Vienna's First District (and Better than an Iranian Restaurant)

Patrick had a meeting with his advisor Monday afternoon, so we went into Vienna's First District in the morning. This worked out well because Josie and I still had valid 24-hour passes in the morning and because a tremendous thunderstorm rolled in later in the afternoon (completely shutting down all Eurovision activities for the evening). 

Speaking of which, who's got two thumbs and accidentally planned a trip to Vienna during Eurovision and over Mother's Day? 

It's me! 

Really Josie and I were going off of cheap airfare, which meant that we had to fly as close to the end of the semester as possible, which meant that I flew out the day after my semester ended. That sounded good in theory as well...when we initially made these plans. It felt a little less good when I was in the middle of finishing up all my final projects. 

And we actually managed to get tickets to see Eurovision live (well, a rehearsal anyway) so that's today's activities. 

Anyway, the first district, or the Innere Stadt is the city centre, where all the administrative buildings and things are...and it's also where a big Eurovision village is set up, where the opening ceremonies were on Sunday, and...let's just say it's been bustling!

Andrew and I visited downtown Vienna in April of 2006 while on a 14-hour layover on our way to spend our summer in Jordan (also to secure cheap tickets, I'm sure). I only remembered that we'd shared some fries (and didn't understand how to validate our transport tickets), but apparently we had pizza and ice cream as well (good for us). That is to say, it's been a hot minute since I've been here (20 years, to be precise). A few things were familiar to me, but I was glad to have a knowledgable guide in Patrick. 

I believe Patrick lives in the sixteenth district, which is actually much closer to the first district than you might assume—only the eighth district separates it from the first district. We left his apartment in the morning when Hadis needed to leave for work since we were all going the same direction.

Here's one of his streets with gardens filled with allium blossoms: 

Across the street from this is a little street market (that goes on and on for blocks and blocks, so perhaps not so little). 

Patrick said to pay attention to the crossing lights around Vienna, which were installed specifically for Eurovision in 2015 (the last time Austria hosted) to promote diversity and traffic safety. This one has two people crossing together:

Here you can see a large area cordoned off in the Rathausplatz for a live-streaming area, so that's the Rathaus in the background:

Here's a quick view of a fountain in the Volksgarten:

And a little tree-lined walkway: 

Here's the parliament building:

And here's Hofburg Palace, the front balcony of which is infamous for being the location where Hitler stood and announced the annexation of Austria in 1938:

Debates continue about what to even do about the balcony. No one has been allowed onto it (except for Elie Wizel once to give a speech about how the balcony is "nothing," not a symbol, not anything, and how change has to come from below the balcony, never from the balcony) but some wonder if it shouldn't be reclaimed for noble purposes (not, like, world domination or anything like that). Still others think it should be opened for tours (I...am skeptical of that). 

There isn't any sort of educational plaque near the balcony currently, so it's already open to be mis-interpreted (and valorized) by neo-Nazi groups. So..,anyway...perhaps something should be done. But what...is the question.

Patrick likes to brag that he attends Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (the Academy for Fine Arts Vienna) while Hitler applied for and was rejected from the school...twice. So he's better than Hitler.

I told him that's a rather low bar he's set for himself.

Here's a famous statue of Archduke Charles from the courtyard:

It was created by Anton Dominik Fernkorn, who was the first sculptor to ever cast a bronze equestrian statue with only two points of contact (most have at least three). 

Here's Josie photobombing a selfie I took in the Museum Quarter:

We eventually made our way to Stephensplatz, where St. Stephen's Cathedral is. The ground for this cathedral was broken in 1137, which somehow is mind-blowing to me, and it was completed in 1579. Sometimes we (meaning "my church") likes to marvel that the Salt Lake Temple took 40 years to complete, with ground being broken in 1853 and construction being completed in 1893. But I suppose that's nothing compared to the 400 years it took for St. Stephen's Cathedral to be completed (though technically the initial structure was completed in 1160 with an expansion taking the next 400 years). Wikipedia also notes that various reconstruction projects at St. Stephen's have been ongoing throughout history...which...can also be said of the Salt Lake Temple. 

I first visited St. Stephen's in 2006 when Andrew and I had a layover in Vienna on our way to Amman, Jordan. We actually went inside that time!

Nancy in St. Stephen's Cathedral in 2006

2006

When we were there there was a bunch of scaffolding up and the outer walls were being cleaned, an effort that appears to have paid off well, even 20 years later (or perhaps it's had a few scrub downs since then). You can see how white the tower (spire?) on the left is in 2026 (below) compared to 2006 (above):

2026

Here's a picture of me and Patrick outside of St. Stephen's:

And a few more pictures just of the building, which is really such a wonder. The roof gets me every time—it's so intricate!

Rather than going inside St. Stephen's, Patrick ducked us into some smaller chapels nearby (though technically the main nave is free, so we could have...I wonder if it was closed while they were setting up for whatever event they had going on).

There was this small—incense-filled—chapel tucked in a little alleyway: 

Mozart once stayed in a little place out back, apparently:

I can't quite remember where it was though. Patrick led us through a maze of streets (I had a slight obsession of the door-within-a-door concept, which Patrick dubbed "door-ception"; I originally saw this at the fortress in Salzburg and thought it was a clever way to allow people through while not wasting the energy needed to let a whole carriage through but I see that it continues to be convenient today, allowing pedestrian traffic while closing areas off to cars).

...eventually leading us to his favourite little fresco of a cow wearing glasses and evidently playing backgammon:

He then took us to the Jesuit church, near some University of Vienna buildings where he once presented a paper. There was an organist rehearsing while we were visiting, which was a treat (even if the piece they were rehearsing was a little bit...odd).

