Birthday in Vienna

Yesterday for my birthday Dan and I went to do a little more touring in Vienna. We had a great day and really ended up just wandering around the city for a few hours.

Our afternoon started at Naschmarkt- Vienna's most popular outdoor market that has been around since the 16th century. It is about 1.5 km long and includes stalls selling fruits, veggies, spices, trinkets, etc. It also has a ton of restaurants for the visitors to enjoy food that is mostly purchased from the market and prepared.

On Saturdays there is a large flea market that also takes place. Since we were there on Monday it wasn't too crowded but still had the energy of a busy market space.

For lunch we had Asian food- sushi, pad Thai and a chicken dish. We love Asian food and haven't had very much success finding good Asian food in Europe. I have been dying for some raw sashimi tuna so it was top of the list on my birthday. The food was delicious and we had a great time sitting outside watching all of the people mill around while we ate.

I had looked up a few of the top rated restaurants in the market beforehand, but when we got to the market we thought it was only one section...we didn't realize it continued across the road too. So we didn't really find many of the ones I had read about. Luckily the food at the Asian Stop was good so it didn't even matter. We eventually found the other places and may go back one afternoon and try lunch there.

The market is mostly Middle Eastern and Asian focused. There are a few Viennese restaurants, but lots of kebab stops and international shops.

After wandering through the market for a while we headed down to the Opera House in the main ring of the city. It is one of the busiest opera houses in the world producing 50 to 60 operas each year and over 300 ballet performances. Daily they lead tours through the opera house and at Christmas time the Vienna Boys' Choir performs there.

Not too much else to report on our day out. More pictures though! Hope y'all are liking the new look and format of the blog. I have more recipes to add this week...some great fall recipes for the cold weather that seems to have appeared.

I totally forgot to mention this...oh Europe. As I was adding these last pictures I wanted to share just an example of their exhibitionist nature over here. As we were walking past the Museum Quarter yesterday we came across about 20 of these huge posters. I blurred out the picture a bit....they seem to love straight nudity. It showed EVERYTHING. Literally 20 posters of different soccer players just lining the street nude. I am not even sure what the exhibit is about? Maybe a trip to the Leopold Museum is in order...

Flower Garden

Dried fruits and nuts

Big ol' tub of Sauerkraut

Waving kitties

Fresh produce

Fancy an octopus?

Large truffles

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. Check back tomorrow for our new favorite chili recipe!