Schloss Shonbrunn

Every tourist to Vienna must make a trip to the Schloss Shonbrunn. It is the previous palace of the Hapsburg family. I knew we were going to make a trip there, but I didn't know my day was going to turn out the way it did. First I have to give a little background information.



I met a guy online a few months ago. He is serving in the army and is currently living in Germany. I knew that he has been taking weekend trips around Europe, so I asked if he wanted to make a trip to Vienna. I thought it would be fun to meet him and I knew he had once mentioned that it wasn't as much fun to travel on his own. So as spring break approached, he and I planned to spend the first weekend together.

I was actually kind of nervous to meet up with him on Saturday night. Seriously, I wasn't worried to meet him, but just wondering if it would be fun. I didn't want to get in a situation where I couldn't wait for it to end. Luckily, I couldn't have been more wrong. He was talkative and super friendly. On the first night we walked over to a park where he bought three paintings from a local artist and he even gave me one. He didn't have to, but he wanted to and that was very thoughtful. He also bought two flowers (one for me and one for my mom); he even picked out a geber daisy, which is my favorite type of flower...lucky guess!

On Sunday we met up at church and planned to spend the rest of the day together. I wanted to see some work from Gustav Klimt, because I like his painting, The Kiss. So we planned a trip to The Sucession. I didn't know what his artwork would look like, but I had heard that the piece at The Sucession was considered his masterpiece. I asked my friend, lets call him, Military Man, if he would want to go to that art gallery. He agreed. Oh, and he bought tickets the day before for a Mozart concert that evening.

After church we hurried over to the art gallery, since it was going to close soon. The trip there was fun, because I was pretty good at the directions and I thought, "heck, I'm doing pretty good with directions!" He bought the tickets for the gallery, and I started thinking, is this a date? The gallery was really weird. Most of it was filled with modern art, but it was strange art. One of the artists had a picture of children playing with a chainsaw and I think the artist even used spray paint. I don't want to dog the artwork, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. I guess I just don't have a love for modern or abstract art. I don't think the Military Man liked it either.

I did like the piece by Gustav Klimt, even though there was a lot of nudity. I think Klimt is obsessed with boobs. Seriously, he has painted more naked women then I am used to. I know it is art, but some of it borders pornography. I still like his work though. I giggled inside a little bit though, because I think the nudity made the Military Man a little nervous. He is a Mormon guy, so it was good to see someone who was a little uncomfortable...maybe I should have been more uncomfortable!

Anyhow, to make a long story short, I had a great time with him. The concert was fun and we enjoyed walking around the city after the concert. I was so happy that we had agreed to meet up and I couldn't wait to hang out with him again the next day. Since he was only in Vienna for part of Monday, I wanted him to pick what he would want to do. I knew that my mom and I would probably like to do it so I was more then willing to go where he wanted to go. He had his eye on the Schloss Shonbrunn. Before we parted on Sunday night we planned where to meet and what time to be there. We would find each other at 9am in front of the Shonbrunn U-bahn station. Easy enough...I knew my way around this city, right?

When I got home that night I looked over the map to make sure I knew where I was going. I thought we could take the 10 bus, since it was more direct and I thought it would be faster. It already took us an hour to get into the city using the 35a and the u-bahn, so I thought this might be better. My mom was fine with taking a new route and if we left at 8am we figured we could still get there on time.

After waking up early and getting ready, we were on our way around 8:10...I'm was running late, what can I say, it's a vacation? We jumped on the first bus, the 35a, for two stops, got off and walked down a side road to the next bus which we had to take to find the 10 bus. I forgot about all the time you have to wait for buses. When we finally got to the Schloss Shonbrunn it was about 9:35am and we still had to walk over to the u-bahn station because that is where we were meeting Military Man. I looked to the right and I saw a u-bahn sign so I started walking right away. My poor mother had to hurry next to me, I was practically speed walking. I felt so bad, because we were so late. When we got to the u-bahn station it was already 9:45am. I walked around the station twice and there was no sign of Military Man. I didn't know what to do. I thought he must have left already. I'm not the most patient person, so I assumed he probably went to the Schonbrunn by himself, which is what I would have done.

I was feeling awful. I didn't think we should stay too long at the station, because he wasn't there and it was already so late. So we walked to the palace and my mom kept replaying how we should have taken our normal route. We would have been there on time. I didn't know it was going to take so long. I felt so bad. I wanted to buy his ticket into the palace since he had been so super nice to me the past two days. Plus, I thought it would be fun to spend time with him. But what was I going to do? I didn't have a cell phone or another way to connect with him. I knew he was going back to Germany that afternoon. The only thing I could think to do was write an email and say sorry.

I could only hope we would find him at the Schonbrunn on a tour. We didn't. We decided to take the classic tour for 11.50 euros each. This would give us an audio tour of the state rooms and private apartments of the imperial couple, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth (Sisi). We weren't allowed to take pictures so I have nothing from the inside. I guess you will just have to go there yourself to see how great it is. In fact, it was super beautiful. My mom kept commenting on how small the rooms were. It might be a big palace, but they had really tiny rooms. You would think there would be really open spaces, but they seemed to keep it intimate.

I like tours of palaces, much more the museums. I think I like it better because it becomes more real when you see history in place versus a piece of furniture in a museum.

One thing I really liked about the Shonbrunn was the garden. It is free. In France you have to pay to walk around the gardens of Versaille. In Vienna everyone can walk around the gardens and it is huge. They have a large zoo, a maze, and many statues. With two more weeks the buds would have been blooming on all the trees and it would have been so beautiful. We didn't get to walk around much, but that is because I had an emergency and I had to go back to the house, but it was so nice. We did take a horse carriage ride around the gardens (4 euros each).

We also walked around the Easter market which is set up in front of the Palace the week before Easter. Lucky us! We didn't buy anything. It was all too precious or very breakable. I did love their Easter eggs though. They emptied out a real eggs and then painted them with the most beautiful designs. I should have taken a picture, because their were dozens upon dozens of these eggs. I wanted them, but there is no way to bring those back in a suitcase. Oh well, I'll get over it!

After a long day we went to the metro station. We decided to take the u-bahn back, just to see if it was faster then my brilliant plan for the morning. We got onto the U4 and sat down on the train. I happened to be looking out the window when we reached the next stop. I looked at the name of the stop and it said, Shonbrunn. SHUT UP! I said, "Look mom! This is the Shonbrunn stop. We went to the wrong stop this morning." Now I was feeling really bad. I completely fouled up the morning. Military man must really dislike me. I wasn't very careful with my directions.

I emailed him when I got back to the house that day and he did email back and say it was okay, but I must admit, I kind of think he is still not happy with me. He has been a little distant. I know we don't live by each other, so there really isn't a chance to get to know each other better, but I hate that I left things the way I did...it just isn't my style. He reads my blog sometimes, so maybe he will see my sincerity. I thought he was great and if he ever wants to come to D.C. I promise I will make sure it is fun for him! What can a girl do?