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Vienna is huge. Not really talking about the size of the city per se, but all of the buildings, gardens, ec are ginormous here. Major change from my recent plces in Italy. Either way expect a lot of text and pics 😉
I decided I could only afford one full day here in Vienna in order to get to Zurich in time on the 6th to meet up with Brent. Ergo I chose a few major destinations and set out at 8AM. I lucked out, as today is Sunday so the Vienna Boy's Choir was performing, which made me happy cuz I really wanted to see them. And they perform in the Hofburg, which I would go to anyways, so bonus.
Well, it seems very few people actually go to "see" the Boy's choir, as they hide the whole choir at the top of a set of balconies that re not visible from anywhere in the church unless you're at the altar (ie if you're the preacher). Brilliant. And the room is so packed that even if you could see up there it would be very difficult. Some people paid 29euro to sit in chairs with the exact same
view that us standers got for free. I did, however, get to hear the choir quite well, and it was of course amazing. I was surprised to see how often they had different boys do solos during the songs, and quite a few times I was additionally amazed by the boy's vocal control. I couldn't imagine having developed something to that point by that age (10? something like that?). Do they go on to sing for a living? What happens if puberty gives them a voice like Krusty or Homsar or something? Guess it's just another child star story... anyways, after I finally gave up on seeing the kids about an hour through, I saw they had a live feed just outside the church doors that showed what you were hearing like 20 feet away (it was a strangely small church)-- figures. Worst. Design. Ever.
Continuing through the Hofburg complex (which, like all of Vienna, is HUGE by the way), I decided to hit the royal treasury. I know I said I was tired of museums, and believe me I AM, but I figured this was different enough from what I'd done this far that I'd appreciate it. And
I was right. Thesheer mount of raw material value held in those rooms is mind-blowing (yay got to use that word), let alone whatever pricelessness they get from history and whatnot. In a lot of cases, they seemed to have just thrown millions of dollars worth of gems haphadarzly on crown/cross/scepter/whatever just because they could. nd that's probably not too unbelievable. This is where I really because a big fan of the camera's auto-ISO setting, which while often grainy allows me to take pics I could never take without a tripod otherwise. Thanks again for letting me use the camera, Mon n' Dad 😊
The next museum I hit in the Hofburg was the arms and armaments and musical instruments museums, which might have been my favortie part of the day. Silas would love it in the armaments museum. Everything looks like it was made yesterday (since the metal is easier to maintain than paintings and such, I guess), and the variety and volume of thing in the museum is awesome. And the audio tour provided for this and the musical instruments sections was actually useful (even had piece samples for the instruments). The armaments section of course had
a lot of classic examples, but it also had many strange or outlandish examples that even Silas probbly hasn't seen before. I learned something there and my previous experience in that area is not slight. I especially liked the experimental pieces which seemed completely useless but completely fascinating.
The musical museum was also great, as it showcased many, many instruments I had never heard of, likely because very few were made, likely because they sucked-- but that doesn't stop them from being interesting 😊 This added to the fact that many had little snippets of audio showing how they sound when played made it a lot of fun. Just look at the pics to see what I mean. Audio is in my videos, which I've given up on uploading to this website. I'm trying to upload them to youtube instead, and I'll be sure to let you if that pans out (so far one try with a 200MB .mov file just says "failed"... great).
I also decided to hit butterfly house for a bit just for a fun break. It ws nice, but nowhere NEAR the ones I saw with my Aunts when I was younger, so
it was a bit disappointing. Was fun to watch the kids enjoying it though. One little girl kept saying "I'm not scared" in English as she tried to get one on her hands, and then always freaked out when the thing actually climbed on.
I then randomly walked around for a bit (which after Venice I've decided is a requirement in every city from now on), but it's a lot harder in vienna than in my previous visited cities. I did see a nice park and garden dedicated to Mozart though (people here are of course big BIG fans of the guy). I ate some nice Viennese food (cheap compared to Italy too, lthough drinks are still unreasonable), perused the Museum Quarter and decided not to go in, and then headed over to Schönbrunn palace.
The subway is great in Vienna.
Okay, the Schönbrunn is, again, HUGE. Austria has a complex. What did strike me though is how not-ornate the palace really was, considering. Just white-and-gold or yellow walls and paintings. I did the "Grand" tour, which wasn't a tour at all since they handed me a brochure and let me walk around (fine with me really).
The only really impressive rooms (and the only really ornate ones) are the ones with Chinese laquer or Indian tilework, which was apparently really in style at the time those rooms were built. The "Millions room" and laquered mourning rooms were my favorite. You don't get to see any because the kaisserapartments were aggressivley "no pho to" (or to be fair, "no picture" since apparently everyone in Austria speaks great English).
I then wandered the garden, which would take more than a full day to really finish. Took an hour nap in a nicely shaded grove (becoming a pleasant habit of mine), and then headed to the hedge mazes, whih is something I had always wanted to do. These weren't all that large, following the simple "keep your right hand alwys on the wal" trick worked with 5 minutes for one and 12 for the other, but they were still fun. The first had a few games hidden in the maze and the second had a sort of zen/astronomy hint/hunt theme that could have been more interesting had I not been cheating with the hand thing. Each also had an observation point in the center which was a nice
reward.
It was about at this point that an ominous thunder/dark cloud thing started rolling in. I should have taken more notice. More on this later...
I marched up to the Gloriette, which is a silly monument put on this hill that has a great view of the city. The monument ws silly, the view was worth it. Drip-drip of slight rain and I headed back to the subway to return to my hostel. I decided to stop in a supermarket in the station a couple blocks from my hostel-- something I've been wanting to do but haven't managed in any towns yet. Got some chocolates, soft drink (at a way better price than anywhere else) and such. During this time it started raining INCREDIBLY hard. Torrential DOWNpour, I tell YOU. It even hailed. A lot of people camped at the station. I stayed there for an hour or so before giving up on it clearing up and heading back through the rain. And here I am.
Tomorrow I'll be heading to Hallstatt. I couldn't manage to fin any online bookings there, so for the first time I'm heading out without a place to stay. I'm hoping
I can arrange a booking with the tourist office once I get there, since that's what all the people who've gone there before seem to suggest on the message boards and such. Wish me luck.
I also want to say thanks to everyone for reading this blog. It's a lot of work to maintain (about 2 hours today) but, as I hope you can tell, I really enjoy it. And your comments/messages mean a lot 😊
Later!
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