ok, now im in love...and i really mean it. vienna is absolutely amazing. before we arrived there though we had a quick stop off in kutna hora, a small czech town. we went into the ossawary which is a bone museum which was pretty freaky because a guy had basically used thousands of human bones to create a gallery of chandeliers and other strange collections.
the hotel in vienna was awesome, fantastic beds and showers which was exactly what we needed. got there later in the arvo so after dinner headed out to the 'bermuda triangle' basically the pub/club area of vienna where there are 28 different places to choose from. had the best strawberry/vodka shooters as everything was half price for the night.
the next day was, i think, the best day of contiki overall. we all got dropped off by the bus in town near the statue of maria theresa, the only empress of vienna, which was massive (basically everything is massive and incredibly beautiful in vienna)we walked through the streets and gawped at everything we passed by. the church was magnificent and the more i looked, the more i fell in love. we saw the memorial against war and fascism which was built over a safehouse that had been there during WWII and where about 100 people died, saw the 'sacher hotel' which was the beginning spot for sachertorte, an amazing viennese chocoale cake. then onto the stephensdom which totally blew my mind. it was magnificent. i walked in and couldnt believe my eyes, there was a wind symphony playing as well which really added to the atmosphere and i could have sat there for hours on end.
lou and i then went to the 'haus de musik' or the music museum where we had heaps of fun. we created our own waltz duet by rolling dice and conducted an orchestra as well (pretend of course) we are mozart's balls (chocolate of course) had a MASSIVE schnitzel for lunch, walked past all the stars on the path of famous musicians including strauss, haydn, tchaikovsky etc. after that was the schnapps musuem where we learnt all about the famous austrian drink and got plenty of tasters as well. rocketfuel was fantastic (made from chillis) there was also schnapps with gold dust, absinthe and plenty more.
after this i got the chance to dress up for dinner at the schonbrun palace, the summer palace for the habsburgs during the reign. once again it was an absolutely incredible building and the whole night was amazing. we had a full 3 course dinner with a great glass of wine and then we sat down and watched an ensemble of 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, piano and clarinet who played mozart and the strauss family music. it included 2 amazing opera singers and some very average ballet dancers but it was beautiful. brought tears to my eyes when i realised that i was sitting in a palace in vienna listening to the music of mozart and strauss. i will never forget that.
our last night was a big one, as u can expect. sad to leave but got some good mates out of the whole experience. had the absolute time of my life but now have to get back to the reality of staying in hostels and working out our own way how to get around. we've managed so far so keep ur fingers crossed for me.
