I promised you the second installment of the Whitney & Christina Drink series and….here it is! I know- the anticipation was agonizing. A little background- after 3 months traipsing around Italy, I reunited with Christina in Vienna, Austria. To do what you might ask? Drink wine, of course. And in some cases a bit too much. We ate schnitzel, crashed an enology student party, drank more blaufränkisch than we ever thought possible and generally had a blast. By blast I mean, you know, becoming BFF with a cab driver named Roger and singing songs from the Sound of Music.
It is about time I get back to my regularly scheduled weekly Sunday sipping. Let’s just pretend that I am not currently in Kentucky where my day involved a baby shower and eating at Cracker Barrel. Let’s travel back one week from today, shall we? That would put us smack in the middle of the beautiful and magnificent Vienna. Ahhh, that’s a bit better. That Sunday involved a lot of extra strength tylenol to combat the hangover of a massive Saturday night wine tasting party. It also involved a luxury fair where a lot of rich people gathered to look at luxurious things that rich people buy, a walk through the ornately lit pedestrian streets of the 1st district, the most spectacular christmas market that probably exists and of course, more wine drinking.
I thought I would take a moment to summarize my love for this city and its wine in my favorite form; a top 10 list.
Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Vienna:
10. Austrians know how to celebrate Christmas. With the biggest trees, brightest lights and yummiest mulled wine ever made.
9. Figlmuller‘s giant wiener schnitzel. It was larger than the large plate it arrived on. Pounded thin, lightly breaded and fried and topped with a lemon wedge. Simple and entirely too good.
8. The ability to use 5 forms of public transportation at any time: 2 kinds of train (I still don’t know the difference), bus, metro or tram. All with clocks counting down the arrival of the next bus/tram/train… the efficiency that abandoned me for 3 months in Italy.
7. Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele
6. The viticulture and oenology students like to throw parties, make you the guest of honor, invite all of their friends with instructions to bring a bottle of Austrian wine (or 4) and then make you drink all of it.
5. Zweigelt
4. Trockenbeerenauslese
3. Grüner Vetliner
2. Blaufränkisch
1. Prost! Maybe one of the best toasting words around the block. Try it, it’s fun.
