Update Part 3 of 4: Lange Nacht der Museen

Every year, ALL of the museums in Vienna are open for one night only called "Lange Nacht der Museen" or in English "Long Night of Museums." You pay one admission and that ticket gets you in ALL the museums in Vienna for the night. It is from 6PM to 1AM in the morning. It is an annual event that the people of Vienna and even foreigners like myself enjoy. It is a local event so there were major things going on like music, lots of vendors selling their stuff and food. They had a bus system set up that you can take to each of the museums. Many of the museums were close together so the people in charge sectioned the museums and assigned them different bus lines. You could also take the Ubahn and trams to get to the museums if you knew how to get to them. Hofburg Palace was the main hub for the buses. The thing is you can't always see the ALL of the museums since there are always lines and there are too many. So my friends and I made a game plan as to where we wanted to go.

I met up with Sanpo, Erin and Carolyn at this really cool cafe called Welt Cafe to chill and set up our game plans. The cafe reminded me of Cafe Roma in Davis (Rest In Peace Cafe Roma) and Infusion Cafe in Sacramento. Couches and chill music. Good coffee and tea. Great service. Unfortunately, I didn't know that I had to get my ticket ahead of time to get a book for planning so I had to get mine once we came to the first museum. I decided to go along with whatever museum they wanted to go to.

First stop, the Natural Museum in the Museumquartier. We were early enough for me to not have to wait in a long line to get my book and ticket. My friends were up front and as I waited for them, there was this obnoxious British guy standing behind us. He kept heckling the guards to let us in even though it wasn't time yet. He even said aloud that my friend Carolyn had an annoying voice so my friend Erin and I looked at Carolyn and kept her talking. He called me New Yorker just because I was from the U.S. Typical.

We finally got through and we started from the top and worked our way to the bottom. We passed through animal exhibits, reptiles, mammals, creatures of the deep, geology, etc. It sort of reminded me of the Natural Museum of History in New York City. Except there wasn't a Rex or an Easter Island DumDum. But I did find Dexter. We had fun looking at all the exhibits and taking funny pictures with the exhibits.

Next, we got a text from Sanpo that the Butterfly House didn't have a long line and so we headed over there to see the butterflies. Apparently we had to really look for the butterflies and birds. It was sooo hot in the house but I loved the butterflies I did find, the flowers and statues. It was pretty huge for a butterfly conservatory. The one in San Francisco was not as big and so I'm glad I'm got to see this one. Maybe it should be "Vannessa House" because my name does mean butterfly in Greek. Just saying . . .

From there, we hopped on a bus to the Technological Museum of Vienna and met up with Sanpo and his girlfriend Fan. I think we spent the most time at there because the Museum was HUGE! When we came in, they were serving food. The Austrian famous dessert Manner. They are wafers and they are famous around the world. It was hazelnut flavored and right next to it was a chocolate fountain. My friend Sanpo got a picture of us by the chocolate fountain.

I definitely have to say we had too much fun with the exhibits at this museum. It basically shows all the technological advancements and stuff that is being used around the world and in Austria. They also showed innovative ways to conserver energy and other ways of transportation. For example, in Vienna, they have city bikes that people can borrow by depositing a Euro or two and when they park it at another bike station, they get their Euro back. We all took so many funny pictures, including one of Sanpo acting like he was pregnant or ones of us in a huge green bubble. By the time we left, we were so hungry.

We went to Stephansplatz for our dinner break. Erin, Carolyn and I had the local favorite, which is Kaisekrainer, or sausage with cheese in it. They are sold by local vendors and are pretty cheap. Sanpo and Fan decided to get McDonalds. It was pretty cool looking at St. Stephan Cathedral at night. Plus, the food helped me warm up because the night got colder.

Our next stop was the Marzipan Museum. I love marzipan and I could even smell it as we were going through the store. Apparently, this place is world famous because celebrities such as Woody Allen and Ronald Regan have visited it. I know I'm used to seeing marzipan in the cute little shapes and cakes but here, they put it into a whole new level. I saw a huge horse made of marzipan and busts of famous people like Bill Clinton made of marzipan. Large Easter eggs and delicate statues. I was really impressed on what these chefs would make with marzipan.

Erin, Carolyn and I decided to go to the show museum and possibly meet up with Sanpo and Fan at the Chocolate Museum. Yes, for all of you chocoholics out there, there is a Chocolate Museum, where you pay 3 Euros to taste EVERYTHING in the store.

In the shoe museum, we got free stuff when we went there, including free drinks. Even though it was small, the shoes were so cool. Different periods and styles. We saw the old school ski shoes and funky designed shoes. I saw a pair of high heels that had the map of Vienna and had minature replicas of Stephansplatz and others. I definitely like the ones that were from the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Those shoes were so cute!

We found out later on that the Chocolate Museum closed before 12:30AM and so Erin and I decided to leave because the UBahn stops working at 12:30AM, so we had to go catch ours while Carolyn went to meet with Fan and Sanpo for drinks. After five museums, I was exhausted and crashed once I got home. But it was still a fun night!