a new girl in vienna on tour

i can't believe its been 2 weeks since i last posted here. i went away with the intention of hopefully putting up a few posts but alas, it didn't happen. the past 2 weeks have been pretty hectic... so much has happened... but its also been a lot of fun!

the first part of my holiday was spent with friends in brighton (england), hanging out with my mum and celebrating my brother's birthday. i ate lots of food! (including two delicious thai meals) and enjoyed a spot of shopping. brighton is fantastic for shopping... i haven't quite discovered many shops in vienna yet that offer the sort of thing i like.

this is a street called kensington gardens located in the north laines

some graffiti on the side of a pub. as you can see, the policemen are by banksy

i then flew to cyprus with my boyfriend to attend the wedding (as bridesmaid!) of a close friend (that i have known since high school) and enjoy some sunshine and relaxation. the wedding was beautiful (and carrie-ann you looked stunning!) but cyprus was VERY hot and humid... and my friend somehow managed to get married on the hottest day in cyprus for 11 years!!!! 

i'm not much of a sunbather as i've mentioned before so i spent most of my week swimming and relaxing in the hotel pool. it was the coolest place to be!

a few pictures of the sunset and the harbour at night

on our last night in cyprus a large group of the wedding party went out for a lovely traditional greek cypriot meal. it was my birthday a few days later and so they surprised me by asking the waiter to bring over a cake! very sweet. and the cake was delicious!

we then ended the night with some cocktails! (love the sparklers!)

holiday

just a quick little post to say i'm off on my summer holiday in about erm, 10 minutes! so my posts over the next 2 weeks might be a bit sporadic if at all. firstly i'm flying back to england this morning to see some of my lovely friends that i've known since university (can't wait to see them) and then i'm off to cyprus to see another lovely friend get married! its all very exciting!

i'll be back soon. have a great week everyone :)

a trip down the sewers!

on saturday kev and i went along with the 'meet up' group (that i met on wednesday night at the open air cinema) to the third man sewer tour. for those of you who haven't seen the film... part of it is shot in the sewers of vienna.... and so the tour takes you to the location and also teaches you some information about one of the world's oldest sewer systems. sounds random i know! (and a little stinky). but it was actually a lot less smelly than i thought it would be and the tour was really good.

it was difficult to take pictures down there as it was really dark (we got to wear hard hats with lights on the front! i was excited) but here are a few so you can get an idea of what its like down there...

the last ones are not very clear i know because i couldn't keep the camera still enough.... but i actually really like the slightly spooky abstract quality to them. i've no idea where the red patch came from in the last photo (maybe its a ghostly spirit?!!!).

a day of wandering

after getting pretty much zero sleep last night (i'm surprised i actually have any flesh left on my bones) and having a little weep at 3am (yeah, i know - what an idiot!) i needed to get out of the apartment today. i had no real purpose to my walk. i'd reach the end of a road and just decide left or right and i did this for a few hours... just walking up and down streets in the local districts (3rd, 4th and 5th). i discovered a few really cool looking shops (but didn't venture in - couldn't torture myself to look at things i couldn't buy!) and also some great looking cafés and local little places to eat which i must remember to return to and try out at some point.

its been great to get out and spend a day looking at whats around me. here are a few pictures of things i've seen along the way....

i like the design of this building

a cute funny little mosaic character on a building wall (like a space invader!)

a sign on the pavement

a random ear sculpture

an old street sign

and a statue in the grounds of the belvedere (where i sat and read my book for an hour)

i then had a few 'happy hour' beers at salm bräu before i headed home! i'm now looking forward to the weekend. enjoy everyone :) 

the third man

last night i returned to karlsplatz to see an outside cinema screening of the third man. its a pretty famous post second world war film set in vienna which i'm ashamed to say, i hadn't seen before last night.
i'm so glad i went because the film was brilliant and watching it in such surroundings (actually in vienna with karlskirche looming in the background) made it even more special.

a(nother!) picture of karlskirche from where i was sitting as the daylight was starting to fade

a terrible picture of the screen with the church looking scarily illuminated! (i'm still figuring out how to use my camera properly at night but just took a quick shot on auto setting so you got the idea)

the only downsides to the evening were that it was stupidly busy for the amount of seats provided so i had to sit on a very hard pavement for the duration of the film (serious numb bum!). and i got really bitten by those EVIL mozzies again (despite having repellent on). (i thought i was going to scratch my skin off in the night! arghhhhhh).

