Über Gigantic Viennese Market

One of the best parts of Vienna (where I spent the weekend) was the gargantuan market that I believe is only on Saturdays.  It consists of two parts, a flea-market/antiques part and a food part.  The regular market has between four and five hundred stands.  Stands range from piles of ten euro-cent pieces of clothing in huge piles, to antique dealers selling pocket watches for 120 euro and up.  You can find everything in between as well!  I was looking for a souvenir that was not something kitchy, but would be something I would enjoy and that would have a story behind it.  The first thing that caught my eye was the stand that had drawers and drawers full of olde style type face.  He had all different fonts and he even had image plates.  I was going to get my name, but Steven is not very german.  I decided to get über in two different types of font.  The letters are backwards above for obvious reasons.  I will have to do some printing with them when I get back.

The other object that caught my eye was this WWII (I think) medic bag.  I have been looking for a messenger bag and this was perfect.  It can fit some books, is very sturdy and it looks pretty cool.  It was only twenty euro so for a messenger bag it was really cheap too.  It smells a bit like old people and has a few stains here and there but i have some dryer sheets working their magic and ill scrub out the stains the best I can.  The best part is if any one asks where I got it, I can say its a one of a kind from a viennese market!

Being that medics carried around lots of individually wrapped items, there are a ton of compartments inside the bag.  Folded off to the side there are even two pouches that would be perfect for a cell phone or a mp3 player.

Now on to the food market.  This section of the market was literally magical.  It reminded me of the market in Harry Potter.  The lane went on for at least half a mile and there were stands and shops on each side, there was not a single stand that did not make my mouth water.  The pictures above and below are taken back to back in one section of the food market, I would say that this is about one fifth of the whole food market, there were a lot of turns in the path.

Some stands had all different types of dried fruits and nuts.  One really interesting fruit I had never seen dried before was Kiwi (the green one).

Other stands had vast arrays of pure spices and spice mixtures that were bagged up and ready to go.

Some vendors stacked there fruits and nuts against a window making a wall of deliciosity.

There were many antipasto vendors.  Each individual stuffed pepper, olive, eggplant, and so on were absolutely picture perfect.  Take a close look at the stuffed pepper in the lower left hand section of the display case, look at the intricate design that makes up part of the stuffing.

Here was one of the many cheese shops.  Aside from the cheese shops there were also butchers and fish shops.  The butcher shops were full of thick cut steaks of all different kinds of cuts, tons of salamis and sausages, and gorgeous looking prosciutto.  The fish shops had large varieties of whole fish as well as fillets.  I was famished at this point as well as dehydrated since my mouth had been watering for a good half an hour so I got a gyro.  It was a bit different then in the US.  Instead of a pita, they serve it in a section of inch-and-a-half thick, seeded, flat bread.  It was really good. 

Passing bye all of the pastry shops, I could not avoid ending my meal with some authentic apple strudel.  It was very warmly spiced and it had a bit of ginger in it as well.  A perfect ending to a successful viennese market trip.