As warned in my previous blog, any abrupt endings were to be attributed to the rebellion going on in my gut. There was a minor war waged, but the peasant have subsided and all is calming down in gastro-land.
As mentioned previously, I had skipped the Art Museum to go to Castle Hill, so armed with a breakfast of two bananas, I had go check that out on my final day. The Art Museum is listed as being one of the top art museums in Eastern Europe. I'm no art connoisseur, but it seemed relatively impressive to me.
I got to see originals by Picasso, Degas, Rousseau, etc. I also saw some sculptures by Rodin. I don't know how or why some of these names mean anything to me - I blame my Arts 301 course in university. It was essentially only the one temporary exhibition (with Picasso, etc.) that was interesting. The rest of the museum was full of religious and/or medieval art. It was pretty, but to wax on about it would be to indicate that I cared more than I did. It was art. It was famous. I went so I could say that I've seen it.
By the time I left I was ravenous and wanted to try the well-known restaurant called Paprika. I literally cannot go into detail on what I ate because literally the mere thought of my meal incites nausea now, but at the time was amazingly delicious.
Fast forward an hour later and I was feeling overly full. I decided to return to my hostel to lay down. I crashed for two hours and then the real trauma started. I don't think you need a detailed description of my last night in Budapest. Let's just say that I became intimately acquainted with the hostel's bathrooms. The staff were also kind enough to check in on me once in awhile. I ended up sleeping like shit since I had to wake up once every hour to return to the facilities.
However, by 7:30 the next morning I had no choice but to get up and get to the train bound for Prague. Due to the night's intestinal antics, I was running on empty, so I also had to stop by the grocery store or risk starving. Mau on an empty stomach tends not to function too well. I grabbed some provisions and got to the station with no problem.
On the train I was seated in yet another 6 person car with 4 other people. And of course I was on the seat furthest from the windows and hence the air conditioner. And the sun was shining in. I had a yogurt drink to help assuage the rumblings in my tummy, but the heat was making me feel ill even more. I ended up taking one of my apples and venturing out into the passage between trains in hopes of finding some fresh air.
About five minutes later I lost the yogurt drink and the quarter apple I had consumed. Even more unfortunately an old lady had gone into the bathroom right before the urge to spew came on. I almost wanted to laugh at her face when she emerged and sees me huddling on the floor. You could tell she felt bad. Oh well. I admit that I made a half assed attempt to find an attendant to clean things up, but couldn't, so I fled the scene of the crime and found my own compartment.
The rest of the trip passed better, but that's probably because I was in a semi-comatose state. I honestly slept probably about 70% of the ride. I only woke up to hand over my train ticket as necessary, or when other dared to venture into my den of pestilence. It's a shame really, because the scenery, when I did wake up, was very pretty.
Upon arrival in Prague, I discovered that the instructions and map for getting to my hostel were horribly vague. I was so tired and miserable and frustrated that I just wanted to curl up and die in the middle of the street. After feeling sorry for myself for about 10 minutes (and wistfully thinking of invoking my medical insurance so I could be sent home early), I trudged my way downtown, through the heat and crowds, and eventually found my hostel.
By this time it was about 5:00 PM. I immediately crawled into bed and slept until 9:00 when one of my roommates came in. We talked a bit and then I ventured outside for some fresh air. I swear, I wasn't even out for 15 minutes when I had to return and go to bed again. I blame my weakness on dehydration and lack of food - I was feeling so fragile that even walking up a flight of stairs left me winded.
As for today, I wish I could report more exciting happenings, but it's not meant to be. I woke up, prepped to face the day, but by the time I had gone downstairs to check my email, I couldn't do it. Instead I crawled by into my bed and slept until nearly 1:00 PM. At that point I knew I had to go out for sustance if only to ensure I didn't die from starvation.
I am ashamed to admit that my first meal (or at least the half that I consumed) in Prague was at TGI Friday's. I just could not stomach the idea of eating anything unfamiliar at this point. Or even familiar things. E.g. I couldn't eat my french fries because they were too reminiscent of the mashed potatoes I ate in Budapest.
After forcefully gnawing down my food I found a grocery store and stocked up on some provisions (aka bananas, oranges, and some rye crackers - the latter being wonderfully bland and filling) and returned to my hostel. I slept again until 6ish and then I spent the rest of my evening reading my book. (Dad, I finished reading Oath of Fealty!) Now I'm just wasting time until I can go to sleep again.
Luckily it seems like I'll have an empty hostel room again tonight - a 5 bed place to myself. Too bad the beds aren't comfier. I can actually hear (and feel) each individual spring shift whenever I move. I feel like I must have woken up my roomies last night whenever I got up to go to the washroom. Whoops!
Anyways, for most of my trip I've been doing my planning on the fly - e.g. I read my guidebook a day or two before I head to my destination. Due to my illness, I was unable to do this for Prague. Therefore I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or see in this city. I shall now retire to my bedroom and commence my plan of attack for tomorrow's adventure.
Cheers!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Budapest, the adventure continues
I shall warn you right now that this post might end abruptly. I had my first Hungarian meal at a highly recommended restaurant today. Unfortunately, either the goulasch soup or the roast pork dish I had is not agreeing with my gastro-intestinal tract. (AKA vomitting and diarreah - I'm kind of wondering if I have the Norwalk virus again because I either have massive stomach pain or massive bloating. I can't tell which.) I'm mostly okay now though. I think.
On to less gross stuff, shall we? Again, I don't have my notes on me, so I will cover what I can from memory.
On last year's trip, and thus far on this trip I've been on the go pretty much non-stop. I walk to my destination, do what I need to do, and then go straight on to my next destination. The longest I sit down is for my meal or a quick 5 min rest on a bench. Well, yesterday I made a concerted effort to sit down and relax too.
I originally planned to go to a famous art museum, but I realized that my transit pass was ending soon, so I decided to attack Castle Hill instead since it's just that - on a hill. With the transit pass I could at least knock off part of my walk.
So off I went. The view from Castle Hill was terrific - On one side you could see most of the Pest side of the city, and on the other you could see Buda and Old Buda. Of course, I was often dodging other tourists - I saw more of them on Castle Hill than I have at any other tourist location thus far on this trip (but not nearly as many as I did during peak tourist season in Italy/France).
I didn't do much on top of Castle Hill - I walked around the buildings but I didn't have much interest in actually going into them. The only one I actually entered was Matthias Church - it was funded by an old King of Budapest and several other Kings were married in there. It was a very pretty church - it reminded me a lot of Sienna's duomo because the walls were painted with intricate patterns, etc. The outside of the church (reminiscent of the duomo in Milan, so it must be gothic-style, right?) was under construction, or at least being "cleaned up."
It seems like a lot of places in Eastern Europe are under construction, and they also seem to be taking a massively long time. My guide book was published in mid-2009 and it mentions "at the time of printing" that things are under renovation/renewal, and when I arrive, it turns out that yes, they still are under construction! (E.g. the castle at Bratislava was also under construction - you could walk around it, but not enter it.)
After my brief foray into the church, I wandered around the rest of Castle Hill. I made a half-hearted attempt to go the Museum of Military Weapons, but I entered the wrong entrance and was too lazy to go find the correct one. Instead, I found a shady bench overlooking Buda, copped a squat, and read a book that I found at the hostel. I was there for at least a couple of hours. Every once in awhile I'd glance up, think, "Holy mackerel, I'm reading a good book on a bench overlooking Budapest! How cool!" and then return to it.
