Vienna

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I feel like, for my trip to Vienna, a different type of blog entry is in order. My time in Vienna was more of a continual wandering and observations rather than a particular story and most of what I have to say on the city is more in terms of the general effect of my experience there rather than the specific story of everywhere that I went and how. This is partly due to the fact that Vienna is an extremely expensive city and that to do just about anything requires quite a bit more money than I was willing to or able to spend. Consequently, I spent most of my time just wandering around the city. It is actually quite a wonderful city for doing so however.

Vienna is just amazingly beautiful. During the days that I was there, I spent the majority of my time simply walking around various sections of the town, simply enjoying its grace and elegance and just being there. It has a very noble elegance to it. Almost all of the buildings seem to be large monument-type structures to whichever prince or ruler commissioned, and even the "normal" buildings were made in a quiet echo of this style, not so loud as to out-do the rulers, but so as to be appropriate to the royal surroundings. These buildings, though spectacular and grand, are very tastefully done. There is a great feeling of quiet elegance to the whole city. Narrow streets open up into large squares or gardens with a fountain or monument in the middle. It is wonderful to just walk around.

Walking around Vienna was really fascinating. There are so many little things that you just stumble upon! I walked into an old music shop in one little alleyway to find the most amazing store ever! It looked like something out of Harry Potter, with old books and papers and instruments scattered everywhere, and a little old man hoverring around in the back. I could not believe that this was a real store and not something from a book! I wonder what its history was and why it was such a mess and who the old man was. It was fascinating.

I also stumbled upon some old Roman ruins that were uncovered in building a new apartment building. Apparently this is a constant problem for Vienna, which has random artifacts being displayed in the subways, near where they were found. In this case, the basement of teh apartment building was turned into a museum, which also had lots of interesting information about the history of Vienna when it was used as a Roman fort.

There are a few buildings of special significance. The most important probably is the Stephansdom (St. Stephan's Cathedral) which is located right in the very heart of Vienna. It is a gorgeous old church, originally built as a small chapel in 1147 and enlarged over the centuries to its present magnificent cathedral praportions. It was not as spectacular or large inside as the cathedral in Prague that I visited, but it the most amazing catacombs that I have seen in a cathedral! I took a tour which started off in the section where the priesets and bishops were buried. This is fairly common practice in Europe. Next we went to the room where the internal organs of the Habsburgs are kept in jars. The Habsburg bodies were buried Kapuzinerkirche (in Vienna), while their hearts kept in pots like these somewhere in Augustienerkirche (also in Vienna) the remaining internal organs kept here in Stephansdom, which is kind of weird if you ask me. The craziest part of the catacombs however, was the later addition made in the 18th century. At that time an outbreak of bubonic plague (one of the last that Europe was to see), forced the closing of the surrounding graveyards. The bones were then moved to a new addition to the catacombs in Stephansdom. This was probably one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. This part of teh catacombs, unlike the first half, was dark and old and damp and moist, like something from a fantasy book or like what one might imagine some of the parts of Moria to look like. There were little grilled windows and doors that allowed you to see into the rooms where the bones had been moved. There were huge rooms, like the 20 feet square and 10 feet tall that were just filled with bones! The tour guide said that we were only seeing the latest of these additions and that behind them, or in some cases under them, there were further rooms just like them! It was really creepy.

Vienna also has two palaces of particular importance, the Belvedere and the Schoenbrunn palace. Both were important palaces of the Habsburgs and it was quite nice to just walk around the gardens around them and admire all the fountains and trees and whatnot there. When I visited Schoenbrunn, it was snowing and really quite peaceful.

The other big architectural part of Vienna (which actually was the original inspiration for me to come to Vienna!) was the Hundertwasserhaus. It is just an apartment building, but one of the most fascinating and unique apartment buildings in the world! It was built by the Austiran architect Hundertwasser (never would have guessed that one) in the 80s in a very unique modern style. There are almost no straight lines but lots of primary colors and trees growing out of walls and colorful tiles and big golden onion domes on top. It looks like the physical rerpresentation of a first-graders drawing, but yet is quite amazing! While I was there, I found a reference to another Hundertwasser building in Vienna, which I visited next. It is actually a waste-processing facility/incinerator, but is built in typical Hundertwasser fashion and you would never guess its real purpose if you just saw it! The main smokestack has a huge golden sphere in the middle which appears to have a double purpose as an observation tower or restaurant. It also is probably one of the only industrial-plants in the world to have a garden growing on the roof!

The city of Vienna was really nice, but almost as cool for me was the hostel where I stayed, or more specifically, the people there. It was a really chill hostel that really lended well to meeting and getting to know the other people staying there. It was one of the most diverse groups of people that I have ever met. I think I met at least someone there from every continent except Africa. I really enjoyed the evenings, just talking with the other travelers, getting to know them and seeing their different perspectives on travelling, the world, Vienna, etc. I particularly got to be friends with a German man who had lost his passport in Budapest and was trying to sort things out with the embassies in Vienna to get a new one. I felt bad for him because he could barely speak English (which is the official language of most hostels and this one was no exception) and was stuck in Vienna for two weeks (though there are definitely worse places in the world to be stuck!) He was a fascinating guy though. He had moved to Germany 15 years ago from Romania (the transylvania region to be specific - this is like the third person from transylvania that I have met here in Europe, how crazy. No vampires though but I am glad that I am carrying around garlic with me and a steak, though after three months, the steak is beginning to stink a little). We had a lot of really interesting talks and I am going to try to keep up with him when I get back home.

I really enjoyed my Vienna trip. It was a rather unique trip for me. I found it to be very refreshing and relaxing and although I find it a little difficult to relate a specific story about it, I really enjoyed seeing it and exploring it.

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