The Hills are aliveeeeeeeeeee

11.10.2005

While Prague is famous for its 1001 castles, Vienna meanwhile certainly claims the title to the City of Museums with a modest number of 73 (and counting apparently). These museums range from history of Austria, to that of music, art, culture and even psychology. There's even museums of globes, horse carriages and silverware. This city was also the home of Mozart, Sigmund Freud and Johann Strauss!

Perhaps having such infamous residents prompted the city of Vienna to feel justified in charging the arms and legs for everything. Of course it is not as expensive as London and Paris, but then again, you don't expect Vienna to be in the same league as London and Paris right? Well, that's what I thought before I launched the Chino-Austrian Invasion...but my impression was about to change..

Originally, I couldn't find hostels (at prices that won't make me yell "daylight robbery!")in the city and was contemplating setting up base in good ol cheapo Bratislava and commuting by train each day to Vienna which only takes an hour each way. Interesting fact too about Vienna is that unlike the other cities I've visited so far, most of the hostels are not located within the inner city. The closest ones are like 25 minutes walk or so away. Luckily their metro service is super efficient (and free because they don't have a turn-stile for you to insert your metro tickets to access the train).

Gheri (Italian friend that I was hanging out with in Bratislava) came with me to check out Vienna before flying back to Milan. So we set out really early in the morning to catch the train. It was a bit of a rush, we had to run...of course I was accustomed to this chaos (cut out your knowing looks or I'll take you off my x'mas card list!) but poor Gheri had to run twice as fast to keep up with my long strides (I'm sure he'd taken me off his x'mas card list *sigh*)

We made it into the train with 3 minutes to spare, plenty of time from my perspective, which of course wasn´t shared by the panting Gheri judging from the many dagger looks he threw me.

We decided upon arrival at the train station that we would head straight into the heart of the city, where the city´s main cathedral (yes, there´s a few of them), St Stephen was located. Upon emerging from the underground metro station, we were greeted by men dressed in old costumes of the 17th century complete with the wigs resembling many faces of Mozart, tall and short, black and white, fat and thin..all interested only in one thing, to sell you tickets to concerts playing Mozart music in several famous venues in the city. ´Come and listen to Mozart music at zis famous opera house, rumoured to be Mozart´s most favourite venue because the hostess constantly wore dressesz zat are not able to contain her bossoms´ quipped the tall Mozart..´No,no, zis opera house zis better, definitely Mozart´s favourite because he spent many hours writing his music there after hours of lovemaking with ze hostess´ retorted the fat Mozart not to be outdone and so it went on..I wasn´t sure if I was more interested in Mozart´s music as much as I was as to how they came to be written!

We quickly sought refuge from these costumed predators by entering into the Cathedral. This grand church of course has amazing looking pipe organs, statues and gothic style gilded altars but this is where I have to confess something to you. In a continent like Europe where every city in every country while are very different in many ways, they are also similar in the sharing of history, architecture and design of the cities. What was initially impressive when viewing cathedrals, the murals, painting on the ceilings, monuments and statues and museums unfortunately, it has now failed to generate my ´WOW´factor due to the saturation and over exposure on a constant basis to what seemed like repeated pattern of sights and scenes. A case of easy come and easy go I guess. Similarly I am sure if Vienna was the first European city I visited, I would have been blown away by the St Stephen Cathedral. Yet, it is with great shame and pity that I admit to the feeling of nonchalance and indifference upon seeing the inside of this magnificent church. It´s like going to watch the movie Titanic..sure, you have heard how great it is and how grand the ship was..but eventually, you also know what to expect..that the shp would sink..so it is like that too walking into a cathedral..you come to expect to see huge pipe organs, paintings on the ceilings and stained glass windows, statutes and altars, and sure enough, that´s what you would see.

However, having said that, sometimes there could be a slight twist to the story that you didn´t expect, like access to the cathedral´s tower to view the city and as such, I was delighted to find my unexpected south tower of the St Stephen´s cathedral and to be rewarded with the magnificent view of the city.

St Stephen from the outside, not my best shot due to having stave off the many Mozarts shoving concert tickets at me.

view of the city from the Catherdral's tower. Mental note: Don't need help of sun to emphasise my squinty eyes.

After leaving the Cathedral, Gheri sensing that time was his enemy, suddenly turned into Mussolini as he grabbed the map and took charge of our sightseeing. With purposeful, albeit short quick strides, he directed us through some of the city´s famous landmarks as you can see from the photos below in warp speed.

Yours truly in front of one of the 4 quarters of the Museumquarter, a big complex housing cluster of museums!

Outside the Parliament house and yes, I'm sure this is Vienna and not Rome or Greece!

The picture does no justice to this amazingly huge city hall with its gothic design. It's at least the size of Notre Dame and West Minister abbey. You have to see it to believe it! By far the most impressive building in Vienna for me!

After Gheri´s departure, I launched my recon mission to investigate whether I would be able to stay in Vienna or be discovering the city in-exile from Bratislava. As mentioned earlier, the cloesest series of hostels are at least 25 mins walk from the city centre and so I walked quite a bit that day, especially when the first 5 hostels I visited announced that they were fully booked. You could understand my pessimism then when walking into the 6th expecting the same result but to my delight, not only did I manage to book my accomodation without having to declare bankruptcy, but it turned out to be the best hostel of the lot too, in terms of cleanliness (which is a must for me) and the friendly atmosphere.

With my accomodation sorted for the next few days, I happily called it a day and returned to Bratislava, trying hard to hide my smug smiles from the tired looking commuters in the train on the way back.

11.10.2005

Not sure if you remember the New Yorker guy I met in Prague, Ron (see my Prague story with pics), but he was also going to be in Vienna around the same time and we agreed that we would join forces to explore the city. We figured with his New Yorker attitude of wanting things done yesterday and his travel bible of the ´Top Ten Must-Sees´ checklist and my super planning and economically efficient skills (did you just call me a tight ass?!), Vienna wouldn´t stand a chance!

So this morning, after receiving top-secret communication from Agent Loud-mouth to rendezvous at 10:00 hours at the Nasch Markt for breakfast before making our way to the Schonbrunn Palace (both in the top ten checklists), I made my way there already planning on briefing Ron about the most efficient way of getting to the Palace and the best route to take for our sightseeing in order to maximise the time we had and what we could see and coordinating this with the opening times, lunch and toilet breaks. Told you I´m good! Yes, I have allocated a generous 5 minute discrepancy at each stop to allow for any unexpected delays, like another attack of the Mozart Army or unexpected obstacles in our planned routes, in the form of our familiar foes, the notorious...Japanese tourists, ta da dem!!

The Nasch Markt was like a Sunday market but operates on a daily basis, selling variety of things ranging from food, drinks to handbags, shoes, fruits and vegetables and touristic ornaments. Upon completion of briefing on tour de jour, and dangerously armed with a tummy full of pastries and coffee, we made our way by metro to the Schonbrunn Palace.

The Palace, once the summer residence to the Habsburg royal family (get off your lazy ass and go read on the history of Austria!) was indeed magnificent but once again, it did not procure my wow reaction due to my earlier visit to a more grandeur palaces, like the Versailles in France. The Schonbrunn was similar but smaller in size, stature and complexity, still a sight to enjoy indeed for its own unique history and symbolic representation to the city.

The ´twist´to this story was this ´galleria´located on a hill facing the southern part of the palace. It is simply a building acting as a lookout point from which you can view the palace and the city beyond it. Quite enchanting really.

After many hours of walking and proclaiming the day to be a victory for the Dynamic Duo, we celerated with having a simple dinner before we parted, Ron to go to one of the many Mozart concerts (sucker!!) and I, returning back to the hostel for a much needed rest. Spent the most entertaining evening mingling with my fellow travellers at the hostel. Unless you´re a backpacking traveller yourself, it is hard to explain the comarade that one shares with fellow backpackers. It is like nomads coming together and resting at an oasis after the end of a long day of travel, sitting by the camp fire, trading antidotes of one´s journey, giving of valuable travelling advice and helpful suggestions and tips on the many hidden gems and the roads not taken. Similarly for us, as the night aged and the stars burnt brighter, the laughters grew louder, the stories took wilder turns, and the pile of paper napkins with email addresses written got higher as bonds of friendship were formed, and for some, renewed. Oh what a night....

