Vienna Trip: Stephansplatz #1

The second day in Vienna started off sunnily. Before going to Stephansplatz, we went to find an Indonesia foodstore at the opposite direction. I knew I'd want to buy many things from there, so each of us brought a backpack. I had printed the map of the store: Toko Sederhana. It was about 2 km away from our hotel, so we were planning to go there and then back to the hotel to put everything we bought there and then we'd go around Stephansplatz to visit some museums or a church or something like that. 

Here's a pic of us walking back to the hotel from the store...

Here are some views when we walked to Stephansplatz (about 4-5 km away from our hotel). R2 didn't want to use any public transit so we walked there everywhere. 

Our first stop was Mozart's House. Unfortunately I couldn't take pics of the inside of the house but I found a link where you could see some videos/pics of the place: Mozarthaus Vienna.

It was the first time we used that kind of audio guide. So we paid the fee and got two gadgets like rather thick mobile phones and we had to punch in the numbers shown in each room/wall in order to listen to the explanation. We started off from the 3rd storey. The tour went SO long (around 2 hours or more?) that I was REALLY REALLY starving when it was finally finished. Here's a pic of me in front of the entrance:

So right after that we went to find a resto to have lunch ha ha...We didn't really know where to eat, so when we found some place that looked OK with menus on the wall, we just went in. We ended up in Lindenkeller. We had to go down some stairs, so it felt like being in a nicely decorated cellar. The food was OK. It was nice to dine in a place with a different atmosphere (something Sodankylä doesn't have).

R2 had some beer and schnitzel whereas I had goulash and pasta. The goulash was spicy and nice, but I had tasted much better goulash soup in Budapest (I've promised myself that if we go back to Budapest, we HAVE to go to the same resto again just so I can eat the goulash soup!!!) he he he...Here are some pics:

Then we toured around the area. Here's the link to the website if you want to see panoramic photos and read more info: Stephansplatz.We went straight to St. Stephen's Church and bought a ticket to go up to the tower by lift (sorry, didn't feel like walking a few hundred steps to the other tower 'coz we had been walking and we would still be walking for a few days around the city). The ticket cost €4.5/person. It got cloudy at that time and the wind was SOOOOO cold up thereeeeee!!! BRRRRRRRRRRRR...

Anyhow, here are some pics:

  I think this is long enough now, so I'll separate the other photos in another post.

Today's Highlights

It's hard to be fair to all the kids in the daycare 'coz some kids are more vocal when they demand your attention more than some others who are more shy and quiet. I'm learning to spend my time with different kids, but it's rather hard to get closer to the ones who don't seem to be interested in spending time with me. But then again that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't want to spend time with me, so I've gotta try anyway. I'm gonna try to talk more to the others to get to know them more. :-D



Highlights of today:

1. One boy insisted on my sitting next to him during lunch break, so I gave in he he...He's also greeted me with a hug this morning. :-D

2. Some kids were very interested in my lunch, 'coz I brought my own lunch. They wanted to know what it was HI HI HI...

2. When it was time for me to go back home, I was playing with three kids. One of them said to me, "You can't go anywhere!" Uh oh...

3. Another one held up both her arms (I was standing near her) while moving her legs up and down excitedly, so I knelt down and she gave me such a strong hug that I almost fell backward (I didn't expect that kind of strength 'coz she was such a tiny girl). After that strong hug, I stood up and she tapped my butt a few times while saying, "Okay, go now, go now, go now" with a smile on her face. :-D ---> It brings such pleasure to make a little kid smile. :-D



Oh brother...those of you who have kids are REALLY lucky, even though bringing up kids is one of the toughest tasks on earth. One thing I LOVE about the job is getting free hugs from the kids - the unexpected ones he he...:-D

Random Musings and Babblings

1. The more I learn from and about others, the more I realize that I don't know anything much.

2. I have an unteachable heart, especially when I get unsolicited advice. This has been one of my problems ever since I was young. I have a rebellious heart and for that, I hope God will help me change it. I don't want to have an unteachable heart anymore. Plus I also don't want to have pride growing inside me. Sometimes the tall weeds of pride grow pretty quickly in my heart and I feel smug, even though a part of me abhors it. Heaven help me! I'm pretty helpless in these departments!

3. The last time I talked to Mom on the phone (via Skype), she said something interesting to me. She's been preparing my brother's lunch for years now, but when his wife started living in their house, she told her, "I'm going to keep on preparing my son's lunch, but you can prepare your own lunch. That way you can grab anything you want."

You see, my Mom knows already what my brother likes and dislikes, but she doesn't know yet what my brother's wife likes and dislikes, so she wants to give her freedom. And Mom wants to keep on preparing for my brother's lunch since she knows already how much rice there should be, etc. She said to me that if my brother's wife wanted to take over that task later on (after finding out how much the portion should be for my brother), then that's fine for her.

I find that...INSPIRING!!! :-D

4. You know when you start getting to know someone, but you don't really share any personal stories yet, and then it comes one point when you say to yourself, "OK, this is it. I'm going to risk myself by sharing this and that, and if he/she reacts positively, then I know that I can begin to form a closer friendship with him/her"?

Well, that was what happened to me and my Brit friend yesterday and it felt GREAT!!! ;-D She's also EXCITED about our plan to start trying to have a baby at the end of this year and she gives me some advice. Since her own sons are teenagers now and she used to be a nurse, I can call her if I ever need help with my own kids HE HE HE HE HE...After all, my own Mom is far away from me now.

5. Yesterday Arttu's second brother sent him an email. Apparently he'd been reading my blog, so he knew what had happened to Arttu after the birthday party. JARPPPPAAAAAA, if you're reading this post, why don't you write me some comments every now and then, eh? HE HE HE HE HE...

Anyway, Arttu was confused why his brother knew about all of that, so he asked, "Did you write about everything in your blog?" I said yes, and upon hearing that, he said, "Nice going! Now the whole world knows that I'm an a**h***!"

I explained to him that I had been writing so much positive stuff about him and if I kept on doing that, nobody would believe me since he would be "too perfect" HE HE HE HE HE HE...He just smiled and shook his head in disbelief when he heard my explanation HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

3BT: December 6, 2007

1. My cactus flowers are blooming!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!

2. Seeing hubby talking to the flowers like in the Sims game. Blur Ting, does it really help to talk to the flowers? Will they feel more loved by that action? HE HE HE HE HE...

3. Hubby made mashed potatoes for us. YUMMY!!! You know how he made mashed potatoes? After boiling the potatoes, he added some butter and milk and then he used a mixer!!!!! So easy! I used to make mashed potatoes manually and it took me a long time to mash them evenly.

4. Having lunch together at home without hubby hurrying through lunch to go back to work.

Addition (since I haven't written this before):

Every Saturday before going to my in-laws' place, hubby goes down to the parking lot first to scrape the snow/ice from the car. He tells me not to hurry since if I hurry to the parking lot, it'll take a while before he finishes the task of scraping the ice from the car and I could get cold by sitting for a long time in the car. I LOVE the way he always thinks of me (my safety, my being warm, etc.). It's the little things he does that makes me really appreciate him. I LOVE HIM more and more each day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!