loong weekend in Vienna!!

VIENNA - WIEN

Friday June 8, 2007

Bright and early Friday morning, I woke up at 4:45am to make sure that I give myself enough time to walk over to the hauptbahnhof in Klagenfurt to catch my 3 and a bit-hour train ride to Vienna.

At 9:45am I arrived at Sudbahnhof of Wien. I was to meet Jordan as close to 10am as possible at Wombat the Lounge to try to secure myself a bed for Friday night. However, being not very good at printing the map and still sleepy, I managed to climb onto tram 18, only in the wrong direction. By the time the tram looped around, and that I found Westbahnhof and Mariahilfe Strasse on which (To the left of Westbahnhof, is the instruction that I got, extremely VAGUE), I found Jordan waiting for me at the lobby of Wombat the Lounge. He had great news for me and that the lady at the desk was able to secure me a bed in a mixed dorm for the evening. The cost was 21 euro for the night. I wasn’t able to check in until 2pm so I decided to carry my backpack with me for the day (bad move).

I was introduced to Jordan’s friend, Jonah, who finished fire fighting school and was Jordan’s travel buddy. They also met a bunch of people, Katie from UTM, Kristy from York, Katy and Jerry from L.A. who just graduated from U of Michigan with their M.B.As, oh and this guy named Nick from Guelph who is working in France. So the whole group of us wandered onto the street of Vienna, down Mariahilfe strasse towards the city center where all the attractions are. The walk was quite long and it took about 20-25 minutes. This was the street that Sherlie has recommended as a very good shopping spots. You can see a lot of international brand names and places with discounts on it.

We finally arrived on the openring strasse where we were stopped by salesman dressed in traditional Mozart/Victorian clothing (forgot what they are called) and trying to sell us tickets to the concerts in Vienna at night. We had all really wanted to see an opera at the States Opera House and Otello was actually playing that night. However, we couldn’t do it because the prices are too high and that they usually always sell out. Instead, Jordan, Jonah and I decided to watch the Mozart concert at the Concert Hall for 39 euros a person that night. I mean, it’s Vienna!

After deciding on an evening plan, we walked over to the Mozart garden *need to find out the name* where there is a Mozart Statue and a very beautiful treble clef formed by flowers on the grass. We then walked over to the Hofburg palace, passed by the butterfly museum and towards the States Opera House. On our way to the Opera house, the group stopped by a ticket office and the Katie and them decided to buy tickets to La Traviata, which according to Jordan is a very famous Opera, that is being played at the Volksopera on Saturday night. The standing tickets are 15 euros and nosebleed seats were 19 euros. At that point I wasn’t sure if Jasper is interested in it, so I didn’t want to make a commitment for him.

We continued on to our journey and grabbed a kebab (Turkish food in pita like bread, kinda greasy but filling and yummy for 3 euros) prior to entering the haus di musik. Again the group split up because they wanted to visit the Museum of Arts. Jordan Jonah and I visited the Haus di musik for 7 euros each and climbed the 4 stories building. There was a floor dedicated to the Vienna Philharmonic, in which there is a simulation for the game of dice in music for composing the Waltz. The next floor explored the theory of sound and went into some really really nerdy physics terms like Fourier analysis, sine waves, *shudders*. It was also complemented by some high tech computer demonstrations and explanations. The next floor housed the information of some really famous composers in chronological order. Began with Hadyn, to Mozart, to Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, and then Mahler, an audio guide helped with the understanding of the displays. Highlights included, the painting of the Mozart family was authentic, Schubert’s actual glasses were on display, and there were footsteps to the waltz that you can follow to learn how to dance it.

After the tour at the House of Music, we rested at the giant fountain in karlzplatz and then went home to take a shower and get ready for the night. We met up with the rest of the group and went to a restaurant called Mozarts Tube where Schnitzels were on special for 5 euros, served with Fries or salad. I had a Spiegel beer with my turkey Schnitzels and it was very yummy. Then we headed out to the music theatre by taking the U-bahn (subway) – we got lost, because we lost the map.. and ended up showing up at the office of the Mozart orchestra as supposed to the location they were to perform at. We ended up being about half an hour late to the concert but was still able to catch a lot of it. I have some videos from the concert of night music and some really famous piece. It was a very enjoyable concert indeed.

The concert ended approximately at 10:30pm. We strolled over to St Charles Church and took some pictures in front of it. It was really pretty with the lights at night and the tranquility of the undisturbed pond/fountain thing in front of it added to its peacefulness. Taking the U-bahn again, we went to pratern (spell the rest of it) where we located the Giant Ferris Wheel (Reisenrad) and a bunch of carnival rides that came with it. Jordan and I finally located gelato places and was very satisfied before our Ferris wheel ride. It cost about 7 euro a person to get on a 10 minute Ferris wheel ride, but it was the experience that really mattered. We got our pictures taken but decided against buying any as one cost over 10 euros. The skyline of Vienna at night wasn’t that exciting as it was not lit enough. However, it was still very pretty and the ride was really enjoyable. (That was my first time on a real Ferris wheel, at least from what I remember). I think it is less nice during the day but you’ll definitely be able to take better pictures than the ones I took.