Unfortunately around 1 PM my stomach started reminding me that I hadn't eaten yet, so I ventured back towards my hostel area (which has a lot of good, inexpensive restaurants) and had Thai. After lunch I wandered over to Margit Island (a giant local park) and promptly flopped out on a bench again with the aforementioned book. I stayed there until 5ish when the wind became a bit too bitter to stay outside.
I returned to my hostel and spent the evening relaxing, a task easier said than done. It was a bit busy since a bunch of people had arrived that day and they were making a bunch of noise, and then people kept asking me how my day was, etc.
On to less gross stuff, shall we? Again, I don't have my notes on me, so I will cover what I can from memory.
On last year's trip, and thus far on this trip I've been on the go pretty much non-stop. I walk to my destination, do what I need to do, and then go straight on to my next destination. The longest I sit down is for my meal or a quick 5 min rest on a bench. Well, yesterday I made a concerted effort to sit down and relax too.
I originally planned to go to a famous art museum, but I realized that my transit pass was ending soon, so I decided to attack Castle Hill instead since it's just that - on a hill. With the transit pass I could at least knock off part of my walk.
So off I went. The view from Castle Hill was terrific - On one side you could see most of the Pest side of the city, and on the other you could see Buda and Old Buda. Of course, I was often dodging other tourists - I saw more of them on Castle Hill than I have at any other tourist location thus far on this trip (but not nearly as many as I did during peak tourist season in Italy/France).
I didn't do much on top of Castle Hill - I walked around the buildings but I didn't have much interest in actually going into them. The only one I actually entered was Matthias Church - it was funded by an old King of Budapest and several other Kings were married in there. It was a very pretty church - it reminded me a lot of Sienna's duomo because the walls were painted with intricate patterns, etc. The outside of the church (reminiscent of the duomo in Milan, so it must be gothic-style, right?) was under construction, or at least being "cleaned up."
It seems like a lot of places in Eastern Europe are under construction, and they also seem to be taking a massively long time. My guide book was published in mid-2009 and it mentions "at the time of printing" that things are under renovation/renewal, and when I arrive, it turns out that yes, they still are under construction! (E.g. the castle at Bratislava was also under construction - you could walk around it, but not enter it.)
After my brief foray into the church, I wandered around the rest of Castle Hill. I made a half-hearted attempt to go the Museum of Military Weapons, but I entered the wrong entrance and was too lazy to go find the correct one. Instead, I found a shady bench overlooking Buda, copped a squat, and read a book that I found at the hostel. I was there for at least a couple of hours. Every once in awhile I'd glance up, think, "Holy mackerel, I'm reading a good book on a bench overlooking Budapest! How cool!" and then return to it.
Unfortunately around 1 PM my stomach started reminding me that I hadn't eaten yet, so I ventured back towards my hostel area (which has a lot of good, inexpensive restaurants) and had Thai. After lunch I wandered over to Margit Island (a giant local park) and promptly flopped out on a bench again with the aforementioned book. I stayed there until 5ish when the wind became a bit too bitter to stay outside.
I returned to my hostel and spent the evening relaxing, a task easier said than done. It was a bit busy since a bunch of people had arrived that day and they were making a bunch of noise, and then people kept asking me how my day was, etc.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Budapest
I don't have my notes on me, so this will be a summary of what I can remember the most from the past two days.
The train ride from Bratislava to Budapest was amazing. The train travelled along the Danube for about 60% of the trip and it was BEAUTIFUL! I also had a 6 seat car to myself, so I had no problems with rolling down the window and hanging my camera outside the window. My only issue was trying to figure out when my stop was going to happen, because the train I was on was actually going all the way to Beograd (I had a moment of panic when I first arrived at the station - I wasn't sure where my train was because nothing was listed with "Budapest" as its final destination!). Every time the train slowed down (there were multiple stops at small Slovakian and Hungary villages on the way) I had a panic attacking, thinking that it was my stop and that I would miss it.
The only issue I had in finding my hostel was that the damned metro had about 16 gazillion exits so I kept going through the wrong ones. I finally did make it to my hostel (after again getting lost in the interconnecting hallways) and checked in. This hostel, Tiger Tim's, is by far the "homiest" hostel I've been in. They sat me down with a map and pointed out all the most interesting sights, etc. I actually had to ask them when I could pay for the room (but this is part of Tiger Tim's appeal).
Anyways, since I was starving - I had only eaten the free apple and croissant given by my Bratislavan hostel, they also pointed me out to a couple of nearby restaurants. I ended up grabbing a ridiculously delicious pita from The Hummus Bar. Can I import that chain to Canada? Mau highly approves of it.
I originally intended to walk to the famous Andrassy Street, but I caught sight of an interesting building further down a side street and ended up investigating. Lo and behold, I found Hungary's parliament buildings! They're small, but beautiful - they're very reminiscent of gothic churches and apparently that was done on purpose. Also, the building is only 96ft (or 96 meters?) which is, by law, the tallest a building can be in Budapest. (96 or 896 is a very important number for the Magyars - it has to do with when they became a country, etc.)
Since Parliament is located on the Danube, I walked along that for awhile. I came across a bunch of cast iron shoe statues along the edge of the water - I could guess that they were memorials of some kind, but I wasn't sure for what. (At dinner that night, I asked the other hostellers about them, and I found out that yes, they're a memorial for the Jews who were lined up during the holocaust and shot into the Danube. Great dinner conversation.)
I was going to walk across the river but then my camera battery died and I discovered that I left spare in the hostel, so I had to go back and fetch it. After grabbing it, I ended up going up to Heroe's Square/Park, hanging out a bit, and then grabbing the metro back to the Danube. From there I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to walk across the Danube afterall and climb Gellert Hill so I could get a view of the city. Great ideas for me though often result in exhaustion. The view was fantastic, but it did take awhile to gather the will to go back down and walk back to the hostel.
At the hostel I ended up just hanging around with the other patrons - we also had a homemade hungarian meal (which needed a lot of salt in my opinion). We chatted for a bit and then most people started watching a movie.
As some of you may have seen on my Facebook status, it was at this point that I tried to befriend the Nigerian guy staying at my hostel. I'm going to assume now that his attempts to ask me about my age, state of marriage, whether I had a boyfriend, and his need to tell me his own age, were just his culture's conversation starters. At least that's what I'm telling myself, and I won't let you tell me different.
Today I rolled outta bed by 8:30 and ended up having a European breakfast (aka a pastry or roll - in my case a pastry with a ham and cheese substance) and started on my day of museums. I actually went to St. Stephen's Basilica first just because it was on the way.
The basilica was very pretty - I think it's probably one of the top 3 basilicas I've seen with regards to opulence. It was like a mini-St. Peter's Cathedral from Rome. Gorgeous, but not very inspiring. (My all time fave church remains the duomo in Siena, Italy.)
I then went to the House of Terror. Wow. This memorial/museum is probably the best combination of artistry and information I've seen. Considering it's subject material, I hesitate to call it "cool" but that's the first word that comes to mind. The only downside is that most of the information (if you don't invest in an audioguide) is presented on 8x11 sheets of papers, so you end up standing in a dimly lit room reading a small novel.