i walked home and passed the fountain on the way (see i told you the fountain at night would make a reappearance! its been a while....)

and then i ate a kebab! yum. i know... everyone thinks kebabs are evil... but they taste bloody good in my opinion. i was so hungry (no dinner) i couldn't wait to stuff it all in my mouth (so no pictures i'm afraid).

the outside world

meet my new buddy, mr owl (yeah okay, its a crap name but its the best i could come up with on the spot, okay...?).

i've not seen much of the outside world these past few days (okay, pretty much zero) and so mr owl and i have been hanging out (seeing as i can't seem to drag myself off the sofa?). don't get me wrong, i've been loving not working for these past four months (my last job sucked, big time - old boss please don't be reading this!) but i seem to have a severe lack of motivation at the moment. even to get off the sofa. and get dressed.

luckily, a girl that i met on my german course emailed me and asked if i would like to meet up today. so YAY! i actually got dressed before 2pm and went OUTSIDE.

here are some snaps i took during my day...

i love the way the sun is shining off the roof of stephansdom

an old sign

the beautiful old stadtbahn buildings designed by architect otto wagner (i love these buildings)

and karlskirche (also at karlsplatz) which finally doesn't have any scaffolding! yay!

tonight i'm off to meet a bunch of strangers.... wish me luck.

perfect lazy sunday

this picture i took a week or so ago is totally unrelated to my sunday... but i thought you might wanna see some pretty cupcakes?!

anyway, kev and i had the perfect lazy sunday relaxing at home this weekend. we didn't leave the apartment all day and it was great. we cooked, watched two films, watched numerous episodes of how i met your mother (think i might be slightly addicted to it) and listened to the cure album 'disintegration' (which is seriously one of my favourite all time albums EVER. i would say top 10 albums ever but i don't have a top 10 as its completely impossible for me to choose only 10 albums!). anyway, here is a live version of the title track. i LOVE it.

we also tried out the rosé wine we bought at the market and i have to say for €2 it really wasn't bad at all (we drank the whole bottle anyway!).

stomach

on saturday night kev and i went out to a restaurant called stomach (yep, thats what its called!) after i received a recommendation from dorte (who writes this lovely blog). we called too late to get a reservation in the lovely leafy courtyard but inside the restaurant is really lovely too, like an old farmhouse (and it turned out to be a blessing that we didn't get a table outside as whilst we were still there, a HUGE storm started - but more of that later).

i have to say, the food was amazing. and this is now my favourite restaurant in vienna (but obviously i have a lot more to try out yet!). everything was great.... the food, the (quite eccentric and funny) service from (who i think was) the owner, the atmosphere, the wine....

they also had little tea light candles in paper bags on each table (which cast a really lovely light)

but kev and i couldn't help think that they were a little dangerous?!?!

we couldn't understand most of the menu (because our german is rubbish) but thought, hey... lets just order and see what we get!

for starter kev had the most delicious little kebab type things with a salad (which had an amazing dressing). i was really jealous.

i went for something really traditional and ordered tafelspitz, and it came with a really tasty kidney bean and radish salad.

next kev ordered roast beef (because he was playing it safe!) but it turned out to be an excellent choice. it tasted soooooo good.

and i went for zander (which is a type of fish) with cous cous. it was really tasty.

for dessert kev spotted another table eating a big chocolate cake so there was only one choice! (there was a cheese plate on the menu but unfortunately i was too full from the other two courses. damn it).
i did try the cake though and it was really good cake. the owner (who served us all night) said he has been addicted to the cake for 21 years!

we'd already eaten half of it before i remembered to take a photo.

it was such a lovely meal and a wonderful evening which the owner finished off by saying he would be back with a 'terminator'! (he had quite a sense of humour this guy.. and i'm not sure whether he might have had a few drinks himself by this point, but anyway...) he came back with two really strong shots on the house which of course we couldn't refuse! he then sat down at the table with us whilst he added up the bill.

