Well, Joe and I have finally arrived in Vienna, Austria -- 5 hours after originally planned. All is well, the city is beautiful, and our hotel is fantastic. Our original flight itinerary included a two hour layover in Brussels, which turned into almost four hours. Joe and I were relatively unworried, though (more mildly annoyed) -- we are on vacation and really had nothing immediately planned when we got to Vienna. I actually looked forward to searching for some Belgian chocolate at one of the airport stands (I know -- probably didn't have the best selection and was highly overpriced, but I still wanted to try some!).
Since we didn't get settled in our room until the early evening, we sort of took it easy today and leisurely walked around the area surrounding our hotel and grabbed some dinner.
Here are some observations we've made thus far:
1. Vienna has a nice balance of historic and modern architecture that can be seen around the city (poor example below; more pictures to come later).
2. Vienna's public transit system is absolutely amazing and it seems fairly safe to walk around (both in regards to crime and pedestrian safety).
3. The people here are incredibly nice and, in fact, will go out of their way to help you when they can.
4. Even though we haven't tried any authentic Viennese cuisine, it does seem like there is a tremendous amount of cultural diversity in the city. When we first connected to TripAdvisor at our hotel, we saw a variety of restaurants featuring a number of different cuisines proximal to our hotel, including Austrian (obviously), Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, Italian, and French.
We actually decided to try a cute little Italian joint close to our hotel though, even though we'll be in Italy in less than a week. We figured it would be better to try a restaurant that was smallish, relatively inexpensive, but also somewhat crowded, and finally settled on a little pasta and vino joint down the street from us.
I had the most amazing and refreshing drink with my meal, an campari orange (orange juice with campari, a type of liqueur).
More updates to come after we start exploring the city a little more!
Since we didn't get settled in our room until the early evening, we sort of took it easy today and leisurely walked around the area surrounding our hotel and grabbed some dinner.
 |
| The lovely alleyway right outside our hotel. Isn't it just lovely? |
1. Vienna has a nice balance of historic and modern architecture that can be seen around the city (poor example below; more pictures to come later).
2. Vienna's public transit system is absolutely amazing and it seems fairly safe to walk around (both in regards to crime and pedestrian safety).
3. The people here are incredibly nice and, in fact, will go out of their way to help you when they can.
4. Even though we haven't tried any authentic Viennese cuisine, it does seem like there is a tremendous amount of cultural diversity in the city. When we first connected to TripAdvisor at our hotel, we saw a variety of restaurants featuring a number of different cuisines proximal to our hotel, including Austrian (obviously), Middle Eastern, Vietnamese, Italian, and French.
We actually decided to try a cute little Italian joint close to our hotel though, even though we'll be in Italy in less than a week. We figured it would be better to try a restaurant that was smallish, relatively inexpensive, but also somewhat crowded, and finally settled on a little pasta and vino joint down the street from us.
I had the most amazing and refreshing drink with my meal, an campari orange (orange juice with campari, a type of liqueur).
I got a simple pasta dish with fresh mozarella, tomatoes, basil, and arugula, while Joe sampled a few appetizers, a crustini plate, lemon and garlic marinated anchovies (alici marinate), and a baked mixed vegetable dish. It was all delicious!
 |
| Joe is drinking an a light Austrian lager called Stiegl. |
 |
| Joe loved his alici marinate! |
 |
| I devoured this giant pasta plate of deliciousness within minutes. |
No comments:
Post a Comment