Austria - Vienna

---

8-3-07
We got up and had a quick breakfast and was out the door. Anita was going the same direction as I was so I followed her on the subway. I needed to get to the hostel I was going to stay at the next two nights. I made it to my hostel around 10 am. This hostel was called the palace hostel as there was a big palace right beside it. It had a great view of Vienna and the people there seemed pretty nice. I met my roomates and they seemed cool too. Two Korean guys and a Japanese guy. I was surprised to see a Japanese guy traveling by himself as that is uncommon. The Korean guys were students in England learning English. I enjoyed talking to them.

I left and headed down town. Anita was meeting another person from Hawaii at 2pm and I decided to join them as Anita had offered for me to go along with them. I got to the Opera, the meeting point given by Anita, at about 1:30 and got some lunch while waiting for them to arrive. I got concerned when at 2 Anita was not there. I saw a lady with dark skin that I thought might be a very tanned Hawaiian and who appeared to be waiting on someone. I asked if she was from Hawaii and she indicated she was, but her English was very poor. I tried to communicate a little, but it was difficult. Anita showed up and said hi. I told her I just met the Hawaiian lady and Anita asked her a question. Another lady then showed up and the really tanned lady we were talking to left with the new lady. I was confused and then everyone realized at about the same time that this lady was not the one we were supposed to meet. Anita said that lady did not look anything like the lady in the picture and we laughed a little about the situation. The real Hawaiian arrived and her name is Sky.

From there we walked to the tram and went to this building which was Gaudy like, the crazy architect in Barcelona. We took a few photos and went to this garbage incinerator where garbage is burned and the energy is used to produce electricity or some other usable form of energy. I asked Anita a few questions about how it worked and she really did not know the specifics. I requested that I take a picture of Anita and Sky, two trashy women as I explained to them, in front of this trash incinerator and they gave me their trashiest pose and we took the pictures. They were good sports about it and I thought the pictures turned out nice. I let them take a couple pictures of me as well. One picture I particularly liked where my shoe is the only thing in the picture with the trash incinerator in the background. We had fun with the pictures. We also walked to a church with palm trees in front of it, but I forget it's name. Anita invited me to her place for supper as she had two Italian guys coming to stay with her. Sky was coming as well. I said I would, but was going to try and find a phone and would be there later. After finding a phone shop I did find a place that would sell me a phone card. With this card however I would have only 5€ worth of time, but that would allow me to send about 20 sms's which is all I would need. While in the store I heard them play a Bruce Springsteen song. I always enjoy it when that happens.

Man I am in southern Germany and we are approaching the Alps again. They are absolutely beautfiul.

Back in Vienna I went to Stephens Platz and took a few photos then jumped on the Subway retracing the directions Anita had given me the previous day. It was quite easy now having done this once already. Man I have so many trips where I only take the direction one time. I guess that has a little to do with the fact that I always feel lost.

At her place the two Italian guys were there as well as Sky. The Italians were talkative as are most Italians. I was kidding Anita for making pasta when Italians are there, because you know they know the correct way to make pasta so she is really going out on a limb. Anita is the type that really does not care what people think. That is a good quality of hers. I really enjoyed Anita as she is a very straight shooter. The Italians were making fun of the size of my feet so we took our shoes off and compared feet and took a picture of the feet. It was quite funny and ever one got a laugh out of my big feet. I didn't mind, I got a kick out of how small the Italian's feet were. After eating we headed out to the film festival. In Vienna they play classical music on this big screen in front of the City Hall, which is an amazing building itself.

Once at the City Hall we realized the show did not start for around another 45 minutes so Anita suggested we walk around. I would have preferred to have a beer and relaxed, but when we walked past some of the cool stuff I was amazed by what a cool City Vienna is. I had given Helsinki a ho hum review and some of the other Scandinavian City's were just ok in my mind but now, I was in a Major League City. I think it would be as good as Paris if they only had an eiffel tower. I had not seen the Vienna musuems however, so I am not sure what they are like. I love Vienna's buildings and statues. Everything is so well kept up and exudes class. I am a big fan. We walked to Michaeler Platz to Helden Platz to the Maria-Theresin Platz and then took train back to the Rathaus Platz or the City Hall. The cartoon had already started. That's right they were playing a cartoon, but with Orchestra music in the background. There were no words just music. It was quite good actually and I was surprised they showed the wolf eat a duck. It seemed a little harsh to me. I had bought a couple beers during my Anita tour earlier in the day for the nights pasta dinner and we brought the remaining beers along and drank those during the movie. After the movie, which lasted about 30 minutes there was an actual orchestra. We did not hang around for that as Sky and I were both tired. I said goodbye and headed out.

I jumped on the subway and headed for the hostel. At the end of the subway you had to take a bus, but the bus I needed was not going to be there for another 30 minutes. I did not want to wait, so I jumped on the next bus as it was going partially up the hill where I needed to go. I had told the driver where I was wanting to go and he told me this bus doesn't go there. I told him I know and that I was going to walk the rest of the way. When I got off the bus a lady that had gotten off to and had overheard the conversation said you have to go up that street. I told her yes that was the way I was headed. The Palace Hostel as I wrote earlier has a great view as it is on top the hill as it has a great view of Vienna. The hostel was a lot farther than I had expected. I had walked about a 1/2 mile up this hill and the road stopped so I had to turn right. I could see the Palace lit up on top of the hill so I knew where I was going I just did not know how to do this in the dark while staying on paved roads. After walking a long ways I decided to walk up these steps, which seemed to be a more direct route even though I had no idea where these steps led. I walked down a dark sidewalk that was overgrown in weeds. I told myself ok this is where my travels ends as someone is going to kill me . This was a little crazy I admit. As I walked a little farther I could see the Palace through the woods so I just decided to walk through this forest at midnight, and your right there are no street lights in the forest. I popped out of the woods waiting for the Palace dobermans to attack me or someone to put a bullet in my head and surprisingly neither happened. I was relieved to get back to the hostel. That walk took me about 45 minutes. It was much farther than I thought.

In my room the Japanese guy was trying to sleep and the Koreans were still up. We talked for a little while . They are very nice and I hope to stay in touch with them. It would be great to have a contact in lots of different regions of the world. Well it was about 12:30 and time to hit the hay. I was tired.

Good night from the Palace Hostel in Vienna,Austria. A very beautiful city!


8-4-07
This was my last day in Vienna and for the first time in a long time I felt a little sad leaving this place. This is an amazing place and I liked my hostel as well. All young, fit people who did not snore and very courteous Asian people. To me the best hostel situation is staying with young, fit women as they are most likely to keep things tidy and not snore. Older people are the worst and the second worse are overweight people because they often snore even at a young age. I look at two things tidiness and snoring. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule.

On my last day in Vienna I was going to take the recommended self guided walking tour. A lot of the stuff was the same as I had seen last night with Anita, but it was worth seeing twice. I took the train to Stephen Platz and then walked to St. Peters Platz. I was kind of impressed with St. Peters, even though it is not that big. I have seen the best churches in the world so I have become a little bit of a church snob. This one is good and I did like it. I noticed too there was a free organ recital this night so I was going to try and make that at 8:00. I figured I wood go back to the film festival again tonight because that was free and quite cool. Again I walked to the Michaeler, Helden, Maria-Theresein, Schmerling and Rathaus Platzs. These are some beautiful places. I took several pictures of these big magnificent buildings. I am happy there is a place outside of Paris that is like Paris but without the few mean Parisians. Most Parisians are nice there are just a few bad apples. I walked up to Sigmund Freud Park, where there is a nice big church, but it is currently under construction and you could not see much. I spent some time in Volks Garten another very beautiful well maintained garden. In Austria everything is very green. I was thinking back home at this time everything is brown and very hot. Although I suspect the Winters are a little long and cold although if your active in Winter Sports they are probably not so long and cold.

I then walked through a commercial area that was quite bustling. It was somewhere near Wienzeile Street. I was looking for a place to use the internet and sit down for awhile as I had walked nonstop for like the last 3 hours and a sitz platz would be nice. Everything is called platz around here so I am going to add a platz behind some words from now on in recognition of beautiful Venice. I never could find an internet platz and decided just to keep on walking. I walked to Karlsplatz and saw the cool church there and then on to Stadt Park where they have a quite nice statue of Mozart. I saw store platz that said Mostly Mozart. This guy is obviously big around here with Austria being his home country and most kids know about classical orchestras. I really do not fault the Americans for not knowing more about classical music as the Europeans have this stuff in there backyard. Europeans seem to think we should know what is going on in Europe and because we don’t that makes the Euopean’s mad. Although the Americans do not care if the Europeans know what is happening in our country. I saw a few other places of interest such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra building. From Stadt Park I worked my way back to a subway station near Stephen's Platz and decided to head to the hostel platz. Unlike last night getting back to the hostel was quite easy.

I used the internet for awhile and talked to the Korean guys for awhile as well. Around 7:00 I left again for the film festival. I was wondering who in there right mind would travel like I am doing. Well Lonn probably would and that is about it. It is a little crazy really and stressful at times, but overall I have not felt stressed. Stress is not worth it. Sure if it has to do with your friends or family health or relationships with special people a little stress is ok, but stress all the time is not good. Stress needs to be kept in context. If you are worried about money most often that is something not to worry about in my opinion.

I made it to Stephen's Platz and hurried to St. Peter's Church for the Organ Recital. It was full and a few people were sitting on the floor. I managed to get a seat. The organist played several different types of music such as Bach and Mozart. He played about 8 songs in total with my favorite being the last one where he just winged it. That was the most dynamic and interesting. The Bach and Mozart stuff seemed a little boring to me. Yes I just said that. I just am not into the classical stuff that much sorry. I would have loved to hear him play some Boss (Bruce Springsteen) music. This guy was obviously an excellent organist, but I am just not that fond of the classical stuff. The people that listen to that are just a little stuffy for my liking. Since this concert was free I suspect was why many people were leaving throughout the concert. It seemed a little rude to me so I stayed for the hour long recital even though I did want to get to the film festival. I suspect half the people that started the concert were not there at the end or were there at the end however you want to view it. Everyone clapped at the end and he did a short encore and then everyone left.

I hurriedly walked through all the platz's and to the film festival as it had started about 30 minutes earlier. I grabbed a beer. I was really in the mood for a beer this night and they had about 25 different ones to choose from all on tap. Just the way I like it. I walked over to the concert with my beer. It is amazing in Europe you pretty much have people walking anywhere with beer and I do not see any problems with the alcohol. It is funny at our church picnic there are often fights. There use to be a lot more than there are now. Of all places for it to be common to have fights is at a church function. Seems a little hypocritical to me as what they teach you in the bible does not condone that kind of behavior. I guess it is just a large gathering of people and in the US it is common for fights to break out. It is cool that there are less people fighting now days at the picnics. Not sure what the difference is. A lot of the people I know mainly the older people who grew up fighting enjoy talking about the fighting and frankly I enjoy hearing the stories as well. I guess these are just different days. There may be more extreme violence now days, where murders are performed and I assume drug use is up. I suspect drugs are more accessible now days, but not sure. I was never around people that used drugs.

I saw a lady standing by herself who looked like she might speak English so I went over and said hi. It turns out she is from Washington, DC. She said she had went to services earlier tonight and I asked her what religion she belongs to and she said she’s Jewish. I mentioned having been to the Jewish cemetery in Prague and how moving that is. I didn't mention the complicated fee system there. I told her I went to all the synagoues there as I really tried to understand there plight and try to understand why they were hated so much. I asked her how long she had been in Vienna and told her she should do some couchsurfing hosting to meet more people as she acted like she did not know many people there. She said she was studying in Vienna and actually seemed a little homesick. She said her boyfriend was in Chicago making lots of money. I jokingly stated your boyfriend would rather earn money than visit you? She did not really respond to that, but in not responding and by the facial expression she affirmed it a little. I thought about the Jewish stereotype, about being really into money and seen some accuracies in it from what I have seen in Europe. Although there are lots of non Jewish people who let money rule there lives as well. I know one person who while going through a Krispy Crème donut place made sure I got back the right change after ordering our donuts. It was a situation where I thought he would just buy the donut as it as less than a dollar and I suspect in those days he had at lest $500,000 in the bank. He also married a woman who he told me made lots of money, he told me how his family talks about money at their family functions and how his aunt’s changed his grandfathers will to write his Dad out of it and now of course they do not communicate with his Aunts nor does his dad communicate with his sisters. All for money. My last shirt will not have pockets. I like money because it affords me to do the things I want to do. This trip being the most noticeable thing. People are crazy about money and many people are really hurt by it. It is the root of all evils but yet people still are crazy about it.

