Hello all :)
This weekend was spent with old and new friends roaming around in Vienna for the first time and how Vienna stole my heart.
This past weekend I went to Vienna! I have a friend, Connor, from the University of Arkansas studying at a business school in Germany for the semester as well. This pa
st weekend, he and his friends were visiting Austria (Vienna and Salzburg) and this seemed like a good time for me to take my first trip out of Graz since being here! About a week ago, I had booked a bed at the same hostel they were staying at and told my friends here they should come with me! Nobody really took the bit since it was still our first week here. So, I didn’t get much accomplished in planning and had just planned on me traveling alone and tagging along with Connor’s travel plans. Then at the last minute 2 friends of mine decided to come and then I found out that 3 other girls were also going to the same hostel and wanted to hang out! It worked out perfect. We rode the 2 ½ hour train ride to Vienna from Graz right after our intensive German class on Friday and found ourselves amid the grand buildings of Vienna by 5pm! It was so perfect.
We might have gotten a bit lost in getting there but while the herd of us stood at many a corner pointing at the signs and maps – there was always a helpful face who was happy to offer assistance in perfect English. We finally found the hostel (Wombats Lounge) which was welcoming and in the perfect location, right off a U-bahn stop and a short walk away from the center of Vienna. I even got upgraded into a smaller room and with friends! I met up with Connor shortly after arriving and he was pleasantly surprised at my 5 person gathering of females close in tow in comparison to his traveling band of three. We bonded fast and soon went out in search of some infamous Weiner snitzel J While the whole group did not make it to the same restaurant for dinner, it was nice to sit and share commonalities with Connor as we explained campus life to our friends new and old (old, as in known them for 3 weeks!). This same group (Connor, his two friends, me, and my two friends) then bought a few bottles of champagne and trekked over to the city’s Town Hall located right across the street from the city theater building. The town hall has a huge ice skating rink in front of it! I’m not talking like a little oval that you skate in circles around and become cold and cranky after the 7th skate around – I’m talking two oval rinks and little mini – tracks for the more experienced skaters to take on the twists and turns at a higher speed. It was all lit up with pink and purple lights and the Town Hall proudly shown in a gold aura onto the ice below. It was majestic, to say the least. We fell, we laughed, we looked ridiculous and I wouldn’t have had it any other way! After this we all then went to a bar and danced the night away knocking elbows with locals and tourists who chose this special weekend to share with Vienna as well. It was sad half the group decided to not take part in the Weiner snitzel nor the epic ice skating but those of us that did partake in the festivities grew very close in an experience that no figurative language can accurately describe.
It was a late night and early morning of sightseeing. We decided to start the day among produce and antique thrift stores located in the famous Vienna Naschmarkt. It was so fun to taste olives and sweets then to smell the roses and the fish at the next stand. My ears perked at the different accent of German being spoken and the new words I hadn’t heard before. I saw a nice looking woman standing at a small fruit stand – noticeably smaller than her neighbors. I bravely went over and asked in German if I could have one apple and she responded quite nastily that she only sold her apples by the kilo – which is a lot of apples! I looked sad and was about to turn away until an older woman behind me heard the conversation and said I could have one of her apples since she was buying a kilo! It was precious! I offered to thank her and even tried to hug her out of happiness. That I had had this whole conversation in German and even had witnessed such a wonderful act of kindness was kind of awesome. I was a happy girl for a while after this. And yes, the apple was awesome too. The food portion then turned into a thrift store and I hustled an old man to sell me a wonderful leather shoulder bag for just 20 euros! Quite the steal for such a beautiful bag..jpg)
After, we then took the U-bahn to the St. Stephan’s Cathedral located in the heart of Vienna’s Old Town – which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the quintessential image of Vienna when you think of the skyline. The Romanesque basilica was consecrated in 1147 but was badly damaged in a fire in 1258 and then again in 1683 by a Turkish siege and once again in 1945 by flying sparks. This cathedral has been in a constant state of restoration it seems! We hiked the 343 winding and narrow stairs halfway up (whole tower is 449 ft./136.7 m) the tower and through our panting and one girl having a semi-panic attack we made it! We thoroughly enjoyed the amazing view from the top. You could see everything! It was awesome. On the way back down and then I noticed one the inlet windows looked out perfectly onto the green dome of a nearby church with locks all along the screen covering the window. It was beautiful and made me smile at how sometimes all it takes is just little things catch you more off guard than the actual thing you are striving to get to.
We then wandered the area surrounding the Cathedral looking for a cute little coffee shop that a book had recommended off the beaten tourist path – Kleines Cafe. Coffee houses are an indispensable social part of middle class and intellectual life since the 19th century for the Viennese. Apparently, when the Turks fled the city in 1683 they left behind a large quantity of coffee beans and this supposedly launched an epic Viennese tradition! So, one just had to enjoy a common type of Viennese coffee in a hipster café nestled between an old basilica and a dreary February afternoon.
