Wien (that would be Vienna for all you non-German speakers)

So I just got back from Vienna...wonderful place, but I never would have thought to go there if I didn't have friends living there. It was also nice to get my personal space bubble back for a few days (Austrians value that a little more than Italians), though I had to trade my ability to speak some of the language for it. Backing up a bit, my flight from Rome to Vienna on Thursday was delayed, but no official airport person announced it; it just kind of happened. We sat there and waited and waited and waited...and NO ONE complained. People just kind of talked and had a good time. I feel that this was distinctly Italian, or at least southern-european. I would have complained out loud (believe me, I was thinking it all), but I couldn't express that very well in a language that anyone else there would understand well. I tried talking to people around me, and there wasn't much English goin on. I was looking around at people's passports to see if there were any Americans or anyone from another English-speaking country, but I didn't see any. I hope I wasn't being obvious and creepy, but no one seemed to notice. Haha... sooo when I finally got into Vienna, Kristy met me at the airport and we met Kim and another one of their friends for an amazing dinner of Austrian goodness. I had mushroom goulash and knoedle (i have no idea if that's how it's spelled, but they were bread dumplings). All in all, very satisfying.
The next day, I walked around downtown by myself while Kristy was at work. The first thing I did was find a Starbucks, as there are zero Starbucks in Italy, or any other place that sees the value in putting a drink in a paper cup to take away. After enjoying over-priced hot chocolate, I went to the Hofberg palace next door (Now I understand why they put places like McDonalds next to beautiful, historic monuments like the Pantheon...tourists like me would never find them otherwise). I saw and took illegal pictures of the imperial china collection, which sounds rather dull but was really impressive. I also went to the Sissi Museum, which is about Empress Elisabeth back in the 19th Century, and to the royal apartments. The other part of my day was spent trying to take pictures of myself in front of monuments and churches and going to H&M in search of flip flops to use in hostel showers. No luck on that front but I did find many other goodies at H&M, and I had to make myself leave the store before I drained my bank account. Oh wait, that's probably already happened! (just kidding, parents). Then Kristy and I went to Kim's and made taco salad. Mmmm...no pasta! I'm skipping over alot, but it was a long weekend, and there are too many details to write them all.
On Saturday, Kristy and I went to the summer palace, Schönbrunn. The name means "beautiful fountain," and there is a rather beautiful fountain behind the palace. There's also a really beautiful...structure (I don't know what else to call it; it's not a gazebo) up the hill behind the palace where the royal family used to have summer picnics. It was cold and raining, so Kristy and I had a picnic under there too. Then we took a bus to Kahlenberg, which is kind of out in the country. It's up on a really big hill, and there's a great view of the whole city from there. It was still cloudy, but you could see most of the city. We ate potato salad at the cafe up there; throw out your usual ideas about potato salad, because Austrian potato salad is totally different. It takes the name much more literally. There are some cold slices of potato in vinegar with a special kind of lettuce on top.
We capped off the evening with The Sound of Music. How can you go wrong watching that while you're actually in Austria? Pretty much can't. It was great. Anyway, those were the basics of the weekend. It was tons o fun, so if you're ever anywhere near Vienna, definitely make the trip out there; it's totally worth it. But learn some German first.