It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This weekend I went on my last European adventure before I leave, and I met up with Rachel in Vienna!

Rachel! (somehow we didn't manage a picture together, whoops)

Vienna was a bit of a random choice. Rachel and I had been trying to find a place to meet up all semester, we bounced around the ideas of Ireland or London or Budapest, but none of the flight times seemed to work out. I had heard about the famous Christmas markets in Vienna, and the flights worked out for both of us, and voila!

I got to Vienna on Friday in the late afternoon and had to make myself busy for a couple hours because Rachel wasn't getting in until a bit later. So I ventured into the Vienna city center to find the Christmas markets I had heard so much about! I ended up going to 2- the biggest one at Rauthausplatz, and then another in the plaza area between 2 of Vienna's museums. I didn't end up finding anything I fell in love with, but it was a lot of fun to just browse around and eat all the delicious food! I had a fried dough thing with garlic on it, corn on the cob, candied almonds and mulled red wine! It was all delicious.

mulled red wine!

They had so many flavors of pretzals!

I went back to the hostel and hung out until Rachel got in around midnight, and then we just sat in the hostel lobby for a couple hours catching up. It was so great to finally see her!

On Saturday we got up decently early and went in search of breakfast. We found a bagel place and they had avocado! I haven't had avocado since I came to Europe, so I was quite pleased with the meal. After that we went to the Shonbrunn Palace, which is where Emperor Franz Josef lived. It reminded me of the Versailles Palace in Paris, but it was quite smaller. There were grounds surrounding the Palace, and another Christmas market in the area in front of the it. Europe's oldest zoo is at the Shonbrunn Palace too, but we didn't have time to go.

The gardens behind the palace

The Shonbrunn Palace

Europe's oldest zoo

After that we ventured into the city center in search of an exhibit Rachel had heard about, all of naked men at the Leopoldo museum. According to the exhibit, females are featured nude in art more often than men, but beginning in the 20th and 21st centuries there are more male representations, and that is what this exhibit was devoted to: "Nackte Manner" or "Nude Men" in German.

In the museum there was also an exhibit of Leopold's private art collection and a showing of Japanese art, which I really enjoyed. After the museum we ventured back out into the cold and went back to the Christmas market at the museum square I went to the night before. Rachel got a present for her family, and we shared some roasted chestnuts. Then we just walked around the city a bit before ending up back at our hostel to regroup before dinner.

We couldn't decide what we wanted to eat so we ended up at an Indian place, but it was delicious! I've missed any sort of Asian cuisine here in Europe. Then we got ready to go out, had a few drinks at the hostel bar and then went to this famous club called flex, which was in a renovated subway station right on the canal. The music was purely a techno beat, which is nothing like I've ever had at clubs in New York or Florence, but Rachel said that's super typical of Germany/Eastern Europe. You totally get lost in the beat and time flies. It was a great night!

Inside Flex

Rachel and I sadly had to part ways at the airport before checking in because we were in different terminals. But I was such a great weekend and I'm so glad we got to see each other, even if it was for such a short time. The last happy surprise of the trip was, when I was sitting at my gate I looked out the window and it was snowing! It's the first time I've seen snow this season, so I spent the rest of the time in the airport listening to Christmas music and feeling very festive. Needless to say it was a great last trip, and I'm ready to make the most of my last two weeks in Florence and get home in time for Christmas!

You can't see the snow really, but it's there!

New thing: Eastern European techno club