Charlie P’s

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
DATE: MARCH 21, 2008
PLACE: CHARLIE P’S, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

I’ve wanted to visit Vienna for years, so one weekend while I was in Germany, Damon and I rented a car and drove down.

The drive over was entertaining in and of itself, as we drove past giant chairs and a car with a NOM license plate.

In Germany and Austria, it’s the law that all cars must have snow tires. We assumed — in retrospect, naively — that our rental car came with snow tires, too. When did we realize this wasn’t the case? When we were stuck on a hill in the middle of nowhere in Austria in a blizzard.

There was a house and a small tavern nearby, but no one spoke English at either location and our primitive German wasn’t quite enough to convey “no snow tires.” The guys at the pub seemed to think we were just wimpy drivers who couldn’t drive with snow tires.

Did I mention we also had no cell reception (not that we had anyone to call)? However, we could Twitter, which made sitting in the car on the side of a pitch black road slightly more bearable.

Luckily, a very kind woman in a minivan drove past us, turned around and came back, and asked if we needed help. She spoke a little English and we spoke a little German, so we gave her the address of our hostel and she offered to drive us. YES. This woman was seriously awesome, as it was a treacherous drive down a very snowy and slippery hill at night. Worse, it turns out our hostel is next to a huge and very expensive hotel with a similar name, so this lady assumed we were going to the ritzy one — and still offered to drive us. (We eventually explained we were at the cheap hostel and she cracked up.)

The hostel had rock hard beds (ouch) but a gorgeous view:

Tired and hungry after nearly freezing to death on the side of the road, we went to a restaurant right down the road from the hostel, which had delicious (and beautifully presented!) schnitzel.

The next morning we hopped a bus into downtown Vienna and began exploring. Feeling random, we saw a sign for the Vienna Zoo and decided to go. I had never been to a zoo before, and it was very sad to see the cramped giraffes and one particular orangutan who just sat by glass making a very, very sad face.

However, unlike how I imagine other zoos are, many of the wild animals were roaming freely amongst the visitors … there were peacocks just hanging out on the walkways, and many other animals completely outside of cages.

By the zoo there was one of those garden mazes that we (eventually) navigated successfully, along with a small musical park where you could step on various stones and they made noise. All in all, a good way to pass the time.

Two things I noticed about Vienna:

they are very dedicated to recycling:

and there is someone dressed like Mozart trying to sell you a ticket to a damned Mozart concert every 10 feet. I was not expecting that level of Mozart spam.

Also, while the city is easily walkable, Vienna has some very… interesting… intersections:

Someone suggested Charlie P’s for a Guinness, and on our way there we happened to walk past the Freud Museum and decided to go in. It was definitely cool to see Freud’s office.

Next to the Freud Museum there was a shop that sold crepes, which was closed… which meant that I really, really wanted crepes. Alas, we couldn’t find any in the neighborhood, so we settled for dinner and a Guinness at Charlie P’s. (If you ever go to Charlie P’s, visit the restroom. Holy cow is it huge and gorgeous. It’s also downstairs, revealing a ghost bar below.)

Downtown Vienna was bustling and had a healthy nightlife. I’m not a clubbing person, but I do like to see a city that stays up late. Vienna definitely doesn’t have an early bedtime.

We debated staying in Vienna for another night, but decided instead to stop in Salzburg on the drive back to Herzogenaurach. Since I already had a Guinness, I decided to try to satiate my crepes craving in Salzburg.

Once in Salzburg, we wandered and wandered, checking every menu, but couldn’t find a crepe anywhere. Finally, we reached a corner and decided to give up and head back. The second I turned the corner, I found myself facing the menu of an Italian/German/Indian restaurant (part of the Hotel Der Salzburger Hof that served crepes. WIN!

The food here was great, especially the Hawaii schnitzel and the crepes!

With both a Guinness and a strawberry crepe in Austria checked off my list, we headed back to Germany by way of Munich (to check out the BMW factory).

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