Right. So, because I couldn’t find any reasonably priced flights to Vienna from Frankfurt, I ended up booking flights into and out of Bratislava, which is in Slovakia, and is the Ryanair discount airline’s “Vienna airport”. It’s about an hour from Vienna, but unfortunately I was due to arrive at about 10pm and couldn’t book into my hostel in Vienna that late. So, I stayed in Bratislava the first night and headed into Vienna early the next day to go to the International Cancer Vaccine Symposium. Despite the name, the people attending the symposium were 90% Austrian, and the other 10% was mostly made up of the invited speakers. Because of the large Austrian contingent, I was constantly walking around and seeing name badges with “Austria” on them in small wording, and for a split second getting excited before realising they didn’t say “Australia”. Sigh. But I did manage to find a kiwi amongst the crowd, who I’ve met a couple of times before (most recently in New Zealand), so I chatted to him for a bit.
Anyway, this is the beautiful room the talks were given in, complete with intricate ceiling paintings…
…and large helpings of marble carvings and chandeliers:
I spent most of Friday at the conference, but Saturday was largely a sightseeing day, with occasional trips back to the conference (which was right in the city centre) for a seminar or two. Right up the street from the conference was the imposing St Stephen’s Cathedral. It was impossible to fit into frame, and although I know very little about architecture, I’d say this thing was Gothic. Creepy.
To add to the scary outer structure, metres below this cathedral you can find catacombs (ie. tunnels, tombs and stacked up bones from victims of the plague). Quite modest when compared with the ones in Paris, but interesting nonetheless.
The weather was beautifully warm during my time in Vienna, which meant there were people everywhere, making it quite frustrating to try to move anywhere quickly. There were also horses and carts to contend with, which added that extra element of danger when crossing roads.
In the mall running past the cathedral were many street performers, and every day I saw the guys pictured below doing some very impressive break dancing:
On the first night in Vienna, what do you think I did for dinner? Sample some famous Wiener Schnitzel? No. Sip on a latte whilst listening to some Mozart? No. I went to Crossfield’s Aussie Pub and had some wedges and a pepsi max. Good times.
The manager took that photo of me when he saw me looking through photos on my camera. As you can see, I had set up camp at this table to plan my very busy Saturday of sightseeing. I also talked to a guy from Sydney who was in town training to be the Aussie sales rep for Philips (I think that’s the company anyway).
On day 2, I woke up early and headed out to Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Hapsburgs (royal family of Austria from the 12-1800s). I got an audio device so I could walk around pressing buttons and getting information in English, but again my lack of knowledge of history meant that much of the commentary went straight over my head. But oh well, the building was fantastic anyway. We weren’t meant to take photos, and I figured that could be for either of two reasons: 1.) camera flashes could fade the furnishings and artwork, or 2.) management wants you to spend money on books and posters in the gift shop. So I turned off my flash to eliminate any risk of fading things, thought “Stuff you management, I’m not paying for books I’ll probably never even read”, and I sneaked a few photos anyway! Hee hee. Here’s one that I took out the window, showing some of the expansive gardens surrounding the palace:
Because of the lack of flash, many of the photos are blurry, but this one’s pretty good, and gives you an idea of the style of all the rooms:
I have to say I enjoyed walking around the gardens more than walking around inside (in part due to the unfriendliness of some of the staff), so I spent quite awhile out in the greenery. Here’s a view of the palace from out the back:
I then climbed up a hill to the structure you saw in my “out the window” photo, and admired the view from the top. A Romanian/American guy saw me setting up my camera to take photos of myself using the timer, and offered to take one for me:
I have many more photos of the grounds, but in the interests of time and space I’ll stop there! After Schönbrunn, I raced back into town to Parliament House so I could make it in time for the 12:00 tour. I was a little early, so I bought a quick coffee before the tour, to get me through till lunch. Now, not only did the guy rip me off 50c, but this is the "large" coffee that I received:
WEAK!! At least it tasted okay. Anyway, back to Parliament:
This building is divided into two major sections, because originally, one half was for the royals, and the other half for the politicians. Most of the building was destroyed during the war and then rebuilt, but the room pictured below avoided destruction, so is still 100% original:
I grabbed some kind of pastry for lunch, then headed over to Karlskirche, another landmark:
