back in snowy vienna

i've made it back to vienna to find snow! yay! (although i was a little concerned when the plane sort of skidded down the runway on landing).

i had a fantastic weekend... but i am so knackered. i got up at 4.30am this morning and obviously my brain was still asleep because deciding to get the U-bahn home from the CAT station and drag two suitcases (one weighing 20kg with a broken wheel) over wet and grit covered pavements was not my greatest idea. NEVER doing that again!

i'm excited about the snow but it looks like its all melting. i'm sure there will be plenty more soon enough!

right, think i'm off for a nap...

homeward bound

well, i say homeward... i guess this is home... but you know what i mean. i'm flying back to england tonight for the weekend and i cannot wait! its gonna be pretty hectic but it will be so lovely to see family and friends and celebrate our friends engagement at their party on saturday (yay!).

p.s. these photos are from wednesday when i met lovely dorte and the very cute silja for afternoon tea.

p.p.s. whoo hoo for the weekend!

the belvedere in winter

i'm not sure where the scissors have come from.... they never used to be there?

i walked down to the belvedere today. its only a 10/15 minute walk from our apartment. and guess what, there is another christmas market there! according to this website the market is known as weihnachtsdorf in front of belvedere castle.

as you can see, its pretty grey today. the forecast says it might snow?!

a little kids train

a giant pretzel

christmas decorations

my lunch

and of course i couldn't go to a christmas market without drinking a glühmost!

the market was quiet at lunchtime but i think i mentioned before, these markets seem to come alive in the evening. they look too grey in the daytime... the sparkly lights at night are much more inviting!

4 down, 8 to go!

another christmas market!

yep, i've now been to 3 different markets in 3 days! (i wonder if i can visit them all?).

yesterday i passed by the adventmarkt in front of karlskirche. well, i passed through on my walk to the exhibition but on the way back i stopped for some glühmost! i've finally worked it out. glühmost is mulled cider, glühwein is mulled wine (obviously) and apfel, orangen, beeren etc punsch are various fruit alcoholic punches. glühmost is my favourite. no shock there!

the market was quiet early on in the day but as dusk started setting in more and more people arrived for a lovely mug of something warm and alcoholic.

this is a market with a bit of a difference. in front of the church there is usually water but they've drained out the water and replaced it with lots of straw and ponies instead! (plus some other animals). it was quite amusing watching loads of kids having straw fights. i kinda wanted to join in!

tuesday in pictures

some random and unrelated pictures from my day.

POWER UP!

when you think of pop art you always think of male artists, right? andy warhol, roy lichtenstein, david hockney, peter blake... to name just a few.

in vienna until 20 february 2011 there is an exhibition called 'power up' being shown at the kunsthalle wien (in the museums quartier). the exhibition is about rediscovering female pop artists and is showing various works by 9 outstanding women (dorothy iannone, evelyne axell, sister corita, christa dichgans, kiki kogelnik, rosalyn drexler, jann haworth, marisol and niki de saint phalle).

i went to the exhibition today and i loved it. as you enter you hear 'push it' by salt & pepper playing loudly in the stairwell. it seemed a fitting way to start the exhibition.

i couldn't take any pictures inside the exhibition (for obvious reasons) but there were so many great and thought provoking works on display. the entrance fee was €8.50 and it was totally worth it. according to the exhibition pamphlet "the show aims at the reinterpretation of an art movement that until today has primarily been associated with male protagonists". the exhibition also "pursues its political perspective in those instances where the era's current notions of what a woman is are revised by different views" (of the female artists).

if you can you should go!

p.s. i did actually try to take a picture inside but i got caught! doh.

weihnachtsmarkt am spittelberg

last night kev and i went to the christmas market at spittelberg (called weihnachtsmarkt am spittelberg) with an ex-colleague of kev's (who is currently working at kev's office on a project).

we wandered along the streets and stopped to drink a few mugs of schilcher glühwein. we had no idea what it was but having just googled it... schilcher is a type of róse wine produced solely in the austrian region of western styria (now i know!). it tasted great anyway and the atmosphere amongst the little streets, stalls and glühwein stands was lovely! the markets are certainly much more pretty at night.

my first visit to a christkindlmarkt!

yesterday i met up with the lovely mimie and her friend for some glühwein (mulled wine) although we ended up drinking several mugs of warm apfel punsch instead (it tasted very much like mulled cider). YUM!!
there are lots of christkindlmarkts (christmas markets) now in vienna. exciting! the largest one is in front of the rathaus (i passed here on the way home and it looked beautiful although VERY busy). we opted for one of the smaller ones at freyung (which is a square in the first district). there were lots of stalls selling christmas decorations and gifts... but the best bit (in my opinion) the punsch and glühwein stands!

its kinda weird seeing christmas trees and decorations... i don't feel christmasy at all yet. but there are so many markets to explore... and so much apfel punsch to be drunk... i'm sure it'll help me get in the christmas spirit!