Advertisement
mmmm chickennn
this was an advertising campaign in conjunction with "europavahl" which we still don't get...it's everywhere in europe though so we figure it's something to do with an EU referendum? Still reeling from our overnight train trip from Hanoi to Hue in Vietnam over a month ago, we nervously booked a 12 hour overnight journey from Florence to Vienna. We needn’t have worried at all; the 120 euro we paid per person for this heavenly ride went very far. Comfortable beds, soft doonas and pillows, kiwi fruit and chocolate and a Smirnoff with ginseng to help us go to sleep…then in the morning they converted the sleeping cabin into a comfortable double seater and served us the most satisfying breakfast since our 5 star resort in Phuket…
Vienna was a … very different experience to what we imagined. I guess any city directly after Florence and indeed Italy in general could not compare. We found the city quite unfriendly, both in terms of its people and the city layout. Signage was misleading, there were many homeless and drug addicts on the street asking for money, and lots of intimidating punk gangs with even more intimidating ginormous dogs.
It did, however, have an architecture museum, the Architekturzentrum Wien. This fulfilled my nerdiness for a full morning and I subjected Aaron to it so that he could learn some Austrian and
modernist architectural history. The permanent exhibition was not too mind-boggling and went through a chronological history of the evolution of modern Austrian architecture from the early pioneers of Modernism such as Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, right up to contemporary firms as renowned Coop Himmeblau. We have discovered that in most European major cities there is some form of centre or museum dedicated or at least in part to architecture. Australia lacks a single one and until the public is educated, architects and architecture in Australia will still not be properly understood and acknowledged like the industry is in Europe.
Whilst Vienna (to us) may not have the charm and romance of the Italy that we experienced, it certainly succeeds in cultural awareness. The city has as many museums and galleries and exhibition halls as Lane Cove has 4WDs or Paris Hilton has Prada bags. In other words, hundreds. All dedicated to different interests and different things - art, design, architecture, history, treasures, sex. Yes, we saw an exhibition entitled “The Porn Identity” however its content is not worth dignifying more than a sentence in this blog … There is even a section of the city called the MuseumsQuartier
Wien which is the site for half a dozen or so museums, including one geared towards young children. One can only hope that people may one day visit Australia for it’s cultural identity and not just the “beach bums, sausage rolls and kangaroos” that we often get thrown at us.
Vienna is rich with both beautiful old churches and halls (the Stephansdom, Naturhistoriches Musem and the Secession Building) but it was the contemporary architecture that I was itching to see. I saw my first Zaha Hadid building - a small complex of residential apartments near the University of Vien in the north. I was sorely disappointed - after 2 years, most of the apartments are still for sale, and you can understand why. The cold barren concrete architecture perfectly suits the area in general and therefore is not particularly enticing to those seeking a home unless one wishes to live in such sterile environment. This is also true of some of the ‘mini-cities’ that are hopping up all over the outskirts of Vienna. We visited two of them - Donau City and Gasometer. The former, with buildings by such big names as Hans Hollein and Harry Seidler was terribly
statues in the sun
outside the naturhistoriches museum barren and desolate and perhaps a little too perfectly manicured (although it had a great church which was essentially a black box with holes punctured through the facades which I loved and Aaron hated). Gasometer on the other hand was more fun and frivolous, in terms of colour and building identity, and the abundant retail opportunities certainly made it a more liveable environment for the residential community.
After three days, whilst we enjoyed the experience and the culture, we were glad to say goodbye to this city.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.369s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 14; qc: 54; dbt: 0.307s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
The Roman
non-member comment
The Reichstag is in Berlin, this is the city hall.