A few days in Vienna - day 1

Last week I spent a few days in Vienna on a much needed short vacation.

Discovering a new city and sketching to my heart's content are two ways that really help me blow off some steam.

I had my breakfast at the airport, so of course I had to do my warm-up sketches then and there.

The airport's bakery

As I finished my first sketch, a group of Portuguese taxi drivers sat at the table in front of me and started playing cards. Yay!

I wonder what game they were playing.

Then I had to draw the classic air plane view. I'll have to start being more creative with these. They usually look pretty much the same.

Is that food and beverages I spot in the distance ? :D

I arrived around noon, so after leaving my luggage at the pension, I immediately went to the pub nearby to have lunch.

Cafe Ministerium has this nice old charm that I was looking forward to see in Vienna, so I was not disappointed.

However, I did find the waiters were a bit snooty, which surprised me.

The huge Wiener Schitzel I ordered was quite delicious, though.

To colour or not to colour - that is the question.

The first item on my list was everything Hundertwasser-related. I was very curious to see the Hundertwasserhaus for real and then to go to Kunsthaus Wien, where many of his works are exhibited.

I loved everything I saw and learned about this artist. He was such a visionary, in my opinion.

I specially like his concept of seeing a person's house as their third skin, and love the fact that the lucky inhabitants of the Hundertwasserhaus have the prerogative to customise their windows as far as their arms can reach. Plus the concept of tree tenants is just genius!

I made a compilation of various motives I liked from his paintings and added all the quotes that were written throughout the exhibition as well.

"The straight line is godless!"

In the evening I still managed to go to MAK, the Museum of Applied Arts. It was open until late and, as an added bonus, the entrance was free!

There were quite a few interesting items to see, but I was too tired to sketch any of them.

Before going back to the pension, I stopped at MAK's bar to have a quick bite and a couple of beers.

The waiters here were very friendly and the bottle lamp was so appealing that I made one last quick sketch for the day.

Seriously cool lamp!

All in all it was a successful first half day in Vienna. I was surprised at how much some residential parts reminded me of Prague. But then again, I guess it makes sense.