The Musical City: Vienna

It's been a crazy week of travel recovery and homework, but I want to try to pick up where I last left off with Vienna!

Our train from Budapest was early in the morning, so we weren't up too late our last night. Up early (...which we got quite good at...and those that know me well know that it's not my favorite thing to do. At all.) we found the bus that would take us to the train station. Our train left from a station of the far East side of Budapest...but we arrived earlier than anticipated thanks to the bus. We wanted to get rid of the last of our forints (Hungarian currency...will be explained in the Top Ten to come...) and bought some fresh fruit and snacks for the train. And of course pastries! (You should know by now that pastries and I have a SERIOUS relationship.) We found our train, and climbed aboard. Much to my delight, you sat in compartments on this train! For all you Harry Potter fans out there...you know what I'm talking about. It was a long train ride...about 3 and half hours, but thanks to some naps, it didn't take too long.

Once we arrived, we followed the directions to our hostel. All of us were uncomfortable with our HUGE backpacks...and not from the weight, but the awkward pull backpacks seem to have on your shoulders. Anyway...it was wonderful to get to our hostel. We were a bit concerned at first...as we had to buzz ourselves in, then walk down this dark hallway with renovation happening on all the walls...up this little staircase...down another hallway with tiles that weren't all secure in the floor...and found our hostel. At this point we thought we were in for a crappy hostel...but once the door was opened - SURPRISE! It was lovely! All the walls were white, with natural, light furnishings to make it seem hip, comfortable and homey all at the same time. The hostel owners greeted us warmly, showed us our room (another loft! YAY!!!) and around the hostel. She even had laminated maps for us with all the best spots highlighted and explained. I was blown away. We all were completely rejuvenated from the train ride after chatting with her and hit the streets of Vienna!

First on the list was lunch..as we had only our snacks and breakfast. We found a Cafe on the edge of central Vienna, right across from the Volkstheatre. The waitress was extremely kind, very smiley, and very helpful. We all orded some form of schnitzel...mine was swimming in gravy. And it was awesome! We also tried some Radler beer, at the suggestion of Theresia. It's half beer and half pop, so it tastes very light and almost sweet. Was quite refreshing and worked well with the heavy meal.

I was also able to get the cell working after we crossed into Austria, so called the parental units to let them know my whereabouts and that the cell was working. After the train crash in Belgium, we wanted to make sure phones were working internationally!

Full and content we headed out to see the sights. We walked by the National Museum, which became a point of reference as it was on the way back to the hostel each night. We headed in the direction of the Austrian Parliament. The building was very much Parliament looking and had a beautiful statue in front. We admired the statue more than the building itself! We briefly glanced inside before heading over to Town Hall. Town Hall is a HUGE building, and much more stunning than the Parliament building. We were in awe and took lots of pictures. Out in front of Town Hall was an outdoor skating rink! It was also huge, with lots of rinks connected by paths. It reminded me of a lazy river that connects different pools. We planned to go ice skating the next evening after seeing the neat layout! (This sadly didn't end up happening as our poor feet needed a break before we went to Prague.)

We wandered away from Town Hall and the rink towards a huge church we saw towering in the distance. It was Votiv Church and we realized once we got close that it was undergoing a renovation on the entire front facade. Not a lot of great picture opportunities, but I was able to take a few of the sides and the towers on top.

We wandered back down towards Town Hall, but on the other side of the rink to see the Imperial Palace! We found it, and also found out that it's really a bunch of different museums now. We weren't in the museum mood, so glanced around the lobby and pressed on.

