Vienna
For the record, if I gained any weight during my travels, it all happened in Vienna. Three things stand out in my memory of Vienna - music, museums, and cake. It seems that no matter where you go in Vienna, the Viennese will not let you forget that they are the home to Mozart as well as other great musicians and they are damn proud of it. I'll be the first to admit that I know all of two or three works by Mozart and am ignorant of most classical music, although I do enjoy it (I just have no idea what I am listening to). I figured that of all places on the planet, Vienna would be an appropriate place to attend my first orchestra, so I showed up to one of the world's finest concert halls, the Musikverein, ready to listen to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and immediately stood out like a sore thumb. Most people were dressed to the nines in full tuxes and evening gowns. I on the other hand, could barely remember the last time I did laundry. After having a good laugh and a few glasses of champagne, the music still sounded amazing.
Vienna has museums for anyone and for anything and it would probably take weeks to see them all. From classical and modern art to natural history and Austrian history to even a museum completely devoted to clocks, there is a museum for any interest.
After spending a whole day touring museums it is easy to get burnt out and need to go get some schnitzel, a beer, and some apple strudel. Schnitzel, a thin piece of deep fried veal, is served all over central and eastern Europe, but only the Germans and Austrians claim to be the inventor of it. Austrians had a more convincing argument so I'm going to assume they were the inventor. It was during my search for some good schnitzel that turned into one of the most memorable meals of my travels. There was one restaurant that was recommended to me many times over that is known for its large portions of schnitzel. The seating there is all communal and so you never know who you may sit by. I ended up sitting between a couple from Jerusalem and a couple from Shanghai. None of us could speak the same language as any of the others, but yet we were laughing our heads off during the entire meal because we all ordered the largest schnitzel any of us have probably seen in our lives. One of the reasons I love traveling abroad is for experiences like this - there is no place in the United States where you can spend a night laughing with people from Jerusalem and Shanghai while not being able to communicate with them all while everyone is eating a 14 inch piece of schnitzel.
As is common in most European cities, Vienna had some gorgeous and very opulent architecture. However, unlike a city such as Budapest for example, there are very view places to step back and admire the beautiful buildings which was somewhat of a shame in my opinion. The streets are very narrow and these buildings seem to be built on top of one another making it hard to appreciate the buildings as a whole or even take a picture of them.
The state opera house. This is where the world's most expensive opera happens every year and where all the spy movies are filmed at.
Located in most of these gorgeous buildings are the famed Vienna coffee houses known for their amazing coffee, cakes, and terrible service. Also, it's hard to forget that it was in these Viennese coffee houses where Nazi ideology grew before WWII since Hitler was actually Austrian and not German.
