Traditional Viennese dinner

We asked our hostel for a recommendation for traditional Austrian food and were directed up the street.  The place was not too busy and the host was friendly and full of advice about what to order (he recommended the most expensive item on the menu).  We had our choice of schnitzel, goulash, dumplings, and other delicious options.  Many chose schnitzel, and decided they want to go back again tomorrow to try something else.  

Josie wore her "I [heart] Barcelona" shirt today and at one point someone behind her started whispering "I love Madrid, I love Madrid".  It took her a minute to figure why this person was even saying this to her at all.  Lol. 

It was kind of funny when I went to pay for the group, the waiter put my swipe card (no chip) in the chip reader.  I said "no chip".  He looked puzzled and didn't know what to do.  I said "you need to swipe" and pointed to the side of the machine.  He turned it the wrong way and tried it.  I told him to turn it around.  He finally got it.  However, he explained to me several times that the bill did not include "service".  I think he expected me to put in a tip once he had authorization for the card, but the swipe protocol didn't allow that option.  He seemed irritated, but didn't say anything to me.  I pulled out some cash instead and left an appropriate tip and he seemed satisfied.

For our final night we also sought out a traditional restaurant.  This one was so traditional the menu was only in German.  The waitress offered to tell us what was on it, but I said we'd try to work it out ourselves first.  We actually did a pretty good job.  The challenge with German is they tend to string multiple words together, so you just have to focus in and take them apart to figure out the difference pieces that you can recognize.  We ended up with dumplings (cheese, spinich and mushroom), and wrapped chicken with ratatouille.  (The waitress confirmed that our interepretations were correct before we placed the order.

We had a little bit of trouble finding a table on this last night.  The small places in our neighborhood all had tables reserved.  Fortunately we were looking for dinner on the early side, so they let us eat and run (like Americans do, haha) and still had the table ready for the guest with the reservation later.