Bicycle Jousting

Bicycle Jousting
Originally uploaded by kerrieconover

welcome to the longest day ever

We are at the airport, sitting on the floor because the only waiting areas not at the gate are full of smokers. We were kind of nervous walking around the airport, because we are just outside our gate and have not yet gone through security. Apparently here in vienna, they have security screenings at EACH gate, and they are glassed in, so once you go through, youre stuck in that one waiting area, away from shops, drinks, bathrooms, etc. so we're going to wait a bit longer.

to update from last night:

yesterday was one of our best days here, and was topped off nicely by a great evening. Romy and I relaxed at the hotel for a bit, then decided to go out and grab some food, and then indulge in some ice cream at this old ice cream parlor, called Tichy. For 1.50, I got a triple scoup cone. Yum. We walked across the street to a little park area, and found a group of people gathered. It was kind of interesting, because I think every punk rocker in the area was present. Colored hair, dreadlocks, black clothing, studded belts, etc were all present. An acrobatic performance was going on that was basically a play fight between a guy and probably one of the strongest looking small females I have ever seen. They were really impressive together. This was followed by bicycle jousting. What!? Yes - bicycle jousting. They had modified bikes so that they were twice as high as usual. Each one had 2 frames, one stacked on top of the other. They made jousting polls, and would race towards each other to knock the other off. I had definitely never seen that before.


We barely slept, and the sun came up at about 415am. We got up at 6, and took the train by 7am, and got to the airport at about 815am. Now we're waiting... It is going to be a long day, and I wish we could just teleport home.

Leapin' Doggies!

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Originally uploaded by kerrieconover

These dogs were the gargoyles on the church. I love them!

breakdancers

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Originally uploaded by kerrieconover

These guys were awesome!! They were dancing in front of the Stephanplatz

Fresh veggies

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Originally uploaded by kerrieconover

So many fresh and colorful foods at the Nachmarket

My favorite pizza place in Vienna!

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Originally uploaded by kerrieconover

Pizza places are more common than German/Austrian restaurants here. This one was my favorite!

market day

Today we ventured out to the Naschmarkt where we saw all sorts of fresh foods - vegetables, breads, fish, meat, grains.... and on and on... at the end was a flea market, that looked pretty much like every big flea market I've been to... a bunch of junk that no one wants hahaha. I guess that is universal. We found a great little place to eat though where I indulged in some Goulash that was really delicious, then walked across to another place and split an apple strudel and some sort of other amazing dessert.

We walked up the through the Karlsplatz again, which seems to have been the main landing point for us all week. It's the center of town basically.

The Kärntner Ring area has tons of shops, where we got a few things to take home. We kept walking and found ourselves in the Stephansplatz. There is a huge church there, and tons of street performers. We were surprised to happen upon some Indian dancers (feathers, not dots hehe). I purchased some watercolors from an artist who was set up in the square - I love her work! Closer to the church, a group of guys were breakdancing and had a huge crowd formed around them. They were really incredible! I took tons of photos.

The church, Stephansdom, is one of the tallest in the World. I think my favorite part of the Gothic church were the gargoyles - they were crazy looking dogs leaping off the building with crazed looks on their faces.

Afterwards, we took the train back to our hotel's stop, got some things at the grocery store (wine, some snacks) and came back to the hotel to figure out how to pack our bags again, with our goodies that we bought. I'm working on uploading photos and writing the blog in the lobby of the hotel right now. I'm worn out and ready to come home. We are going to try to take it easy tonight and get to sleep early (hopefully). We have to leave the hotel by 7am tomorrow, so we have plenty of time to get to the airport for our flight at 11:55am. (It'll take about 45 minutes or so to get to the airport.. and we have no idea what customs will be like here, or crowds. Tomorrow is going to be another near-24 hours of travel. We land in Atlanta at about 530pm EST, then get to Dallas/Fort Worth at 9:15pm CST... which will be the equivilant to 4:15am Vienna time. I'll then have a 30-45 minute drive back to the house, after driving Romy home. Whew.

I'm doing NOTHING on Monday!


This trip has been incredible. Thank you TCU for letting me come here!