♫ I'll Dance with You in Vienna ♫ (Reprise)

So I messed up the days a little bit - the previous post talked about the National Library, but we actually went there on our second day in Vienna. It's no matter, though, because I can easily spend this entire post raving about Volksgarten and Vienna's best cordon bleu schnitzel and apfelstrudel. This morning we work up tired... by the time we were all ready, it was 10:25 and the hostel breakfast ends at 10:30. We were those people... much to the dismay of some of the hostel staff who seemed to make quite a show of cleaning up all the tables around us. Ugh, whatever, we needed food and we cleaned up after ourselves and still weren't the last people out of there. Our tour guide yesterday had mentioned a flea market that takes place on Saturdays near the hostel so we decided to check that out and maybe pick up cool souvenirs... I was thinking it'd be like a craft fair sort of thing... boy was I wrong. It kind of looked like overturned dumpsters with people sifting through to find something worth anything more than trash. Okay maybe it wasn't that bad... but at best, it looked like the world's largest garage sale. Piles of junk everywhere... and massive crowds (watch your wallet). We quickly realized that we wouldn't be getting any souvenirs there, so we moved on.

Flea market rubbish

A hunting bust (this kind of looks like our goat friend we met in Rothenberg...) and some running shoes anyone?

Besides the flea market, this post really is just going to be about schnitzel, strudel and roses... These are a few of my favorite things ♫ ♫ We walked to the cafe that was supposed to have some of the best apple strudel in Vienna according to our walking tour guide from the day before. The cafe was called Cafe Tirolerhof... and we have no idea if this was the best apple strudel in Vienna... but it was darn good! Viennese cafes have... I don't know how else to describe it, other than an entire culture all of their own. When you go to a cafe, you seat yourself... and you don't wave to the servers... they'll just come to you when they feel like it. If they're rude, that's normal! They're all rude... that's part of the culture. So we sat down at Cafe Tirolerhof and ordered Weiner Melange, strudel and Sacher Torte. Weiner Melange (Viennese blend) is like a larger cappuccino; it was described to us as coffee with steamed milk, but it was strong like it was made with espresso (that's a good thing!). I don't think you can get weak coffee anywhere in Europe, anyway. The story with the Sacher Torte is that it's a famous, traditional Viennese cake that you can get at most all the cafes in Vienna. However, the fanciest (and most expensive) place you can get it is the Sacher Hotel Cafe. All the reviews and opinions that we've heard and read said that this was an expensive and overrated place to get this mediocre cake... so we didn't bother. But we had to try it! Surprise... it was mediocre. Lol. It's this dry chocolate cake with apricot spread between the layers. It was fine. The strudel was far better! 

Feasting on cakes and strudel

Emily ordered a traditional yeast dumpling with plum filling covered in poppyseeds and swimming in butter. Sounds weird, but this thing was AMAZING. I looked it up later and found out it's called an Austrian Knodel (which is just dumpling). We didn't take any pictures of it because we all ate it before we could get a camera out... but here it what it looked like from a picture online (yes it's like as big as your face):

Afterward, we walked about 15 minutes to Volksgarten which is probably my favorite spot in any city that I've been to. There are thousands and thousands of roses of all colors and sizes... just as beautiful... if not more beautiful than I remember it. As you would expect, there was live music playing: two guys playing accordions wearing those crazy horse head masks. Besides the goofy masks, the music set a really nice ambiance for the whole garden. I tried to get Andy to prance through the roses like he did three years ago but he refused... I guess our prancing days are over. The boys parked themselves in a shady spot under a big tree while Emily and I wandered around appreciating all the hard work that went into the beauty of this garden (I hear roses are not easy to take care of). 

FLASHBACK: Andy prances, 2013

Another FLASHBACK: Sitting pretty, 2013

Sitting pretty, 2016 :D (same shoes!)

Boys like to stop and smell the roses too

Even Eric. 

Gorgeous shot with City Hall in the backdrop

The pictures don't do it justice

The perfect rose

I could have sat here all day... and I tried. They had to drag me out. When we were wandering around the area, I made sure we walked through the rose garden as many times as possible. This was actually when we went to the National Library... but I talked about that in the previous post! So skip ahead to dinner and we're on our final adventure of both of our epic European adventures, 2016 edition: the best schnitzel in Vienna. A little background: Emily and I planned our itineraries so that we could meet for two days in Vienna before flying back to Chicago. Their adventures took them to the Black Forest and Freiberg, Munich and Füssen, Nuremberg, Prague and finally, Vienna. They even managed to not accidentally take a hike down the mountain on a mud trail in Füssen, like we did (reference my old post called Off the Beaten Path), I'm so proud :P All of our adventures over the past ten days have all led up this final one... Vienna's best schnitzel: Schnitzelwirt. Walking there took us through a pretty cool shopping district that we had never been to (Neubaugasse) which had plenty more busking musicians to enjoy on yet another vibrant Viennese pedestrian street (there are so many). Andy always throws euros in the jars of the buskers playing the most interesting music :) He's even been known to buy a CD from time to time (Barcelona, Parc Guell guitarist). 

Someone let the secret out about the best schnitzel because there were no tables available outside!! Determined, we paced the block a few times... and then loitered until someone left. It took an awkward amount of time, but it was worth it. As soon as we saw plates of food go by, we knew it would be. There was plenty of seating inside, but it's always so hot and stuffy inside restaurants. Outside is the prime location and worth waiting for. Feast your eyes on our last European dinner before going home... perhaps it was the best :)

Cordon Bleu Schnitzel... basically it's a pork chop pounded thin, filled with cheese and ham, coated and fried. It doesn't get much better than this... haha. 

And that wraps up our trip... this is where I leave it... in Vienna, the city of love, life, music and schnitzel. One last really cool thing I want to mention! They changed all their pedestrian walk signs to be gay, lesbian and straight... which I thought was adorable. We saw all the combinations but here are pictures of the female couple pedestrian signs! We love the little hearts... this city makes my heart happy. 

Photo courtesy of Emily... it's somewhat questionable to be standing in the street taking pictures of the crossing signs before actually getting out of the intersection, lol. I'm glad she did it though!

<3 <3

Once we were back at the hostel, we had a drink at the local bar next door, since they had tables outside, before retreating into the hot hostel bar and amusing ourselves with people playing giant Jenga. We once again stayed up too late and sadly packed our bags because we had to leave for the airport at about 4:30am. 

Auf Wiedersehen, Wein... und Deutschland. Until next time... and there is always a next time.