We took the tram back to see more of the city and noticed that the streets are really tight at times, that if you park not close enough to the curb, you will very likely lose your side mirrors by passing trams. We hung out at the lounge until 2 ish until we finally decided we need to go to bed.

Saturday June 9

The dormitory style, 6 bed sleepers at Wombat the lounge was not bad at all. I was lucky that none of the guys in the room snored and I was able to sleep quite well. There was a fan for the room and not a lot of noise outside as we faced an alleyway. I was able to get up at 8:30ish, packed, checked out and when I didn’t see signs of Jordan at 9:10am, I left to go to Sudbahnhof to pick Jasper up.

Jasper and I took the tram back to Wombat to store his luggage and ate breakfast to wait for Jordan and Jonah to show up. Apparently the 3.50 euro per person all you can eat breakfast deal at wombat was really good according to Jasper. We had two types of meat, unlimited bread, orange juice, veggies, and of course the Wien melange (Viennese cappuccino) that I was told to try. So jasper and I tried it out, it taste a bit like French vanilla, but is a much lighter coffee. We took a mental note to try the ones near the palace to see if this was because it was “hostel style”. Jordan and Jonah finally showed face at about 11, and it was because there were 2 girls in their room that disturbed their sleep this morning, causing the delay. Jasper and I headed over to our other hostel (insert name here) and tried to check in. We weren’t able to until 2pm, so we took a locker with a 10 euro deposit and stuffed our stuff in there.

By taking the subway/tram 6, we headed towards the central cemetery of Austria where 25000 Austrians are buried. Jordan really wanted to see the graves of the famous composers and Jasper was ok to do that, he kept saying he’s into music… In about a 20 minute tram ride, we arrived at the Zentralfriedhof. We were able to locate Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, and Braham. Apparenlty Mozart was really poor about the time of his death and could not afford to be buried in this cemetery. We then took tram 71 to head to St. Marx Friedhof to look for Mozart. After a bit of navigation, we were able to find it and it was definitely much more humble than the rest.

Since Jordan and Jonah had to catch a flight to Israel, we went back to the hostel and said our goodbyes, and Jasper and I set off to look for tickets to La Traviata. First we headed to St Stephan’s church. Stephan’spltaz. It was awespiring and its roof is beautiful as it glistens in the sun. We went in briefly and there were a lot of street performers (and ticket sellers for concerts) just outside in the pedestrian area.

We managed to find the box office for opera tickets, and they were charging us 24 euros for the 19 euro tickets. Apparently there is a handling fee, so Jasper and I decided to just get our tickets at the door, at least it’ll be 19 euros, and if we don’t’ get the tickets we’ll just find something else to do. Boiling in the Viennese Sun, we continued to walk in the attempt to find the other ticket office that the group found the day before. Using my broken memory, we were finally able to trace the path but only to find that the office has closed. We walked around the Hofburg palace and found in a quad area (amongst Spanish riding school, heligengist platz, and the Kaiserhaus and sisi museum) the Hofburg Café. Our feet were tired so we sat down under the umbrella to order a Wien Melange and a desert with yummy strawberries in it. It was so relaxing.

After our tummy was satisfied, we located the Hofburgkappelle where the Vienna Boys Choir are to sing on Sunday. Apparently it is also right on top of the Schatzkammer, where the royal jewellery were stored. We decided against seeing jewellery since Jasper said that I’ll see better ones elsewhere. We walked out into the front of the Hofburg palace (which we missed yesterday) and took more pictures of the magnificence of this palace. It was so grand and the amount of details were breathtaking. Horse carriages, also reminded us of the amount of history that this building represent. We walked through a few more buildings and finally took the U towards Neubaugasse and shopped along Mariahilfe Strasse to find something for Jasper’s sisters.

After showering and checking into our room at the Hostel, Jasper and I set off to locate the Volkstheater on U6. We got to the opera house at about 6:15pm and noticed that there were two lines. Apparently, this theatre sells their leftover tickets (from the best seats onward) to students for a student price. Jasper and I ended up getting student tickets for 8 euro each at a 50-75 euro range tickets. We were on the third floor in stage right’s First Box seats. That is just amazing that we got the experience to be in a Box seat ( it would’ve been better if we didn’t have that weird senior lady looming in the third seat in the box.) We bought the synopsis of La Traviata for 2.40 euro (the ppl pointed to the Japanese page, and I told them I only need English). The synopsis was not very detailed but we got the gist of the story. We managed to find an asian buffet restaurant and convinced them to give us one plate of food (which we piled lots on) because there was no time for 4 euros. The duck was amazing.. even better than Toronto ducks. We managed to inhale our food quickly and then ran back in time for the show to begin.

The music was really good and I was really entertained by just watching the orchestra directly below our seats. It was a bit hard to see stage right but it’s still nonetheless a great experience. The way this opera was performed was very simple. The main character violetta had like one costume throughout the whole thing (a PJ like thing) and the main colours were white, black and red. The stage was simple with not a lot of scenic background. They sang in Italian and the subtitles were in German. It was still very exciting to guess at what was going on and just see the meanings and emotion that the singers were trying to convey through their body gestures and voices.