The House of Terror was originally known as the House of Loyalty. It was first used by the Nazis to torture and kill anti-fascists and all potential "enemies" of the regime. Later, the Soviets took over and used it for the same purposes. As mentioned, the place is now a memorial/museum, so not only did they provide the information, but it was presented in representations and artistic manners. E.g. In one room they had fake election booths with TVs showing news broadcasts of the times. The information presented in that room was about the electoral fraud that broad the communists to power. Behind the election area was a "hidden" backroom that represented the machinations used to enact these changes. And, when you finally took the elevator down to the former torture chambers, the elevator moved very slowly and played a video of a man describing the process they used for hanging. It was a very powerful display.
The only part of the museum that truely disturbed me was the final hallway before the exit. They had pictures and the names of all the Victimizers of both regimes along with the dates of birth and deaths (or blanks if they were still alive). I don't know how to describe it, but I found it very disturbing to see these pictures and to know that some of them still existed on Earth. Not that I want them dead, but seeing the blank dates of death made it feel like the Hungarians were just waiting for them to perish. I didn't even walk through the whole section - I backtracked and made straight for the exit.
One of the things that I never realized until I was done with this memorial was how, shall I say, naive I was. In Canada we tend to learn our history as being, "Yay, the holocaust is over. Now we just have to defeat the ideals of these pesky communists!" But here in Eastern Europe, they had the holocaust and then they were all placed into the suffering under the Communists. It was never ending for them.
To continue on my fun filled day I decided to go to the Budapest Holocaust Museum next. It was mostly stuff I knew before, but presented from a Hungarian point of view, so that was very interesting. They had very sad and sobering displays, more than I've ever seen before. Also, all their videos had English subtitles and they relied a lot on personal testimonies, so you'd see a lot of posters telling the stories of individuals victims or survivors. It was amazing. One thing they placed more focus on than I've seen before was the medical experiments that went on, including experiments on twins.
After the museum I was going to walk along the Danube again, but my legs protested too much. I think I strained my thigh muscles or hamstrings - they're not painful, but each step is a bit sore. I made a conscious effort to know go gallivanting around like I normally do. And, mom will also be pleased to hear, I also had 2 meals today, and bought food to make my third. Yahoo!
Anyways, I'm pretty tired so I shall leave off here. I haven't got a clue what I'm up to tomorrow, but I'll figure it out by tonight. Cheerio!
The train ride from Bratislava to Budapest was amazing. The train travelled along the Danube for about 60% of the trip and it was BEAUTIFUL! I also had a 6 seat car to myself, so I had no problems with rolling down the window and hanging my camera outside the window. My only issue was trying to figure out when my stop was going to happen, because the train I was on was actually going all the way to Beograd (I had a moment of panic when I first arrived at the station - I wasn't sure where my train was because nothing was listed with "Budapest" as its final destination!). Every time the train slowed down (there were multiple stops at small Slovakian and Hungary villages on the way) I had a panic attacking, thinking that it was my stop and that I would miss it.
The only issue I had in finding my hostel was that the damned metro had about 16 gazillion exits so I kept going through the wrong ones. I finally did make it to my hostel (after again getting lost in the interconnecting hallways) and checked in. This hostel, Tiger Tim's, is by far the "homiest" hostel I've been in. They sat me down with a map and pointed out all the most interesting sights, etc. I actually had to ask them when I could pay for the room (but this is part of Tiger Tim's appeal).
Anyways, since I was starving - I had only eaten the free apple and croissant given by my Bratislavan hostel, they also pointed me out to a couple of nearby restaurants. I ended up grabbing a ridiculously delicious pita from The Hummus Bar. Can I import that chain to Canada? Mau highly approves of it.
I originally intended to walk to the famous Andrassy Street, but I caught sight of an interesting building further down a side street and ended up investigating. Lo and behold, I found Hungary's parliament buildings! They're small, but beautiful - they're very reminiscent of gothic churches and apparently that was done on purpose. Also, the building is only 96ft (or 96 meters?) which is, by law, the tallest a building can be in Budapest. (96 or 896 is a very important number for the Magyars - it has to do with when they became a country, etc.)
Since Parliament is located on the Danube, I walked along that for awhile. I came across a bunch of cast iron shoe statues along the edge of the water - I could guess that they were memorials of some kind, but I wasn't sure for what. (At dinner that night, I asked the other hostellers about them, and I found out that yes, they're a memorial for the Jews who were lined up during the holocaust and shot into the Danube. Great dinner conversation.)
I was going to walk across the river but then my camera battery died and I discovered that I left spare in the hostel, so I had to go back and fetch it. After grabbing it, I ended up going up to Heroe's Square/Park, hanging out a bit, and then grabbing the metro back to the Danube. From there I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to walk across the Danube afterall and climb Gellert Hill so I could get a view of the city. Great ideas for me though often result in exhaustion. The view was fantastic, but it did take awhile to gather the will to go back down and walk back to the hostel.
At the hostel I ended up just hanging around with the other patrons - we also had a homemade hungarian meal (which needed a lot of salt in my opinion). We chatted for a bit and then most people started watching a movie.
As some of you may have seen on my Facebook status, it was at this point that I tried to befriend the Nigerian guy staying at my hostel. I'm going to assume now that his attempts to ask me about my age, state of marriage, whether I had a boyfriend, and his need to tell me his own age, were just his culture's conversation starters. At least that's what I'm telling myself, and I won't let you tell me different.
Today I rolled outta bed by 8:30 and ended up having a European breakfast (aka a pastry or roll - in my case a pastry with a ham and cheese substance) and started on my day of museums. I actually went to St. Stephen's Basilica first just because it was on the way.
The basilica was very pretty - I think it's probably one of the top 3 basilicas I've seen with regards to opulence. It was like a mini-St. Peter's Cathedral from Rome. Gorgeous, but not very inspiring. (My all time fave church remains the duomo in Siena, Italy.)
I then went to the House of Terror. Wow. This memorial/museum is probably the best combination of artistry and information I've seen. Considering it's subject material, I hesitate to call it "cool" but that's the first word that comes to mind. The only downside is that most of the information (if you don't invest in an audioguide) is presented on 8x11 sheets of papers, so you end up standing in a dimly lit room reading a small novel.
The House of Terror was originally known as the House of Loyalty. It was first used by the Nazis to torture and kill anti-fascists and all potential "enemies" of the regime. Later, the Soviets took over and used it for the same purposes. As mentioned, the place is now a memorial/museum, so not only did they provide the information, but it was presented in representations and artistic manners. E.g. In one room they had fake election booths with TVs showing news broadcasts of the times. The information presented in that room was about the electoral fraud that broad the communists to power. Behind the election area was a "hidden" backroom that represented the machinations used to enact these changes. And, when you finally took the elevator down to the former torture chambers, the elevator moved very slowly and played a video of a man describing the process they used for hanging. It was a very powerful display.
The only part of the museum that truely disturbed me was the final hallway before the exit. They had pictures and the names of all the Victimizers of both regimes along with the dates of birth and deaths (or blanks if they were still alive). I don't know how to describe it, but I found it very disturbing to see these pictures and to know that some of them still existed on Earth. Not that I want them dead, but seeing the blank dates of death made it feel like the Hungarians were just waiting for them to perish. I didn't even walk through the whole section - I backtracked and made straight for the exit.
