Aug 4, 2009

Vienna, Austria (day 2)

Saturday morning we woke up, went to the grocery store to buy some water because we knew it would be a hot and long day outside. We went to the metro station and bought us both 48 hour passes so we could ride the metro unlimited (our bodies were starting to yell at us). We hopped on the train and headed for the Schoenbrunn Palace.

Once at the palace there was a lot to see. The first thing we saw when walking in was the huge Gloriette that was atop a small hill overlooking the palace. We slowly made our way there, but made a few stops in between for some photo opportunities. When finally at the Gloriette we paid a few extra euros to climb the stairs to the top to have a great view of the palace and the surrounding city. While on the top we met three people from the United States. Some fellow Americans overheard us speaking English and asked us to take their picture. After taking their picture, they asked us where we were from. First thing Andrew said was that I was from Tampa and before he could even say where he was from, they belted out "oh my gosh we are too"! Well it ended up they were in Austria for some music festival and also go to my former school USF! How crazy is it that you are in another country and you still manage to meet someone from your hometown and college? That was pretty cool! We walked around the huge palace grounds for a good 2 hours. There was even more to see, but the heat was getting to us so we decided to head towards our next stop, the Giant Ferris Wheel.

The Giant Ferris Wheel was in Vienna's Prater Amusement Park... which to us was more like a small county fair. We had every intention of getting on the Ferris Wheel until we noticed that it was all enclosed and it was just too hot for that. Even though we didn't ride, it was cool seeing a Ferris Wheel from 1897. There were other rides like small roller coasters, flying swings, and those dizzy rides but we decided against them all and settled for a Red Bull which is actually made in Austria. We have come to the conclusion that somehow we attract every annoying bug possible because our nice relaxing sit in the shade was interrupted by the annoying bees that manage to always find us! I hate bees and for some reason this one had an infatuation with my face, soooo that was the cue for it's time to go. Never a dull moment with us!

From Prater's we wanted to check out the Danube Tower. We managed to not get off on the correct metro stop, so the tower was a good distance away. By this time, both Andrew and I were too beat to even walk 10 feet, let alone a half mile so we decided against it. We did, however, get enough energy to hop on the seesaw that was calling our names. That lasted a good minute and then we were back on our way towards the hotel.

We rested at the hotel for a little while until we went back to the City Hall to catch the Paris Ballet that was going to play at the Film Festival. We tried out the Mexican food booth this time and had a chicken burrito. By all the chicken meals we have had, can you tell that I was the one that decided on dinner? It was very yummy and we decided to sit on the bleachers and wait to watch the ballet. You could not eat/drink/smoke on the bleachers and Andrew and I had a ball watching all the people who couldn't read the signs. The people made sure they found the perfect spot to sit only to get rejected by the little security guy that wasn't going to let anyone get away with anything. We couldn't believe the number of people that obviously could not read a sign that has a big red slash across the symbols of forks, cups, and cigarettes! Whatever the case it was entertainment for us!

We managed to sit through about two dances until we both realized this ballet wasn't for us. Andrew was hungry again, so we stopped to get another huge slice of pizza before walking back to our hotel for the night. I (and pretty sure Andrew as well) particularly enjoyed this day because the Schoenbrunn was so beautiful. There was so much to see and it made for great pictures!



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