1. Coffee and a slice of Sacher Torte at Cafe Sacher: Vienna's most celebrated cafe. The "opulent furnishings" somewhat lacking and a female waiter who looked like the real version of Vicky Pollard, the redeeming feature of the Cafe turned out to be the very thing it was made famous for: the Sacher Torte, a timeless and quality composition of apricot jam with chocolate torte and a sweet velvety chocolate coating.
2. Goulash: no doubt the original beef goulash hailed from nearby Hungary, but the Viennese version I had at Kanteen and Kunsthalle was divine and certainly had me dreaming about on the return flight munching on the ham and cheese sandwich bought on Austrian Airlines.
3. The legendary Viennese Schnitzel: what else is there to say but that Schnitzel with massive helpings of tomato ketchup and thin greasy fries on a lazy Sunday afternoon is the way forward to a chilled out Austrian weekend.
4. The MuseumsQuartier Wien: in the heart of the city is one of the ten largest cultural institutions in the world. What is perhaps most impressive about the complex is not just the spectrum of fine art it houses but the way it was built to house modern and contemporary architecture and the eclectic way this is blended with the more traditional and historical highlights. Quite like IM Pei's glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre. The Wienese version scores by its unpretentious fuse of the Leopold museum, a bold structure epitomised by a black windowless basalt building, and crowd-friendly features that include al fresco bars and coffee houses, the psychedelic and very ergonomic pastel green Enzis dotted about monochromed and wide roomy courtyards. Livi and I had our first lunch at Cafe Kunsthall on Friday - a smallish but hip looking bar-cafe with a continuous, sweeping glass corridor running the length of one end of the Cafe, where we were sat to enjoy the view of the MQ courtyard. We were back the next day to sip on big cappucinos served in white porcelain soup bowls and Livi having lunch whilst myself gorging down a slice of yummyish chocolate cake, with Suzanna, Natalie and Lu. A relaxing precursor to the more exciting fashion show that was to take place in the courtyard straight after.
5. MQ fashion show: this year's fashion show was not too good. Well, I certainly hope it was better last year. The clothes were no great shake, the female presenter wearing what seemed to be last year's faux pas of a set of red polka-dotted pyjamas (and certainly needing a better hair stylist) and the models posing in rather stale and placid looking designwear. What was looking to be a 1.5 hours tedious affair of gawking turned out to be amusingly hilarious (but read further). The male models were generally average joes and although one pop startlet was looking quite fit, he managed to do just one walk around the runway before the point when we decided to leave. The young women were (perhaps unwittingly) providing most of the eyecatching moments. The inventive make-up on their faces could not, however, make up for the glaring lack of proper training in how to do the catwalk - most cats walk with more grace and charm than what I saw that day, but to my astonishment, this poor young woman was laughed at by the usually lacklustre crowd because she seemed to have very bad posture and a considerably comical walk. The whole ordeal, which must include the decision to have the female models dance on the catwalk, left me squirming and as Livi and I walked home, I was feeling extremely sorry for the young lasses.
6. WUK Kulturzentrum (Werkstatten-und Kulturhaus/Workshop and Culture House) is described in the Lonely Planets as: "many things to many people. It's basically a space for art ... International and local rock acts vie with clubbing nights, classical concerts, film evenings, theatre and even children's shows. H.A.P.P.Y., a regular gay clubbing event takes place here every second or fourth Friday of the month. ... along with a smoky cafe with a fabulous cobbled courtyard." So there we were in WUK on the fourth Friday of April, in the (not so) smoky cafe it being far too cold to drink fashionably in the courtyard, me tasting out some Austrian beer in the form of bottles of Wieselburger (my one regret from the Viennese trip was not tasting any Zipfer - quite a shame as every pub/bar had a Zipfer signboard out in the front, even if that meant it might have been beer for the plebs and despite the fact that I can probably find it at the local Oddbins in the UK), and subsequently moving onto the dance floor in WUK. The door cost us a cool 8 euros each, but we did end up with a pretty cute dinosaur ink stamp on the left hand and the cloak room was bloody cheap at one euro for both coats. What was supposed to be an established monthly fixture turned out to be a damp squid with a fairly non-existent crowd. The resident DJ was happy spinning pretty hard house, which is a refreshing change from the usual English cheese or German trance, and it was quite nice chilling with Livi's mates with the occasional dance moves whenever the music got a little out of hand. Susanna (Livi's good mate) wasn't too impressed by the music and I was more impressed by the size of the room (it was cavernous) and the dance moves of a bloke who was certainly doing quite well with all that space (show-off). In any case, we decided to move along at 3ish in the morning and the walk back home was surprisingly very nice indeed. It was lovely smelling the crisp morning air after a few hours of lung-infective recycled and smoky ventilation. I also had a dig at the alternative continental transport and got to try out Lu's bicycle. It felt rather strangely good to be cycling again after years of non-practice. We ended up having a late-night snack of Austrian hot dogs, but I could not finish mine. The vendor somehow decided I was going to have heaps of curry powder - which certainly would have tasted exotic to some - but no way was I going to be masochistic with the throat on a Friday night out with 2 more days to go in the lovely city of Wien.
