I arrived on Saturday morning, after having flown all night from Shanghai and changed planes in Munich. Samantha had class all day on Saturday, so I took a taxi to my hotel, dropped off my bags, and wandered around the Westbanhof area in which my hotel and Samantha's apartment are located. Inside Westbanhof, the major train station in the western part of Vienna, there is a mall, so I was able to do a little shopping and have another breakfast, since they woke us at 3 a.m. (Vienna time) for breakfast on the plane. I found my way to McDonald's because there was free WiFi, so I could check my email and Facebook, but it was too noisy for a Facetime call to Chris, so I went back to my hotel lobby for that. The woman at the desk was very precise that I could not check in until 2 p.m., so I wandered along Mariahilferstrasse, near my hotel, which is one of the main shopping areas in Vienna. When I got into my room and unpacked, I had time for a little nap before catching up with Samantha for dinner. Given that Shanghai is 7 hours ahead of Vienna, I'm having a little trouble staying awake very late in the evening, not like that's a new problem for me. 
On Sunday, Samantha had no classes, so we spent the day walking around downtown Vienna. The architecture is incredible - what a beautiful city. Even though every morning is very foggy and the weather was quite cool, I had a great time having Samantha show me the sights. Many of the Christmas markets have opened or about to open, so the whole city has a very festive feel. Samantha says that the weather has just recently turn colder, but there has been a lot of rain and fog most of the semester. She has taken the time to explore a lot of the city while she's been here, by herself, with friends, and through the orientation program set up by the study abroad office, so she is pretty knowledgeable about Vienna, as well as some surrounding areas, by now. It sounds like her trips to Krakow, Budapest, Salzburg, and Dublin were a lot of fun. She's going to be going to London to visit Emory friends there after we leave and before her semester ends. I know she feels torn between her desire to go home and see friends and family and stay here and continue to explore Europe. I am so glad she's making the most of her time here.
To start our tour, we took the U-Bahn U-Bahn to
Volktheater. From there, we walked out
at the Museums Quarter and saw the Leopoold Museum, the Mumok, and the museums
in that area. We walked across from the Museum
Quarter to Maria-Theresten Platz, a beautiful square between the identical
buildings that are the Natural History Museum and the Art History Museum where
there is a huge statue honoring Empress Maria Theresa, the mother-in-law of Europe. Maria Theresa was the only female ruler of
the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of
Habsburg. She had 16
children, including Marie Antoinette of France.
We walked through the square and
on to the Heldenplatz, which is the
public space in front of Hofburg Palace.
From the Palace, we could see the Rathaus (City Hall). The Palace is lovely and Samantha explained
how the original plan was to fill the Heldenplatz with palace buildings on both
sides, but construction wasn’t completed before the end of the Habsburg
dynasty.
The market was very
traditional and full of all kinds of lovely Christmas decorations, hand-made
items, crystal, etc. I bought a new hat,
because I found one that fit, and got Samantha some gloves, as it was much
colder than we thought it would be.
Samantha and I also bought some snow globes, for which Vienna is famous.
After wandering through the market, we went into the Wiener Rathauskeller, in the basement of the Rathaus, for a lovely Austrian lunch. The setting was beautiful and we were the only ones in our dining room for a long time, even though we got there at noon. The food wasn’t fantastic – Samantha’s fried chicken was somewhat undercooked - but the hot chocolates were great and it was a lovely break from the cold outside.
After lunch, we walked the Karl-Renner Ring to the
Austrian Parliament building, which is also stunning. All of the architecture in Vienna is
beautiful. We walked on to the U-Bahn
stop, having come full circle through the area, and took the U-Bahn to
Karlsplatz, where the Karlskirche
is. We went inside the Church and up the
elevator to see the top of the inside of the dome. Very pretty paintings on the wall and
beautiful reddish-brownish marble throughout. An Advent Market is being set up in Karlsplatz and will open while we’re in Bologna, so we’ll have to go back when we return to Vienna.
We stopped in a café for a drink – wasser mit gas for me and another hot chocolate for Samantha – and then jumped back on the U-Bahn to go to the Naschmarkt, Vienna’s largest open air market, which is not open on Sundays.
After all this touring, we headed back to Samantha's apartment, which I hadn't seen yet. While small, it is very efficient and quite cozy. She checked on assignments and emails from her teammates for work due in classes on Monday and Tuesday and then we went to a local cafe for a nice dinner. We rounded out the evening watching a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory in my hotel room - always a nice way to unwind at the end of the day. While I was getting too sleepy to stay awake long, she had to return to her apartment and get some reading done before Monday's class. All-in-all, a great introduction to Vienna. I'm excited to see more, whether it's on my own, with Samantha, or with Elizabeth, after she arrives. This is a lovely city and I know we're really going to enjoy our visit here.
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