Christmas in Vienna

The last few weeks have been some of the best but busiest yet with work, my German lessons, Christmas shopping, and making sure I make the best of Andrew, Jasmina and Predrag's last few weeks in Vienna.

When I returned from Sweden most of the Christkindl/Weihnachtsmärkte (Christmas markets) were finally open. There are many different markets; all with a different feel, a different clientele and different price ranges, spread throughout the city. Some are big, colourful, and packed, like the one in front of Rathaus, some are moderately expensive like the one in front of Karlskirche, and some are obscenely expensive like the one inside the Hofburg. There you can order, among other things, yachts, marble statues, diamonds, and personal jets. Needless to say, I've stuck to the cheaper ones, not that I wouldn't love to buy everyone a 70 foot yacht for Christmas, but there are so many options (colour, wood finishes, platinum or gold fixtures... ) I just wouldn't want to mess it up.

Almost all of the markets are outdoors and are made up of a collection of wooden huts decorated in lights and packed with stuff.
Here you can see a small section of the market in front of Rathaus. This photo was taken in November, so none of the windows (which act as the world's largest Advent calendar) are open yet. Frankly, I was a little disappointed when they did start to open. Every day is just a different back-lit abstract painting, a wash of pastel colours with no discernible pattern or style.The Rathaus park is also decorated with many different theme trees. The one below is filled with glowing hearts. Others are filled with large glowing candy, Santas, angels, snowmen, candy canes, stars, nutcrackers, lanterns, teddy bears, and the oddest one of all: baby seals.
On MA's last weekend we went to the Schönbrunn market. We were there when they lit (plugged in) the tree, so there was a lot going on, with a band playing carols and later a choir.The markets are filled with just as many Viennese people as tourists because they are not only a place to buy gifts, but also a place to socialize. Every 10th stall is a Glühwein/Punsch stall where you're served delicious warm drinks in collectible mugs. There are also stands selling fresh cookies, sandwiches, pastries, and my favourite, "Käseraklettebrot mit Speck" which is where they take wheels of 2 or 3 different cheeses, melt one edge under a heater and scrape the molten cheese onto a piece of bread covered in bits of bacon. It is artery-cloggingly delicious.

On our second trip to the Schönbrunn market we took a tour of the palace and walked up to the Gloriette where I snapped this beautiful night scene at around 4:30pm. Thankfully the markets alleviate most of the winter-woes brought about by what feels like continual darkness.
Around December 1st, after MA had returned to Canada, all the Christmas lights came on, making Vienna even more amazing. Many of the different main streets have bright, creative lights. The street with the giant red spheres is to the right of Stephansdom.
The Kohlmarkt is decorated with a canopy of small white lights, if you enlarge the picture you can see the dome of the Hofburg lit up in the background.The Graben takes the prize with a dozen enormous chandeliers made of small white lights. They are suspended by cables attached to the surrounding buildings so that at night they appear to be simply floating overhead, swaying in the wind.
I passed this window display while walking home one night, thought it was pretty cool.
I have more photos from skating and other markets, but haven't had time to upload them yet. I will hopefully get to it soon, after this long of a wait you deserve more.

I will be home in less than a week now, can't wait to see everyone, it's hard to believe I have been gone for so long. I'm sure some things will be hard to get used to. I think the worst one will be having to account for tax when buying things. I've gotten so used to the common sense approach of tax-included pricing that it might drive me crazy.

At work we have an 'invisible friend' (Secret Santa), mine is great, (s)he has given me lots of chocolate, and a pointsetta and a snowman for my desk. The person I'm buying for is really difficult to buy for, I guess I shouldn't write anymore in case more people from work are reading this than I'm aware of, don't want to ruin the surprise.

On Sunday Andrew, Predrag, and I went to the Technisches Museum (Technical museum) which is like the Ontario Science Centre, except that it's designed for an older audience, so the stuff is just as cool and there are only a few kids hogging all the fun toys. The best thing is that it was just recently converted from German to German/English bilingual, so we could actually understand everything.