views of vienna

my train from budapest arrived in vienna at dark and found my way to the air b&b apartment where i would be staying with my roommate from copenhagen, melissa, and some of her friends. the four out of the six of us who had made it already vienna went out for a delicious dinner consisting of duck and risotto just down the street. the next morning, we headed out and within 15 minutes had walked ourselves into the city center.

vienna state opera house

with the sun shining warm and bright, we walked down kartnerstrasse, vienna's main walking street toward st. stephen's cathedral. we entered the cathedral just in time to observe a mass in progress and admired the intricate details inside.

st. charles's church

kaertnerstrasse with st. stephen's cathedral in
the distance. 

we took a turn around the city once more before we ended up strolling along the naschmarkt. for block after block we meandered our way past heaps of spices, countless bowls of hummus, cheeses, olives, seafood, and desserts, while eagerly taking as many free samples as we could get. we stopped for lunch at neni, one of the small restaurants lining the food stands and enjoyed their homemade lemonade made with soda, lemons and mint leaves, hummus, and almond-chicken. 

naschtmarket cheese

naschmarkt hummus. literally you could find any
type of hummus you could ever want

stuffed, we headed toward schönbrunn palace, the former imperial rococco residence of the hapsburg monarchs and took the imperial tour that featured approx. 20 rooms displaying just a handful of the beauty and grandeur of imperial bedrooms, dining rooms, entertainment rooms, office rooms, and ballrooms. afterwards, we walked through the gardens in the back and up the hill toward the gloriette, collapsing at the top to enjoy a magnificent view of the palace and vienna in the background and lounged there as the late afternoon sun warmed our faces.

looking toward the gardens
and the gloriette

view of schönbrunn
and vienna

schönbrunn

later on, i met up with lea, another grinnell friends who is studying in vienna for the semester and enjoyed falafel balls, chili and eggplant hummus, and an assortment of vegetables that she had gotten earlier that day from the naschmarkt in her apartment with some of her housemates. not only was it great to see familiar faces in a place so distant from home, but it was also interesting to hear the similarities and differences between all our study abroad experiences. later that night, we met up with colin and tj and enjoyed cocktails together as well as a small taste of the viennese club scene.

the upper belvedere

having crashed at lea's apartment, i made my way back to my own apartment the next morning and headed out with melissa who had an early morning train to budapest. we enjoyed a nice morning cappuccino and cake at a nearby cafe and after she left i headed toward one last museum before i had my own train to catch to prague.

the belvedere is a historic building complex, consisting of two baroque palaces (the upper and lower belvedere), the orangery, and the palace stables and houses the belvedere museum. besides being an absolutely beautiful building in itself, i primarily went to see the klimt collection that houses what is probably my all-time favorite painting, 'the kiss'.

gustav klimt's 'the kiss'

after admiring the painting for a solid 20 minutes, i went around and enjoyed more views of vienna from inside the palace and the extensive impressionist and biedermeier collections. i had also wanted to see the "japan and avant-garde" exhibition, but unfortunately didn't have enough time before i needed to catch the train to my next destination: prague. 

roomies in europe :)