The Perfect Travel Day in Vienna
Trip Start
Dec 25, 2010
1
21
33
Trip End
Feb 06, 2011
Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Today was the sort of perfect travel day everyone dreams about when making their holiday plans. It was my second time to Vienna, a city I have very fond memories of from a trip 8 years ago.
It started in, of all places, the Swarovski flagship store (apparently its an Austrian company, no doubt an essential piece of knowledge for you all). I'll start first by noting that the quality of Swarovski design has declined. Two years ago, I was an exceptionally generous brother, and bought my sister some very nice earrings for Christmas from the Adelaide Swarovski, a store maybe one twentieth the size of the flagship. Now, There is nothing but shitty, overly glitzy crap, barring a rare exception. No present shopping there.
The good thing about the Swarovski store was it's inclusion of a Moet and Chandon bar, at which I partook in an excellent, overly priced glass of champers. It helped make the shop bearable, and I think represents an intelligent strategy for helping customers buy things they would otherwise find crap. It also gave me a nice light buzz to start the day.
We then went for a wander in the area around St Stephen's cathedral, and the group made the decision to each invest twenty euros in a carriage ride around the old part of Vienna. This is noteworthy for two reasons: 1. It was awesome, and 2. The carriage driver thought we were a pair of couples, and suggested lovely 'romantic' places for Ed and I to take Kate and Molly, as well as the cities best lingerie stores. We then had weird cheese hotdogs for lunch- central Europeans have very robust digestive tracts I suspect.
Vienna is a good city for wandering, and I spent the afternoon alone after my 'bullshit contiki paid extras' detector spazzed out quite incoherently at the very thought of going to the schnapps factory and museum with the group. It is here where you can, (and Kahlia did), partake in buying orange Schnapps with actual gold shards floating in it. As I suspect gold is indigestible, this would make for some pretty valuable shit. Instead, I went shopping and climbed the spires of Saint Stephens. Much more civilised.
The day ended with another of Contiki's overpriced extras, a trip to a Mozart concert at Schonbrunn palace (my favorite place in Vienna years ago). Although this instantly piqued the interest of my paid extras detector, Rae and I decided at the last minute to join Kahlia at the concert. This decision was encouraged by my desire to see the Orangery of the palace, where both Mozart and Salieri gave concerts (see Amadeus). Although the concert seemed to have an excess of novelty songs (including a bizarre one where the soprano continuously miaowed), it was quite enjoyable. It also finally gave me an excuse to whip out the bow tie that I strangely decided to lug to Europe, mainly because I brought it newly for the grad ball, and wanted to find an excuse to justify the expense.
John's shopping update one:
For those of you who spoke to me before I left, you may be aware that I am after a leather Jacket and possibly awesome boots. So far, the hunt is a failure, however, I did get some slightly awesome cotton and wool jeans and a shirt in the sales of a store I can't afford.
Best part of the day: carriage ride through historic Vienna
Worst part of the day: waking up with hangover