One of the things that I never realized until I was done with this memorial was how, shall I say, naive I was. In Canada we tend to learn our history as being, "Yay, the holocaust is over. Now we just have to defeat the ideals of these pesky communists!" But here in Eastern Europe, they had the holocaust and then they were all placed into the suffering under the Communists. It was never ending for them.
To continue on my fun filled day I decided to go to the Budapest Holocaust Museum next. It was mostly stuff I knew before, but presented from a Hungarian point of view, so that was very interesting. They had very sad and sobering displays, more than I've ever seen before. Also, all their videos had English subtitles and they relied a lot on personal testimonies, so you'd see a lot of posters telling the stories of individuals victims or survivors. It was amazing. One thing they placed more focus on than I've seen before was the medical experiments that went on, including experiments on twins.
After the museum I was going to walk along the Danube again, but my legs protested too much. I think I strained my thigh muscles or hamstrings - they're not painful, but each step is a bit sore. I made a conscious effort to know go gallivanting around like I normally do. And, mom will also be pleased to hear, I also had 2 meals today, and bought food to make my third. Yahoo!
Anyways, I'm pretty tired so I shall leave off here. I haven't got a clue what I'm up to tomorrow, but I'll figure it out by tonight. Cheerio!
Monday, April 19, 2010
Bratislava
Slovakia's tourist motto is, "A part of Europe worth visiting." That sounded so pathetic (as in, "Gee, we'd love for you to visit us but we don't really expect you to") that I actually laughed out loud. Even my guidebook didn't sound too enthusiastic about Bratislava. But hey, how often can you claim to have been in Slovakia? So I planned on spending a single night here.
Wow. And 1 night is all you need. Even my hostel receptionist said that the city isn't that interesting. Sure, you have all the pretty European buildings, but nothing overly magnificent, and they're less upkept than other European countries I've been to.
The historical centre is there, but there aren't many museums (even my guidebook only lists 1). The rest of it is full of restaurants (mainly non-Slovakian food - I saw a zillion Mexican restos) and stores like Swarvoski, Body Shop, etc. It was rather sad actually! Even their huge castle is closed due to renovations! So after arriving at 11:30 AM an walking around until 2:30, I had pretty much seen everything there was to see.
I ended up eating at a tourist "pub" and I tried the Slovakian version of a perogy and a tomato salad. Okay - the tomato salad was good, except for the excessive onions... but the perogy made with sour goat's milk cheese? Umm, I'm not a hater, but I'm not a fan of it either I doubt I would ever order it again. (Oh, and holy bacon grease Batman! The bacon bits that were a garnish were so NASTY!) Bleeeh! I should have gotten the national dish of dumplings instead. Hopefully I can redeem my palate in the next few days in Hungary - I'm looking ridiculously forward to Goulash!
By 4 PM I returned to my hostel. It turns out that most people have cancelled their reservations due to the volcano issues, so it's essentially me and 3 other people.
One of those people is a German guy. He came out on the patio where I was relaxing and started chatting, but his English was rather poor, so we couldn't really understand each other. (e.g. We'd both talk, get parts of the conversation, and smile and nod through the rest of the sentences because we were lost.) We also tried speaking in French, but his French wasn't much better than his English! I finally fled to the computers.
Unfortunately people are smoking down here (I'm in their basement bar) so I'm going to flee soon. Hopefully I'll be on the train to Budapest by tomorrow by 10 AM. Bye everyone!
Wow. And 1 night is all you need. Even my hostel receptionist said that the city isn't that interesting. Sure, you have all the pretty European buildings, but nothing overly magnificent, and they're less upkept than other European countries I've been to.
The historical centre is there, but there aren't many museums (even my guidebook only lists 1). The rest of it is full of restaurants (mainly non-Slovakian food - I saw a zillion Mexican restos) and stores like Swarvoski, Body Shop, etc. It was rather sad actually! Even their huge castle is closed due to renovations! So after arriving at 11:30 AM an walking around until 2:30, I had pretty much seen everything there was to see.
I ended up eating at a tourist "pub" and I tried the Slovakian version of a perogy and a tomato salad. Okay - the tomato salad was good, except for the excessive onions... but the perogy made with sour goat's milk cheese? Umm, I'm not a hater, but I'm not a fan of it either I doubt I would ever order it again. (Oh, and holy bacon grease Batman! The bacon bits that were a garnish were so NASTY!) Bleeeh! I should have gotten the national dish of dumplings instead. Hopefully I can redeem my palate in the next few days in Hungary - I'm looking ridiculously forward to Goulash!
By 4 PM I returned to my hostel. It turns out that most people have cancelled their reservations due to the volcano issues, so it's essentially me and 3 other people.
One of those people is a German guy. He came out on the patio where I was relaxing and started chatting, but his English was rather poor, so we couldn't really understand each other. (e.g. We'd both talk, get parts of the conversation, and smile and nod through the rest of the sentences because we were lost.) We also tried speaking in French, but his French wasn't much better than his English! I finally fled to the computers.
Unfortunately people are smoking down here (I'm in their basement bar) so I'm going to flee soon. Hopefully I'll be on the train to Budapest by tomorrow by 10 AM. Bye everyone!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Fleshing out the story
I've decided to take the evening off, relax, and plan for the next segment of my trip. But of course, the internet must take precedence. I shall attempt to now flesh out some of the stuff I didn't mention in my first post.
Apr. 14
So on the first night I arrived in Vienna I had to go find a place to eat. Now, most of you know that I despise eating alone. I'm terrible at finding restaurants. It gets even worse while on international trips. I keep procrastinating on finding places to eat and end up walking and walking and walking until desperation forces me to either a street meat stall or to cave and go into a restaurant.
Well, this happened here in Vienna. I found this nice "local" shopping district - a huge long street full of stores and once in awhile a restaurant. I'd peek at their menus (most of which weren't in English) and then continue on. Fast forward to 2 hours later where I'm on the point of collapse from low blood sugars - I find this cute little cafe and force myself to step inside.
I immediately panic when the owner starts talking to me German. I stutter over telling him (in German) that I can't speak German. Then I discover that he speaks English. Fluently. Anyhoo, I see that he has daily specials so I try to order Tuesday's special. Two problems: a) I accidentally say "Thursday" because my German is reeeeally rusty and b) due to the time change, it's actually Wednesday. Doh.
Anyways, I ordered the special - now I remember what I hate about European restaurants. you get squat for your meal! I ordered a bowl of spaghetti and it cost me nearly 9 euros for a plate of spaghetti noodles covered in butter and sprinkled with cheese. Where's the meat? Where's the spices?! Doh! Oh well, at least my impending collapse was averted.
Also, most of you know how much I love seeing elderly people (lovingly nicknamed "pets") - well, I find EAstern European pets to be even more cute!!! The little old ladies all wear checkered head scarves that make me think of Hungarian matrons. However, there's also something more sad and pathetic looking about a Eastern European pet begging for money. :(
(Umm, weird - some guy just came bounding through the computer room to use the washroom here, but he didn't bother closing the door the entire way. Awkward! LOL, and now it sounds like he broke the flush handle.)
Apr. 15
After my meeting I ventured out for authentic sightseeing. When I happened across the St. Stephansdom church, that's when it finally hit me that I was back in Europe! (Granted, last trip I was sick and tired of churches by the end of it, but I guess having nearly a year away from them renewed my interested.)
