land of milk and
The continuation of my food adventures! Because that's really the most interesting thing in my life right now. (Unless you count the shell rain on poupee! Yessssssssss, 57 shells and counting)
So on Tuesday, I went with a bunch of people to get ~sachertorte~ because that's what you do in Vienna. Unfortunately, the cafe we were at had the ideal decor of a five year old: namely, a lot of pink and carousel horses. But we got our cake!
Alas, their cake was dry. I'm pretty sure that I make a better sachertorte. Oh well; onwards and upwards!
Our next stop was some music museum (Haus der Musik? something like that). Our main reason for going was to play with a simulator that lets you conduct the Vienna Philharmonic, which I completely failed at. Literally. The virtual orchestra stopped me in the middle of the song to tell me how bad I was. M'elissa did much better than I. Jealousyyyyyyy.
And then we just idled about in their lobby, while Sam entertained us all with his piano skillz until they kicked us out for being crass Americans. At least, that's what I presume they kicked us out for. It's hard to tell with the Viennese. They make so few facial expressions apart from a kind of disinterested disgust.
Wednesday was a class field trip to the Belvedere, a giant palace turned museum built by a short, gay Frenchman who went on to become an Austrian hero. Make whatever assumptions that you will. The museum didn't allow photography, and I was far too lazy to take ninja shots like the rest of the class, despite Prof. Stuart telling us to do so. Oh well. Afterwards, Sara and I went foraging.
Mmm, delicious erdbeer parfait. Wait, what's that hand doing there?! Oh shi-
The following day was yet another ~forbidden photography~ museum: the Schonbrunn. Upon arrival, some group of high school kids (judging from the teacher's accent, probably American) were performing in front.
Uh huh, of course you don't need to look at your sheet music. Suuuure.
Afterwards, we trooped up a giant hill, passing fake Roman ruins and a zoo, to reach... some random building on the top of the hill. I legitimately don't know what it's purpose was. But the view was pretty.
Once upon a time, the Schonbrunn was located a good distance away from Vienna proper. But with the ~rapid urbanization~ of the 19th century, it was quickly engulfed by suburbs. See, I am learning something in class.
Then we went to get coffee and cake, because that's what you do. Oh god, I'm getting so fat.
I ate Mozart's face. I would have eaten Empress Sisi's, just for the absurdity factor (she was crazzzzzzy anorexic), but they were all sold out. Sad face. And then we threw pennies in a fountain while the natives looked appalled.
Take THAT Austrian conformity!
Today I went to the Imperial Treasury. It was very shiny.
See, shiny.
Moar shiny. Actually, that crown was made for the Turkish emperor of the Ottoman empire by the Holy Roman Emperor. However, when the Ottomans received it, they were kinda like WTF because they didn't use crowns. So they sent it back to Austria. The more you know~
It's also full of miniscule bits of dead people. I know guys, I feel kinda uncomfortable too.
Having had my fill of old stuff, I decided to have my fill of stuff that fills my belly. Thank you Mcdonald's for your lovely potato ring thingys that are basically flat curly fries. Delicious. The cashier was rather confused by my lack of a desire for dipping sauces though. No seriously, I don't want any. But lo and behold when I reach my dorm room, dipping sauce.
I'm not sure what differentiates sour cream from sour cream dip, but I don't think I really want to find out.
But I was still hungry, so I decided to brave a process I had feared for my entire time here.
Making mashed potatoes. Despite my lack of a decent knife (no, a bread knife does not count), anything resembling a masher, and a relatively well functioning stove top, I managed to churn out these lumpy bits of heaven. Ah, bliss.