7. The Chelsea: a pubby sort of bar just across from Livi's apartment in the Guertel, in the likes of indie pop and grunge, some alternative-looking clientale, the majority being rather studentish, and a small group of rowdy football/ice-hockey fans, was where we ended up on saturday night, following a very good asian treat at Chang (Waaggasse 1), where I stuffed myself with good taiwanese noodles, and a strawberry daiquiri at this very posh-looking basement bar next door.
8. Burggarten: is a small park near the Hofburg neatly tucked away from the echoing of strassenbahn and the noise of cars or the army of tourists from the main shopping district. Apparently, the park contains some very famous monuments, such as that of Mozart and Franz Joseph I. Burggarten in the late afternoon is one of the most beautiful places to go in Wien. People come to relax, sit on the very green grass, or simply to hang out with good mates. The occasional Austrian down to earth star sometimes pass by on their way to Palmenhaus or perhaps the nearby Opera House/town and on Saturday afternoon, we spied with (Livi's digital camera) the form of the two male artistes from a popular Austrian band whose album is (accordingly to Susanna) currently top on the German charts. Sunday being the lazy day of the week, we were sat once again in the park gorging ourselves on a big tub of delicious gelato ice-cream that Natalie generously bought, after our lunch of Viennese schnitzel (which came in the form of two large chucks of pork and a big smattering of thin crispy fries and, of course, loads of ketchup as described above). Not that it affected our ability to finish the ice-cream before it inevitably started melting under the hot summerish weather.
9. Austrian Airlines: the cheeky little bastards in management have, believe it or not, introduced what they call a "self select bistro service" except on flights above 1 hour 40 minutes in duration. This means you pay for all your food and drinks on board when travelling economy (!!!), which is bloody outrageous for an airline that continues to charge non-budget fares. The air stewardesses serve only a bottle of mineral water/tea/coffee and a mini (fake) version of what purports to be a neapolitaner (but it still ain't not the original Manner, darling!). I suppose this didn't enrage me as much as it would have had I paid the full airfare, since my e-ticket was redeemed using up 25,000 krisflyer miles. Even still, having to fork out 3euros for a pathetic piece of excuse for a ham and cheese sandwich of the smallest proportions was rather annoying. The only good thing I can say about the flights is that I was pretty glad that Austrian Airlines being part of the Star Alliance, I was able to skip the massively long check-in queue both ways by using my krisflyer card and walking straight up to the business class desk, which was literally empty - the reason being, as I later found out, that there was only one person sat in business class on the return leg (and none on the outgoing flight).
And that's it, folks.
In retrospect, buying a new pair of funky (retro) shoes, lots of Manners and chunks of Milka as presents for mates and the secretaries back in London, brilliant (aka hot and sunny) weather, an extremely nice weekend spent relaxing with a very good mate (and her very nice friendly mates) in Wien after years of lazily putting it off (sorry, Livi), ended up being surprisingly thereapeutic and a refreshing break away from the stress and grimness of London. Real regrets include, a much longer list but here's a succinct version, not checking out Shebeen (Susanna's favourite watering-hole), not stuffing myself more with Goulash and apfelstrudles, living in London in my small and expensive room-in-an-apartment, and not staying longer in Wien!
I really should start planning for my next trip.
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