Vienna, Austria--Part 2

Vienna, Austria--Part 2

New Zealand Guy:  Your accent, it sounds familiar.
Me:  Um, American?
Guy:  No, like a famous actor.
Me:  Well, I dabbled for a while, nothing you'd know.
Guy.  Uh-huh, no, no, it's someone particular.
Me:  Wesley Snipes....Denzel Washington...Danny Glover?
Me:  Will Smith...Morgan Freeman...Barack Obama?
Guy: ..........

I don't know.  Things just aren't that funny here.  I'm really struggling to find something novel and humorous to mention.  Sure, hostelers are weird and often times I feel like I'm at a summer camp for the fringe and outcasts of the world.  But I can't talk about that everyday--maybe I can.

I eat street food at least once a day, and the different offerings of cities is becoming one of my most anticipated aspects.  In Vienna, and by no surprise, most street stands offer a smorgasbord of assorted sausages.  My two favorites, pictured left, were the Frankfurter and Wiener Wurstel, always with pool of mustard and specific bread for each offering.

Vienna is proving to be the most relaxing of my stops--not that I needed it.  The weather is glorious, there's a park every 35 steps, and the city's cafes entice you to waist an afternoon behind coffee service and a newspaper.  The city's best market, the Naschmarkt, is right outside the door and stretches nearly a mile with butcher shops, kebab stands, noodle houses, traditional Viennese cafes, and exotic fruit vendors.  It's a cornucopia of all things gastronomic.  The cherries are in season-- I'm not a big cherry guy--and they are sublime.  The locals grab them buy the bushel full

I met some Aussies--not of the jean short, tank top variety, that troll for babes in ravenous wolf packs from every hostel common area in Europe--and headed to the Schweizerhaus.  This beer garden is the prototype, with bone-in-meat the size of a human head, waiters sporting trays of 15 beers, and row after row of umbrella topped bench seating.  All within one of the oldest amusement parks in Europe, this garden sported a schnitzel unlike anything I've had--blowing my preconceived mind.

 HIGHLIGHTS:
1)  Mozart at the Hofburg Palace
2)  Viennese Coffee Service
3)  The Endless Parks
4)  The Naschmarkt
5)  First Taste of Art Nouveau Architecture (seen below)


TIP OF THE DAY:  Rarely are tickets checked on trams or metros.  I buy one and don't validate it--validation stamps show what time you first got on--and if I'm ever caught, I play the "dumb tourist" card, saying "I didn't know I needed to validate".  Boom!

READING:  Also Sprach Zarathustra, Frederich Nietzsche

LISTENING:   Somehow stumbled upon a cocktail mixer where the most beautiful people in Austria were hiding.  Amidst the din of lamp lighting and the cacophony of flirtatious laughing, I heard this sampled briefly by the DJ.