Vienna, Austria: Reliving Matt's P-day

We hopped off the S-Bahn at Floridsdorf. Matt grabbed my hand and starting leading me down the street, smiling. He was taking me to his former neighborhood.

We came to the door of his old apartment, marked "Richins" and "Hayes," just as it had been five years before. Matt explained that no missionaries had changed the names since long before he lived there. I told him that he and his companion should have so they could be famous instead of Richins and Hayes. He just shrugged.

Matt rang the apartment just for fun and what do you know? The missionaries were home for lunch and invited us on up.

I stayed out in the hall, of course, but Matt walked in and reported that nothing had changed inside, either. We chatted with the missionaries at the door for a bit and then headed back out to continue the neighborhood tour.

Matt and his companions apparently played some pretty intense games of ping pong in this park back in the day. If you ask Matt, he won every time. I wonder what his buddies would say...?

This little internet cafe is close to the apartment and was therefore the designated spot for e-mailing moms and dads.

We walked inside and the owner instantly recognized Matt. I was surprised since it had been so many years, but he explained that he saw Matt and his companion walk by every single day for a year, not to mention the time the missionaries spent inside his business each P-day. He never wanted to learn more about the church but has always loved the missionaries and Matt was happy to see him.

Meanwhile, we were in the middle of laundry back at our own apartment. Washers are plentiful but dryers are pretty uncommon over there, so we hung clothes wherever we could get a hanger to stick!

We enjoyed a mid-morning snack of butterkeks and yogurt before heading out to the Mariahilfer strasse for some window shopping and lunch at Herb's.

Oh, and by "Herb's" I really mean Schnitzelwirt. Matt said the missionaries have called it Herb's forever and doesn't really know why (and neither does our friend who just got back from her mission in Germany/Austria). Just nod and smile.

Matt had been talking up Herb's cordon bleu weinerschnitzel for months and I'm happy to say it was worth the hype! It was probably the most delicious lunch I've ever had in my entire life. Seriously.

And the fact that you get to eat it on a cute little terrace is just icing on the cake, right?

Speaking of icing on the cake, we spent the remainder of our last day in Vienna at palaces. Not bad, right? I'm way excited to go through those pictures for the next Europe post, so hopefully you're excited to see them!