Vienna has enchanted me. My third visit to Vienna left me no less bewitched than my first one, years ago, with my daddy in tow.
Taylor, Bailey, Brooks, and I arrived in Vienna safely after our fiasco of almost being arrested in Budapest the night before. Tired from our train journey, we made our way to our hotel – I for one was not expecting the lap of luxury we entered. The Hilton in Vienna was a jewel – free mimosas and chocolate morsels throughout the day in the lobby, and a fabulous suite, livened up by joyful colors and marble – made our trip! We took a little nap, as Bailey and Brooks were understandably jet-lagged, and I got ready to meet my childhood friend Brittany, currently an au pair in Vienna, and her friends at a St. Patrick’s Day party.
The party was a ball. I met a variety of outgoing, fun, joyful people from across the globe. We enjoyed wild games of spoons, goofing off to music, Jenga, and chatting together. Brittany’s friend Nicole had outdone herself baking a plethora of foods and snacks, including a St. Patrick’s spice cake that had us dreaming of home.
In addition to making a bunch of new friends, in talking with Brittany, I discovered that her au pair family was hiring. Britt called her host family and set me up an interview the next day. The interview went so well and I was thrilled with the idea of living with Bettina, Alex, and their three adorable children. I got the job as their au pair – I’ll be living in their wonderful home, playing with their children, and continuing to travel the world. Vienna awaits me in September with a host of new friends to enjoy and dreams of playing Polly Pocket, dress-up, and fun in the sun!
The Adams family and I concluded our trip the next day with a tour of Vienna, admiring the multitude of gorgeous buildings and architecture. We toured Schönbrunn (a decorator’s masterpiece and national treasure), enjoyed an art museum, explored a magazine convention in the Rathaus (with free gifts!), hailed the graves of famous composers, meandered through a marketplace, and munched on Käse Kreiner (Austrian bratwurst oozing with cheese) dunked in gourmet mustards from a sidewalk vendor to stave off our hunger.
Our train ride home was enlivened by Taylor’s multiple visits to the train restroom, which she later made her home-away-from-home, as she’d caught a virus on our trip, and my Malteser fiasco – a melted mess all over everything – which I subsequently had to lick off, much to the amusement of the other passengers.
Parties, jobs, sightseeing, sickness, melted goo, and yummy food – what an eventful trip!
Comments