Vienna (Part 2).. throw up your peace fingers

Day number two in Vienna began quite the same way with a lovely breakfast and heading out the door as early as possible. It was Sarturday and on the weekends, the market area is alive and flourishing, so we had to check it out. We made our way there only checking the map a few times and stopping one person to make sure we were heading in the right direction. When we got to the end of the street, there was the market in front of our faces (per usual) and there wasn't any missing it. There were two parts to it, the food part and the junk part. Both offering their own trash and treasures. We began on the junk side.. wandering up and down the aisles, stopping to pick up a necklace here or a trinket there. Everything was fascinating yet nothing was mesmerizing. I found and purchased what I think is a Hungarian ceramic Easter egg, I say that because I found the exact same thing later in Budapest.. I bought it at a wayyy too high of a price, but if you remember Morocco, I am not exactly the expert haggler.

After finding Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana license plates, we mosyied on over to the food section. We were intent on finding a place to eat that was in the guide books, but as our stomachs were rumbling and our full day was calling we decided to stay close and popped into a Japanese restaurant for some sushi. I freaking love sushi. After finishing the meal and asking for the check, the woman didn't understand and so, as I had read in a travel book that I just finished, we repeated exactly what we had just said... hehe you had to be there I guess. Anyways that is the typical next resort when there is a language barrier.. repeat, use some hand gestures and hope the other gets it. I have relied on this more than you could even know.

The sky was not looking promising anymore and before it began to rain we headed on to find our next destination.. the Belvedere Palace to see the famous Klimt painting "The Kiss". The gardens of the palace are beautiful, of course. I think that goes without saying for any palace. I know I will have a garden someday. I have to. Anyways we were walking through the gardens and saw the cutest, I mean the cutest Asian toddler working it for the camera and throwing up her best peace fingers. Totally stereotypical, and totally freaking awesome. I loved it. Rachel and I probably giggled about it for an hour. If only we had gotten a picture. Back on the the museum.. the palace is now a museum if you didn't catch that. It was nice seeing the surrealism paintings and then moving on to "The Kiss". We didnt spend much time in there but the time we did spend in there was worthwhile and thoroughly enjoyable.

Our next destination was to St. Stephens Cathedral. We climbed all the way up the tower, all 343 steps, in a total spiral. When I got to the top I thought I was going to fall over. Just kidding but really, the climb made you dizzy but the view was worth it. We could see all the way back to Spain, alright we could see all of vienna. But really the sight was gorgeous. After that climb we justified a giant scoop of Italian gelato.. I chose pistachio, which may be my new favorite flavor and people watched until I finished the last bite of cone.

One of my favorite things to do in a new place is wander the grocery. I like to see what kind of things they have and the process they use for their produce. I am weird, get over it. So we went in to the grocery to pick up some thing for breakfast as we were heading out very bright and early the next morning. There are a lot of carbs for breakfast in case you were wondering. Not much to grab n go. That concept is American to the core. So we got some apples, bread, and cream cheese. A solid breakfast and Rachel headed back to the Hostel while I headed to Mass. I didn't understand a single word of German and while trying to choke back a coughing fit, I realized it didn't matter that I couldn't understand the homily, only that I was there celebrating with others. It was nice. I had a moment and I liked it.

So if you know me, you know it takes me walking around for quite a while alllllmost getting to my destination but not quite. So the walk to find the subway to get back to the hostel was quite interesting. I was right in front of it at the church but some how missed it and walked all around the block trying to find the entrance. After an hour, I made it and we headed out to dinner. The nice man at the hostel told us about this cool restaurant to go to with really good chocolate cake dessert.. that was what sold us. We walked around for a bit on the wrong street before finding it, upon arriving we found out that there werent any menus in English so we had to guess.. I supposed we guessed well because everything was delicious.

After being well fed and satisfied we headed on "home" and crashed into bed. Alarms set and ready to rise at 5:30am...