We had such an amazing week before our weekend vacation. Preparing for our trip to Vienna, we watched Sound of Music and sang songs (loud) in our apartment all week. haha. Dionne's boyfriend Mikey is here and we met up with them on Tuesday after class. We walked around the gothic quarter, got some amazing chocolate from a little chocolate boutique, went to La Boqueria and then went to lunch at Port Vell. We all ordered the menu del dia and I was quite surprised to see that the fish I had ordered was literally an entire fish, head and all, that i had to dissect to eat. Ash had to peel back the skin for me, but I DID EAT IT and it was good (although you know how hard it was for me). After that Ash and I went to the mall and went shopping for that night.
Julia's 30th birthday was on Thursday, and since we were not going to be in town, the girls and I thought it would be fun to throw her a surprise party at our place on Tuesday night and invite all of GSE. I contacted everyone from GSE and figured out details to have everyone over for dinner and cocktails on Tuesday night. It was really last minute so I was extremely anxious and nervous that it wouldn't come together. Luckily, all of our friends showed up, ash and I had bought a bunch of decorations, all the food (that took us all afternoon to make) and chocolate croissants and candles (Julia's favorite dessert) for a chocolate croissant cake. I was sooo happy when everyone came over and Julia was completely surprised and started crying when she walked in. It was such a good turnout and a great success.
A bunch of the girls and Julia stayed at our place and then we all went down to Port Olimpico to some of the bars to meet up with friends. I went a little earlier with my friends Hillary, Chloe and Maureen and we somehow got invited into this bar/lounge place and given a bunch of free drinks from the bartender. We weren't really sure why. Then we went to our friend Melody's friend's Club and danced with everyone there for a while. It was a really fun night and great being with everyone. Some friends came over to our place afterwards and we had like 4 more people sleeping over... kind of like a big slumber party. haha.
On Wednesday, we went to school and I went to do laundry after class. The area around our school/where we do laundry is so cute and really great to just walk around. So I dropped off my clothes and walked around the area for a little bit before meeting Dionne and Mikey. We walked a short way down to Sagrada Familia and got some tapas and Sangria and then went back to pick up our laundry. It was a beautiful day and it doesn't get dark now until like 8:30... which is a beautiful thing! That night we just packed for Vienna and got a good night's sleep.
Once again, we woke up at the crack of dawn to make our 9 a.m. flight to Vienna. Like I said, I wasn't really looking forward to this trip and was definitely not looking forward to the rain. From the plane ride alone, Vienna looked beautiful, and the second we stepped foot in the city, our presumptions were confirmed. As always, my explanation of this trip does NOT do it justice, but I will try.
We had been given recommendations about these two hostels called Wombats in Vienna that were supposed to be unlike any other hostel. They definitely were. They were sooo nice inside, they had a whole lounge area, a nice nice bar/restaurant and the rooms were great, with our own bathroom. We were stoked!!! There were 10 of us in Vienna but we weren't all staying at the same place, still so much fun though. So that afternoon, the 5 of us (4 roomies + Mikey) went to a big cafe for some traditional Viennese food. We were famished and were excited to eat some weird food (okay, they were excited, I was just plain hungry). We all ordered a liter of Eggenburg, the Austrian beer, and the four of them ordered beef and veal goulash. My non-adventurous-self ordered some delicious spinach pasta that was incredible. We were all in a food coma after that meal and went back to take naps and then planned on going out that night.
We got ready and headed down to the "Wombar" in our hostel and it was poppin!!! It was happy hour (one of four) and let's just say we had such a good time, we ended up staying there all night! We had intentions of going out, but we met some hilarious Italian boys from Milan and the rest is history. They kept ordering us "seven more tequila" and we spent the whole night laughing and hanging out at the bar. The best part was, our room was only an elevator ride away... it was nice. We woke up the next morning and had a really good breakfast at the hostel and met up with Mikey, Dionne, Alex and Goose. We figured out the metro and tram situation and went to the Opera house to get on the hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. We bought tickets, hopped on and began one of three tours around the city. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Absolutely beautiful buildings, cafe's, palaces, cathedrals... it never ended. I was in awe, and we were finding out the history of everything as well which made it even better.
I still can't get over how beautiful that city was, and the best part is... IT DIDN'T RAIN THE ENTIRE TIME WE WERE THERE....YES!!!! It was amazing! We spent about an hour sightseeing on the bus and then bought tickets for a traditional Viennese Opera/Orchestra/Ballet later that night. It's amazing how many famous and historical artists and composers are from (or spent a good amount of time in) Vienna. It was so cool seeing where Beethoven had his morning coffee, where Mozart's work was first played and the little apartment where Sigmund Freud lived for years. We stopped for coffee and apple strudels at this cute pink cafe in front of the opera house, where everything was pink and the waitresses were in pink 50's style uniforms. It was cute. We all went to the Vienna Fine Arts Museum that is one of the best art museums in the world and in the most beautiful building. It was such a cool museum and although we all thought we were "museum-ed out" we appreciated every second of it. The Museum of Natural History was right across the garden and equally as big, but we didn't want to pay another 8 euros to get in... but before we knew it, Alex got us all in for free. We still don't know how. haha.
