It was an absolute joy having Prakash visit. As he has been to Paris several times and seen all the major sights, we just took time to relax, I showed him may favorite spots and we just wandered around in little out of the way places. Although Paris is supposedly the romantic capital of the world, we wanted to take a romantic weekend to visit another European country, hearing that Vienna was both beautiful and romantic and seeing as neither of us had been there before, we chose this as our destination. We left on a Thursday morning so we could have three full days in the city. Our quaint hotel was in the eastern part of Vienna and we had to pass through the run-down portion of the city to reach it. My first impression of Vienna was not one of amazement, fortunately this soon changed after we took the first day to check out the major sites and a museum. The architecture was very beautiful with soaring steeples and ornate exterior detailing. Hofburg palace was very grand.
We visited a museum that had just received a donation of a huge private collection of works from the impressionist period through the Abstract Expressionists. What impressed the me most was that the couple that had collected the art over the years had the insight to recognize the talent of the artists, all which are now household names. That evening we went to the famed Viennese opera to see Les Contes d'Hoffman. The production was fantastic, I was blown away by the vocalists. This marked one of the highlights of the trip.
The next day we visited Schonbrunn palace, the former summer residence of the Viennese royal family. We took a guided tour of the house. The amount of detail paid to each room absolutely blew me away. The final room was the bedroom of the king and queen, the bedspread was made of red velvet and embroidered with gold and silver. The grounds were enormous, mostly covered in a forest of spindly trees although areas were landscaped with perennials and fountains but spring had not yet sprung in Vienna so we were left to imagine running water and blooming flowers. We did some more wandering around Vienna after seeing the palace and came upon a beautiful Gothic church
We also went to a Viennese coffee shop to get re-energize. Apparently Vienna is the city of origin of the European coffee shop culture I love so much so we had to take the time to experience it here. The coffee was delicious!
We visited Vienna's modern art museum which was putting on an exhibition with the theme of art and geometry. I must say there are only so many squares and rectangles I can see before I start making geometry jokes. Fortunately, on the bottom floor of the museum was an interesting collection of European Pop art. For dinner we went to one of Vienna's premier restaurants, Ann Sacher, in the Sacher hotel. The food was indescribably good, one of the best meals I have ever had. After dinner we went to a funky little bar/club called the Office. It played decent music and it was amusing people watching. I found out afterwards from an Austrian friend, that it was a trashy bar for young people to go and get wasted, woops! We were tired on Saturday so we just did some more wandering. We saw Karl's Church (but only from the outside because that would require paying an entrance fee which I didn't want to do), attempted to go to a museum that was mysteriously deserted, and found the oldest wiener schnitzel place in Vienna, Griechenbeisl. We discovered that instead of a fancier version of a hot dog, wiener schnitzel is in fact fried and breaded veal, blah!
After some more wandering around, we decided we needed to eat again so we found a cute tea house and got delicious hot chocolate. I had a fantastic calzone for dinner (better than the one I had in Rome) to round out our eating extravaganza and trip to Vienna. The second week of Prakash's visit to Paris continued to be relaxing, which most included wandering and eating. To spice things up we decided to go to out to a few clubs one night. We started off at one called Favella Chic which, much to Cara's joy, played reggae and R & B. I liked the relaxed shabby chic vibe of the place but the music didn't inspire high energy dancing. We left there close to closing and went to a gay club on the Champs Elysee called Queen (we chose this because it was ladies night and free for us). We walked in to a strip show happening in the middle of the dance floor. I was shocked and I think Prakash was a little grossed out but hey, when in Rome right?
The last weekend Prakash was here we went to London for an evening so he could visit and I could meet his aunt and cousins. We took the high speed chunnel train which got us to London in just over 2 hours. Prakash's cousin Shenth met us at the station and took us around London. We went to the Eye, a huge Ferris wheel that is supposed to give you a great view of the city (I suppose this would be the case if it wasn't raining and you knew what you were looking at).
I got to do a bit of shopping on Oxford street which was great except with the dollar to pound ratio, nothing is cheap. For dinner we went to Prakash's Aunt's South Indian restaurant and had a great meal. It was fun spending time with the family and seeing a snippet of London. Of all the cities I have visited so far in Europe (which granted aren't that many), London reminded me most of the United States. It wasn't the language so much as the pace and the vibe, I could have been in New York but for the cars driving on the wrong side of the street.
My family arrived the same weekend Prakash left so we all were able to have dinner together on Prakash's last evening in Paris. It was great to have him here with me and so hard to leave him at the airport. Fortunately, I had my fam to keep me company for the two weeks after he left.
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