Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Vienna! (7-22-09)

It was 9:30am when we arrived in Vienna, Austria and never in my life had I been happier to get off a train! We had been traveling for 12 hours straight, most of which I spent lodged in the corner of a stuffy compartment with 5 other people, and my sister! You can only imagine the horror. We got off the train stretching our limbs, our joints popped and cracked like a Regal Cinema's popcorn machine. It took us a while to gather our surroundings: 1. We were in Vienna 2. We were on the train platform 3. We didn't know how to get to our hostel. Luckily the maps were written in German, which made it easy to find our way. But, I thought, we're in a new country! Let's ask for directions! Thankfully a nice Austrian couple knew how to get to downtown, and so off we were off to find our first hostel!

At the place they call Westend Hostel we booked two beds, however, they told us the beds wouldn't be ready for about three hours. This we took as a formality. Since we were already sleep deprived, what difference would three hours make, right? We paid the locker fee for our bags, and left the hostel to visit the Belvedere.

Since we were downtown, the streets were very busy. One thing I noticed about Austrians, especially those who walk downtown, is that they NEVER jaywalk. My sister and I found this out the hard way when we tried crossing a street without a walk signal. We had made it halfway across the street when a psychotic woman in one of those tiny European Vespa-turned-automobiles came ripping
Looked something like this| down the street. She actually accelerated having seen us jaywalking in an attempt to scare the living shits out of us. Well, it worked, and from that point on we always paid attention to walk signals.



|Wrong Belv, Bro
We made it to the Belvedere, no not the Polish one, (or the Vodka). But the Viennese palace built for Prince Eugene of Savoy. It's a massive dual palace, with Upper and Lower sections, which both house museums. The grounds are organized in baroque style landscape to match that of the architecture of the buildings. Having time, we meandered through the gardens, and one museum in the Lower section. Beautiful as it was, (my sister snapped roughly a million pictures), we left to take showers at the hostel and catch some sleep before heading to dinner.  

We were both in the mood for something a bit heavier than Italian food, but we weren't too keen on Schnitzle just yet. So we had dinner at an Australian themed restaurant that reminded me of an Outback. Afterwards we walked around Stephansplatz Square where there were a bevy of street performers and dance crews. Stephansplatz Square is the heart of downtown, and it's where you'll find all the nightlife necessities for locals and tourists alike. At the center of the bustling square is a giant gothic church called Stephen's Chathedral or Stephansdom (appropriate right?). This was our first opportunity to see gothic architechture so far on our trip, as everything south of Venice is mostly baroque or classic architechture.

That's me!| We left Stephansdom to venture farther away from the central square, we visited Mozart's apartment, which looked like any other apartment, but with a hint of historical importance, I could've sworn to have heard the first few notes of Symphony n.40. We then walked to the church where the Vienna Boys' Choir performs, but it was closed. Those poor lads. On our way back we bumped into a few Americans, one was named Atella, (no not after the Hun unfortunately), who was visiting Vienna on his way to Rome. His buddy, Morice, was from Boston, and was working at a law firm in Vienna for six months. Together we walked around the city talking about the things Morice had seen, and about Atella's plans for his trip. Then Morice showed us all a one euro gelato bar a few blocks from Stephansplatz. Afterwards though, both Morice and Atella had to leave. Atella would be leaving for Rome in the morning on a six month trip around the world.

We got back to the hostel, but only stayed about twenty minutes. It was too hot in there, so we found a pub around the corner and ordered a few beers. They had a huge projection screen showing a soccer game between two rival teams. Whenever our team scored a goal, the pub would erupt in a frenzy of cheers and hugs, and the pub across the street would boo and yell at their team in German. After a while we left, and went back to the Westend, and I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

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