Schnitzel Time

For all of you fact lovers here is a little one I learnt, wiener schnitzel derives from the word Wien, the German meaning (which is the native language of Austria) for Vienna.  So on first arrival at Vienna, we had to try the traditional pork wiener schnitzel.  First of all we had a little salad in a bowl as entree, followed by some noodle soup, then for the big schnitzel!  It was a little bland as it’s just a hunk of schnitzel and some chips, totally could have gone with some gravy! They did at least have some tomato sauce and my goodness it was the biggest bottle of tomato sauce I have ever seen.  My Dad would have been in his element with this bottle even though the photo below does not do its size justice!

After sleeping off the huge chunk of meat we were again up early to do some sightseeing.  We were in Vienna on a Sunday which is a day of rest in Austria.  No shops were open and the locals were all off to church except for a small market running outside the churches.  We decided to try and get some rest and head to a park to eat our packed lunch that we may have packed from breakfast at the hostel to save ourselves a few pennys.  We did however stop at the market on the way to get a taste of some pastries cooked right in front of us on the street.  We purchased a cheese filled croissant type pastry and it was delicious.  The melted cheese was amazing and well worth the €2.  I must also comment on the size of pretzels in this country! I have never seen a pretzel so big and done in so many different ways with some examples being cheese and ham in the middle.

After eating our lunch in the park, we decided to blend in with the locals and have a bit of a snooze on the grass.  It is obvious that there are no beaches nearby as people are just sunbaking in their bikinis in the middle of the park. After a couple of hours of napping, we then headed off to a family run schnaps factory to get a bit of an insight as to how the famous schnaps are made.  We also had a couple of taste testing shots, one being a red rocket (a chilli schnaps which burns the whole way down your stomach) a lovely way to finish off the afternoon before gearing up for the fun park at night.  Before heading off to what was basically a version of Luna Park, there was time to fit in one more traditional dish, sacher torte. The torte is a type of chocolate cake, kind of like a sponge, with an apricot jam filling in the middle.   It was nice, but I was expecting it to be more like a mudcake but something I had to try. It was fun park time and after the amount of food that I had eaten I decided to only go on a couple of rides, one being  similar to a superman style ride where you lay on your stomach and get turned and twisted around.  It was fun, but I admittedly had my eyes shut most of the ride!  I am glad this was the most adventurous that I choose as there were a few people that were not so well after a couple of the rides if you get my drift! One more thing I must comment on was the merry-go-round.  Never before have I seen real horses as the merry-go-round!

Well I am in Budapest now and time for me to go check out the baths and perhaps get a massage.  Will fill you in soon on the shenanigans of Hungry and the GIGANTIC meals we have already eaten here in the 12hrs since we arrived xx