here? wha happen’d? when i got to this coffee shop (no free wifi at hotel) i was sweating from hauling my huge work laptop up the hill so i ordered an iced tea. now i’m shivering in my coat, ready to put on my scarf, and giving my iced tea the evil eye. i’m actually considering ordering some coffee just to warm up. me. coffee. *shudder*
why am i in sf? yesterday morning arden invited me along on her trip (she’s doing some training), and since i only need my laptop and an internet connection to work, why not? we left last night (after cameron and i looked at apartments and houses – they were all way better than expected) and got to the hotel at 1am. we’ll be here until wednesday night, and so far – aside from the staggering cold (and really, it’s not even that cold) – it’s pretty great. there are buildings here made from REAL BRICK, how novel. clearly i’ve been away from the midwest for too long.
tonight ian is driving into town from sacramento, picking up eric on the way, and we’re all going to hang out. there are some galleries around here arden and i want to check out, including the sf g1988! they’re having a sale too, so maybe i’ll buy some more art to add to my collection. also? joyriding in ian’s A4. maybe we can have some street races! ian in his A4 versus arden in her TT! ok, DONE. this night is all sewn up.
Finally, I’m starting to post photos from the Alpine trip again. My goal is to be done by the time the one-year anniversary rolls around. Only four months to go (oh crap only four months until i’m 27.) and over 550 photos left to go through. *sigh*
Day 5 was my birthday, and at breakfast in Munich I was serenaded! We drove to Austria and stopped in Salzburg. It was chilly and rainy, but our walking tour was still really enjoyable. We saw the birthplaces of Mozart and Doppler and walked through the Mirabell Gardens. We saw an old cemetery at St. Peter’s Archabbey.
For lunch, I spotted a restaurant in the square across from Mozart’s birthplace called zum Eulenspiegel. The building itself is over 650 years old and it’s held the restaurant since 1713. Inside you walk up a narrow winding staircase and are seated in one of the smaller dining rooms. Ours overlooked the Salzach River from a wall that made up the archway to the square. Each room is themed and very cozy. It was an excellent birthday lunch and I highly recommend zum Eulenspiegel to anyone who is lucky enough to visit Salzburg.
When we were loading the bus to go on to Vienna, our tour director, DeeDee, had to go back to look for a few of our wayward companions. A police officer started giving us a hard time for staying the loading zone for so long and finally our driver had to…show the policeman some good will, as it were, and gave him a bottle of wine from a stash in the glove compartment. We were no longer bothered. Once we were on our way, DeeDee played the "The Sound of Music" soundtrack on the bus’s stereo.
In Vienna we made a brief stop at the hotel then drove to Grinzing, on the outskirts of town, for dinner and drinks at a heurigen wine bar. On the way we saw the Minopolis, the much reviled ‘golden cabbage’ the stadtgartendirektion and a swimming pool on a barge in the Danube canal.
At the wine bar, we were served a giant platter of various meats (including wienerschnitzel of course) and spatzle and…never-ending pitchers of wine. PITCHERS. OF. WINE. Um…things got a little crazy. There were these great musicians walking around playing music and taking requests and my mom and cousin got up and danced and got other people to dance and my mom sang like Louis Armstrong. And still the wine kept coming. Everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for me and ‘Happy Anniversary’ for a couple in our tour and I got a birthday cake – the famous sacher torte! By 9pm everyone was feeling pretty good and soon the night was over, much to everyone’s chagrin.
Laura: It’s time to go??
Amy: Oh shit.
Also, when we were loading the bus to go to the hotel my mom commandeered the bus’s microphone to reprise her Louis Armstrong impression! I’m not sure how future birthdays will top this one.
the getty, mullholland drive, sunset, beverly hills, rodeo drive, nate ‘n al’s, malibu, point dume, neptune’s net, lala’s grill, golden apple, project: gallery, beer brewing, in-n-out, warner bros. studio tour, old town pasadena
