a day of wandering

A few highlights and photos from today:

After pouring over (and trying to decipher) some ads for a grocery store I've not frequented, I decided to set out in search of Nutella 25% off. I plotted my route and began to forage (FYI, in addition to driving directions, Google Maps now offers walking and public transportation directions-- amazing). On the way, I saw an entrance to a little shop and decided to go inside.

Not just a shop...a shop and a studio. Even better. A woman from California owns this place; she designs fabrics which are then made into everything from napkins to handbags to dresses to stationery. In short, probably what I could do if I had the talent and the funding! Her name was Cyrille and she was great--we talked about politics and how not to look American while living in Vienna. She also knew exactly where I lived, once I told her that I was living with a bunch of American college students ("Your house always has a party for each major American holiday. My husband and I go, 'It's Halloween...the Americans are out again!'").

I bought a felt flower to pin on something (I've never actually pinned a flower on anything I own, but now's as good a time as any to start, right?), and while she wrapped it I stealthily snapped this picture so you can marvel like I did:


I can imagine myself stopping by often to visit my new Californian/Austrian friend, Cyrille Gulassa.


On to the grocery store.


This afternoon, Günter (one of our professors and the guy who manages the Flow House) took us on our second walking tour of the city. I won't bore you with all the details, but here are some highlights:

• We saw the building where Mozart died while composing a requiem for a funeral.
• We learned about Georg Franz Kolschitzky, a man who spied on the Ottoman Turks as they plotted to take over Vienna in the late 1600s. Thanks to his dangerous work, Vienna was kept safe...and thanks to his observant spying (he watched the Turks roast coffee beans), he opened the first coffee shop in the world in Vienna!

• Vienna also claims to have started the first auction house in the world (1707). This place is amazing--it's as large and decadent as a decent museum, and room after room is filled with artwork, jewelry, furniture, and other antique-y things on which anyone can bid (each item has a little card describing the piece and listing a starting bid/auction deadline). Visit its website--perhaps you'll be captivated like I was (update: website not as cool as building. You'll just have to come see it/me in Vienna). Below is one of the rooms:

I can't remember much more, mostly because I tended to lag behind and take pictures of flowers:

...and fountains:

...and flowers and fountains together.