12.10.2005

Today´s mission as we laid it out over chocolate croissants (yes Kevin, it´s not French for donuts!) and several cups of coffee, were to invade the Belvadere Castle, former home to Austria´s most successful army general during the expansion of the Austrian empire, so successful was this guy who for the life of me, can't remember his name, (name schmame!) that he was made a duke. Also included in today´s itinerary was to see the Karlskir Museum (one of the many arts museum that´s not part of the Museumquarter), Wien Museum (History of Vienna museum) and a quick look at the Staatoper (State Opera house).

The Belvadere castle as you can see is quite pretty but it wasn´t for its architecture that held us spellbound but for what the treasures within the castle. Divided into upper and lower Belvadere, the former displayed Medieval paintings and most of the famous works by Klimt. I had to drag Ron out of that place in order to keep up with our schedule, I mean he already used up the 15 minutes discrepancy time by that stage due to his obsession with his favourite artist. The latter, the lower Belvadere, exhibited the impressive rooms of the castle together with exclusive paintings of its former famous resident and the Halsburg royal family.

In front of the Belvadere Castle. If you have not noticed yet by now, yes I have lost a bit of weight. Don't rush off to send food aid parcles just yet, trust me, my hurricane appetite still rivals that of the ones hitting Louisiana, but the weight loss was due more to the many hours spent walking..maybe I can bottle this as the next diet craze!

We then made our way to Karlskir musum which was more impressive to me in terms of how the building looked whereas Ron was more keen to see the art museum inside. So he went inside while I took pictures on the outside and decided to go to a nearby grocery store to buy some lunch. Here´s an interesting fact. Do you know that in most German supermarkets, you are expected to weigh all your fruit and vegetables, get a price printout and stick it to your items before presenting them at the counter. As this is different to how we buy our produce in NZ, you can understand my embarassment when I was told in German of course of my mistake. Luckilly, another shopper with bilingual expertise then came to my rescue and I returned later, with the price printout tag and a very red face.

The majestic Kalskir Museum..

The rest of the day went more smoothly with our visits to the Vien Museum and Staatopera. To further our culinary education on foreign food, Ron and I decided to give Brawhurst a go. This is an Austrian hot dog, but apparently, America is not the only place they do everything big. I mean this is no snack guys..it´s a meal and then some...the picture is not doing it justice, I dunno what Brawhurst translates to in English but as far as I´m concerned, the translation might as well be King of Sausages..won´t you say so if you are confronted with a 10 inch? I must say, I was very satisfied....referring to my hunger! Get your mind out of the gutter!

Mama Mia!!

Actually, let´s talk about sex baby..let´s talk about Vienna and me..during the evening, as I was walking back to my hostel, gallivanting through the infamous shopping street of Maria Heifstraße, a massive white building with bright coloured flashing neon lights grabbed my attention and in bold bright red lights, it flashed ´SEX SHOP´. Not sure if you share my sentiment, but I can assure you that this kind of shop isn´t exactly what I would normally have in mind when thinking of a shopping spree, especially in NZ, where such shops are tucked in some dodgy corner of a badly lit street and you can almost guarantee the seedy and secretive atmosphere that lingered inside such shops, making them another object of taboo. However, here in liberal Europe, a sex shop is no different to any other shops, viewed perhaps in a more healthy manner as a shop you would go buy all things associated with sex, as you would go to Mitre 10 if you want to look for tools associated with DIY´s and other house projects.

