four great days in Vienna « invisible focus

four great days in Vienna

17Feb09

part one of my report on our trip to Vienna, 9th – 12th Feb.

So this is my story on last week, when I headed to Vienna with my very good friends Daniel and Bianca. We made these plans some month ago, so we were able to start right with the beginning of our holidays. We said that it will be a shopping trip most of the time, but with some cultural stuff between. I will do the whole thing in two parts as it got very long while writing and with the pictures it’s even longer.

Monday, 9th Feb.

Left Klagenfurt at 10AM and went directly to Vienna. We drove past Graz and Wiener Neustadt and finally arrived in Vienna around 2PM, mostly because of some traffic jam problems on the Viennese city freeway.

our driver, Daniel (taken by Bianca)

on our way to Vienna

After some driving through the city center we finally made it to our flat. Got it from a good friend of mine and his girl, who were in Klagenfurt that week – so we had a place to stay without huge costs, great! We first checked the rooms and brought our luggage in. Afterwards we parked our car nearby – but as we noticed in the evening, we had to change cause of short-time parking zones there (did this the next morning and parked the car next to Werner’s flat, where I knew it will be save).

some part of the living room

So after all this acclimation we bought tickets fort he public transport and went to the city center. On our way we came across Maria Theresia Street where a friend of Bianca has her flat with two other girls – so we rang the bell and said hello. They were quite surprised about our visit by accident. We then went for some shopping – wanted to cook some italian food and needed something for breakfast the next days. Went home, made a delicious pasta with meat, tomatoes, capsicum, spices etc. – relaxed a bit and then dressed up for the evening. Went to the musical „The Producers“ with a friend of Daniel and another guy. Musical was great, just funny and crazy – we all really enjoyed that evening at the Ronacher theater. We came home around midnight and called it a day.

Tuesday, 10th Feb.

Next morning as already mentioned, first of all >> re-parking action with Daniel. We got up very early and left Bianca at the flat. Thanks to our navigation system it only lasted one hour to get to the right street and near Werner’s place.

Went back to the flat by underground – have I already mentioned that I love the faces of tube passengers in early morning hours – Bianca was already up and we all had breakfast. When we left the house it was foggy and cold, as the day before when we had a strong wind outside. Again underground – went to the Lugner City Shopping Center to start our shopping tour. When we left the underground station it was raining. We suddenly felt like under the shower. Rest of the day was mostly walking around in the rain, visiting the poker shop to buy some stuff for myself and for friends, walking down Maria Hilfer Street and have a look into several shops. At the start of the walk we went to Foto Sobotka to meet Werner and also have a look at some stuff.

Werner with his stylish new glasses

me looking weird in the store (taken by Bianca)

I wanted to buy a Canon 35mm f2.0 lens, which he already knew. Tried the lens, talked a bit and asked if there’s something like a 30D or 40D in the „used stuff“ area, as I was looking for something like this (as you know I already own the 350D since 2005). Thanks to Lady Fortune .. some 10 minutes later I was the new owner of a Canon 30D J. My luck was that there was one piece in the shop window, priced really good and just looking like new, .. no scratches or anything, think the pre-owner used it as an exhibit or as backup body – so I couldn’t resist and it just took some moments to say „yes“ and get it. So in the end, I walked out the shop, some hundred bucks worse off .. but totally happy.

my new toys, nice combo

Only thing still getting on my nerves: the rain! The whole day .. rain, snow, storm … this was horrible. We got wet and it didn’t stop. Later on in early afternoon we were joined by my very good friend Thomas, who came from directly from university to have some lunch with us. We met on Maria Hilfer street and took the tube to Stephansplatz, went to some mexican restaurant, which was actually closed before 5PM – so we had to make new plans. As rain was nasty we just took the restaurant (Bettelstudent) on the opposite corner and enjoyed some dry moments in there.

at the restaurant, Bianca (already taken with 30D & 35mm f2.0)

Afterwards we said bye to Thomas and went home by tram. We then dried our cloths and relaxed for some time. During that moments at home we had a lot of fun and made a lot of pics, playing around with my 30D and 350D.

my couch, bed and storage for the whole four days

*smile*

*don’t destroy my hairdo*

both shots above taken by Bianca

really nice couple, aren’t they?

can’t remember when i took that one, hm

At 7PM we met with Kiri and Stefan at Lugner City and took some cocktails at a cocktail bar called Santos. One hour later we sat down in some luxury reclining chairs of the cinema located in the same place. We were joined by another friend of Daniel, but Kiri and Stefan already knew the movie so they didn’t come with us. We watched „The curious case of Benjamin Button“, which is a really great movie and I hope it will get the Oscar for best motion picture this year. Long movie of course .. lasting 3 hours in total, but it was worth ~~sitting~~ lying there. This time it was dry when we left the cinema – took the underground home and went to bed around midnight again.