when we left the restaurant the storm was still in full force, the rain was heavy and the sky was bright with lightening. we ran to the nearest U bahn station (which luckily is really close) but at the other end we have about a 10 minute walk to our apartment. it was raining really heavily at this point and we tried to run between shop covers and doorways but this was quite tricky as i had open sandals on and my feet were sliding all over the place. we laughed our heads off and laughed even more when we got home and realised that i looked like this....

i can't believe i've put this hideous picture on here of me, but hey, its funny. and it demonstrates how wet we were! i then became concerned that my new 100% silk romper (which is dry clean only) may have shrunk. kev said i sounded like i was in the 80's!

it was the best night!

karmelitermarkt

kev and i got the U bahn to the 2nd district yesterday and headed to the market at karmeliterplatz. its a cute little market that i haven't been to before. on saturdays farmers come to sell their produce. we bought a litre bottle of rosé wine from a farmer for only €2! (although we haven't actually tasted it yet).

i think its the sort of place you need to get to early as we arrived at midday and many stalls were already packing up (kev and i are really not morning people. something i need to try and change living in this city i think). but it was nice to have a little wander around. all the produce looked amazing. there was bread, wine, cheese, eggs, flowers, vegetables and loads of lovely looking fruit like cherries, raspberries and blueberries.

there are some lovely buildings overlooking the market too.

we decided to sit at a café called tewa (there is also one at naschmarkt) and have a beer... and lucky we did because about two minutes later it started chucking it down with rain. this called for another beer and lunch whilst we waited for the rain to stop!

the food pictures don't look great because we'd already tucked in before i remembered to take any! but kev had a grilled chicken mixed plate (although it mostly seemed to be a bowl of hummus?) and i had a falafel and hummus sandwich. was yummy!

a little update

hey there folks!
well.... i've been a little quiet for a few days so what can i update you with?

1. its still hot! (although it rained very heavily today whilst we were at the market. i thought it might clear some of the humidity. but nope, i'm still sweating. lots. how nice.

2. on thursday i did something totally out of my comfort zone! we've been here for four months now and i'm still no closer to making any friends in the city. it gets kinda lonely i have to say. so, rather than sitting in the apartment waiting for someone to knock on my door and say 'hey, wanna be my friend'?! (hmmm, i don't think thats gonna happen is it?) i thought it was about time i did something proactive. so thanks to my lovely friend over at because she's perth it (who sent me the link for meetup.com) i joined an 'internationals in wien' meet up group and signed up for my first 'meet' on thursday afternoon at café sacher. however, it didn't exactly go to plan..... because i couldn't find anyone! i wandered around trying to spot the organiser (i had only seen his picture on the website) but i just couldn't see anyone fitting his picture. luckily, a girl who was also there for her first meet saw me wandering around and looking confused so she came up and spoke to me. as we couldn't find anyone else we stayed and had a drink together so it wasn't a total disaster. hopefully the next meet on wednesday night will be more successful!

3. you may have noticed that i haven't mentioned my german course for a while. thats because it ended and i decided to take a bit of a break. in all honesty, i hated the last course i took and i dreaded going every morning. i'm not sure what happened but from the 2nd level to the 3rd level there appeared to be a
huge jump. suddenly everyone was way above my level and i spent most of the class not having a clue what the teacher or anyone was saying! i've now totally lost all confidence with it... and so i've somehow gotta find it within me to pick up my books again and give it another go.

4. we have a nice little local café/restaurant/bar just around the corner from us which has a beer garden. yay! and we've been along twice this week when kev has finished work.

when we first went to dreier i felt a little awkward as you get the impression its very much for 'local' people. but after numerous visits the waiters now recognise us and i feel much more welcome.

4. i made an awesome greek salad the other day for dinner! (from this recipe - although i had to leave out the olives as kev hates them).

5. i know everyone has now forgotten about the world cup (btw, what a terrible final!) but i managed to collect all 32 beer bottle tops (you'll remember i mentioned i was collecting them here).

i got quite a few odd looks from people in the supermarkets as i searched for the missing flags, but i eventually found all 32 to complete the set. now i have no idea what to do with them!

right, i'm off to get ready as kev is taking me out for a meal tonight. yay! (i'm sure there will be pictures to show you tomorrow!).