Those five days have been really great. I wish we would have gotten more time together, but I'll take what I can get.
Day one
I left Algiers at noon for my first flight to Paris. I think I'll skip complaining about what a disaster Air France is for now. I will say though that stepping off the plane in Paris didn't make things any better because, seriously, French people for the most part suck. I'm sorry, maybe I'm just pissed off and being emotional and irrational, but I haven't met enough decent French people to redeem my opinion of them. We have to be controlled by the police right off the plane, and the cop who checked my passport was unnecessarily rude. Their airport staff is generally unsmiling and unhelpful and... man, whenever I'm in Paris Charles de Gaulle all I want is to be out of there asap. Thankfully my layover was very short and I arrived at my gate just in time for boarding my Austrian flight to Vienna which was pleasant, comfortable and mercifully short (1h35). We even arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule, which meant that I had to wait 30 minutes for Timo to come pick me up. Something weird happened when I went to the exit, though. There was a big banner with both the Austrian and Algerian flags on it, and a bunch of people standing there looking very Algerian to me... Apparently there was some kind of Algerian delegation coming on a direct flight at the same time as my own. Just my luck, you know? I stood well away from them, feeling pretty paranoid about getting caught on film or something. Meanwhile they were singing and clapping their hands for some reason and I'm like... wat. Do you have to make a folkloric show of my country abroad like that? But that wasn't even the end of it.
Anywho, Timo shows up, we take the train back to our apartment in the city (a lovely one-bedroom place with a big bath tub in the bathroom, which supposedly works as a jacuzzi but unfortunately a previous guest broke it so no water jets) and unpack a bit. Then my SO decides to give me a present. Not quite sure what the occasion for it was, but let's say it was combined Valentine's and anniversary. It was an absolutely gorgeous gold chain. I was speechless. The funny part was, our host (who lives right next door) is a professional pianist who was practicing his music, and he chose that exact moment to start playing, so it kinda felt like a scene from a movie. <3
Cleavage wasn't intended
After that we went out for dinner at this lovely Mexican restaurant and I ordered one cocktail that was apparently so strong that I stumbled my way back to the apartment, blind-drunk. Good times!
Day two
I'd like to stop here to offer praise to the weather gods because for most of our stay it was absolutely gorgeous out there. Plenty of sun, pretty warm but not too much. It did rain on Sunday, which is the day we went out with Lilly and René, but that wasn't a big deal at all.
Anyway, on the second day we started by going to the imperial palace of Hofburg. We visited the imperial apartments, Sissi's museum, the treasury vault (amazing. Especially the supposed relics like a piece from Jesus's loincloth that looked brand new!) and the Augustine cathedral. We spent quite a bit of time in the gardens because as I said, the weather was wonderful.
Random shots from Hofburg
Maria-Theresien-Platz
Staatoper
We went on to Maria-Theresien-Platz where we soaked up some more sun, then we had lunch in this supposedly traditional restaurant in the city center and I had delicious schnitzel! After that we took what seemed to be a very long walk from Karlsplatz to the Belvedere palace. A very nice place, though I didn't really want to go into the museum because I'm uncultured like that. We just stayed in the garden and watched Asian tourists do odd things.
There were plenty of statues like this one in the garden, and a big group of middle-aged Asian women started taking pictures of each one of them grabbing the boobs. I thought it was funny, if mildly creepy, and then a bunch of French school kids showed up and wanted in on the breast-handling fun, and then it became entirely creepy
At some point, wouldn't you know it? The Algerian people showed up. I didn't see them so much as I heard them! I was seriously worried one of them would know me even though the odds were very slim, so I just kept my head down and we got out of there. Then we went for coffee and I got to finally taste sacher cake, which was good but...ehh. Kinda like regular chocolate cake, ya know?
I think we went back to the apartment quite early that day. I asked Timo to get us a pizza (which was a bad idea because although it was good, I felt like dying after eating it) from around the corner, we had a bath and probably watched True Detective until we passed out (excellent show, btw. Highly recommended)
Day three
I have to say I'm pretty proud of how little sleeping-in we did even though we were on holiday. Usually we'd be up by 8:30/9 am and out the door before 10 am. That day was no different, and with good reason because we had planned to spend the morning at the Schönbrunn castle, which was the summer residence of the Habsburg dynasty. We had a lovely time there, visiting the palace and gardens. It was a bit strange being in rooms used by Empress Maria Theresa, but one could get used to that! We also went into the maze but Timo was a spoilsport about it. He got on top of this platform thing, took one look at it from up high and figured it all out, so he walked us right through it and we didn't get lost at all >:{ When I said "where's the fun in that" he said "I like to beat the system."
After that we walked all the way (I'm making it sound like a long way, but I'm just lazy and don't like steep hills) to the Gloriette, behind the castle, from which we got this breath-taking view of the city. And there was a café there where I basically had the best cake in my whole entire life. 
Gloriette
Picture taken by a very cool American couple.
After leaving Schönbrunn we headed to Stephansdom (impressive, but not the most impressive cathedral I've been to!) and checked out a couple other churches nearby. One of them I wanted to visit because they shot scenes from Before Sunrise (one of my favourite movies ever) in it. So mission accomplished! We had a very mediocre lunch at this "Mexican" restaurant and then went to the Prater park. I was very tired by then and didn't really want to walk around (it is pretty big) so we just went on the Riesenrad ferris wheel because hey, another thing they did in Before Sunrise! We had a pretty nice view of the city from there, and I wrote down our names on the wall of the gondola we were in. I got a bit emotional (how silly of me) because I knew that no matter what happens our names would always be in there. Unless another World War happens and the Prater is bombed out. It could happen! Then I spotted this small roller-coaster thing and of course we had to go on there! It was pretty decent, except not comfortable at all and I bruised my side/shoulder pretty badly. That's not good. Last time I traveled with Timo (Germany in November) I fell down and got this huge, scary bruise on my knee. My mother confronted me about it and asked if I got raped or assaulted somehow (!) so this time I'm taking extra care not to undress in her presence because if she sees this new bruise I'm not sure how to persuade her that I hit my back against a piece of furniture.
Oh, and we got to see this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kugelmugel which was pretty badass! I wonder if I can apply for citizenship.
What else? Oh, we went on a walk along the Danube, because why not. It was quiet and beautiful in that area and the river is surprisingly clean!
After that, the pictures I took tell me we went back downtown, apparently near the Hofburg again... Memories are a bit fuzzy now. And I'm pretty sure we went for ice cream at this place in Schwedenplatz. Best ice cream ever. So good that we went back for more the following day. Anyway, it was a very long day and by the end of it every step I took felt like I was being sawed in half, but I was very happy with all that we'd seen. Apparently Timo wasn't done yet, though, because he wanted to go to this restaurant/brewery to check out some beers, so I told him to go without me. I thought he was going somewhere near where we were staying but later we went back to that restaurant and it was pretty far from we were and dude WALKED all the way there! I'm glad at least one of us is in good physical shape
By the time he came back I was passed out. Apparently I told him to take off his shirt when he got into bed. The truth is out there.It seems I've went above the already generous limit for blogs. At this point I'm certain Lucybelle will only look at the pics
On to part two.
Nicole: It was quite fabulous, Schönbrunn. But it's smaller and less fabulous than Versailles is (or at least how I imagine it to be, haven't been there yet, but soon!) Some rooms were quite breath-taking. Even the toilets of Emperor Franz!