Rainbow Child

Oh, silly me! I forgot to tell you a very important detail: I love Kürbiscremesuppe!!!! I didn’t know such a soup existed, but once I tried it, I became an addict! Therefore, Marianne took me to a Kürbis Fest on Sunday morning, somewhere outside Vienna, on a beautiful sunlit hill, where there were a lot of kids with kites in the air and a lot of Kürbis

Kürbis

We took the bus just for a few stops, then we walked, took pictures, enjoyed a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The last 3 days there were kind of sad. The feeling that ‘I’ll soon be leaving, though I feel so good here’ kind of bugged me. Stefan cooked in the evenings and I was so surprised to see that he could make even the simplest of foods to taste damn special And we spent one afternoon reading, which was more than words can say. I really missed reading with someone

And on Monday we went typically Austrian cakes eating. We were a happy loud group and they took me to this very fancy restaurant or whatever, where I tasted some of the bestest cakes ever!!!

The next day I went alone to Belvedere Schloss and, of course, cried when I saw the Klimt exhibition. And I kept returning to see Judith, which I think impressed me the most. Why? I have no idea, but I definitely want to see it again. In the evening we had time for a little get-together, drank 1 1/2 beers, said goodbye to Marianne and Maria and went home.

The last day was so bitter-sweet, I don’t even wanna talk about it.

Ps. I already miss you, guys! Thanks for everything!

The weekend started with Marianne taking me to KunstHaus and Hundertwasser Haus. The KunstHaus was really nice, but the tears came when I found myself standing in front of Hundertwasser Haus. I´m sorry, but art moves me to tears. Well, not exactly every kind of art, but you get the picture.

Teh love

And where I take the metro from Stefan, you can see the factory (?) designed by Hundertwasser. Stefan said that they burn the garbage there and use the energy that results for heating and hot water, a thing which I find totally awesome!

And speaking of loves, Manner Schnitten are incredibly good! Marianne´s parents are crazy and they bought a HUGE box only for us

Marianne took me to this really nice tea shop – Haas & Haas – and ofc I couldn´t help myself and bought lots of tea Then she left me in the centre and she went to her classes and I just wandered around aimlessly. I discovered an English bookstore – it wasn´t much, but I bought the last Harry Potter for only 5€ and I was sooo happy about that Then I entered another bookstore and bought 2 posters with cats and I think the nice lady there appreciated my efforts to speak German, cause she made a special discount for me

Aaaand, on the way home, I took the metro in the wrong direction *oops!* and ended at Kettenbrückengasse at the biggest Naschmarkt (flea market) they have. It was wow! Besides a lot of crappy stuff, you could find nice glasses, scarves, even chairs and antique furniture. It was the first flea market I´ve seen, so that´s where my enthusiasm comes from. It was quite and experience and maybe I´ll find such a market in Bucharest as well.

Saturday night we went to a party in somebody´s flat and it was nice. We didn´t socialize much, but we had our group and we had lots of laughs. And the vodka was really good And on Sunday night we went to a pub called Klub Ost, which was ok, but a bit too Balkan, a bit too like home for me. Austrians are nice and didn´t feel the need to help me improve my German so the conversations were carried in good old English language

The way back home was great: we were like to crazy girls, laughing all the time, running a bit not to freeze to death, jaywalking. Yeah, I love my Marianne

I have no idea what I actually did these last days, but I know that I´m dead tired. All this sightseeing and the really cold weather have really got to me.

On Thursday Jen, Stefan and I went around the city centre and I couldn´t help staring at those incredibly beautiful buldings! They were like WOW! And all Vienna is like that! Wherever you look you see only that kind of beautiful imperial architecture. You cannot not fall in love with such a bohemian city. I thought Athens was packed with tourists – well, I think I was wrong. The centre of Vienna is absolutely FULL with them. I don´t know how the poor Viennese cope with this. I think I would be really pissed having to live in such a touristic city. To cut the story short, I go to see the main buildings around there, bought a map, walked here and there and went back home.

In the evening we went to the Teitur concert, which really rocked. They were so so good! And the Austrian public was so civilised: no drunk people, nobody pushing you or getting in front of you. Yeah, it was a laid-back concert. And, cause the world is such a bloody small place, we sat next to a girl from the Faroe Island who knew the guys in the band. Pretty cool! I have a Teitur canvas bag that I´m really proud of, a little souvenir from a really good concert.

