Forth! And fear no darkness!: Mom in Wien!

Since it has been two weeks since she first arrived, I'm sure i'll accidentally leave out details or forget parts, so my apologies!

Mom landed around 4 on Thursday afternoon (October 7), and once I got out of class I went to her hotel to meet her. After she showered and got ready we met Patrick and his parents (who had been in town for a few days already) for dinner. We went to the Schweiserhaus (which I believe I’ve written about before?) where my mom and I split a leg of pork (literally a leg – you can see the foot) and shared a few drinks with the Mullers. It was quite an enjoyable dinner, and afterwards Pat and I did a ride that takes you up in the air and rotates you around. It’s reasonably slow so you can see the whole city, but our moms still were unable to watch.

Out to dinner with Roger, Allison, and Ashley

Friday morning after my german class I went and picked her up again and we went back to the institute to see where I have all my classes and to meet a few friends. There we ran into Sarah Andrews whom I have known since we were five. She was visiting one of her sorority sisters who currently lives a couple floors above me. We spent the rest of the day walking around parts of the city. First we walked around St. Stephen’s Cathedral, then the Museumsquartier (but didn’t go in anywhere), and then we spent some time in the Naschmarkt where she was kind enough to pressure me into buying some peaches. For dinner we met Allison, Roger, and Ashley for dinner at my favorite schnitzel restaurant – Schnitzelwirt. It was quite enjoyable.

In the labyrinths at the Belvedere

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we started it by going to the Schonnbrunn Palace. The palace itself is quite large, but the grounds are enormous. We spent a good portion of time in the labyrinth area of the grounds where we encountered a variety of puzzles. It was actually a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. Afterwards we went to the Albertina Museum. There were two special exhibits: Picasso and Michelangelo. Both were fairly large and quite interesting to see and read about. We also spent some time in an exhibit by a current painter (I don’t remember his name) who did a variety of graphic animal and nature paintings. They were all quite large and detailed and really pretty cool. For dinner that evening we tried a restaurant named Centimeter (because you order bread by the centimeter). My food came in a hatchet and my mom’s soup came in a pretty large bread bowl.

Entrance to the Albertina Museum

Sunday morning escapes my memory, but that afternoon I let my mom wander by herself while I went to play tennis with Roger. It was the first time I had really hit since late July, and it was the first time I had ever played on red clay. It was quite the experience. It actually is a lot different, and the ball does get a lot heavier and it takes a lot more effort than I thought it would. Needless to say, I was really, really sore the next day. Pat and his parents got back from Salzburg, so that night we had dinner with them again, and they wanted to go to Centimeter because they had not been yet. Thus we went back there for a second night in a row. It was fun though – we ordered a wheelbarrow of food, and our waitress loved us and invited us back.

Dinner with the Mullers

Monday I got up and went with my mom to the Belvedere Palace before I had class. In the upper Belvedere there was an extensive Gustav Klimt exhibit (including “The Kiss”) along with plenty of other paintings by a variety of artists, including Van Gogh, Monet, etc. In the lower Belvedere there was a large Rodin exhibit with all of his most famous sculptures. Almost all the information is also in English, so it wasn’t hard to understand or learn a lot. Unfortunately I had to be at class so we didn’t get to spend that long there, but we did walk around the garden for a minute and through the grounds, and all of it was beautiful. The weather was just perfect for almost her entire stay. I don’t remember what we did in between my classes, but I have a class late on Mondays so we didn’t eat dinner together, but we did meet up afterwards and went to walk around the Rathaus (the city hall), which is gorgeously lit up at night.

Tuesday I have class almost all day, so my mom had to fend for herself for most of the day. She bought an opera ticket (yes, just one – she says that’s all they had left…) and after my classes were done we met and had a quick bite of pizza before she went to go see it. Her seat was in a box with a few other women, and according to her it was really well done and funny and impressive. (She went to see the Barber of Seville.)

Looking down at the Lower Belvedere

Wednesday we went to the Kunsthistortious Museum. It houses one of the best Egyptian exhibits outside of Cairo and Berlin, and it made me feel good to be able to walk her around and tell her stuff about everything we had seen in Cairo. I had to leave for class so she walked around there for a while more. Afterwards we did a little shopping (I got new clothes!) and walking around. We went to the Hotel Sacher and had Sachertorte (their famous chocolate cake) and then we walked around the Donauinsel for a while (it is a man-made island in the middle of the Danube river that stretches a long ways, and we got to watch the sunset). For dinner we went to a new restaurant (for me) named Vapiano. Felix, who lived with my Uncle David in NY this summer, picked the place and joined us, along with Ashley, Allison, Roger, David, and one of David’s friends that was visiting, Molly. The food was really good. At one point it got a little emotional, but it only lasted a couple seconds and everyone thought it was adorable. Afterwards we went out to try a glass of Sturm (a drink that is the stage before wine and only available two months a year), and finally I had to call it quits because I had a test the next day.

Enlarge it - my mom loved the colors of the vines

Thursday I got up bright and early and helped my mom get to the train that would take her to the airport. I was in a rush because I had a test shortly afterwards, so I hope she figured it all out ok. The goodbye was short and sweet, but it was great having her here and it went by so quickly. I’m more than halfway done now, and I can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing. But mom, I love you, and I’m glad you got to come. Dad, Kat, and Jess, I’m sorry you weren’t able to join, but hopefully someday you will get to come see all of this!

Some more pictures: