To the East: Awesome Austria

Coming Soon!

Whoa, I finally have time to write an entry. Fall break was great, I got to see the other side of Europe! It's so different over there, but so close. Our first stop was Vienna.

Austrians do not like to be grouped with Germans, as they often are because of the shared language and intertwined history. I asked an Austrian at our hostel what the difference is, and he said that it was mainly their way of speaking the language. He said that Germans pronounce words like they look and are very precise when speaking, whereas Austrians use a lot of slang and have their own way of pronouncing words. Great, not only did I have to deal with a language I knew nothing about, but my attempts to pronounce words would probably be in vain.

When we got into Vienna I was a little put off by the gray sky and the industrial feel. But, once we got into the old city center there was a lot of cool stuff. The first day we took a look at the Cathedral, which features a tiled roof and a very tall tower. It was cool, although it was being renovated. Apparently there has been nearly constant work on the Cathedral for about 700 years. The inside was beautiful, although as far as European Cathedrals go, it was fairly typical. After the Cathedral we walked around Stephansplatz, the old part of the city. We saw the opera and some old, impressive-looking buildings. One interesting thing about Vienna is that it was never a major city until the early 19th century when it became the seat of the Hapsburg empire.

We got a coffee, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was much more similar to American coffee than the tiny espressos and "petit crèmes" in France. By this time though, it was getting dark and so it was time to head back to the hostel.

Our hostel, the Wombat, had a great bar, named the Wombar in kind. It had strong, cheap drinks, good beer, pool and fussball. We ended up spending the entire night in the Wombar and not feeling too bad about it: it was just so fun!

The next day we got out early to get lots done. First we went to the southwest corner of the city to see Schloss Schönbrunn (Schönbrunn Castle). It was finished by 1700 and was the summer palace of some of the Habsburg Emporers, notably Franz Joseph and his wife Elisabeth. Walking through the castle and learning the history was cool, and the ballroom there was unbelievable. The ballroom of Schönbrunn is also where John F. Kennedy and Nikita Krhushchev met in 1961.

We then moved to the Eastern side of the city to see Belvedere, the winter residence of Habsburg emporers. Although the outside was really awesome, the inside wasn't as interesting as Schönbrunn. It was turned into an art museum, which we've seen many of at this point. There were some interesting impressionist pieces there though.

After castles, we heard about standing room at the Opera available for 3 Euros. We decided that was a good deal and went with our new Australian friends (from the hostel) to see the Mariage of Figaro. Unfortunately, we couldn't see well since we got there late and got terrible places. We left after the overture and the first few scenes. It was worth 3 Euros though just to see the inside of the Opera and hear the overture to the Mariage of Figaro.

We drank a lot that night. It was important to get to know the nightlife of Vienna.

The next morning, we slept in a little, but made time to walk around the city, and to go see the big Ferris wheel that was built in 1897 and is iconic of Vienna. It was pretty cool all lit up. There was a full permanent carnival set up there too, so we did some of the rides and stuff. We had a good relaxed night walking around there. We got to bed early that night since we had to catch a bus to Prague the next day that left at like 8:25. We spent some time in the Wombar though, and bonded more with our Australian friends, who we learned were coming to Paris! (As I write this, in fact, they are here and have already been to our Halloween Party).

It was off to Prague on the bus the next day, and the scenery was beautiful the whole way. It was rolling hills of evergreens and some little farms and towns, but an astounding amount of open space that was completely undeveloped. It shocked me because:

1) People have been in Europe a long time and you would think they would have developed everything and made it ugly.
and
2) space is at a premium on the small continent, and every square inch counts

And yet, gorgeous expanses of open space made up the scenery of Northern Austria and Southern Czech Republic.

As we got into Prague, I couldn't help but be more excited to explore it than I was to explore Vienna.