Vienna: Stepensdom & Hofsburg Palace

Vienna was somewhat of a blur, since the main reason we went there was to attend the Vienna Officers Ball-that meant we were out all night, and then I tried to be up and doing stuff during the day, too. Since Jospeh couldn't go to any any of the Officers Ball things (you needed an officer escort, super swanky clothes and tickets) I didn't want to sleep all day and leave him feeling abandoned! It meant that I was super tired, but it was really worth it. 

Stephansdom

Josh had kindly worked out the hotel details and had opted to stay in a different hotel then everyone else who had come to go to the ball. I think it was an amazing choice, we were right in the middle of Vienna, two seconds away from the Stephensdom and museum quarter. 

We were also within walking distance of Hofsburg Palace (where the Officers Ball was held), and basically everything else we could want to go to. We went to the Sissy Museum which was one of the best museums I have been too. I had actually never heard of Sissy before, but was immediately obsessed and in love with her like most Europeans seem to be. I can't wait to learn more about her, I already ordered some books. (Yup, I'm that nerdy!)

Some of the statues around the palace.

Another wing of Hofsburg Palace, there are like twelve and they are all amazing. 

Hofsburg Palace gardens. Everyone should have little baby angels in their garden, obviously. Unless you're my Dad, because in that case you have gnomes! :) Basically the same thing though.

Joseph and I went to the State Rooms of the palace also, which was the court library. Be still my beating heart, I would love to have a small, intimate family library that looked like this. 

We went to lunch at Cafe Cental which is famous for being where famous people liked to eat. I didn't recognize many of the name (apparenly I need to brush up on my Austrain-Hungarian history) except Freud, Hitler and Lenin. It was crazy pretty inside and crazy expensive. It is more set up for groups of two-three, so when our group of twelve came in I thought the server was going to have a heart attack. Luckily we had some German speakers in our group and they were kind enough to push five tables together for us.
Crazy town, right? Vienna is gorgeous -and I have tons more pictures!!! I took like 100 a day, but these were my favorite- and we haven't even gotten to the receptions and balls yet. (AKA the real reason we went to Vienna!) I don't want to tease, but let's just say this: they were James Bond style swanky, seriously.