The Weekend

It was really nice to have my family here to help get settled in this apartment. Mimi and Pop joined me in some (very necessary) preliminary cleaning and helped to make a big dinner on Saturday, which has led to a week of leftovers. (When I say helped, I mean my grandmother made the entire dinner and I read a book.) We ate at a traditional Heurigen on Friday night in a beautiful winery walking distance from this apartment.

Saturday we visited the Shonbrunn summer palace.

The Habsburg Empire's answer to Versailles, the Schonbrun was the summer residence of the Hapsburg royal family. According to Rick Steves, today about 100 civil servants live in rent-controlled apartments within the palace. A good incentive to get involved in Austrian beauracracy, I think.

The views from the Gloriette were amazing!

Even better, we rode this super cute tourist train to the top!

After a weekend of hanging out, enjoying Viennese culture and food, and generally catching up, I dropped my grandparents off at their cruise ship yesterday afternoon. I joined them for lunch aboard the ship and my presence brought the average age down by approximately forty years. I hadn't realized the Royal Cruise Company was strictly geared toward those aged 55 and over. We dined with Sue Mary Ellen and her friend Ethel May, and I answered again and again those fruitful get to know you questions about what exactly I was doing in Vienna and how I could afford to live here by myself. From what I can tell, cruising consists mainly in telling your life story in the span of thirty seconds to everyone you meet, sitting around, and giving orders to the young Eastern European staff.


It was sad to see my grandparents go, but they were so excited for the next leg of their journey, our bon voyage was rather upbeat. They departed for Amsterdam via Melk and a host of German cities, and I journeyed back to my temporary dwellings, burying myself in the classical music collection and historical fiction of this aparment's owner. It's not a bad way to spend the summer. :)