sunday hours with the girls; ada, ella and dia

Sunday afternoon in Vienna and it was time for me to finally meet up with my Austrian blogging sister and friend, Dia@HappyFace313. We have had close online contact for nearly 2 year now.

Dia suggested that we should spend the hottest hours at The Albertina, which is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna,Austria, just behind the famous Opera House. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints

It sounded cool in more than one way, because Vienna had become hot like a Sunday roast oven. “The Albertina”, a stunning beautiful building showed 3 exhibitions; Blow-Up (Antonioni’s Film Classic and Photography), Alex Katz (Drawing, Cartoon and Paintings) and the permanent show “Monet to Picasso” (The Batliner Collection).

So soon I saw Dia coming I knew it was her – in a colorful summer dress with matching ballerina shoes, with a big smile on her face and loads of warmth in her hug, just as lovely as I had imaging.

We spent about 2 hours … at Albertina. The exhibition that talked most to me was Alex Katz with his amazing drawing on packing paper; the amazing drawings of his wife Ada. My favorites became Ada with the blue umbrella, White Roses and a white big drawing of Ada. I’m amazed over his technic on some of his pieces where he had rolled with a cutter in some of the drawing lines, which gave the drawings a 3D effect, both with “White Roses” and the big white image of Ada.

“Blow-Up” (1966) was a very interesting exhibition too, with B&W photos from the film and fashion from that period. Most of them were taken by Arthur Evans. That was when fashion photography was changing into exciting images and any of the photos could have been out of today’s Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar.

At the “Monet to Picasso” exhibition was it the “smaller names” that talk both Dia and me – there was some wonderful pieces by Russian avant-grade painters that I never heard about before, that we both would love to have at home. After walking the endless red carpet inside Albertina – was it time for coffee break and we decided to try out the café at a newly open hotel, The Guesthouse.

I indulged myself with a chocolate mousse cake topped with fresh berries and the cappuccino was great and what I like is that in Austria and German is it always served a little glass water with the coffee. We sat and talked about our lives and dreams until the sun were bothering us too much.

Then Dia toke me for a walk through the new Golden Quarters, just by the Stephan Dome – a new pedestrian area with exclusive shops (all the big designers), banks and of course very exclusive apartments – but I don’t know if I would like to live there if I had the money; there wasn’t one pretty flower or tree anywhere. It was all newly renovated old buildings and I don’t even dare to dream about what an apartment would cost me. Very interesting to see how the highest level of society lives, eat and shops.

Suddenly time for dinner, the evening was very lively and poeple everywhere; we found “Ella’s”, a little Greek restaurant at Judenplatz, that showed to be an excellent choice. It’s still so in Vienna that a lot of restaurants are closed on Sunday – all shops too … not even the shopping malls are open. A little strange – we are in the 21’s century, but what I understand is it the church that want it to stay that way

At Ella’s we both had the most tasteful salad made of Rocket leaves, chanterelles and walnuts. We both are still lyrical about it. For main Dia went for their burger and it was so big ….  it nearly walked away with her. Massive. I went for Pan fried Sea Bass on Saffron Risotto – and we drank mineral water like camels. There was more talk about our lives, getting to know each better. When we left the restaurant was Vienna bathing in moonlight, it was full moon.

And it was time to for me to travel back to my friend’s aparment …. by metro and bus, of course I chose the wrong station for departure; no U4 connection – but I’m a very resourceful woman when I want to.

A fantastic afternoon and evening with 3 very different and exciting ladies had come to an end and a the most lovely goodie bag to bring with me home from Dia.

Dia, a big HEARTY thank you for the fantastic hours, your hospitality and great company. Will be back, it’s a theart. *smile

“Vienna is a handsome, lively city,
and pleases me exceedingly.”
Frederic Chopin