The ceiling within dome of this church had some beautiful Vatican-style artwork of angels and other religious figures, and it is currently being restored. Because the work can only be done by masters, it’s very expensive, so to raise money, they have build an elevator inside the church that allows you to go up inside the dome. After riding up in the lift though, you have to climb two enormous staircases, enclosed in scaffolding, which rattle and shake constantly. If you push on through the fear, you eventually get a really close-up view of the paintings. Here’s the view down (and I wasn’t even at the top yet):
Here’s one of the close-ups of the ceiling:
There was a golden area for the priest to stand in:
And here’s one last look up, for good measure *shudder*. Notice the small dome rising up from the centre of the large dome - you can see stairs disappearing up into it:
After a short trip back to the conference, I went to the Prater, which is like a permanent Ekka, quite close to the city centre. I thought this bell ride looked like fun (the people are strapped to the dinger thing in the middle of the bell):
And I found this ridiculous ride – yes, those tiny dots are people, swinging around at high speed. The star from which they were swinging also moved up and down throughout the ride. Interested, Kath? ;)
I really wanted to go on a ride there, but I would have had to leave my bag by itself, and since it contained my passport and credit cards, I had to sacrifice the G-forces for the sake of security :(
At that point, I decided to head over to the Danube Tower, to get a view of the city at sunset:
I hung out at the Tower for an hour or so, to try to get some night shots too, but unfortunately the bus back only went every hour, so I had to leave at 8:15 because I didn’t know how on earth I could kill another hour up there. Families were eyeing off the table that I was hogging in the café too, which also encouraged me to leave.
On Sunday, I had planned to spend a couple of hours in Vienna, before going back to Bratislava so I could have a look around there before my flight in the evening. Unfortunately though, I ended up spending so long walking around looking at things, and also working out how to get back to Slovakia, that I ended up not seeing Bratislava at all. I did, however, see another palace in Vienna. This time, the Hofburg Imperial Palace, home of the Hapsburgs.
The whole area around this palace was full of old buildings and beautiful gardens. Below you can see the Natural History Museum, which Teneile and I spent quite awhile in when we were in Vienna in 2005, because it was so damn cold outside. Quite a different picture this time, with all the flowers and greenery and pretty horses.
I took a tour of the Opera House that morning, which I won’t show photos of, but I will tell you that whilst the most expensive tickets to a show are about €250, it is possible to get tickets for €2.50 if you wait outside an hour or two before the curtain goes up. They’re the Opera House equivalent of standing on the Hill at the old Gabba (but with slightly less beer involved). So if any of you are ever in Vienna and want to see some opera or ballet on the cheap, go for these last-minute standing tickets!
After the Opera House, I went to see Hundertwasser House. This apartment complex was designed by an artist named Friedensreich Hundertwasser (which translates to Hundred Waters), and is a surprisingly colourful find amongst all the white and beige buildings. It is asymmetric and has lots of rounded edges, instead of the usual sharp corners and “flatness”, and I soon learned that this eccentric style is typical of Hundertwasser. And yes, people actually live in there! (click here for a picture of the entire building)
I walked up the road to Kunst Haus Wien - another odd-looking building, which is home to several floors of Hunderwasser’s paintings, graphic artworks, tapestries and models. This place had the highest entry fee out of all the attractions I went to, ($20 all up for entry and audio guide), but it was very, very cool – even for someone who’s not an art enthusiast!
Hundertwasser believed that humans should give back to the environment that we have taken so much from, and was dedicated to integrating nature into his building designs. The floors were wooden or stone, and were like rolling hills, so you really had to pay attention to where you stepped. There were also trees growing out of windows and water-purification systems in several rooms, consisting of water trickling through plant roots and pebbles. The artworks on the walls were very colourful and had touches of silver and gold throughout, so Google it if you get the chance because it is really beautiful stuff! Click here and here for samples of Hundertwasser’s work.
After Kunst Haus Wien, I walked back and forth for awhile between the pier, the bus station and the train station, before finally getting on a bus to Bratislava airport at 5:30pm. It was a long trip, and I dozed a few times on the bus, but the blinding fields of canola kept me awake for the most part. Because the bus didn’t get to the airport until 6:30pm, I didn’t think it would be wise to attempt to get into town and back before my flight at 9:50pm, so I stayed at the airport and chatted to Joseph, an American guy living in the UK who will soon move to Germany to work as a translator (yes, I know lots of information, because the poor guy was stuck with me for three hours). Once I arrived back at Frankfurt Hahn Airport, I ended up talking to some more Americans while I waited for my bus to Mainz, so it was quite a nice, social end to a weekend of travelling around by myself!