After the performance, we took the U towards the Donau, got out and looked around. We found a bunch of cafes and beer places along the Donau where people just lounged around. It was such a nice environment. We walked down the main street towards Karlplatz again, and there was a huge gelato store, at which we could not resist and bought a ferrero crème flavour one and also a mango one. They were so good and the mango was soo rich *yummy*. Jasper found on one of the Vienna guide a Chinese Ramien restaurant. Since we were both craving Chinese food (well for me it’s been a week, but I know it’ll be longer, for him it’s been 3 weeks, but in 2 days he’ll get cheap Toronto food again) We walked to the place and the kitchen was closed. The place next door was too pricey – wonton soup was 6 euros…. :\.

So we decided to go back to Mozart tube for cheap schnitzels and I can get the Knodels to try the dumplings. They sold out of Knodels so I ended up just getting another serving of Schnitzels. We drank some warm (which we asked the lady to stick back in the fridge for us) red wine and lots of tap water. It was a good meal and by the time we finished eating, we decided it was time for bed so that we won’t miss the boys choir tomorrow.

Sunday June 10

The sheets at this hostel was very nice, the only problem was that it was off a main street and the people outside (who likely lived in the hostel wont’ shut up). There was quite a bit of noise, and I didn’t want to climb down the bunk bed and wake jasper up (who was in the bottom bunk) or fall and hurt myself just to get ear plugs. So I had to listen to my ipod and block the noises out. I think I ended up sleeping at about 3 ish and woke up at about 6 freaking out that I had forgotten to turn my alarm on on the cell phone. We did manage to get out of the hostel by 7 and ran towards the U to get to the Hofburg by 8. By the time we got there, we were the 3^rd or 4^th in line for standing seats. There was a lady who was trying to sell us tickets for 8 euros to sit and the prices go up from there to about 40 euros. We were smart to have arrived early, as there was a huge line near 9 (the mass is at 9:15am). They only let a certain number of people to go in and it was a good thing that wombat’s map told us to be there early. Jasper and I got the front standing “seats” right behind the people who paid over 30 euros to sit just in front of us facing the front of the church. The mass began and all we saw were the faces of the priests since the Vienna boys were a few floors above us. They sang intermittently in between readings of the bible. It was beautiful. At the end of the mass, they came down to the front to sang one last number. It was totally worth our time to have sacrificed our sleep. I have a video of it, and you can see/hear it here. It was about 10:30am when we got out of the chapel. So we decided to head back to the Chinese restaurant to see if we could get soupy noodle or pho. The restaurant was supposed to open at 11 but the kitchen wouldn’t open until 11:30am. Jasper and I were too hungry to wait so we went across the street and found this really nice place that served sandwiches. We were sitting in leather couches and they were playing music and had nice books. It was a good atmosphere.

After brunch, we hopped on the U to head to Schonbrunn palace. This is the summer residence of the Hofburg family (although it was a 15 minute train ride from their normal residence). It was massive, and we paid 15 euros each to get the grand tour pass which included admission to the full tour with an audio guide, visit to the privy garden (supposedly romantic panaromic veiny garden thing) with lemon trees, visit to the maze and labyrinth and the café at the Gloriette (check spelling) and finally the apple strudel show. The palace was beautiful but it wasn’t actually that old. It was built by a famous empress Maria Theresa (who had 21 children and the youngest daughter was Marie Antoinette) and it was destroyed. It was rebuilt with the Ricocco style and everything was gold plated and there was quite a bit of Japanese and Chinese tapestries on the walls. We walked through the privy garden and went to see the apple strudel show. They gave us a recipe and it doesn’t seem that hard to make. We walked over to the maze and labyrinth, and Jasper said it was the first he’s found on his trip and was super excited about it. We tried to walk through it and got stuck a few times. Then we tried to keep our right hand on the wall and continued to walk and finally found our way to the platform. It was quite a fun experience, I think we were stuck in there for at least 15 minute. The sky dimmed down so we had a break from the intense heat ( there is about a 2 degree difference from the sun and the shades, you can actually feel it). It then started to lighting and thunder and we decided it was time to head back to the hostel and head off to catch our trains.

Jasper was catching an overnight train to Munich then to Paris to fly back to Toronto. And my train’s end destination is Villach, so I actually had to pay attention when going back as supposed to sleep like there’s no tomorrow. I caught the 5pm train and got to Klagenfurt just after 9pm.

Even though I was dead tired, it was still a great trip because I got to travel with Jordan and Jasper. There were a lot of spontaneous decisions but we somehow manage to pack my three days at Vienna, completed with a concert, opera and a choir performance. I also got to know Vienna as a city quite well and use their more-complicated-than-TTC-subway system quite well. Vienna is a city full of history and music inspirations and I’m very glad that I was able to meet up with my friends and spend time with them on this side of the world.