It ended up being CRAZY!!! They literally had EVERY single animal species in this museum, in cases and out of cases... real animals that had died and were being preserved in this museum. We felt like we were in Jumanji or something... it was really cool... but also really creepy. Haha. Wierd. After that, Alex really wanted to check out the Belvedere Palace so we took a tram there and it was incredible. It was stunningly gorgeous and the gardens on both sides were intricately designed with the most magnificent details. After spending like a half hour walking around there, we went right across this street for a late lunch. I literally stuck my head in this place to check it out, and the owner shouted after us to come in, so we did. Everyone got Wiener Schnitzel's and such (I opted for the shrimp and calamari pasta) and the owner was so sweet to us. We were the only people in the restaurant because it was such an awkward time of day, and he brought us a bottle of Vienna's typical wine from the vineyards just outside of the city. He was insistent on giving us a lot of free wine, for no reason really, and three bottles later, we finally had to tell him "Thanks, but no more"... haha.
That was a lot of fun, and after attempting to find the metro from there, we gave into a taxi that took us back to Wombats. We switched from Wombats: The Base to Wombats: The Lounge because it was supposed to be the better one (which it was) and it only had openings for the Friday and Saturday, but we were glad we got a chance to see both. Lisa met us at the hostel and we had a few drinks at happy hour and then all headed to the opera. It was a really great show, in a beautiful theater. The orchestra, opera singers and ballet dancers were extremely talented and we all enjoyed this 'cultural experience'. It was great!!!
I went to bed when I got home, but some of our friends went to the Wombar again. There are signs all over the place saying 'There IS life outside of the wombar'... because they know that it's like a magnet to us and we really should venture out to see the Vienna nightlife. Well the next day was my favorite day. Mikey, Dionne and Alex went back to Barcelona and we had planned on meeting up with the other girls later that day. So, Ash, Noelle and I had breakfast at Wombats and went to the bus tour again. We went on another tour that showed us another side of the city, that was also absolutely beautiful, and we found the open-air market that we had been wanting to check out.
We walked over to it from the opera house and it was amazing!!! It was like La Boqueria but all outdoors and with a ton of outdoor restaurants. Not to mention it was a GORGEOUS day outside and everyone was eating outside and selling fresh fruit, veggies, cheese and meat from their stands. We looooved walking up and down the isles and, after our mouths were watering from all the delicious looking food, we stopped at a Japanese outdoor restaurant for some long-awaited sushi. It was an amazing amazing lunch and super cheap too. The best Japanese food we've had in Europe. We continued walking around and into the flea market... it was literally peoples crap piled up, one after another. We were like, "Is this for real, are they really trying to sell this stuff?". It was funny. Just walking around this city is a treat in itself. It is by far one of my favorite places and I wish I could describe just how breathtaking everything about this city was. You just need to visit for yourself!!!
We had to use the bathroom really bad, so we stopped in a really cute old-looking cafe and the waiter told us he would make us 'special cappuccino's'... it was really cute, because he drew little designs in our coffees and we thought it was sweet. haha. Well after walking back to the bus for the last tour, we got to see the last part of the city, more of the countryside, and we were constantly amazed at the unmasked beauty this city had in every corner in crevice we saw. I want to go on forever, giving ever single detail about what we saw, but I don't think it would ever end.
Well after the tour, we walked to the Hapsburg palace. The Hapsburg's ruled Austria for a long time (I think... dad, correct me if I'm wrong). Well, it's pretty much ridiculous how big and beautiful this palace is. Complete with tons of horse and carriages outside for rides (they say "take a gondola in Venice and a horse and carriage in Vienna".) We walked through the gates and stopped for some apple strudel at the famous Hapsburg cafe that boasts to have the best apple strudel (with vanilla bean ice cream might I add) in town, as well as the PERFECT location. I won't disagree with that... we were in heaven with every bite we took.
After thanking the very nice waiter for the amazingness in our mouths, we headed to the park attached to the Palace and the three of us proceeded to play on the see-saw and spinny-thing for the next hour... laughing hysterically and acting like 10-year-olds... probably the funniest part of the whole trip. It was awesome. We went home and met up with Lisa and got ready for the night. We were recommended a great restaurant, called Mozart (something), to go to right by the hostel and the four of us went there for dinner. It was a beautiful restaurant with a great ambiance and even greater food and wine.
We had a great time talking and enjoying our last meal in incredible Vienna. Lisa and Noelle went to bed after dinner but Ash and I still hadn't really experienced the Vienna nightlife. So we headed out to a club called 'Juicy' that seemed to be one of the best in town. We immediately met some guys who ended up buying us drinks all night... sweet... and the club was going off! It was really fun and we danced all night until we headed home round 1:30. It was almost up there with a Barcelona club... nothing will beat Barca though.
So Sunday, we took our flight home with everyone else and arrived to our beloved Barcelona around 2 p.m. Vienna surpassed every expectation I had of it, and more. I kept thanking Noelle all weekend for wanting to go there, because I loved loved loved it and probably would have never thought to go on my own. I am seriously obsessed with Vienna!!!
Ash's sister Chrissy is here for a week and we were sooo excited to see her when we got home. We hung out at home for a while and then Chrissy, Ash and I bought tickets for the FC Barcelona Futbol (Soccer) vs. Madrid game that night. We had such great seats (not really sure if they were ours or not?!) and the game was soo cool. Unfortunately, neither team scored the entire game... haha... so the end score was 0-0 but the atmosphere was unbeatable and it was such a great experience.
The days are flying by but I am trying to do as much as I can so that I go home with no regrets whatsoever. I am really looking forward to the next couple weeks (Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend!!!) and am hoping they don't go by too too fast. We have a full house right now and we love it. Sharing this experience with all the people you love and are close with is so special and we are all so lucky to have each other. I hope everyone gets the chance to feel this sense of fulfillment and happiness... because it is better than anything I ever dreamed it would be!!!
Todo mi amor....
