A Viennese venture...visitors, visitors everywhere!

So let me just say -- after this weekend and my previous venture in Salzburg, Austria is becoming one of my favorite European destinations! All of my travels there have been so wonderfully pleasant and serene. Again, if it wasn't for that f*&^%$, God-forsaken Euro...

All stress about bad exchange rates aside, I just spent a glorious weekend in Vienna with my friend James (who was visiting me from New York) and it was absolutely amazing! As one Lonely Planet author put it: "If New York is the Big Apple, then Vienna is the Big Wedding Cake." That pretty much sums it up, and I can't think of a better way to express it than that. The architecture is all in delicate pastels, very imperial and gilded -- it reminded me of a mix of Munich and Paris. Friends who'd visited it previously said it was very similar to Prague, but I have to disagree. I can't say I like one city more than the other as they aren't really comparable (try comparing, say, San Diego to Philadelphia, for instance).

On the first day, at James' insistance, we saw a concert composed of W.A. Mozart pieces and Johann Strauss waltzes at the Kunsalon Wien. It was a bit touristy...okay, so VERY touristy, but once you weaved yourself out of the Japanese tour groups clogging the lobby, it was a good show. Included in the set were a couple of ballet performances, and these were easily my favorite parts of the show. For dinner, I had an amazing goulash with homemade spaetzle...and you can literally taste the Hungarian influence, as it was considerably more spicy than any Czech goulash I've tasted.

The second day, we hit Schloss Schonbrunn (the famous Hapsburg summer residence palace and birthplace of the infamous Marie-Antoinette) which was absolutely gorgeous and not-to-be-missed. The interior was typically baroque (a bit on the gaudy side in certain rooms), but the gardens were just spectacular...pictures can't do them justice. A wonderful panorama of the city from the gardens was just icing on the cake (if we're keeping with the "Big Wedding Cake" analogy).

After spending several hours in the gardens, we returned to the city, where we took the opera house tour. This was equally spectacular and I'm especially glad we did this, as it was different than the usual castle/art museum/old town experiences that you can get in most European capitals. Of course, in Curtis-land, a trip is never REALLY complete without some sort of amusement park ride. So, in the evening, we rode the 100-year-old Ferris wheel in the Volksprater Fun Park.

On Sunday morning, James convinced me to visit one more museum before I departed for Prague, so we opted for the Imperial Apartments in the Hofburg Palace. With its gilded rooms, it was kind of like an extension of Schonnbrunn, albeit in the city center, but interesting nonetheless.

Of particular interest here was the Sisi Museum, dedicated to Kaiserin Elizabeth I who came to power towards the end of the Hapsburg Empire (during the late 19th century). The Bavarian-born "Empress Sisi" has a sort of Princess Diana/Eva Peron-type vibe about her: powerful woman, gorgeous looks, chic fashion sensibility, highly criticized during her lifetime by the media and peers, and a tragic death in Switzerland that cemented her icon status. Yet another of those interesting things that they never teach you about in history class (of which there are many).

Quick side note: one REALLY important thing I'm learning here in Europe: the value of a dollar...and how to budget my money (and still enjoy myself in the process). If you'd have asked me 5 years ago to travel on a budget, I don't think I would've been able to do it.

So that's my Vienna experience in a nutshell. My friend Mikki arrives today, bearing goodies from the U.S. I guess his visit in January wasn't enough (as another author said, "Mother Prague has claws...") We're thinking of renting a car and taking a day trip in the Czech countryside over the weekend.