As mentioned, I spent most of this night wasting time until the ballet started. After the ballet I was hungry (since I had been in line from 6PM and then in the theatre, and I didn't know I wouldn't have had time to eat before then, so I didn't eat) so I stopped by a street meat stall and had my first Viennese schnitzel. It's sad to admit, but that was the best schnitzel I've had. yeah it was deepfried and the equivalent of a hamburger, but honestly, I don't get what all the hooplah is over schnitzel - if you've eaten it in Canada, you've eaten it everywhere in my opinion.
Amusing anecdote: I am soooo lower class. Before the ballet started I had to use the washroom. Bathrooms with attendants disturb me. I'm also a cheap bastard, so I managed to dodge out of the bathroom while she was cleaning another stall so I wouldn't have to leave her a tip. (When I went to the opera again later for the opera itself, I was in the nosebleed section and there was no attendant in that one. Phew, I was back in my own economic range!)
I also did my good deed and helped a girl from Malta find the hotel (she was staying in the same one as me) - she was in Vienna for a meeting on Human Rights.
Apr. 16
On thise day I slept in and missed most of the morning. :( I really wanted to go on a tour of the UN buildings but I missed the first tour and therefore ended up rearranging my whole schedule to see them.
I ended up going back to the area around the opera house. I tried schnitzel again at Mama's schnitzel House. Hmm. Somehow I doubt that was the best choice of places. Oh well. They fed me a lot and that's all I cared about at that point.
After the UN tour I got lost looking for the DOW museum. As mentioned previously, I accidentally went into the DOM museum instead. So sad! The DOW is only open on weekdays, so I missed my chance to learn about Austrian resistance to nayism and socialism. :( And the DOM museum was full of religious relics and all in German. Oh well, at least I recogniyed some of the concepts from my trips last year and therefore I wasn't totally confused! And they also had free washrooms. That's always a bonus.
Speaking of washrooms, I refused to pay to go in for giggles, but near the opera house there's a pay toilet called the Opera Toilet - the big sell is that they play classical music inside.
I ended up going to the "train station" to scope out the area near my hostel so I wouldn't be overwhelmed the next day. And I put train station in quotations because there wasn't a train in sight. I have no idea why I
was convinced this was the train station, but I found out later that nope - it has NOTHING to do with trains. More time wasted.
I did however find Statdpark, a well known park in Vienna. It's rather small, but very very pretty, and it's fill with statues of famous musicians and composers. I ended up sitting there for a bit to relax.
By now I felt like I could retire to my hotel room without feeling like the day was a total waste. I did try going to Pratern, a local themepark. It was amusing - it felt like a carnival out of the 1950s. Plus it has a really famous ferris wheel (famous from a Austrian movie). It takes 20 minutes for 1 rotation of the wheel, but I wasn't willing to pay 10 euros for the ride!
Apr. 17
The first thing that amused me this day was seeing a guy in the u-bahn pimping out the German version of the Watchtower. The Watchtower! In Deutsch! How AWESOME! The rest of the day felt like I was stuck in one u-bahn or another. Seriously. Everytime I got on a metro, it broke down. I was stuck at Kagran station for 30-40 minutes!
I transferred my belongings to my hostel and you guys got your first internet update.
I ended up going to the Nashmarkt - it's a local farmers market and on Saturdays it also has a big flea market. For the most part, the food area was just like a regular North American market. Just more crowded. The snack stalls did have a lot of pastries and non-North American goods though. And I found there were a lot of Middle-Eastern snacks like donairs, kebabs, falafel etc. As for the flea market. Ugh. Can we say tacky? For those of you who will get the reference, I think I found Rosemary's long lost illegimate children. CREEPy!
I ended up meeting my former boss at her hotel so we could do lunch and go to an art museum together. First off, her hotel. Oh my gosh. Fancy schmancy! Again, I felt soooo lower class walking in there. I honestly felt like they were watching me to make sure I didn't steal the silverware or something. (Okay, slight exagerration, but I felt like they should be watching me.) To give you an idea of the price of this hotel, for .33L of coke (stupid Europe likes bottles in the siye of .33L) it cost 5.50 Euros. That's just for a freaking POP!!!!
Anyways, Jenny and I had a long lunch and chit chatted about everything and anything. We ended up going to the Belvedere museum (we were going to take a tram, but couldn't find the right one, so I got us there via map instead. Can we talk about the pressure of trying not to get one of the top hepatologists in the world lost?!)
The Belvedere was beautiful - unfortunately I didn't know that there was a huge set of gardens, so I had us walking on the opposite side of the wall they were on. Oh well - I got to see them on the walk back. Jenny was able to explain the significance of some of the paintings, so it was very handy.
Afterwards we walked back to her hotel and she mentioned that the opera playing that night had a very famous singer - one of the top 5 female singers in the world. Since Jenny is an opera buff, I decided to try to get standing room tickets again.
Oh my gosh, the line for the opera was even longer than for the ballet! (Even though it was at the same location.) I ended up chatting with an Indian medical student (he was involved in liver transplants or something like that).
Unfortunatley I didn't get as good of a seat this time - I was stuck in the nosebleeds. I can't believe how poorly the opera house was built! If you were on either side of the balcony (where I was), you could literally only see half the stage. And this damned opera seemed to be sung on the half of the stage I couldn't see. I can't help but wonder how much the tickets cost for the people sitting in front of me, because it seemed like they had as bad, or worse views that I did if they remained seated. Of course, for the lady directly in front of me, that didn't seem to be a problem for her. She kept standing up, leaning forward, blocking the view of the cold couple beside her, whipping out her opera glasses, etc. And at one particularly poignant song, she was cheering wildly and gave no less than 5 "bravos" to the male lead.
While at the opera I ended up chatting with a Japanese tourist. She was supposed to have left earlier in the day, but due to the volcano, her flight kept getting pushed back, so she extended her vacation until Wednesday. Ouch!
I ended up staggering back to my hostel at around 10:30 PM. Sooo tired. I seem to have 3 brayilian roommates, a Korean, and I don't know who else. I had a Serbian dude sleeping above me last night, but he left today.
Apr. 18
The first thing I did this morning was go to the train station to check out how to buy my ticket to Bratislava. yikes! Talk about crowds! Thankfully the train staff were out in force and one fellow helped explain to me that I needed to go to a different train station and showed me how to get there. (It turns out that I could have bought my ticket at that station - but I'd have to go to a different one tomorrow to depart.)
Anyways, to get to the other station (Sudanbohf), I had to take the regular metro system, and an S-bahn train, the equivalent of a GO train. Oh my gosh. I used a similar system in Paris with little difficulty. This time though I was so confused! I couldn't figure out which train I needed to go on, which platform I was even on, etc! Thankfully there was a bilingual guy there who was able to help me. I got to Sudanbohf, bought my ticket and came back. (Of course I ran into similar problems trying to get back and I hopped on the train that I *thought* would get me back, but I wasn't sure if my transit pass was valid, so I was sweating through the two train stops, worried that someone would check my ticket and fine me.)
Oh, I should also mention that I thought this expedition would be a short one, so I hurried off without eating. By noon I arrived at the Schonbrunn Palace and still had an empty stomach. I was starting to feel ill I was so hungry. When I arrived at the palace, I walked around the neighborhood outside trying to find a street meat stall or corner store or SOMETHING but it was all closed for Sunday!!! And then I kept having to dodge city workers who were cleaning up after the Vienna marathon that was also going on. I ended up giving up and going into the palace gardens.
