A Pretty Solid 48 Hours
Small forest on the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace
After witnessing the miracle of homeless ritual (from the last post), we went back to our new quarters up in Grinzing. Our hosts were fantastic (shout out to Courtney, Aiden, and Vienna! Thank you guys so much!). That night they took us out to a local heuriger, an Austrian wine tavern, just a three minute walk from the house. It was my favorite dinner so far. We got some local white white as well as the infamous weiner schnitzel, although it was with pork instead of veal so it technically was just schnitzel. When we got home from dinner we hopped in the car and they drove us up to a lookout spot north of Vienna that looked out over the whole city. It was really cool seeing the whole city lit up and sprawling out underneath us. We could spot the different historical parks even from a distance because they were big dark spot in an otherwise bright city. Just as we turned to head back to the car after about 5 minutes, fireworks began to go off over downtown Vienna (remember it was a holiday). It was pretty great. After possibly my favorite day yet, we hit the sheets. The next day was a relatively simple one despite being very long. We got up in the morning and checked out the Schönbrunn Palace, the Hofburg's summer palace. The entire grounds here are stunning, and the sunny day didn't hurt either. After walking the grounds for a bit we settled at a small cafe in the middle of the palace gardens. Here is where we tried the Austrian classic, sachertorte. It's chocolate cake. It was good, but neither of us thought it was anything special (the apfelstrudel was my favorite Austrian dessert).
Schönbrunn Palace and grounds. At far end on right of the picture is basically a giant royal gazebo on a hill. Up close pics in PICTURES tab.
After some three-odd hours of dumb logistical travel, we were sitting on a bus bound for Zagreb, Croatia. The six hour bus ride went by quicker than expected and contained a few visual treats. The countryside on the way south was still amazing, but not quite so as the Salzberg-Hallstatt trip. What I did spot though was a fantastic waterfall, probably eighty feet high, as well as an old abandoned castle, way up on a cliff. That was something completely new. We have seen many palaces, castles, and fortresses, but all of those of been maintained and some still occupied. But this thing was dilapidated and missing entire sections of walls. It looked like something one would see in Lord of the Rings. And speaking of which...
Zagreb has had a surprising number of Tolkien references that made me very happy. When we first rolled in to our hostel around 11 o'clock, a large quote was painted onto a pillar, "Not all who wander are lost," a quote that was actually at the top of this blog for a few days. We found our roommates completely asleep and silent which came as a huge relief because in Vienna we had the. single. worst. snorer. I have ever heard. This morning proved to be rainy, but we ventured out into the surprisingly small capital that is Zagreb. First we went to the city square where we saw a group of young girls doing a traditional dance and song. Then quickly of to the Old Town, where we went to one of the most original museums I have ever seen. The Museum of Broken Relationships is basically just as it sounds. The entire museum consisted of physical mementos and an accompanying story, all donated to the museum, of relationships that had ended in one way or another (distance, death, cheating, illness, etc...). While most were stories of significant others, there were also stories of broken relationships between parents and children as well. It was a very intriguing exhibit.
After a quick look a couple churches, we found ourselves at the next Tolkien reference, a small tavern called Tolkien's House. The inside and outside was covered in Tolkien themed stuff. Swords and axes hung on the walls and movie posters covered the ceiling. After each getting a Classic Hobbit Ale, and the Gandalf the Grey and Aragorn mixed-drinks respectively, we left the pub and walked just down the street for dinner. Croatia is the first country of ours that is not on the Euro. As such, the US dollar has much more buying power than it did in Germany or Austria. So for dinner we got very cheap, yet very delicious pizzas and two equally cheap tiramisus for dessert. All told, we barely spent spent 40 bucks today, and I didn't even mention a bunch of other stuff we bought. The Croatian "Kuna" is where it's at.
Tomorrow, we will be getting up and heading to the airport where we will rent a car and make our make for Plitvice Lakes National Park. Google it. Now.
(Note: The the PICTURES tab, the last day in Vienna and the first day in Zagreb are switched. So scroll past the palace and stuff if you want to get to Zagreb pics. My bad. Sorry.)