So, funny story...Remember how we were supposed to be in Paris today?
Last night we were supposed to take a train from Vienna-Munich, then one from Munich-Paris. The train left from platform 6 in Vienna at 6:14pm. So around 6:10pm we got on the train at platform 6 and by 10:40 we were a little worried because we weren't there yet and our connection was scheduled to leave at around 10:45. So we asked the guy "does this train go to Munich?" and he just said "no it doesn't" and that was that. Darn. It ended in a place called Innsbrook. Does anyone know where Innsbrook is? It's still in Austria! So I freaked out and got really upset and we tried really hard to figure out where to go from there, and how to get to Paris. It was about midnight when the McDonald's we were settled in closed up for the night and left us in the station until the next train that would get us closer to Paris would come at 4:45am.
We found out there was a train that went back to Vienna, leaving at 1:15. At first this seemed like the worst idea ever to me, but after sitting in the cold station for a while and not having many other options when Eric suggested we go back to Vienna, all I could say was "I just want to go home...and Vienna's the closest we have right now". So we did. We got back on the train at 1:15 and were scheduled to get back into Vienna at 7:14. Luckily we actually scored ourselves a sleeping cabin. There were tons of empty ones so we asked for one and this random guy on the train, super nice guy, convince the conductor to let us stay in his cabin free of charge. It was lovely. We even got breakfast in the morning. (It was an Austrian breakfast: tea, a roll and jam, but it was free food non the less.)
So 7:14 we are back in Vienna; around 8:00 we are back at home and in bed again; and about 11:00 we wake up to do it all again.
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As it turns out, I am so so happy to have been in Vienna today. We got to do all the things I wanted to do to make it feel like Christmas. With us being away from home until the 24th, with no decorations in our house and no way to make a big dinner, it was beginning to feel not at all like Christmas to me. Today fixed most of that. We woke up, got out of the house around 1, and bam bam bam we saw 5 Christmas markets here in Vienna. The Vienna Christmas Markets are so fun. They are beautiful and filled with great smells and festive fun. We went in search of something specific. Each market has a booth or two that sell what's called holiday punch; basically different flavours of juice warmed up and filled with alcohol. (That's not what we wanted though, our holiday troubles are not that depressing to me.) They come in these great mugs, which you pay a deposit for, but usually never bring back. I wanted a set of them really badly for Christmas this year. Eric and I don't have a tree or anything, so we don't have any decorations. We have no "our first Christmas" ornament. These mugs are going to replace that for us. Every year we will drink from these mugs and remember that we were in Vienna for our first Christmas, and it was wonderful. So we went from market to market scoping out the options.
The Rathaus (old city hall), is near our house and that's the first market I went to a month ago. I feel like this is my market. I have a special place in my heart for it since it's close to home, a building we've always like and wanted to go inside of, and my first Christmas market experience. Their mugs are really tacky though. We went to 4 other markets to take a look at the competition.
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| Schonbrunn Palace |
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| Karlsplatz |
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| Museums Quartier |
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| University of Vienna |
All their mugs were pretty, and had really nice designs, but they were just like out of a museum gift shop. They had nothing to do with Christmas, which was the whole point. They were just plain mugs with pictures of buildings or artwork on them. So we went back to the Rathaus and looked at those ones again. We liked them so much more this time, after seeing the others. They have so much character and are so festive. They're tacky, yes, but they are Christmas for us now. We went to one stand that had them and all they had was punch with alcohol, and the drinks are so expensive. The next booth had apple cider that looked okay, but again it was so expensive. We decided that if it was possible, we would try just to buy four mugs, instead of two mugs filled with overpriced juice. That lady said no we couldn't so we moved on to one more. She let us buy them, no problem! So now we have a matching set of four really tacky and really fun Vienna Christmas mugs. Now we can have friends over to share in our new holiday tradition, or just and extra mug or two for when one breaks. I am so happy. I've been wanting these and talking about them for a really long time, and I finally got them today. And bonus: we found clementines on sale at the super market!
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| the Rathaus |
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Christmas can come now, and I'll be ready for it!
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