Friday was museums day. First stop: Albertina. I had to stay at this enormous queue and I thought I was never going to make it inside, but the staff from the Albertina was really well prepared for situations like that and I made it inside after only half an hour. The Van Gogh exibition was the main attraction and that´s why there were so many people wanting to visit the museum out of the sudden. But the waiting was worth it: I chatted with a nice Austrian couple, though I was lazy and spoke in English and then I got to see so many paintings by Van Gogh that I hadn´t known before and found really nice. Very different was the Contemporary Art Exhibition. I think I enjoyed it more than the Van Gogh one The artists I found most interesting are: Elke Krystufek, Franz Zadrazil and Gunter Damisch.

Next in line was Leopold Museum from the MuseumsQuartier. Schiele, Klimt and Schad under the same roof – for me that mean cultural orgasm! Well, in fact, for the majority of Klimt´s paintings I have to go to Belvedere Palace, which I´m going to do on Monday. Anyways, that museum is definitely a must see. I´ve got shivers going down my spine when I remeber how it felt being there The other 2 museums – MuMoK and another one whose name I forgot, were really boring in comparison to Leopold. So, yeah, if you go to Vienna and have time for only one museum, that should be Leopold

Visiting the museums took me all day – from about 12 till 5 and a half, and then I had to rush to Stefan´s, pack some clothes and move to Marianne´s. Stefan´s instructions were pretty clear and I didn´t have problems finding the house I was supposed to arrive at. Well, I know it´s not a big deal, but I´m really proud of myself whenever I manage to get from point A to point B without having to ask for directions along the way and without going in circles or in the wrong direction. So when I found myself in front of Marianne´s block I was damn happy and proud

Her parents are incredibly nice and they cooked without meat specially for me. And, believe it or not, I actually spoke in German with them. Of course, I stopped and looked at Marianne when I didn´t know the words or I just said them in English, but it´s the first time in my entire life that I´ve spoken German outside school. It´s damn hard to find the right words, but I think that with a bit of practice, I could actually have a normal, simple conversation with a native. Trust me, that would be a really big thing for me.

We went to Pia´s and I met a lot of crazy Austrians there Man, they talk soooo fast, couldn´t understand much of their conversation. But I enjoyed their company and was happy to see redhair Pia again *I so wish I had her hair colour!!!* They went to a club, but 3 of us decided to go to a bar instead. So we talked both in English and in German, drank good Austrian beer and had a very peacefully and happy night – a prologue to a very nice Wochenende

I slept at Jen´s and we got up at 5:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, we arrived way to early at the airport and had to wait for more than 2h for our plane to take off. The Baneasa Airport is really small and crowded – not exactly my kind of place. Knowing I had panic attacks while flying, I took a pill to calm myself and it really worked. Not that I didn´t think about crashing and dying, but at least tears weren´t running down my cheeks. And I was really sleepy, so Jen was left with her good friend, The Book, cause I dozed most of the time.

Vienna was really foggy when we landed so my first thought was that I was going to freeze to death here. Actually, it´s not that cold, so I think I´m going to make it. Maria, Jen´s friend, picked us up from the airport and took us to her place. We stopped to buy some food, meet Stefan and spent some quality time together playing some board game I totally sucked at Maria´s apartment is really nice, in this beautiful building, the kind of building I dream of living in one day.

Then I went with Stefan to his place – totally different from Maria´s, still nice, but so very modern. We took the train there and I got a chance to watch the buildings as we were going by. Uhm, they were so beautiful! And mind you, there were only some common neighbourhoods I saw. One thing is for sure: I already love Vienna even without knowing it.

Stefan is a really good cook so he made pasta, then I met his girlfriend, his cousin and his girlfriend also came back home, so now we´re a happy big party here The bad part is they speak some kind of dialect and I can´t understand much of what they´re saying when they´re speaking to one another. I´ve promised myself to speak German while I´m here and I´m going to start with it tomorrow, when I´ll be going to town to explore the Innerstadt.

Ps. I hate Stefan´s Mac!!!