We had planned on going to the Opera that night, so headed to the Opera House to buy tickets! We were bummed to find out the Opera wasn't performing that evening...but the Ballet was! It was pretty cheap, so we decided to get tickets. We didn't recognize the title: Dies Flandermaus, but figured we'd understand as the Ballet happened. We needed to kill time until it started, and we needed a little caffiene, so decided to head to a tradional Vienna coffee house! (Note: coffee house means something completely different in Holland, this was an ACTUAL coffee house. Just to clarify)

We found the perfect place just a few blocks from the Opera House. As our hostel owner had promised, it was a classy place! The waiters are wearing tuxes and the decor makes you feel like you should be in an fancy dress! But - the prices are really cheap and the food and coffee is to die for. We intended to just get some coffee, but after reading the menu, decided the cimmamon and nutmeg flavored hot chocolate sounded divine. We also were in full view of the cake display. Well, we all know what happened there...but the fun part is my cake was called the Mozart Bomb! Haha...I thought that was hilarious, and didn't even care what the flavor was (pistachio and chocolate). It was actually quite tasty, as was the hot chocolate. Warm and full we decided to wander around for another hour until the ballet.

Wandering involved looking at souvenirs and we found scarves! I had really wanted to get one in Paris, and regretted not. So, once we found this shop with the scarves on display, I halted the group and started browsing. I ended up buying two...a pretty red one that matched my coat, and a classy looking black and white one. Carolyn and Theresia also bought scarves and we all wore them as we headed to the ballet!

We felt a bit underdressed in our tennis shoes and fleeces (under the coats) but no one said anything...so we wandered upstairs to take pictures and find our seats. The Opera House was beautiful, with paintings and sculptures everywhere! We had seats in the 'partial viewing' area...which we didn't fully understand until we sat down. We couldn't see Stage Left, really, at all. We all got really good at craning our necks and leaning forward to try to see what was going on if the dancers happened to be on our blind spot. The ballet itself had wonderfully talented dancers...but the story was a bit strange. The Reader's Digest version is that a couple is unhappily married and for some reason, the husband turns into a bat at night (don't ask me why...NO IDEA)...the husband goes out to bars basically looks to cheat on his wife...his wife is being seduced at the same time by their children's tutor who wants to show the woman what her husband is doing so he turns the women into a beautiful enchanting stranger...the tutor takes her to find her husband at this bar and the husband is completely head over heels with her...the tutor gets jealous that she didn't fall for HIM and has her husband thrown in jail...in her disguise the wife cuts visits him in jail and cuts off his bat wings (again...NO IDEA)...the ballet ends with the husband happily with the women he thinks is a stranger but is really still his own wife. The End. Confused????? SO WERE WE! The above synopsis was only able to be regurgitated because of Wikipedia. Moving on...

We headed home to rest up for Day #2! Carolyn and I headed to Bratislava, Slovakia for what we thought would be a cool day trip. (It's only an hour away!) We thought it would be easy to find a train there...or a bus...but spent almost two hours on the city's metro, trying to find the train station and then trying to find the RIGHT train station. It was exhausting, but we eventually found a place to get tickets. We set out on the train...with a pastry of course! We arrived in Bratislava and were greeted with a very dirty train station...unhelpful people...very little English speakers who could figure out what we wanted (directions to the downtown) and we soon felt very uncomfortable. Sketchy would be an accurate word. We didn't go far from the train station...as we didn't know where we were going and our train back was in a hour. (We had been told that we could see all of Bratislava in an hour or two). We saw only the area next to the train station. We then walked back...we tried to find lunch in the station (a microwaved hamburger for me...which was not real meat I don't think) and then were overjoyed to be back on our train to Vienna! Our summed up thoughts about Bratislava...we came...we saw...we left. (The picture above captures how ready I was to leave...after being there 10 minutes.)

Once we arrived back in Vienna we met up with Theresia (who chose to hang out in Vienna that morning and skip the Bratislava trip. Smart girl!) at the Hall of Music. It's an interactive museum all about music and the famous musicians of Vienna. We were all a little fried so we didn't really retain a lot of what we were doing. We enjoyed the museum, but I wish I had been a bit more mentally aware to take it all in. There were lots of creepy mannequins that represented the famous musicians. Above is one of Mozart.

We grabbed some grub afterwards...as well as some souvenirs...and then headed home to the hostel. We caught up with some Olympics that night, some emails and then hit the sack. Our train to Prague was early the next morning...overall Vienna was wonderful! A very classy, cultured city that I'd love to go back to. Budapest I saw as an adventure and full of history. Vienna was also full of history but had this class in the air. I discovered you can love two cities...in two different ways. Bring on Prague!