She said se only came there to feel like she had done something. She left after our short 15 minute conversation. Towards the end of our conversation a lady sitting in the chair in front of me turned around and gave us the shhhhhhh sound as she thought we were talking to loud. This is an outdoor venue, we were standing in the very back and this lady was still uptight about this show. I thought some of the conduct rules did not apply outside. I think that is part of the reason I am not an orchestra kind of guy. People seem way too serious about it for me. We all have different likes and dislikes and I am sure if I learned about classical music I would like it more, but for now I am not a fan.

I left around 10 as I wanted to make sure I made those busses this night as I didn't want to have to do that night crossing through the woods like I had done the prior night.

When I got back to the bus location I saw the French people who were at the bus stop with me in the morning. In the morning I just didn't feel like talking to them. Again they seemed like the typical refined French people that appeared to be afraid to get their hands dirty. I said hi anyway and talked for awhile and like most French people they were very nice. They talked about there trips to the US and talked about all the castles in the US and really bragged up the US somewhat, which is unusal for the French, but very nice. They were nice people and I enjoyed talking to them. On the bus Kim, my Korean roommate, was there so I sat by him. I felt a little bad not sitting by the French people. When we got off the bus I talked to the French family a little more and introduced Kim. I jokingly told Kim in the presence of the French family that they owned this Palace and we all laughed. The French family played along and said something about it being their weekend home. I really enjoyed my conversation with the French Family and am glad I talked to them as they were very nice people.

Kim and I went into the hostel and talked for awhile and called it a night. Another long day. Again signing out from the Palace Hostel above the beautiful Austrian City of Vienna. I really like this place!

---

Photos

Johann Strauss
Whoever that dude is? He must have been worthy of a nice statue as this is a nice statue.

Big Foot Competition
Anita invited me over for supper along with Skye and these two Italian Guys who were couchsuring with her. The Italian guys were commenting on the size of my feet so we had a little comparison photo. My feet are not that muh bigger are they?

Can't Hold it Any Longer
Come on Europe lets get a few more toilets around here so people do not have to do this all the time!

Gaudi Like Architecture in Europe
Pick a color any color?

Gaudi Like Architecture in Europe
Everything has curves around here. I wonder if skateboards are allowed here? Anita pictured here I couchsurfed with one night and she gave me the tour of this area.

Trash Incinerator & Trashy Women
Anita's tour included this trash incinerator. The tour group included Skye who is a couchsurfer from Hawaii and myself. I told them I needed a trashy pose to help me remember this picture was of a trash incinerator plant. I thanked them for putting up with me.

Trash Incinerator & a Foot
How did that foot get in there?

Peter and the Wolf
This is a picture from the animated cartoon being played on the big screen for the free concert. The whole movie is not violent just the clip I got. That's what people want to see right? Lots of violence!

Modern Vs Old
The discussion is always about preserving the old buildings and not allowing the construction of new buildings! I think this looks good the modern building on the left and the old church on the right.

St. Peter's Church
A pretty amazing church.

Skeleton of a dead guy
What's up with all these dead guys viewable in the churchs? Does it give the person a sense of immortality? Ths is the first skeleton I have seen like this.

The Altar
This church although small is quite impressive.

Classy Austria
This place just exudes class. One of my favorite City's in all of Europe

Michaeler Platz
The pictures are endless in Vienna.

Little Stressed
These guys should take a year long vacation to relax a little. They appear a little stressed.

Inspiration
You know my aches, pains and problems do not seem so bad! This guy has no legs, but is still out there getting it done. Whenever you think you have a problem in life think back to this picture. He is truly an inspiration and reality check for us all.