The gardens were so pretty - but they ain't got nothing on Versailles! (Of course, they were also still in the process of budding/blooming so it's not a totally fair comparison.) I then went to find the ticket booth so I could actually go into the palace itself - and then heavenly choirs started to sing and a beam of light fell upon a food stand inside the info centre! Oh heavenly Lord, I thank thee for this bounty. Of course I got charged up the ass, but I was too hungry to argue for the sandwich.
After inhaling my "meal" I signed up for a guided tour of the Imperial apartments. (Of course I didn't realize there was a non-guided option available until later. Whoops!) The tour was very interesting and amusing. E.g. I learned about one Austrian lord's attempts to create and implement a "re-usable" coffin - apparently it wasn't well received by his subjects.
After Schonbrunn (I wish I had had more time for the gardens and maybe the greenhouses, but my train expedition in the morning wasted so much time!) I went back downtown to go to the Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum. Then I had MORE issues in that I kept tripping over the damned marathon! The easiest access to the museums were blocked by barricades and it took me about 20 minutes to get to the entrance.
I really enjoyed the Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum. However, the first part of the museum is dedicated to the imperial silverware, china, etc. Now, you may remember that I am not a fan of looking at pottery. I don't care if it's gilded or made of solid moonbeams. A pot is a pot is a pot. I was ready to gnaw my arm off looking at all the cutlery, porcelain, etc. I had an audioguide and I kept skipping through most of the explanations. (Except for the one section on napkin folding - that was kind of cool and nifty to learn!)
After the cutlery crap I went into the Sisi museum which was also kind of cool. Princess Sisi (actually Elisabeth) is Austria's poster-child. And apparently her popularity didn't blossom until after her death. The exhibition was the closest I've found to a North American style museum in all my travels. I was amayed (and at times bored) by the wealth of information the audioguides provided.
Finally I got to see the Imperial Apartments. Essentially it was a repeat of what I saw at Schonbrunn earlier in the morning, but it was still nifty to see.
By this time I was getting hungry again. I ended up wimping out and going to the same restaurant that Jenny and I had gone to the day before. While digging through my purse though, I started laughing. The entire time I was wandering around, wasting away from hunger, I forgot that I had a small bag of dried fruit Jenny had given me the day before! Whoops!
Anyways, I think this will conclude the Vienna portion of my trip. I'm going to do my best to get up on time tomorrow and head to Bratislava. After 1 day there I'll (try) to head to Budapest.
Cheerio!
Mau
Apr. 14
So on the first night I arrived in Vienna I had to go find a place to eat. Now, most of you know that I despise eating alone. I'm terrible at finding restaurants. It gets even worse while on international trips. I keep procrastinating on finding places to eat and end up walking and walking and walking until desperation forces me to either a street meat stall or to cave and go into a restaurant.
Well, this happened here in Vienna. I found this nice "local" shopping district - a huge long street full of stores and once in awhile a restaurant. I'd peek at their menus (most of which weren't in English) and then continue on. Fast forward to 2 hours later where I'm on the point of collapse from low blood sugars - I find this cute little cafe and force myself to step inside.
I immediately panic when the owner starts talking to me German. I stutter over telling him (in German) that I can't speak German. Then I discover that he speaks English. Fluently. Anyhoo, I see that he has daily specials so I try to order Tuesday's special. Two problems: a) I accidentally say "Thursday" because my German is reeeeally rusty and b) due to the time change, it's actually Wednesday. Doh.
Anyways, I ordered the special - now I remember what I hate about European restaurants. you get squat for your meal! I ordered a bowl of spaghetti and it cost me nearly 9 euros for a plate of spaghetti noodles covered in butter and sprinkled with cheese. Where's the meat? Where's the spices?! Doh! Oh well, at least my impending collapse was averted.
Also, most of you know how much I love seeing elderly people (lovingly nicknamed "pets") - well, I find EAstern European pets to be even more cute!!! The little old ladies all wear checkered head scarves that make me think of Hungarian matrons. However, there's also something more sad and pathetic looking about a Eastern European pet begging for money. :(
(Umm, weird - some guy just came bounding through the computer room to use the washroom here, but he didn't bother closing the door the entire way. Awkward! LOL, and now it sounds like he broke the flush handle.)
Apr. 15
After my meeting I ventured out for authentic sightseeing. When I happened across the St. Stephansdom church, that's when it finally hit me that I was back in Europe! (Granted, last trip I was sick and tired of churches by the end of it, but I guess having nearly a year away from them renewed my interested.)
As mentioned, I spent most of this night wasting time until the ballet started. After the ballet I was hungry (since I had been in line from 6PM and then in the theatre, and I didn't know I wouldn't have had time to eat before then, so I didn't eat) so I stopped by a street meat stall and had my first Viennese schnitzel. It's sad to admit, but that was the best schnitzel I've had. yeah it was deepfried and the equivalent of a hamburger, but honestly, I don't get what all the hooplah is over schnitzel - if you've eaten it in Canada, you've eaten it everywhere in my opinion.
Amusing anecdote: I am soooo lower class. Before the ballet started I had to use the washroom. Bathrooms with attendants disturb me. I'm also a cheap bastard, so I managed to dodge out of the bathroom while she was cleaning another stall so I wouldn't have to leave her a tip. (When I went to the opera again later for the opera itself, I was in the nosebleed section and there was no attendant in that one. Phew, I was back in my own economic range!)
I also did my good deed and helped a girl from Malta find the hotel (she was staying in the same one as me) - she was in Vienna for a meeting on Human Rights.
Apr. 16
On thise day I slept in and missed most of the morning. :( I really wanted to go on a tour of the UN buildings but I missed the first tour and therefore ended up rearranging my whole schedule to see them.
I ended up going back to the area around the opera house. I tried schnitzel again at Mama's schnitzel House. Hmm. Somehow I doubt that was the best choice of places. Oh well. They fed me a lot and that's all I cared about at that point.
After the UN tour I got lost looking for the DOW museum. As mentioned previously, I accidentally went into the DOM museum instead. So sad! The DOW is only open on weekdays, so I missed my chance to learn about Austrian resistance to nayism and socialism. :( And the DOM museum was full of religious relics and all in German. Oh well, at least I recogniyed some of the concepts from my trips last year and therefore I wasn't totally confused! And they also had free washrooms. That's always a bonus.
Speaking of washrooms, I refused to pay to go in for giggles, but near the opera house there's a pay toilet called the Opera Toilet - the big sell is that they play classical music inside.
I ended up going to the "train station" to scope out the area near my hostel so I wouldn't be overwhelmed the next day. And I put train station in quotations because there wasn't a train in sight. I have no idea why I
was convinced this was the train station, but I found out later that nope - it has NOTHING to do with trains. More time wasted.
I did however find Statdpark, a well known park in Vienna. It's rather small, but very very pretty, and it's fill with statues of famous musicians and composers. I ended up sitting there for a bit to relax.
By now I felt like I could retire to my hotel room without feeling like the day was a total waste. I did try going to Pratern, a local themepark. It was amusing - it felt like a carnival out of the 1950s. Plus it has a really famous ferris wheel (famous from a Austrian movie). It takes 20 minutes for 1 rotation of the wheel, but I wasn't willing to pay 10 euros for the ride!
