Independence Week.

Currently listening:  Mendelssohn's 4th Symphony, "Italian".   In preparation for the "Orchestra Mozart" Concert conducted by Claudio Abbado.  NO BIG DEAL! ahhhh!!!!!!!

I've got to post more often.  I have a lot to talk about before I forget it all!  My week of independence has gotten off to a pretty decent start!  Everyone in my apartment was gone on Monday early afternoon.

So, even after 14 full days of antibiotics, I'm still not feeling 100% better unfortunately.  Looks like I'll have to wait the rest of this one out, but the worst of it is very much behind me.

On Sunday, since nothing is open except museums, and it was free museum weekend, Sara, Emily, Ross, and I decided to venture the the Hofburg Palace.  This palace was the winter home of the Habsburgs, as opposed to Schönbrunn, their summer home, which we visited (the gardens) in earlier weeks.  This palace is unbelievably gorgeous.  I might have to say it's my favorite building as of now.

View of the main hall from the top floor!

Down a staircase... everything is marble!!!

An outside view.  It has incredibly intricate designs and I just love that everything is ivory colored!

Later on Sunday, Ross and I took a little trek to one of the 3 Flaktürme sites in Vienna.  These Flaktürme were in a basic sense, attack towers and command towers from the 2nd world war.  They are huge buildings, looking very similar in my eyes, to the MAC (if you're an IU student!).  

This is the view.. my apologies for the trees and sun. stupid nature ;)

This specific Flakturm was turned into a modern art museum.  Now, I've been to quite a few mdern art museums, mainly in New York.  However, this museum was really odd.  It was also a little bit difficult to decipher whether some objects were part of the art, part of the history of the building (which was why we were there), or just junk laying in the corner because it's a dirty old war tower.

This was one of my favorites.  It really looks like a drawing in air!  It's made of wire.  

There was also a really strange piece that was basically a machine that was made to shoot large canisters of red goo into the corner every 30 minutes.  I'm not really sure of the significance.  The video said something about a room can't really be a room without a corner.... modern art is really something.

There was some history still left intact!  This is definitely a toilet from WWII.  Super cool!  

The best part of this was definitely the view from the top of the Flakturm.  It's pretty neat, we can actually look around the city now and see things that we recognize!

I was able to use my panorama shot again :)  

There were also some really strange things like furniture with cut out faces and a blob of twisted up colorful plastic noodles that was titled, "I thought I saw a pussycat."  At that point I was about ready to leave and Ross was more than ready.  I really did enjoy this outing though quite a bit.  

Monday:

I navigated around Vienna all by myself 2 days in a row now!  I got myself the the Kunst Haus Wien to see the Hundertwasser exhibit (for only 5 euro!!!  yay half off mondays!).  This was a really neat exhibit.  I really love his paintings and architecture.  I think I mentioned him before, but he was all about the environment and how the earth was our equal.  He created apartments that had trees growing out of them and on top of them.  He thought by building apartments on top of plant life, we're killing the environment.  So, he built apartments and put the environment on top!

This is the Kunst Haus Wien.  Cool, eh?   I thought so too.  Hundertwasser had a really amazing idea for design.  I would love to live in a building like this.  I would actually be really happy to see a town made exactly how he wanted.  One of his really important paintings was one of a town made how he would create it, within nature.  He painted it before even looking into architecture!  So it was like his first attempt at what he would do!  And then he did!  I think his ideas were really something. 

After my trip alone to the Kunst Haus, I was dying to use my vocal chords, so I met up with Ross and another friend, Alex, and we went to a Turkish restaurant for some authentic food in the 16th district.  It was amazing.  I never thought I'd say this, but I ordered lamb.  It may have been the greatest meat I've ever tasted.  The end.

Tuesday:
My second day of navigating all by myself.  I ventured to Mariahilferstraße, the main shopping street in Vienna!  Shopping is expensive here.  I didn't buy a lot, but I got a new purse so that I'd have a larger one for day trips.  It's super cute.  :)  I also bought some boots.. with heels.. because I'm really short.  And they were awesome.  Mariahilferstraße is really long.  I barely made a mark in it and I was there wandering for hours.  Besides the prices, I like shopping in Wien.

After another long day of independence, I once again was very lonely and invited Ross over for dessert.  Aaaaaaand....

As far as the cooking competition is going, I do believe I'm winning as of now.  Ross joined me sunday night for stir fry that I concocted, which consisted of eggplant, zucchini, onions, garlic, red bell pepper, and salmon, all from the Naschmarkt, mixed with noodles.  Tuesday, I made a very similar dish, just adding yellow zucchini, and replacing the more expensive salmon with chicken.  I then proceeded to make a zucchini cake with nutella swirl.  It was incredible.  Definitely a keeper.  Ross agrees.  He ate half of it.

If you eat the whole thing, it's a full serving of vegetables!  .. and many full servings of other things... ;)

On another food note, I've developed a taste for bell peppers!  I never thought that day would come. :) hooray!

So, I basically already knew this, however, after the past few days on my own, I've come to the definite conclusion that I really like people.  I miss people. So, besides being incredible quiet and lonely, all is well in Vienna.  But really, I need someone to talk to!  Skype me?  :)

More to come very soon!!!!!!