Hi folks,
as probably some of you already know, geoo has been to Vienna last month and as I just happen to study there, we decided to meet up. 't was my first time meeting an internet acquaintance, so naturally I was skeptical at first concerning the get-together, but I brushed it off and designed a plan to follow on that day.
The day was Thursday, March 19th - as far as I remember a sunny day (contrary to the days prior, which were mostly clouded and a bit rainy), and at 10 in the morning we met up in Heiligenstadt, one of the northernmost quarters of Vienna. I recognized him almost immediately by his beard (no kidding). So we introduced ourselves formally and then went to take the subway right away to one of the center squares of Vienna, the Karlsplatz - the residence of my university (Vienna University of Technology). The first thing that I found us to have in common are the studies - both of us study/studied Maths and we got to talk quite a bit about it. Sadly he doesn't specialize in the topic that I am going to give a lecture of, else I would have bombarded him with many more questions than I already have.
After arriving at Karlsplatz I showed him the interior of my university building a bit, then we moved on to walk across the "Ring" - an important street that proceeds around the city center - passing by the State Opera House and along the Carinthian Street (a big shopping street) to St. Stephen's Cathedral, probably the most iconic building of Vienna. From there we continued on to the Hofburg Palace, where the Austrian President's official residence and workplace is located, and saw more of the "Ring" along with a few more sights, like the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Naturhistorisches Museum, the Town Hall park (it seemed closed though, so we sadly couldn't get in), the Volkstheater and the Museumsquarter (which is kind of a park that often hosts Christmas markets). In this meantime we did get to talk about Lemmings a lot, particularly also about my progress in the Lix levelpack (4 levels unsolved), where I presented some of my approaches to him and he surprisingly told me that they weren't too far off from the actual solution.
At that time the clock hit 12 and I already had a specific restaurant on the Mariahilfer Street (another big shopping street) in mind, so we made our way there and had some delicious Stroganoff and a seemingly Austrian speciality reminiscent of a cheese-baken bread of sorts. (
http://www.pitopia.de/pictures/standard/d/daddy/08/daddy_1113508.jpg While not exactly it, it was something like this with some more salads and vegetables.)
Our last planned destination was Schönbrunn Palace. Since it's located rather at the west end of the city, we took the subway yet again. One day prior I had enlisted the help of a studying colleague who lives in the vicinity to show us the exact paths to go from there, since I myself hadn't been there yet. We kind of took a back entrance (passing by the famous Schönbrunn zoo) which directly led us up a hill behind the Palace to the Gloriette (
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Gloriette_Sch%C3%B6nbrunn_Wien.jpg/1920px-Gloriette_Sch%C3%B6nbrunn_Wien.jpg). The weather was just perfect, we could catch a few slight glimpses over the city itself. That is also the only time we consciously took a picture of us with the city in the background, but I think we had a few lighting problems, and I haven't seen the pictures myself because we used geoo's camera. Since geoo had a tight schedule for later that day, we sadly had to get back to Heiligenstadt already so that he could catch a bus to get to a lecture in time.
In any case I enjoyed the day, geoo made a very sympathetic impression on me and I'd definitely decide on meeting him again - probably more Lemmings/Lix focused then, since I planned this day only to show him what Austria's beautiful capital has to offer.