Josie wanted to be sure we stopped by Judenplatz, so we made our way there next. Stopping by a bookstore, where no ice cream was allowed...

And the Artis International Cinema, where foreign films (including American ones) are screened in their native languages.

Josie was upset to see that a tour group had parked themselves near the monument in Judensplatz—and many were even sitting on the monument itself (outside of the frame in the picture below, though you can see a shadow on the lower left corner). You're not supposed to sit on the monument...

It's meant to be shelves filled with books (spines facing in) representing all the life stories we will never get to read of the "65,000 Viennese Jews who were murdered during the Nazi regime." 

Very solemn place. 

I will never understand how people could (and can) ever rationalize (even cheer) such...sickening...actions.

The solemnity of Judenplatz made our next stop all the weirder...because we decided we were hungry and should find some brunch...turned the corner and ended up at JP Pancakes (Drahtgasse 2, 1010 Wien, Austria), which was the pinkest, most fantastical little restaurant ever. 

It was my first time having Japanese pancakes (which I guess are like a souffle—extremely fluffy pancakes). This particular restaurant was a popular stop. When we arrived there was a Eurovision participant busy eating and Instagramming (more of the latter and less of the former, judging by the state in which she left her plate). Patrick deduced that she was a back-up dancer for Bulgaria (it took a few days, and I assume quite a bit of watching Eurovision, to discover that). 

After she left, the quintet from Portugal walked in and sat down to order pancakes (along with 5 companions—the staff just about fainted when they asked for ten to be seated all at once, but it seemed to work out well). Josie doesn't like this picture of her, but...behind her all all those Eurovision stars (or at least performers, I know Portugal was eliminated already—their song was lovely but not Eurovision enough). 

The pancakes were delightful, I thought. Just the kind of thing to send a picture of to Andrew to make him jealous (so I did). 

"Are those pancakes!?!?!!" he responded. 

Indeed! I thought they tasted about as yummy as they looked. But perhaps I was just extra hungry because Patrick and Josie didn't seem quite as impressed. 

I had an Apfelstrudel, which came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, a sprig of mint, and some delicious cinnamon-infused whipped cream.

Josie got pistachio raspberry (pistazien himbeere):

And Patrick got schokolade yuzu (maybe...if I remember correctly?) which was a white chocolate/citrus flavour, speckled with pomegranates and topped with mint (and in the background you can see his fancy glass of apple juice):

The walls were decorated with neon pink signs (with very interesting claims about their food):

Overall we were glad to have chosen such a swanky place for our brunch—it seemed to be where all the cool kids were going (or at least where the Portuguese Eurovision competitors chose to have their brunch as well—and they probably actually ate their lunch, unlike Miss Bulgaria).

We breezed by a few other places, like the oldest firehall (in Vienna? Not sure; it's still in service though it's also a museum):

A quick view of Votivkirche from the metro:

And a quick stop at the University of Vienna (where Hadis goes to school):

Here's the Libenberg monument out front:

Patrick said that the story goes that...any family that can work together to raise up a family member to wear the crown of laurels the angel is holding can become the new royal family and rule over Austria—the catch being that you'd have to gather all of your family to work together to reach the crown without arguing. We talked about that idea for a while and, well, it seems trickier than at first glance. 

Would so-and-so work with so-and-so?

"What about [these relatives]?" Patrick asked (we have some very interesting characters in our extended family).

"I'm out!" Josie said flatly (but jokingly). 

So...not as easy as it sounds to reach that crown (and the story probably isn't legally binding, anyway, so I don't actually recommend attempting to being the next ruling family of Austria this way).

Hadis's phone wakes her up with the weather report and so she warned us about thunderstorms in the afternoon. We could see storm clouds gathering behind the Rathaus here and mostly beat the storm home, but, boy, was it ever a doozy when it arrived!

Traffic signal near parliament

Here's a couple of things about the metro that Patrick shared...

1) "not" means emergency (or more like "need" or "distress"), which he thinks is funny when it is paired with things like "stop" or "brake" because to English ears it sounds like "zug notstop" would mean the train isn't stopping when really this is the emergency ("not") brake.

2) If you're looking for a newer, air-conditioned wagon, just look for a little _ beside the arrival time because that's what the _ indicates. 

Anyway, we made it home mostly dry to the wonderful aroma of dinner being prepared. Hadis made sour chicken (morghe torsh) for us, which is a walnut-pomegranate dish. It was delicious!

Here's the rain pouring outside while lightning flashed and thunder boomed—all the outdoor Eurovision events had to be cancelled because the storm was too dangerous (and wet) to allow for outdoor anything:

Here's the beautiful table Hadis set:

And the most delicious tadig (which I really need to learn how to make):

I neglected to take any pictures of the actual meal, but here's a picture of Hadis and Patrick feeling satisfied after we'd all cleaned our plates):

It was a good, busy day out on the town! We had originally planned to go back out that evening to see the city at night...but...as I mentioned...the storm had other plans for us, so we just stayed in and enjoyed each other's company. 

We played Phase 10 earlier in the trip (perhaps my first day there?) and while we were playing brought up the game UNO, which Hadis had never played. Josie and I saw it while we were at the grocery store one day so we grabbed it and broke it out on this rainy evening. It was lovely to get to just stay in and visit with Hadis and Patrick (rather than bustling about the city doing tourist-y stuff, though that was also fun).

(And if it wasn't clear from the title...because I'm not quite sure that I've managed to write into the title I decided on when I began...but it's late and I'm jet-lagged...Hadis's meal at home was better than going out, in my opinion. She's a wonderful cook!)