When in Wien...

[NOTE: This was supposed to be published a few days ago, but I had three finals in as many days (that's remarkable, at least here in Ireland) so it just sort of sat about in a semi-complete state until this moment now. Anyway, I've been informed that I have a number of new readers. Hi, new readers!)

I do apologize (for the umpteenth time! I just need to learn how to budget writing time properly) for the lag between the Prague blog (Blague?) and this one! When I left you my trusty sidekick Shannon and I were speeding through the sunlit fields of the Czech Republic, headed for Austria, and for all that you, my gentle readers, know, we are there still.

This is not an accurate depiction of reality for I am instead back in Ireland, with a stack of finals for which to study and a number of blog posts that require typing. Therefore I propose an intense schedule of revision (that’s what they call studying round these parts; revision) and concluding the epic tale that was April.

So, I left us sipping complimentary peach tea somewhere between Prague and Vienna, having a lovely time of it and thanking our lucky stars we hadn’t chosen a puddlejumper plane that would have rendered us deaf.

We reached Vienna in the afternoon and disembarked to the nicest weather yet. It had to be approaching eighty degrees Fahrenheit (do not ask me to convert that to Celsius, for I cannot do it) and the entire city smelled of lilacs. Lilacs, lilacs, EVERYWHERE. We met up with our couchsurfing host at the nearby train station and eventually made our way to the city center after depositing our backpacks (which were at this point in the month full to bursting with souvenirs, maps, pamphlets from various attractions, bruised apples, a hardy jar of peanut butter, for easy protein, and all of the winter clothes we had packed but could not bring ourselves to wear).

I didn’t take any pictures from our first walking tour of Vienna because I was too busy eating ice cream and marveling at its graceful lines and the lovely Austrian accents of its occupants. They say that German people can’t take Austrians seriously when they speak, given the accent with which they speak their shared language. Austrians are said to sound “cute” in comparison to Germans, but I would disagree with this generalization. Austrians, I have decided, are the British of the Germanophone (<actual word) world, so they just sound extremely courteous, collected, and a bit posh most of the time when compared to the rather scary stereotype of their brethren to the North West.

Anyway, we took plenty of pictures in the successive days, so I’d like you to sit back, relax, listen to this nice recording of Johann Strauss’s iconic composition, maybe turn a few waltz steps at your computer, and scroll through pictures of Vienna.

Imagine the pervading scent of lilacs.

Some highlights:

The Kunsthistoriches, an unpronounceable word that I ascertain to mean something along the lines of national museum, was about enough to knock my socks off. I almost literally had to go to the nearest shop and avail myself of a new pair because it was breathtaking. Echoing rooms full of Egyptian mummies, sarcophagi, and reconstructed pyramid traps brushed shoulders with Roman sculpture in the first wing we visited. The current exhibit brought to my attention the fact that most of the famous glowing-white statues of gods, emperors, and generals that we usually associate with the Roman tradition were at one time painted. I hadn’t at all realized that until I spent at least two hours gazing about me at the reconstructed statue molds painted in what archeologists conclude to be their original colors. You learn something new, as I’ve found, every day.

The floor up took us to the second most impressive national gallery I’ve seen this semester, only eclipsed by that in London (because you literally cannot beat Gainsborough, even with every Velasquez portrait you might want to throw at ‘im). The best part about this gallery was the ubiquitous nature of the Habsburgs. If you are not familiar with this exceedingly strange dynasty, I will put you in better hands than mine to do some reading. If you are fine with my slipshod coverage of the topic, however, I will mention that this line of inbred royals somehow managed to have fingers in every pie in Europe, as well as some as far-flung as Mexico, while still managing to produce an awkward number of candidates unfit for the throne, largely because they all married each other for generations.

Anyway, they all had majestic lantern-like jaws and hemophilia and great clothes.

The third part of the museum according to our visit was the Kunstkammer, or treasure room, a vast and varied collection of the world’s treasures collected by various Austrian rulers. This one belonged to Emperor Charles V, and included such diverse marvels as no fewer than five bezoars, a whole fleet of golden, ivory, and bejeweled automatons in the form of ships, people, armies, etc etc, and some of the most exquisite statues ever wrought by human hands. Basically, everything in this collection is there because it is fascinating, rare, priceless, unique, or stunningly beautiful. It was, to say the least, a nice place to spend an afternoon.

 

There was also an extremely classy museum cafe, where we had lunch

And the ivory ships with ivory sails that go gliding across the table, while tiny ivory sea captains raise their ivory swords to tiny ivory salvos of tiny ivory guns, all while nautical music plays, was almost too much for me to handle. Ivory. Sails.

All the wonders of the Kunsthistoriches could not even begin to match the amazing splendor of Schonbrunn, the giant palace complex to the West of Vienna’s downtown. I ended up going there on three separate occasions just to soak up the sun and nature and the poorly-sung but enthusiastic renditions of

classic ballads by amateur arts students on the Gloriette lawn. We never made it into the palace, as that would have been expensive. Rather, we spent hours upon hours wandering the grounds of the gardens, zoo, and forest park, having a grand old time of it. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Another highlight was Stephensdom cathedral, the national church building for all of Austria. It’s situated directly downtown and I made a 6 AM trip down that way on the Sunday morning we were in Vienna for early mass. I had the entire metro and city to myself for a few hours and it was incredibly humbling. The streets we’d been cruising around for the past few days with our awesome couchsurfing hosts were completely vacant; the crowds of people were nowhere to be found and it was so quiet that I could feel the ticking of the clock in the steeple rising up from the ground. When it struck the hour the bells echoed off the vacant avenues and buildings and almost shattered my eardrums, but in the best possible way.

(another note about early-morning Vienna: it is amazingly clean. Compared to the messier cities of my acquaintance, such as Marseille with its rats and Naples with its utter lack of solid waste disposal infrastructure, Vienna is spotless. After speaking with one of my Austrian friends it has come to my attention that this only happens in the summer, when people aren’t spending all their time indoors to avoid the gray and the rain, but it was a lovely effect nonetheless.)

We spent much time exploring the modern art installations and boat docks down by the beautiful blue Danube, which was a pleasant golden color thanks to spring runoff at this time of year. While it’s not half so commercialized as the Seine or the Thames or the Liffey we couldn’t get an affordable boat tour of the city, but walking along its banks, peoplewatching and boatwatching, was just as nice.

One thing that Vienna does very well is street markets. Are street markets? In either case, our awesome hosts took us to a number of amazing street fairs such as the naschmarkt and one sensational costume sale at the Volkstheater, where we got to try out some fabulous thespian coats and dresses. These typically had delicious food and cute little patio dining establishments, and I ate more than my fair share of apple strudel.

I’ll leave off speaking of Vienna and run along to my last final of this exam period (five down, two to go!), but wrap up by saying that we could not have arrived in Vienna at a better time. It was the first warm weekend the city had experienced in 2013, and the whole region seemed to be in the grip of a holiday mood. Everyone wanted to be outdoors, soaking up the sun in some of the awesome free hammocks scattered throughout Vienna’s many parks or simply strolling the streets. It was wonderful getting to be swept up in the music and laughter and dancing and delicious, delicious food with happy, warm people in a gorgeous city, and I cannot think of a better way to wrap up the Eurotrip proper.

After a blissful and relaxing few days I flew out (using only the metro and train system to get to the airport; Vienna’s public transport gets six out of five stars. It was perfect, probably the easiest to use and least shifty of all of the metros I have so far experienced) for Dublin’s fair city once more.

Until such a time as I can tell you about that,

I remain ever your humble servant