Apr. 17
The first thing that amused me this day was seeing a guy in the u-bahn pimping out the German version of the Watchtower. The Watchtower! In Deutsch! How AWESOME! The rest of the day felt like I was stuck in one u-bahn or another. Seriously. Everytime I got on a metro, it broke down. I was stuck at Kagran station for 30-40 minutes!
I transferred my belongings to my hostel and you guys got your first internet update.
I ended up going to the Nashmarkt - it's a local farmers market and on Saturdays it also has a big flea market. For the most part, the food area was just like a regular North American market. Just more crowded. The snack stalls did have a lot of pastries and non-North American goods though. And I found there were a lot of Middle-Eastern snacks like donairs, kebabs, falafel etc. As for the flea market. Ugh. Can we say tacky? For those of you who will get the reference, I think I found Rosemary's long lost illegimate children. CREEPy!
I ended up meeting my former boss at her hotel so we could do lunch and go to an art museum together. First off, her hotel. Oh my gosh. Fancy schmancy! Again, I felt soooo lower class walking in there. I honestly felt like they were watching me to make sure I didn't steal the silverware or something. (Okay, slight exagerration, but I felt like they should be watching me.) To give you an idea of the price of this hotel, for .33L of coke (stupid Europe likes bottles in the siye of .33L) it cost 5.50 Euros. That's just for a freaking POP!!!!
Anyways, Jenny and I had a long lunch and chit chatted about everything and anything. We ended up going to the Belvedere museum (we were going to take a tram, but couldn't find the right one, so I got us there via map instead. Can we talk about the pressure of trying not to get one of the top hepatologists in the world lost?!)
The Belvedere was beautiful - unfortunately I didn't know that there was a huge set of gardens, so I had us walking on the opposite side of the wall they were on. Oh well - I got to see them on the walk back. Jenny was able to explain the significance of some of the paintings, so it was very handy.
Afterwards we walked back to her hotel and she mentioned that the opera playing that night had a very famous singer - one of the top 5 female singers in the world. Since Jenny is an opera buff, I decided to try to get standing room tickets again.
Oh my gosh, the line for the opera was even longer than for the ballet! (Even though it was at the same location.) I ended up chatting with an Indian medical student (he was involved in liver transplants or something like that).
Unfortunatley I didn't get as good of a seat this time - I was stuck in the nosebleeds. I can't believe how poorly the opera house was built! If you were on either side of the balcony (where I was), you could literally only see half the stage. And this damned opera seemed to be sung on the half of the stage I couldn't see. I can't help but wonder how much the tickets cost for the people sitting in front of me, because it seemed like they had as bad, or worse views that I did if they remained seated. Of course, for the lady directly in front of me, that didn't seem to be a problem for her. She kept standing up, leaning forward, blocking the view of the cold couple beside her, whipping out her opera glasses, etc. And at one particularly poignant song, she was cheering wildly and gave no less than 5 "bravos" to the male lead.
While at the opera I ended up chatting with a Japanese tourist. She was supposed to have left earlier in the day, but due to the volcano, her flight kept getting pushed back, so she extended her vacation until Wednesday. Ouch!
I ended up staggering back to my hostel at around 10:30 PM. Sooo tired. I seem to have 3 brayilian roommates, a Korean, and I don't know who else. I had a Serbian dude sleeping above me last night, but he left today.
Apr. 18
The first thing I did this morning was go to the train station to check out how to buy my ticket to Bratislava. yikes! Talk about crowds! Thankfully the train staff were out in force and one fellow helped explain to me that I needed to go to a different train station and showed me how to get there. (It turns out that I could have bought my ticket at that station - but I'd have to go to a different one tomorrow to depart.)
Anyways, to get to the other station (Sudanbohf), I had to take the regular metro system, and an S-bahn train, the equivalent of a GO train. Oh my gosh. I used a similar system in Paris with little difficulty. This time though I was so confused! I couldn't figure out which train I needed to go on, which platform I was even on, etc! Thankfully there was a bilingual guy there who was able to help me. I got to Sudanbohf, bought my ticket and came back. (Of course I ran into similar problems trying to get back and I hopped on the train that I *thought* would get me back, but I wasn't sure if my transit pass was valid, so I was sweating through the two train stops, worried that someone would check my ticket and fine me.)
Oh, I should also mention that I thought this expedition would be a short one, so I hurried off without eating. By noon I arrived at the Schonbrunn Palace and still had an empty stomach. I was starting to feel ill I was so hungry. When I arrived at the palace, I walked around the neighborhood outside trying to find a street meat stall or corner store or SOMETHING but it was all closed for Sunday!!! And then I kept having to dodge city workers who were cleaning up after the Vienna marathon that was also going on. I ended up giving up and going into the palace gardens.
The gardens were so pretty - but they ain't got nothing on Versailles! (Of course, they were also still in the process of budding/blooming so it's not a totally fair comparison.) I then went to find the ticket booth so I could actually go into the palace itself - and then heavenly choirs started to sing and a beam of light fell upon a food stand inside the info centre! Oh heavenly Lord, I thank thee for this bounty. Of course I got charged up the ass, but I was too hungry to argue for the sandwich.
After inhaling my "meal" I signed up for a guided tour of the Imperial apartments. (Of course I didn't realize there was a non-guided option available until later. Whoops!) The tour was very interesting and amusing. E.g. I learned about one Austrian lord's attempts to create and implement a "re-usable" coffin - apparently it wasn't well received by his subjects.
After Schonbrunn (I wish I had had more time for the gardens and maybe the greenhouses, but my train expedition in the morning wasted so much time!) I went back downtown to go to the Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum. Then I had MORE issues in that I kept tripping over the damned marathon! The easiest access to the museums were blocked by barricades and it took me about 20 minutes to get to the entrance.
I really enjoyed the Imperial Apartments and Sisi Museum. However, the first part of the museum is dedicated to the imperial silverware, china, etc. Now, you may remember that I am not a fan of looking at pottery. I don't care if it's gilded or made of solid moonbeams. A pot is a pot is a pot. I was ready to gnaw my arm off looking at all the cutlery, porcelain, etc. I had an audioguide and I kept skipping through most of the explanations. (Except for the one section on napkin folding - that was kind of cool and nifty to learn!)
After the cutlery crap I went into the Sisi museum which was also kind of cool. Princess Sisi (actually Elisabeth) is Austria's poster-child. And apparently her popularity didn't blossom until after her death. The exhibition was the closest I've found to a North American style museum in all my travels. I was amayed (and at times bored) by the wealth of information the audioguides provided.
Finally I got to see the Imperial Apartments. Essentially it was a repeat of what I saw at Schonbrunn earlier in the morning, but it was still nifty to see.
By this time I was getting hungry again. I ended up wimping out and going to the same restaurant that Jenny and I had gone to the day before. While digging through my purse though, I started laughing. The entire time I was wandering around, wasting away from hunger, I forgot that I had a small bag of dried fruit Jenny had given me the day before! Whoops!
Anyways, I think this will conclude the Vienna portion of my trip. I'm going to do my best to get up on time tomorrow and head to Bratislava. After 1 day there I'll (try) to head to Budapest.
Cheerio!
Mau
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Guten tag!
Forgive me in advance for any typos I make. The Z and the Y keys on German keyboards seem to be switched! And the apostraphe symbol is also misplaced!
Anyhoo, I'm alive! I just checked out of my hotel and am now at my hostel, hence the internet access!
