Thursday - 2000
I decide I'm dropping Conjecture and Proof (leaving me with 5 math classes) despite it being very interesting. Being (essentially) my only Monday class, I decide to extend my stay in Vienna to Monday afternoon.
Friday - 1700
I meet up with 4 of my friends on the train in Budapest, ready for the 3 hour ride. It's amazing how short of a ride it is to the cities surrounding Budapest, especially when the train is very comfortable and you are learning to play Bridge. Despite being a game for the grandmothers, it is a complex, mentally demanding card game that I very much enjoyed.
We arrive at our hostel at around 21:00 and go to a pub in the center of town to get some good Austrian beer (though I think I like the Hungarian stuff better).
Saturday - 830
The first of three mornings fighting against sleep to get to breakfast before it disappears at 900. This involved getting out of bed, putting on sweatpants and going to 9 other beds and waking everybody up. I learn what Brioche is.
We decide to spend the day walking around the Ring, the center of Vienna, which includes St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Hofburg Palace complex among other things. The cathedral was much more Gothic than other cathedral's I've visited in the past. The South Tower (343 stairs in a spiral staircase) provided the highest viewpoint in all of Vienna. It also provided a view of the roof of the cathedral below:
We then traveled to the Hofburg Palace. Standing in the middle of the complex, you are surrounded by breathtaking buildings, from cathedrals to City Hall. Oh yeah, a castle too.
As we head to dinner, we split into 2 groups (did I mention there were 10 of us?). I made the mistake of choosing the group with Daniel, the food snob. After hunting for a restaurant, I decide to walk into the nearest one and ask for a table. As the menu was in German, Daniel has the waiter translate every dish for him into English (not just the entrees, but the sauces, sides, and garnish on every plate).
Daniel: I'll have the steak with some white wine. Medium-rare.
The steak arrives.
Daniel: [Cutting into the steak] This is medium well. I'm sending it back.
Me: No your not. [Takes steak and devours it].
This whole story is only significant because the reason I was so eager to get out of the restaurant was that our next destination was ice skating:
This rink was in front of City Hall, lit up with beautiful lights, and had music playing (including such classics as "Funky Town"). There are paths that branch off of the main rink and weave through the park. It started snowing about 10 minutes in. It was amazing.
Sunday
I left with a few others at about 1000 and headed to Schoenbrunn Palace - the summer palace of the seat of the Habsburgs. I've never been inside of a palace before. I'm having a very hard time expressing my thoughts about it and the surrounding gardens (and zoo, hedge maze, columbary, view of Vienna, and artwork), but I'll describe 2 cool things I saw while touring:
There was a table clock, covered with gold, that had two clock faces - one in front and one in back. The clock was situated on a table, in front of a mirror. The face (and mechanism) on the back was designed to be read in the mirror!
There was also two bronze Hercules statues (they had a thing for Hercules), one of him killing the Nemean Lion, the other...I can't remember. In both, our boy Herc was pulling the upper and lower jaws of the beast apart, leaving a gaping hole. These hollow statues used to house furnaces, with heat radiating from the jaws of the beast.
Back at the hostel, I learned to play Spades, which is like a casual version of Bridge.
Monday
We head to the Museum of Natural History where, besides an impressive collection of everything related to natural history (not to mention some beautiful art and architecture), they were featuring a Body Worlds-like exhibit. Did you know that the digestive tract of a blue whale is about 0.4 miles? What about the fact that the blood vessels of an ostrich could circle the world twice?
On the way home, I learn to play Cribbage.
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
Beautiful ice skating picture!
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