After this we made a short walk over to the imperial palace of the Habsburgs residence in the winter – the Hofburg Palace. Their summer palace was just a few miles away! Same city! We went into the Museum of the Austrian National Library located in the State Hall of the Hofburg. It was rather expensive (like everything in Vienna) to get into, so we were expecting some grandness – and oh, man did our jaws drop when we got to the top of the stairs and saw the books stacked to the ceilings of which were elaborately decorated in Frescos! The baroque State Hall is one of the (world’s) most beautiful historical libraries I have ever seen. Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740) had ordered the construction of this for his Court Library. It was beautiful and there was a special exhibit about the children of Austria and the children of the Imperial Habsburg Family in all languages which made things easy to follow and appreciate. In another section of the Hofburg Palace is another museum dedicated to the Imperial Treasury. The other European Enthusiast in my group and I decided to pay a fortune to get into the museum to view the treasury displays of the Habsburgs power. We were the only ones of the 6 who went in – and it was epic. We saw the Imperial crown of Rudolf II, made in Prague with matching orb and scepter. The Cradle of the King of Rome made of silver gilt casually in the same room as a Portrait of Marie Louise! An Agate bowl from the 4th century and a Narwhal horn measuring 8 ft.! Ceremonial robes of the Norman kings, including the Coronation mantle of Roger II of Sicily – kind of a big deal. Yet, the most outstanding item among the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire is the Imperial crown, thought to be made for Otto I (in 962!!!) in the monastery on the island of Reichnau or maybe Milan. The Habsburgs were such an affluent and important imperial family in European history – it would be a sin to not go view their massive display of their power via gold, jewels, mementoes, and holy relics collected by the family. I loved it :)
Despite being exhausted, we decided to keep going on our adventures! We went to a little bookstore off the beaten path again – Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. It was a precious little bookstore with old and new books that you could sit and read or pay and take for another day. I read a book about Vienna while my friends searched for English words while you could hear the St. Stephan’s Cathedral chiming from outside as the hour changed. It was perfection and it reminded me again how amazing traveling, reading, and experiencing every moment can be if you are still and observant enough
to see it.
After this we went to a local bar just around the corner and congratulated ourselves on our busy day with 2 pitchers of sangria. Because Sangria is the national drink of Austria and everything… nein, nein, nein. We then went to a very fancy bar that was recommended – First Floor. We were asked if we had reservations as our sore bodies rolled in and we had to pay a euro for them to check our coats – which was mandatory! It was beautiful but maybe on another occasion J We had the cheapest mix drink they had on the menu while we sat at the bar and laughed about how it wasn’t quite the best place for a starving student in Europe to go! We all vowed to go back once we were wealthy enough to afford their house martini! We headed back to the hostel to meet up with more friends who had come just for Saturday night. We all hung out in our room and then we went out to this bar called Loco. It was really fun despite my pure exhaustion from the constant state of GO we had been experiencing.
Sunday we woke up early and filled our tummies with unlimited breakfast and packed a lunch. We had planned to be on the train home at 4 so we could spend the day doing things we didn’t get to do the day before. It was the only day of the weekend where the sun was actually shining!! It was gorgeous and Vienna definitely looks better with a bit of sun on her cheeks! One of the girls we were with was desperate to go to the grand Belvedere palace complex a little out of the city center area. Four of us in total made the trek out there and everyone but she decided to not pay the museum ticket but instead to enjoy the sun and the grounds that were surrounding the palace. Belvedere was the summer residence of Austria’s greatest military leader Prince Eugene of Savoy – most known for freeing Vienna from the Turkish siege in 1683 and defeating the Turks in the 1697 Battle of Zenta. The palace is vast and quite impressive! There are actually two palaces of the Belvederes, major representations of the Baroque Era, built by the architect Lukas von Hildebrandt in 1716 and the second as a place for “festivities” in 1722. The museum boasts of works by Hans Makart, Anton Romako, Ego Schiele, Moritz von Schwind, and especially the large collection of Gustav Klimt (The Kiss and The Bride).
After this we went to the legendary Schloss Schonbrunn – another UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. This palace used to be the favored hunting ground of the Habsburg family and their summer residence. This place is epic – it looks like a village! Huge buildings in a square formation with servant’s quarters, stables, gardens, and anything else that you can think! It was crazy. We popped out our sack lunches and let the sun and awe sink in a little bit. We decided to splurge on the Grand Tour since we didn’t experience the artwork of the Belvedere. The Grand Tour consisted of 40 rooms out of the 1,440! It all reminded me of Versailles except a slightly different twist… much like how Vienna reminded me of Paris but something just isn’t quite right when saying that. Crystal chandeliers, rich fabrics from all across the world, and such a grand presence was vivid in every single room we went through. The apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth (SiSi) are followed by three ceremonial rooms decorated by the Austrian painter, Josef Rosa, and two Chinese chambers follow! The Maria Theresia apartments are so elaborate and the nicest rooms on the tour. She had a Blue Salon where there is Chinese tapestries hanging and is the room where the negotiations were held that led Karl I (last of the Habsburgs) to abdicate on the 11th of November in 1918. The Vieux-Lacque Room with some crazy oriental paneling, the Napoleon room (my favorite), and the crazy nice Millionenzimmer with these intense rosewood paneling and Indo-Persian themes painted on the walls. The Great Gallery where they held all the balls was impressive and again brought me back to the Versailles Paris in an odd way. We didn’t have time experience the just as intense garden surrounding the palace called th
e Schlosspark. Next time!
That concluded my time in Vienna for the weekend. Good times spent with old friends from Arkansas, new friends who came with him, and new friends that I’m honored to spend the next 6 months with. As the train ride home sped through the Austrian Alps, the same ones I was going through just a few weeks earlier, I became emotional thinking about how lucky I am to have this experience. No wasted moments or opportunities. When I was winding around the Alps last time there was snow everywhere and the clouds hung low now the sun was shining and the grass was green… Austria and I are ready for spring to be on our cheeks!
Wish you could have come along! Venice for Carnaval this weeked :)
Bis Bald My faithful followers!
Mal
No comments:
Post a Comment