Vienna March 16-19, 2023

Valencia to Vienna March 16th, 2023 - Day 1 of Vienna

I had left plenty of time when leaving Xabia to get to Valencia, because I planned to do a bit of sightseeing in Valencia, but the car gods thought otherwise.

About an hour into the trip, I got a warning light that the tire pressure was low. I pulled over and did what I once did many years before - kept putting air in until the tire didn't look flat. If you ever have a similar problem, please do not do this. You might blow the tire.

The warning light didn't go off, so I pulled up at a Neumaticos, which I figured might mean tire and it was a tire repair shop. I asked the mechanic if he knew English and he didn't so I explained the problem was best as I could in Spanish. He checked the tire and gasped because the pressure was 4. Normal should be 2.4. This is in BARs or Kilo Pascals. 4 is equal to 58 PSI which even I know is very high. 2.4 is about 35 PSI. He let out the air until it was the same as the other tires and said it was fine now. I gave him 2 Euros because he wasn't going to charge me anything.  I wish I would have taken pictures, but I was pretty much panicking because I had a flight to catch and taking pics is never the first thing on my mind.

The light still didn't go out, so I just drove straight to the airport in Valencia and dropped the car off. I explained about the light and they said it had to be separately reset. Yeah, Skoda is a piece of shit car. 

One of the surprises was that even though I had booked Ryan Air, I was actually put in a Lauda Air aircraft. Another surprise was that my seat was moved to the emergency exit, which was funny given my arm injury. I figured in a pinch I could open it with my left hand which actually would have been smarter anyway (the door was on my right). 

On the flight, I got to see some Alps but couldn't really tell if they were the French, Italian, or Austrian ones.

I got to Vienna at 6:30 PM or so and Peter picked me up at the Vienna Airport. I didn't get any pics that day, but I will include one below of Peter looking like Churchill - he just needed the cigar!

My German is rusty, but after some practice and prompting from words from Peter (my BFF since high school), I started getting back into the English/German lingo used here by the non-Austria foreign community. There are many people that live in Vienna (by CHOICE!) that keep their nationality. I lived here for 11 years. 

March 17th, 2023 - Day 2 of Vienna - Part 1

Transit System and getting to Peter's Shop

Peter wanted to give me the full public transit experience, so we walked down to the bus stop in his town of Perchtoldsdorf, took the bus to the subway station, and took the subway (U-Bahn) to downtown Vienna. We got off at the St Stephan's stop which is below St Stephan's Cathedral, the center of the city. In our goof pictures, its main tower is above our heads. 

I took a snap of the Plague Column on the Graben (Ditch) on the walk to his place from St Stephan's.  I neglected to take a pic of Peter in front of his shop this time, but I had one from when Rose and I visited in December, 2019.

Vienna March 17th, 2023 - Day 2 of Vienna - Part 2

Wiener Schnitzel, Coffee House, Old Friends, and a Gepflegter Kaffee

After checking in at his shop, Peter took me to a local "Gasthaus" to eat Wiener Schnitzel, one of my favorite foods.

Afterwards, we went to a coffee house right across from Peter's shop, VolcanoThek, and met Andy, the owner. I told him my daughter calls me princess, so he nicknamed me Prinzessa Andy and I called him Konig Andy (King Andy). I asked him to take a picture of us and then he started taking pics of other patrons, who of course were cutups.  Austrians have a great sense of humor!

At the coffee house, I had a "gepflegter Kaffee" which means a well-tended to and carefully orchestrated coffee. It was absolutely beautiful and tasted fantastic! The Austrians know how to make great coffee. No wonder, they got coffee from the Turks who were trying to invade Vienna and were beaten back at the walls of Vienna and left their coffee fixings behind (1500 or so and I'm NOT going to bother looking it up.)

Julia was a former fellow student from High School I had a crush on. She was a doll then and now is a beautiful woman. Apparently, I wrote her a (love?) letter. She's one that got away. She's still adorable. And I'd love to get my hands on the letter and see what stupid crap I wrote way back when (versus the stupid crap I write now.)

Vienna March 17th, 2023 - Day 2 of Vienna - Part 3

Escape Room and Dinner

In the evening, Peter and I did an Escape Room called Mr Tesla. Hanni, Peter's wife, does not like Escape Rooms and unlike when Rose was with us in 2019, it was just the two of us. We totally sucked but the Game Master, Andreas, gave us a lot of extra time, until we solved it (45 minutes extra.) It was an interesting room with the premise being that Tesla's soul was trapped in a machine he had built and we had to free him. It had a puzzle in LATIN! We had to listen to Latin to get the Latin words in the correct order and that alone probably took us 15 minutes. 

We got back to Peter's and Hanni's place and Hanni had fixed dinner for us which was so sweet and it was really good as well!

Vienna March 18th, 2023 - Day 3 of Vienna

Visiting an old Friend, Chocolate Museum, and Cards Against Humanity

Peter and I met up with Karli, a friend of mine from the 70s and 80s. We hung out a lot and worked together at the Moulin Rouge doing the lights. We were also big gamblers until the night I lost 3 months salary in one hand (and then proceeded to win back all my losses the same night.)  It was great meeting up after 35 or so years!

Hanni, Peter, and I went to the Chocolate Museum to make masterpieces of culinary delight and also make a hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun, other than Hanni getting chocolate all over her shoe.

After a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant, we went back to their house and I introduced them to Cards Against Humanity, a game I had brought with me from the States. Defining words like squirting, emo, and narc were quite interesting. Didn't ever realize how American based that game is!  It's a game where one player reads a question card and the other players have to pick the funniest answer from their own set of answer cards.  The question player decides which answer card is funniest and the person voted with having the funniest answer gets the question card as a point.  The person with the most points wins.  Some of the answers are quite shocking, ergo the sub-title - A Party Game for Horrible People.  Winning doesn't matter!

The next morning (technically Day 4 of Vienna), it was time to leave. I had never gotten a pic of Hanni (since I suck at remembering to take photos), so ambushed her in the morning which was pretty mean. 

It was tough leaving Hanni + Peter’s, but I was getting ants in my pants and was glad to keep moving. I realized yet again that Vienna is not the place for me. I still love the USA the best and have to yet find a better place. Maybe one day.

I will return to Vienna one day - Austrian Airlines gives you a chocolate on the plane that says "Servus".  That is a greeting for both Hello and Goodbye in Austrian lingo,

Vienna Itinerary - Thursday, March 16 - Sunday March 18