Visas in Vienna

I was barely back in the Czech Republic when I headed to Austria. It was time to go to the Czech Embassy to get my long term residency visa. (I have almost exhausted my 90 day tourist visa.) Unfortunately, you can't get that visa in the Czech Republic; you have to leave the country and go to a Czech Embassy. It was either Bratislava or Vienna. They chose Vienna. So on Thursday morning at 5am* I was in a van with a driver, a lawyer, and a Czech/German/English speaking woman, all from Eva's company. The woman came along since neither the driver nor the lawyer speak any English. I felt so important with my entourage! Cameron the celebrity. And also sort of unimportant at the same time, since my presence was only required for a few signatures. I didn't even have to speak to the people at the embassy!

After a lovely four and a half hour drive we arrived in Vienna. But crisis! We thought they only required two passport sized photos, when in fact they need three! The embassy pointed the way to a photo studio and my handlers and I jumped back into the van. I tried to understand the German instructions and posed for some pictures. Then it was back to the embassy. They are only open for visa stuff from 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning (sort of a tiny and inconvenient window if you ask me) so we had to rush back to make it before they closed for the day. Whew! We made it.

The lawyer said something to the woman, which she translated as "We are going to see the castle." "Okay," I said. I like castles and I don't think they were asking me, anyway.

Turns out Schonbrunn Palace was two blocks away from the embassy! I didn't have my camera since I didn't know we would be visiting Empress Maria Theresa's modest little pile. But don't cry! My family and I visited two years ago so here are some pictures from 2007. The palace hasn't really changed since then.

The odd busty sphinx ladies that guard the entrance.

The front.

One day I will take a ride in a horse drawn carriage. One day...

The back. The yellow and paler yellow are nice, I suppose, but I think it would look much prettier in shades of green or blue or even white. Up close it is sort of mustardy. Not as pristinely elegant as other palaces.

This is the Glorietta. Sort of a summer palace that overlooks the main 1000 room monstrosity from up on a hill. There is a small lake behind the Glorietta. The lawyer was determined to walk all the way up to the Glorietta so that we could look back on the whole city. Never mind that neither I nor the woman were dressed for hiking. It was really hot, too. But it wasn't a discussion so we climbed up the hill. Nice view of Vienna, but we only looked at it for a minute or two since none of us knew what we were looking at and it was difficult to remark upon anything we saw anyway because of the language barrier.

The way back to Nove Straseci took about five hours. Agh. The trip was made more interesting by the radio. The music selection was a combination of 1980s and 1990s American pop and Czech music with some other European selections thrown in. I was shocked to learn that the song from the movie Love, Actually, (the one where they change the word love to Christmas) is a real song! I thought they made it up for the movie. But I learned the truth when it played (twice) on the way back. I have heard a lot of ABBA, as well as Czech versions of American songs. For instance, the "You're the One That I Want" song from Grease plays a lot but the lyrics are in Czech.

And the best part is...I get to go back this Thursday! Apparently they don't mail visas so the driver and I will head back to Austria at 4:30am to pick up my papers. It will be a long, silent drive. About ten hours in the car for a five minute appointment. Not looking forward to it.

*Favorite moment: I was chatting with sister Sally on gchat and said goodbye, adding that I needed to go to bed early since I had to get up at 4am the next day to go to Vienna. Her response? "Yeah, me, too."