Flying over Austria brought us home. Laid out like patchworks of various hues of green, fields occasionally gave way to small towns. Downtown Vienna, the city was in the midst of Christmas preparations; lights, greenery, and Christmas markets. And for the first time we were reminded of what the winter season back home felt like.

It was more than just the parallels to what we were missing at home that caused us to fall in love with Vienna. The city really is elegantly beautiful. We literally decided to walk around for 2 days of sightseeing without having a clue of what we were looking at, but were awe struck at what we stumbled acrossed. Sightseeing was also made easy since the public transport in Vienna is efficient, cheap and easy, as well as, numerous coffee shops where we could stumble in to warm up.

A little more detail should be mentioned about the Christmas markets. These Christmas booths sell the most amazing goods - craft products, bakery goods, exquisite chocolate, and liquored punch, it was hard to apply self-control. About 1 days worth of budgeting went towards chocolate when we couldn't pass up the combinations of dark chocolate with balsamic vinegar & caramel, dark chocolate with lemon curd, and dark chocolate with sellerie, truffle and port wine. The markets were invariably lining the sidewalks of the city's more marvelous architectural structures or situated in the art district, so just wandering through these was a great way to tangibly taste our way through the sites.

Thankfully our aimless wanderings through the city were given composition with the application of names and facts as we described our days to our couchsurfing hosts, Elizabeth and Gerry. Not only did they help us identify Vienna's structural highlights, but we also had a great time exploring the local food highlights and good conversation. On our departure day we awoke to a traditional Austrian breakfast (thanks Gerry) and freshly falling snow. The perfect ending to our time here.

November 28th - 29th
Vienna