yes, i’m flashing back to the backpacking trip that mike and i took a million years ago when we were soooo young!  i never finished posting on that trip, so i wanted to post some pics from vienna, the second-to-last place we went.  we had already been to innsbruck and salzburg, then took a turn up north to the czech republic, and then headed back down to austria to see more of the eastern part of the country.  vienna is known for its music, palaces, schnitzel, iced coffees, a cake called a sachertorte, and vienna rolls!

{we arrived in vienna from prague at about 11 am.  it looked like rain, so we went to a little restaurant near the train station for lunch.  i had a cappuccino and the best spaetzle – it tasted like mac and cheese and was served in a skillet.  and mike had a schnitzel burger.  it started raining steadily around us, but we were under an umbrella.}

{it took two metros to get from the train station to our hostel, hostel ruthensteiner. this is our little private room with a sink, and we had a shared bathroom with others.  }

{europe sure loves elderflower!  after this trip, i did too. :)  and our hostel had lots of cool hangout spots.}

{in the courtyard of the hostel…}

{they had washing machines out here and a giant chess set that you can play while you wait for your laundry to get done!}

{we relaxed a little at the hotel, and then decided to head to the hofburg palace since it was rainy.  we only had a little while before it closed, but we were able to do the tour of the imperial apartments and a tour on the rather strange emperess elisabeth, known as “sisi” who was assassinated.  after our visit to the palace, we had a drink at kantine, a cool bar in the museum quarter.  i had that delicious hibiscus spritzer above!  we had dinner at ra’mein, which we thought served ramen but actually served a clear broth soup with white flat noodles with meat/seafood, cilantro, etc.  it was tasty!  we sat outside at the restaurant under the awning, watching the rain.  that night, the rain finally stopped so we walked around a bit to see the sights around the area – the sun was going down and it was beautiful.}

{you know me and my fascination with food… so these meals have to be documented.  we had breakfast at the hostel – for 3.5 euros, we got a viennese roll, nutella, cream cheese, butter, jam, bread, yogurt, fruit, granola, cereal, and tea/coffee.  and later in the morning, we had “iced coffees” at café imperial in vienna, which are actually iced coffee with ice cream and whipped cream!  soooo good!  we shared a diavala pizza at lunch and each got a radler [a 50/50 mixture of beer and sparkling lemonade that we drank constantly over the course of this trip!]}

{i took a photo of those mannequins outside of a building that were set up to look like they were climbing a ladder… isn’t that funny?  they made us smile.  we went to the naschmarkt, a fun market in the city with all kinds of street vendors with food and non-food goods, which i loved.  and then it started to rain again so we got a beer at a tiny beer hall.}

{here are photos of a few of the food items vienna is known for – “vienna rolls” for breakfast [also known as kaiser rolls], and the anna torte, vienna’s signature dessert, from demel, a famous pastry shop and chocolaterie established in 1786 in the city.  we had the rolls every morning for breakfast, and we got the torte to go and ate it at the hostel while we chilled out for a bit.  dinner was fish and chips from nordsee in a nearby train station that we brought back to the room.}

{fun times with this guy!}

it was a rainy time in vienna and we were admittedly getting ready to go home after being so transient for three weeks, but we still enjoyed the city.  more photos of vienna from my nikon will be up next!  xoxo