So to explain what a ‘Punschkrapfen’ is, think of a French fancy. For those of you unaware of the glories of the French fancy they are small square sponge pastries with a dollop of vanilla icing on top, then completely covered in either chocolate, lemon or strawberry icing. These things are lovely.
So anywho, now you have the mental picture, think of the pink one on its own. Now make it a little bigger. Now make it reak of alcohol. Now you’re getting closer to a Punschkrapfen. It’s a high calory(328 for a small one) Austrian speciality.
It’s the evil French Fancy since it is a rum cake and it is wonderful, but very rich and really all I can manage is the one on its own, which is good news for my heart! So we bought a pack of four and I only ate two while we were there, so I brought two home in my carry-on, along with a Sacher Torte and a few bars of Milka chocolate for my friends.
A Sacher Torte is another Austrian speciality pastry. It’s a fancy chocolate cake with apricot jam through it so it’s got a tang. I kept hearing from Roll and Erica that it’s so rich and smells so chocolatey its sickening(Roll refuses to be in the same room as an open one) and that the best place to get them is the Hotel Sacher where they were invented in the 1800s. So halfway through our stay we went there and a slice cost me 4.90! Ok, you’d play this for a slice of cake in most places in Ireland anyway I guess….Anywho, it didnt have the smell and it was a bit dry for my liking, and to be honest, it wasnt great. It looked pretty, but that doesn’t really make up for it. Before we left I found a cheap one in spar, a fiver for a whole cake, so I brought it back in my handluggage and to be honest it better meets my expectations, even though it is horrenously sweet. Sacher Torte in the Hotel Sacher
So, I’m not sure if I already wrote this since I saved what I’ve written to this point yesterday….anywho….myself, my friend Roll, her sister and her sister’s friend (Ex-bf) rented an apartment on Glockengasse in Vienna. The apartment had an odd layout of as soon as you went in the front door there was a door to your right which I guess used to be a closet, but it was the toilet. Solely the toilet. No sink. On the left was the wall of the sink and glass bricks letting light into the kitchen. Ahead were two tables and four chairs for breakfast in the kitchen by the windows. Off this was the room with bunkbeds myself and roll shared. Then there was the sitting room, with bigass couch, bar and dinning table….plus alll german tv.
Back to the kitchen. Normal kitchen stuff. Sink, giant fridge, gas stove/oven, many many cupboards. Then swing doors like in a Saloon….These led into the bathroom…..yeah swingdoors in a bathroom…odd…so you can sorta see into the kitchen from the big multiple person bath and the shower over in the corner. Out of the other door from the bathroom, a door with frosted glass panels was the master bedroom. There was a window in the bathroom opposite this door opening into the hallway outside our apartment, the window was frosted glass too and there were bars infront of it to stop anyone using it to get into the apartment….but still odd……
We stayed for six days and in this time, went to the Succession building to see Klimt’s mural, the natural history museum, the national museum, the palace, the zoo, the aqua-terra zoo, the hotel sacher, huntwasser haus, Stephansplaz, the cocktail bar around the corner from us (x3)….and probably other stuff i can’t remember right now…along with general exploring of the city centre.
None of us had German, probably much to the annoyance of the locals…Will write more later. …..Have some photos….