Markets and Ice Dreams

The focus this week shifted from sightseeing to socialising.

Not surprisingly I ended up pretty sick and had a few nights off to recover before Copenhagen tomorrow. We managed to make it to the Naschmarkt, a huge line of food and second hand stalls. Walking down the strip was a massive self esteem boost as every store keeper thought we were all fascinating and beautiful creatures who needed to try every kind of fudge, cheese, and felafel ever created. 

Despite all the samples we decided we really ought to find somewhere warm to thaw out, so we found a place offering huge bowls of laksa and other Asian treats. 

After the markets a few of us headed to Stephansplatz in the city centre to climb to the top of the cathedral tower. The view is pretty spectacular and the climb made us feel less guilty about the second nougat sample.

When the sun set we headed to the Rathaus (town hall) for a spot of iceskating. There are two huge rinks connected by a winding ice path through the trees of an enormous park, all lit by fairy lights. In the same way everything becomes more beautiful in French, everything is a little scarier in German. A fairly pretty sentence in English (Viennese Ice Dream) becomes half funny half scary (Wiener Eistraum). It also seemed really grim when sections were no longer available ("dream path closed").

Viennese Valentines and Café Demel

Also part of week one, but Hotel Sacher and Café Demel deserve their own post. Anna and I decided to have a romantic Sacher Torte date on Valentines day followed by another snow frolic through the park.

Café Demel is a two storey café with the most ridiculous array of cakes and pastries, and you can also watch the desserts being made. The kitchen seemed a little bit like a zoo exhibit behind a glass window but the smell was heavenly. 

Anna and Jasmin inspecting the cakes.

Cheeky Austrian pastry chef.

Ginger, chili, or cardamom hot chocolates while we waited for the cakes to arrive.

Week One in Wien

I've had a week in Vienna now and it's my third night living in my new place. Glasgow sent me on my way with a free whisky tasting at the airport, and two short flights later I arrived in Vienna to be greeted by a fresh fall of snow and my dad's lovely cousin Maria. She settled me in with hot cocoa made on the stove in her Dutch style kitchen and I fell asleep watching the snow fall past my window. 

View from the window. It was still snowing when I woke up the next morning, and it continued for the next few days. On my first full day I wandered around the city pretty much mesmerised by the snow, stopping occasionally to warm up in Zara/H&M/etc. 

I caught up with Anna and we continued rambling through the snow and making important stops to regain our strength.

It was amazing to be able to stay with (fairly distant) family to start my exchange. Maria is a great lady who was taking an intensive Russian language course the week I stayed with her but still made time to make me feel completely at home. This included taking me to an awesome restaurant in the old kitchen of an Austrian manor house, attempting to teach me German and showing me how to make an Ash Wednesday specialty, heringsalat (herring salad) complete with potato, pickles, apple, sour cream, and of course herring.

This was next level ethnic.

Pretty good though.

The rest of the week was more snow frolicking, gawking at beautiful Viennese architecture, several more hot chocolates and pastries, one more herring dish (Dutch style salt herring), morning training at the Spanish Riding School, pretending to speak German, teaching different international students different drinking games, settling into my student accommodation, discovering that you can smoke inside Austrian clubs, discovering that dancing in Austrian clubs makes your hair stink the next morning, and heaps more. 

Definitely a successful start to exchange!

Edinburgh and Tet

My jaunt to Edinburgh began with a ridiculous/terrifying bus trip. The driver, missing his two front teeth, was a barely functional alcoholic who dropped the c bomb twice before we'd left the bus depot and spent most of the trip rating the female passengers. When we arrived in Edinburgh with the streets packed with people heading to the rugby he took great pleasure in trying to mow down pedestrians. When he swiped a traffic cone and almost mounted the footpath we were fairly sure someone was going to die. No one did though so that was great. 

Our accommodation choices were limited by the Scotland v Italy match so we had gone with the Guards Hotel, a military themed guest house. We were greeted by a creepily moustached receptionist with a Freemason ring, but the room wasn't bad. We headed to a pub pretty quickly to catch the end of the rugby.

When Scotland had finished annihilating Italy (us, Italy fans? Nah) we went exploring. Edinburgh castle looks lovely all lit up and the cheery bagpiper in a kilt nearby added to the ambience. 

Dinner? Haggis. Wasn't too bad actually, when you stopped thinking about what was in it. Tom was slightly more enthusiastic than me.

After dinner we headed to the Stand comedy club and then for a traditional Scottish late night dessert (deep fried mars bars) before calling it a night.

Our goal for the next day was to climb to the top of Arthur's Seat, the highest hill overlooking Edinburgh where King Arthur used to hang out. It was bitterly cold and started snowing when we were about 20 minutes into the climb but definitely worth it.

We left Edinburgh after 24 hours to get back to Glasgow in time for Vietnamese New Year (Tet) at the Hanoi Bike Shop. Fantastic collection of Vietnamese treats finished with pho.

Feelin' Glaswegian

My week in the UK is coming to an end but I've crammed a lot into seven days.

I arrived in Glasgow to see my bestie Tom, who within five minutes said I looked like a tourist and I needed a shower. It was really great to see him. That night we headed to the Grosvenor for a quick drink before going to bed early so Tom could get up for work at 5.30am.

After sleeping in like a normal person I headed to Riverhill Café for delicious coffee and bagel while Tom worked hard for the money.

I checked out the Lighthouse, Scotland's national centre for design and architecture with a great section on Charles Rennie Macintosh. I'd never heard of him but if you're interested look him up on wikipedia, he had some fabulous ideas. Then Tom joined me for a Harry Potter-esque stroll through the University of Glasgow. 

That night we invited a bunch of exchange students over, made them a delicious Jamie style Mexican feast, and taught them to play circle of death.

The following morning we went through a restorative walk in the park and breakfast at Siempre bicycle café before getting the bus to Edinburgh to continue my Scottish experience.

Organic sparkling orange and mandarin juice and Scottish salmon bagel is a winning combination when you're feeling a wee bit dusty.