A tale of murder, kisses and yes, more espresso!

Tuesday was another day of exploring, but this time I was not alone! I met two students from France, Lise and Mathilde. They are both very nice girls, and very funny – they had me laughing all day! We had decided to meet at Schloss Schönbrunn as none of us had ever been before. Schönbrunn was a Habsburg family imperial palace, originally built as a hunting cottage. Franz Joseph I was born at Schönbrunn Palace in 1830, and at the age of 18 he became emperor of Austria. We took the shorter “Imperial” tour, as with most things in this city; entrance to the palace was expensive. We saw several rooms, including Franz Joseph’s study, where he worked ‘until utter exhaustion’ every day of his rule. Many familiar names have walked the beautiful halls of Schönbrunn including Mary Antoinette and Franz Ferdinand. Franz was the emperor’s nephew and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. You may remember that in June 1914 it was his (and his wife, Sophie’s) assassination in Sarajevo that was the cause of the First World War. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures inside the palace, but you can take a virtual tour here: http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/site/publicdir/0103020400_205.php#75810.

Following our history lesson for the day we made our way downtown to Köo Café where I ordered my obligatory Macchiato. We talked a bit about home and lives – comparing France and Canada a bit. When we finished our drinks we hurried back to Stephansplatz to meet my buddy, Thomas.

Side note: I’m still adjusting to the European way of greeting friends… The double kiss still throws me off – I’m scared that one of these times I will forget and I’ll whack heads with someone by accident or something. I’m sure I’ll get use to it soon enough – and well I think it’s better than the standard Canadian greeting.

The four of us went to another café to catch up and learn more about the Austrian way. This time I took my espresso in a latte form. We talked about excursions the school is planning to Salzburg and Venice (ummm, have I mentioned I love my new school??!!) and quizzed each other about how much we knew about each other’s country… They were impressed that Brokeback Mountain was filmed in Canada. I was even told my German pronunciation is improving – Thomas says my accent is very good. Obviously listening to the announcements on the U-Bahn and watching random subtitled shows on MTV has its pay offs.

Starving, we made one last stop downtown before heading home – McDonald’s. I now know how to say “no onions” in German, but I think it’s a helpless cause… I will never be able to escape the dreaded onion in this country. What I find funny about the restaurants here is they throw a “Mc” at the beginning of everything. Instead of the value menu, it’s a McMenu – they have their branding down. And, for those of you wondering, yes, the fries really do taste the same as they do at home!