Shonbrunn is the royal residence of the Austrian Kaisers. We went there on Friday after work, at 2 o’clock. Petra was guiding us through. We didn’t know anything about it in the beginning so were pouring questions on her head all the time. We found out that the name Shonbrunn means a beautiful axbjur smth like that. It was built in the 17^th century and is a huge complex consisting of the royal park, the zoo, greenhouse, etc. We entered it and took some photos near the entrance. Then bought the long ticket for 3,5 hours which was disappointing for some of usJ Then we started our tour into the golden past of Austria. We took audio guides which were very convenient as they were explaining each room in details. I was the only one to take the English guide and it was very good in terms of creating the atmosphere of kingdom. We were passing through the rooms that each represented the lifestyle and things that were used in those times There were their bedrooms, galleries, guest rooms, card rooms, etc. I found out that Maria Theresia had lots of children and that only Marie Christine was allowed to get married the man she loved. That Kaiser Josef used to receive 100 people each day and he remembered the cases of each of them.

The most interesting rooms were the “blue room” that had all the walls decorated with blue ornaments and 100s of small portraits drawn right on the walls. Then Maria Theresia had 2 Chinese rooms very expressive ones with Chinese paintings and furniture all over the room. There was also a very interesting room called Rich room that had lots of mirrors on the walls that were creating the illusion of unlimited space , this illusion was very common for those times. The biggest room in the palace was the Gallery room that had 40 metres length and 10 meters width that was used for big events and celebrations. I admired the beauty of Elisabeth or Sisi how people used to call her. She was a very interesting woman but had a difficult life. She got married when she was 15 and was not ready for the emress life. But afterwards she became a self confident and mystical empress. She was not interfering in politics much, except when she was promoting the rights of Hungary, of which she was extremely fond of. Sisi knew English, French, Hungarian and Greek and wrote poems. She was fond of travelling. Elisabeth had three children of who she was mostly connected to Marie Valerie the youngest, as it was the only kid grown up by her. She was unbelievably beautiful, was 172 cm and 46 kg. Maria Theresia’s life was very prominent and hard, her usband loved her crazilz. She was assacinated by an anarchist in Zurich , a very stupid death, but she actually wanted to die and i even suspected that this was an organized suicide.

After this very interesting tour into the glorious past of Austrian kaisership we went to the Privy Garden that had wonderful plants (even citruses), flowers and very nice tunnel like ways all decorated with green. Then we went to the apfelstrudel show where they were showing how to cook it. The room was crowded already as we were late, besides the cooker was talking in English like in German and all we gained form there was a piece of apfelstrudel that was like a manana for us as we were veeeery hungry. Then we went to the most beautiful park I saw in my life. It was huge and different destinations one leading to Roman ruins, the other to labyrinths, another one to the Gloriette, a high wonderfully decorated building to have a view over the city. We went to this Gloriette and tried to go upper but I made a very funny mistake. People were buying new tickets to go up, but ours were valid for all of the places so we just needed to put it inside the box to be let in. But after I went in I immediately went out from the exit place, thinking that the way to the top was after it. And after we found out that we are already out of the place our tickets didn’t work. We were very disappointed. Then I decided to ask the ticket seller about what should we do. He seemed to have faced these kind of situations quite a lot of times so calmly told us to go to the entrance and he will open it himself. We were so happy!

We went up took some pictures of the incredible view and went down. Then I sat a little bit on a bench listening to music waiting for others to come back and trying to recall all I had seen during that day. That was our first trip to Shonbrunn but not the last.

After a week some of us (me, Alla, Luiza, Tigran, Karen) went to the zoo of the Shonbrunn. My biggest desire of course was to see the pandas and guys were having fun on me that I am going to marry them and live in Shonbrunn. Not badJ

First we entered Shonbrunn we were welcomed by a short rain and also we mixed the way and walked much more than were supposed to. At last we reached the zoo and bought the tickets. All the zoo was constructed in a very good way, had a easy to understand structure. We first say the big yak with lots of hair. I was particularly shocked with his big head and body and small back feet wondering how could they carry such a weight. Then we went to some birds, penguins, entered into the tropic climate place that was very hot and humid besides I had a very big thing in my mouth that was supposed to be sweet but instead had a smell of garlic and I couldn’t finish it!

We went to see the map of the park then to find out where the pandas were. At last we managed to find the right direction and followed it. Before the pandas we had a look at the tiger, who was extremely popular and the lions whom we could see through holes only. We hurriedly reached the place where pandas were drawn but…there was nobody outside. I was already getting in a panic but Tigran found the way to the inner room where the wonderful toys were having their rest. And then I saw them…a soft, kind and lazy creature lying on the floor with eyes open. I was crying from happiness and couldn’t believe I saw it, this cutie humble and such a pretty panda. There was another a more active one, who was occupied with the second and last activity of pandas, besides sleeping; he was eating. He was seating with his back to us and furiously tearing the leaves of the bamboo by his mouth. There was a kid panda who we unfortunately didn’t manage to examine properly as it was sleeping on some high branch. I was though so satisfied and happy that couldn’t help just standing and looking at their lazy movements for hours. But we needed to move and leave those cutie cutie puppets.

After it we also had a look at giraffes, and sheep. The guys were tired and sat while me and Alla went to see the monkeys as well. There was a very funny orangutan who was very bust cleaning his room to find out little corn lying on the floor and take it to his big mouth by his looong fingers. He looked like a human with his movements and self confidence. Then we joined others who were already out and took and Ubahn to home.

These were two days in Shonbrunn, unforgettable trips to the glorious past of the big Empire.