Day 30

Wow, 30 days!?

Sunday August 26

8:15am - woke up, blahblah went to breakfast just after 9. Same as yesterday

9:30am - take the tram 2 to the far end of the ring and walk a couple blocks to Judenplatz - the old medieval jewish quarter. There's a big holocaust memorial designed in the style of a reversed library. Not sure if I get it, but who am I to judge. Went into the museum, got the combo ticket for 10 euros because I want to go into the big synagogue (which I have to do tomorrow and apparently have to bring my passport yikes), so it included this museum, the temple, and another Jewish museum right near the opera house etc. This museum was about medieval Viennese jews and they had a video about the 14th century temple that was destroyed in a raid against Jews. There was some stuff that had been recovered like pieces of gravestones, pottery, keys, things like that. Interesting enough, but to be honest not much there (which is really quite a shame since the building the museum is in is absolutely gorgeous all sleek with stainless steel and stuff. It's just mostly empty lol. Then you get to see the archaeological site where they have dug up the ruins of the temple. More of it was there than I imagined. They labeled the parts like the ark and Bimah and the mens part and the womens parts, etc. Pretty amazing. No one said I couldn't take pictures and not a single other person was there so I snapped a couple.

10:45amish - walked back towards the Graben, which was just a few blocks away. Stumbled on a church I meant to see yesterday - St. Peter's Church. Very beautiful inside. Went down the street to the other Jewish museum. This one was more of a collection or history. They had thousands of things that had been collected and they let you go up into their archives and see a lot of it. Ok it was nice, but it was kind of like a smaller Jewish version of the Hapsburg silver museum I saw yesterday. So, kind of boring. In fact the whole thing was kind of boring, but there were some pretty things to see. They had a café with what they called "Real bagels" and also matzah ball soup…LOL. Too bad I wasn't hungry yet.

So, OK. This entire city is closed on Sunday. Supermarkets, the vast majority of the stores on the touristy streets, even some cafes. Amazing!!!!! I mean, even all supermarkets?!? So I wandered around for a while and started getting hungry.

12:15pm - found an Italian café right off the Karntnersrasse that had cheap pastas and stuff. Had spaghetti and ordered a thing off the page of pizzas that said garlic and olives. I had no idea what it was going to be but it sounded good. Turns out it was just pizza dough baked with tons of garlic and olives and a little too much dried oregano lol. All very tasty and total of 10 euros including small tip (I drank tap water) - a little too much food but ah well :)

1:00pm - came back to the hotel for a few min just to sit in the a/c for a while and grab some cold water from the fridge. The place I was going next was on a tram that left right at my hotel, so it was convenient to come back here just for a few.

1:15pm - took the tram 71 all the way to the Zentralfriedhof - the big cemetery. I knew to take the tram to the 2nd entrance (it stops at at least 3 of the entrances, maybe the 4th too). Took about a half hour to get there. But holy crap this place is HUGE. So I got a plan, wandered around, found the musicians (Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, Brahms, etc.). Walked around a little more. Passed a section for kids :( went into the church, which was so huge and quiet that if someone hit a chair or something, it sounded all through the whole church. Very creepy.

Walked over to the old Jewish section and it was interesting how the place changed. As soon as you got to those groups, the grounds weren't kept as well, and there were a lot more ruined graves :( I'd explain more of what I saw but there were some signs and they were in German.

I took pictures of the musicians I recognized (and one I didn't), I know there are other "famous" people buried all over the place in there but I either didn't know where they were or didn't recognize any of the names.

3:20pmish - left through gate 1 and caught the tram back, it didn't seem to take as long this time but I don't know why. I'm feeling very tired so just going to chill at the hotel for a while. There is a restaurant I had read about on TripAdvisor and wanted to try but I don’t have their address written down and don't feel like paying a euro for 15 minutes just to look it up so maybe I will just go tomorrow or the night after. Plus I don't even know if they're open on Sunday.

5:15pm - got the address of the restaurant I wanted and set out. Took the Tram 2 a couple stops and got off, to find a little square with a statue and some of the old city walls (the ring road used to be the old city walls, which were torn down and the grand ring was built). And there was a little model of the old town with the cathedral towering over everything, kinda neat. Found the restaurant named Purstner (with the .. over the u of course) on a quiet little side street. Looked nice and thankfully were open, but a little too early and not quite hungry enough to eat. So I wandered the back streets on this side of the cathedral a bit - hadn't been there before. Seemed nicer and quieter, lots of little restaurants that could be an option for a couple days.

5:50ishpm - time to eat, went back and got a table. Very dark but adorably cute and Austrian inside - dark wood, nice decorations, etc. The waiters were all wearing those long shorts and tall socks that you imagine German or Austrian people wearing in the old times. The waiter was very nice, and the menu had English descriptions despite it not being particularly touristy, hurrah! I had heard a lot about the local wine called "Gruner Veltliner" and it was the house wine so I got a glass (well it was .25l actually). Plus it's white wine and I don't hate it as much as red wine so I figure, when in austria and when FINALLY eating real Austrian food…lol. So for a "nice" restaurant, it was fairly inexpensive, most dishes under 15 euros. I had something with an incredibly long name that I told the guy there was NO WAY I could pronounce - basically it was pan roasted chicken breast with herbs and rice. It was served in a little metal pan (like a little paella pan). Very cute. And very tasty. Was totally stuffed and the wine was not that bad (for wine ;)). Total including tip was 17.40, not bad at all for a "nice" restaurant recommended highly by locals, etc. After I ate I sat for a while in the nice atmosphere and looked in my Vienna materials to try to plan my next couple days here.

7:00pm - conveniently enough, just a few blocks away is the Zanoni gelato place ;) so I got my 2-euro flower cone (I noticed the name - Blumentote - again with the .. over the u), tonight I had chocolate, coffee, and Nutella. Yum, of course. It's funny because their regular cone with 2 flavors is 1.80 (cup 1.90), so for like 10-20 cents more, you get much more ice cream and an extra flavor. Interesting. Maybe it's just their gimmick but it's tasty so I ain't complaining (OK I'll complain about the fact that I hate eating ice cream from cones and made a mess, but not about the taste or the price ;)).

7:30pm - walked back and caught the Tram 1 where I had gotten off earlier and took the 2 stops back to the hotel. When I got there, a woman was using the laptop in the lobby (same cost as in my room) and her time ran out apparently just as she was sending (what looked like) a long email. She was so mad. Lol. I mean if it's that important and long you'd think you'd check the clock before hitting the send button no!? Anyway. Will do a little laundry tonight as I have worn the lighter-weight capris and want to have those clean for Venice, which I think will be even hotter and stickier :( Plus since things seem to be drying pretty fast here, they will (hopefully) be dry by the time I need to pack them up in a couple days.