Second Star to the Right and Straight on til Copenhagen: Cake, Palaces, and Cold...

"Nothing burns like the cold."

- A Game of Thrones

This past week I was able to go to Vienna and Budapest. Unfortunately winter is not quite over in Vienna, which makes sightseeing kind of difficult. My trip started out really well however. I flew on a "real" airline for the first time since coming to Copenhagen in August. This means that they gave me food, real food, and I didn't even need to pay an arm and a leg for it. I met up with Krys and Niklas, two of my friends from last semester in Vienna.

We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Hanna, a girl who studied abroad in Copenhagen last semester.

Apparently photobooths are not really a thing in Europe so the one in Vienna is a tourist attraction. So of course we needed to shove all 4 of us into the photobooth to take a photo.

The first day was so cold with wind and snow, but we managed to have fun all the same. Especially when Niklas and I found a park to play in.

The wind was so strong that we had to brace ourselves in this photo not to be pushed over.

We even watched Germany's Next Top Model. And it turns out that knowing how to say butterfly and bat in German is actually useful.

This is Charlie, Hanna's dog. He was so cute. He was everything I want in a dog. He didn't bark, jump, or lick.

The next day we went and toured Schonbrunn Palace, the seat of the Hapsburgs.

The last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was Charles I of Austria. After WWI and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire he refused to abdicate but instead "renounced participation" in state affairs. His wife, Zita, lived until 1989. It was very weird to think that an empress was still alive when my sister was alive.

This is also where Marie-Antoinette was born and raised. Her mother Maria-Teresa was the only female emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She also had 16 children while ruling the empire.

This was me eating Wiener Schnitzel at a restaurant called Wiener Wald, it was kind of amazing.

We also at cake this day and pretty much every day we were in Vienna.

This was my cake and was absolutely delicious. It was Mozart cake, which apparently is actually a flavor of things Vienna. There is also a really popular chocolate called Mozartkugeln, which are chocolates with a pistachio flavored filling.

Niklas was so happy to find these. While we were in Finland we played a game like pictionary and Niklas had to draw a pigpen. He didn't know what that actually was so he drew a pen with a pig on it.

This was supposed to be a sculpture of an explosion.

This is St. Stephen's Cathedral. When we went to visit there was a demonstration about freedom for Christians in Iraq, China, and North Korea.

I know it looks like I am participating here but I wasn't. Niklas just knows how to take photos at the most inopportune moments.

Then the very large group of people went into the church and started a mass. So we were only able to see the back of the church.

Later that night we attempted to make potato gnocchi for dinner. Unfortunately most of them didn't really work out, but by the last ones we finally figured out the perfect concoction.

The next day we went to a music museum. There was one floor that had exhibits about famous composers. Niklas and I spent about 20 minutes there before we moved on to the parts that were supposed to before children. At the same time Krys spent about 2 hours in the composer part and only about 20 minutes in the kid's part.

They even had a display case with the conductors of the Vienna Symphony's batons.

This is the door of Beethoven's apartment. Impressive, right?

Niklas should have been an ice skater or dancer. This was a thing where however you moved the tempo of the music changed.

Apparently I would make a horrible conductor, at least I was horrible at this simulation. Every time I messed up the orchestra stopped playing and one of the guys started yelling.

And then... we saw the sun! and the whole city was changed.

The following day we went to the Hofburg Palace. Unfortunately Niklas did not read the itinerary I sent him so when we arrived at the palace he was confused and decided that he did not want to see another palace so we decided to skip this one. And yes you read that correctly I did make an extremely detailed itinerary for this trip.

One of the things I wanted to do in Vienna was tour the stables of the Spanish Riding School. The night before we had dinner with two couchsurfers that had stayed with Hanna. When we told them we wanted to tour the stables they said they had tickets that they had only used one part of so we could have them. Thankfully we were able to use the tickets and so were able to tour the stables for free! My ticket however looked a little rough and the cashier even stapled it back together.

The Spanish Riding School was formed in 1572. The school does classical dressage.

This is a video of a performance by the Spanish Riding School.

The riders need to train for 12 years before becoming a full-fledged rider.

The school is very proud that they have the largest horse walker in the world. After each training practice and performance the horses are put in here and walk for 45 minutes.

The saddles on top are the performance saddles and are actually specifically made for each horse so a saddle blanket isn't needed.