Similarly, the Europeans very much encourage one to visit such shops to assist in any DIY disasters of a more personal kind...ahem. Seriously, the openness in which you can browse through sex aids, dvds and battery powered oscilliating pulsating devices are amazing. They were boldly displayed in an orderly fashion as if they were nothing but a packet of biscuits. Indeed, they even provided small carrying baskets and trolleys for your shopping convenience. You can see couples walking around, looking through the items or shifty men shifting through the latest dvds as they chucked one after the other into the trolleys. I felt like I have learnt so much tonight and as I was leaving, I almost expected a bright neon sign of ´Thank you and come again´to flash at me.

13.10.2005

My last day in Vienna was dedicated to seeing the remaining of the top tens in Vienna. First stop was the Museumplatz (Museumquarter which I have already briefly saw from the outside the other day). Again, after the Louvre in France, I was hardly excited by the prospect of these museum complexes.

The next venue was more exciting, the Hofsburg Palace, which was once the winter residence of the Habsburgs. Now it has become museums showing, amongst many things, the former living quarters of the royal family.

The more interesting section of the Hofsburg Palace for me was the museum dedicated to the life of Empress Elizabeth ´Sisi´wife of Franz Joseph III, beloved monarch of the people (think Eva Peron of Argentina or Princess Di). As you guys know, I´m a sucker for romance and so you can imagine how much time I spent in this museum finding out that Empress Sisi who was born a free spirit and an independent woman of her time and as a teenager, she was about to venture off on her travels when fate intervened during her visit with her cousin girl to see Emperor Franz Joseph. Although Franz Joseph´s mother had intended for him to marry Sisi´s cousin, he instead fell in love with Sisi and was determined to marry her instead. Of course, who was she to say no and so they were married when she was just shy of her 17th birtday. It is safe to say she did not enjoy her married life as much as he did, choosing to spend most of her time abroad travelling before she was unceremoniously assassinated by an Italian anti-monarch figure. If you have not picked up the similarities yet, then I can confirm that I share Sisi´s sentiments and free sprits and I´m just glad that I´m not living in the days when a woman´s worth is measured by the loudness of her husband (or father´s) belch!

Interesting too to see how this woman was so dedicated to looking beautiful. We were shown how she would wear special leather masks dipped in cow's blood to sleep each night, apparently meant to rejuvenate her face. I think this is one beauty regime I would skip! She also had like gymnastics apparatus in her chamber so she could do all these exercises to stay trim, now that I can do!

Another section of the palace has now been turned into a Spanish horse training school. Unfortunately for me (and for Kelly back home who wanted more pictures of horses), on the day of my visit, we just missed the morning training session and there were no horse shows. Don´t worry Kelly, Ron shares your bitter disappointment too. I did take some horsey pics for you as a consolation though, although of a different kind..

There ya go Kelly! This is outside the palace.

Outside the palace building, note the many statues..very nice!

One of the many group of statues adorning the sides of the palace.

Next, we visited the Maria Theresa twin buildings. She was one of the most powerful Empress of Austria during the empire´s expansion of power in the 18th and 19th century. The buildings are impressive as you can see and they are now museums as well. We spent a good one hour going through the Kunsthistor Museum, a mueum of natural history.

One of the twin buildings..

Gigantic statue of Empress Maria Theresa and lil ol me!

From there, we caught the metro to the West side of town to see the 'Hundertwasserhaus' buildings. A case of a picture is worth a 1000 words so I'll let one of them speak for itself..

It's a special design using various colours to display the unasymetrical breaks in the design..it's like that famous toilet in that small town in NZ..can't remember which town now but you know the one..

And with that last act, the curtain came down on my visit to Vienna as I would be catching the night train from here to Munich and then flying from there (on a cheap flight) into Seville, Spain.

AO Rating: A city of museums living up to its name for sure. While it did not secure as many wow factors as when I visited London or Paris, I believe this was more due to the order of my visit and the fading of the novelty factor as opposed to the finding the city lacking in what it has to offer. Vienna, where the hills are alive with the Sound of Music, also gives you the impression that its former glory is also very much still well and alive, perhaps the many Mozarts haunting the city streets may have something to do with that...¨So long...farewell, Auf Widersen...¨