The plane ride coming here was amazingly uncomfortable. I got stuck next to the washrooms. And worse, next to a baby. It was a bit fussy but slept through most of the night. I think the worst part was that my seat wouldn't recline, so I had a horrible backache and also people kept brushing my hair on the way to the washroom so I kept waking up. Upon arrival in France for my connection, I had to do one of those stereotypical airport scenes were you run from one side of the airport to the other to make it in time. Yikes! Luckily my boss (for the meeting) was also on the plane, so we were able to talk about the meeting and get some last minute planning done, it made me feel so reassured. Plus, she also gave approval to use meeting funds to take the taxi to our respective hotels. Yay for less stress!
Vienna's weather was rainy for the first two days I was here, which translated into coooold. I was a bit worried that my "spring" jacket would't be warm enough, but now that it's sunny again, life is good!
To get the boring stuff out of the way, the meeting went really well. It was very productive and I wasn't the only one suffering jet lag, so life was good! There were a few "oops" moments (like when I realized that I forgot to provide a list of participant names - I hear that's important when people meet for the first time) but it went very well in general. Yahoo! I also got to skip out on the after-dinner. My boss asked if I wanted to join them but the subtext was that I didn't have to so I begged off.
On to the fun stuff: I haven't done too much touristy stuff so far - the first two nights were a waste since I was too tired and it was too rainy to enjoy myself. And then yesterday I slept in a great deal, so all my plans were screwed up. Mainly I've done my generic "walk-abouts" AKA Mau wanders around the touristy areas randomly, hoping to see cool stuff. And boy, I sure have! Vienna is so pretty - it feels cleaner, greener, and more modern than Rome or Paris ever did.
So far I've wandered around St. Stephandom's church, I've walked around the Hofburg area (but not inside yet), walked up and down a massive shopping street which wasn't touristy at all but was full of bonafide Viennese, gone on a tour of the UN buildings here (that was the other reason yesterday was a waste - I slept in, missed the first tour, and decided to wait until 2pm for the second tour - I was insistent on seeing the damned UN!). I also accidentally went to the DOM museum - a museum filled with religious relics, etc. I say "accidentally" because I was actually trying to get to the DOW museum (full of Jewish/holocaust info) and I mixed the two up on my map. I'm bummed because the museum is closed for the weekend now, so I won't get to see it afterall. Oh well, let's hope that the Museum of Terror in Budapest makes up for it!
By far, the coolest thing I've done so far is gone to the State Opera House (Staatoper) and got standing room tickets (literally standing space only) to go see a ballet of "Ein Sommernachtstraum" - that's A Midsummernight's Dream. I swear, my standing ticket probablz had the best view in the house! It was so neat seeing the ballet in German - but I do need to read the actual play so that I can catch the information that I missed - and because there were a few spoken or sung parts in German. (I don't mind hearing spoken German, but German singing? Sounds terrible!)
Anyhoo, I think I shall leave off here for now. I've got about 2 hours till I meet my old boss - we're going to the Belvedere museum together. Not a clue as to what that holds, but it's in my guidebook, so it must be good! Tomorrow I shall dedicate my day to going to Shünbronn Palace (or however you spell it) which is supposed to be the equivalent to Versailles. I'll also try seeing the rest of Hofburg, and then I'm off to Bratislava on Monday!
Anyhoo, I'm alive! I just checked out of my hotel and am now at my hostel, hence the internet access!
The plane ride coming here was amazingly uncomfortable. I got stuck next to the washrooms. And worse, next to a baby. It was a bit fussy but slept through most of the night. I think the worst part was that my seat wouldn't recline, so I had a horrible backache and also people kept brushing my hair on the way to the washroom so I kept waking up. Upon arrival in France for my connection, I had to do one of those stereotypical airport scenes were you run from one side of the airport to the other to make it in time. Yikes! Luckily my boss (for the meeting) was also on the plane, so we were able to talk about the meeting and get some last minute planning done, it made me feel so reassured. Plus, she also gave approval to use meeting funds to take the taxi to our respective hotels. Yay for less stress!
Vienna's weather was rainy for the first two days I was here, which translated into coooold. I was a bit worried that my "spring" jacket would't be warm enough, but now that it's sunny again, life is good!
To get the boring stuff out of the way, the meeting went really well. It was very productive and I wasn't the only one suffering jet lag, so life was good! There were a few "oops" moments (like when I realized that I forgot to provide a list of participant names - I hear that's important when people meet for the first time) but it went very well in general. Yahoo! I also got to skip out on the after-dinner. My boss asked if I wanted to join them but the subtext was that I didn't have to so I begged off.
On to the fun stuff: I haven't done too much touristy stuff so far - the first two nights were a waste since I was too tired and it was too rainy to enjoy myself. And then yesterday I slept in a great deal, so all my plans were screwed up. Mainly I've done my generic "walk-abouts" AKA Mau wanders around the touristy areas randomly, hoping to see cool stuff. And boy, I sure have! Vienna is so pretty - it feels cleaner, greener, and more modern than Rome or Paris ever did.
So far I've wandered around St. Stephandom's church, I've walked around the Hofburg area (but not inside yet), walked up and down a massive shopping street which wasn't touristy at all but was full of bonafide Viennese, gone on a tour of the UN buildings here (that was the other reason yesterday was a waste - I slept in, missed the first tour, and decided to wait until 2pm for the second tour - I was insistent on seeing the damned UN!). I also accidentally went to the DOM museum - a museum filled with religious relics, etc. I say "accidentally" because I was actually trying to get to the DOW museum (full of Jewish/holocaust info) and I mixed the two up on my map. I'm bummed because the museum is closed for the weekend now, so I won't get to see it afterall. Oh well, let's hope that the Museum of Terror in Budapest makes up for it!
By far, the coolest thing I've done so far is gone to the State Opera House (Staatoper) and got standing room tickets (literally standing space only) to go see a ballet of "Ein Sommernachtstraum" - that's A Midsummernight's Dream. I swear, my standing ticket probablz had the best view in the house! It was so neat seeing the ballet in German - but I do need to read the actual play so that I can catch the information that I missed - and because there were a few spoken or sung parts in German. (I don't mind hearing spoken German, but German singing? Sounds terrible!)
Anyhoo, I think I shall leave off here for now. I've got about 2 hours till I meet my old boss - we're going to the Belvedere museum together. Not a clue as to what that holds, but it's in my guidebook, so it must be good! Tomorrow I shall dedicate my day to going to Shünbronn Palace (or however you spell it) which is supposed to be the equivalent to Versailles. I'll also try seeing the rest of Hofburg, and then I'm off to Bratislava on Monday!
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Traditions
One of my favourite things about having gone to HK is that the learning never ceases.
I read my friend Ida's blog regularly (she's from Finland) and she just posted some pictures of kids dressed up as "witches" for Easter. Obviously I had no idea why kids would dress up for Easter, but a quick google search revealed that in parts of Finland, there is a custom of dressing up like witches (I guess we'd describe them as "crones" rather than our stereotypical image of a witch).
I read my friend Ida's blog regularly (she's from Finland) and she just posted some pictures of kids dressed up as "witches" for Easter. Obviously I had no idea why kids would dress up for Easter, but a quick google search revealed that in parts of Finland, there is a custom of dressing up like witches (I guess we'd describe them as "crones" rather than our stereotypical image of a witch).
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