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Published: June 15th 2008
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These last two days were complete randomness all around. It was Vienna, which I had been to before, and Ljubljana, which I thought could be a cool place to go and really only had to go to because the flight back to London was from there. We were going straight and at a heck of a pace, but as it was the end of the trip, neither Aaron nor I were worried about getting too tired.
Friday, May 30th:
Up this morning at the hostel to check out, bumped into Paul again and said goodbye, and down we went to the dock for the 75min hydrofoil to Vienna. Not the cheapest way to travel, my cheap, backpacker traveling kind of went out the window when Aaron got over, but definitely fun. Oddly enough, the dock we left from was the same place that had the second club from last night. Strange town, Bratislava.
Trip went by real fast on the hydrofoil; gorgeous trip down the river, too. I guess that is the joy of traveling between the two closest national capitals in the world. Though I had been to Vienna with Bethany 3 years ago, Aaron had never been to
the city, and since we were done with Bratislava, and it was on the way to Ljubljana, we decided to make a day of it. When we first got in, we headed over to the station we would be leaving from to lock our bags up and get the ticket/reservations for our ride tonight.
Aaron had been looking at my travel book and was very intrigued by the maze and mathematical games at Schloss Schoenbrunn (the Austrian Versailles), so we S-bahned it over there. I had really forgotten how impressive the gardens were, especially the majestic fountain at the base of the hill just behind the main palace. There was also an Austrian folk music or band competition or something going on, as there were hundreds of people dressed in traditional Austrian garb with instruments marching and playing around. We made our way through the gardens out to the maze/labyrinth area and had tons of fun. It was basically us and lots and lots of kids, there were a few other kid-less adults, but none of them were having as much fun as Aaron and I. We did the whole labyrinth after getting lost a few times, despite the best
Cheater
I don't know how this kid got up there, but I know he's cheating at the labyrinth efforts of a kid standing on top of the hedges yelling directions in German, not that it took all that long, and then we moved onto the “maze.” The maze is really just a path between hedges about 3’ tall that winds around itself to look like a maze, but it has little things to play with in it. There is a series of boards mounted on springs that shake and sway when you run across them, a dancing bells board (you jump on the little metal pads and bells play), a series of mirrors, and stepping stones that set off water jets that get your feet wet as you run across. There was also a series of math-type games that we had some fun with. As we finished up and went to grab and ice cream bar, we ended up talking with 2 girls, 1 Aussie and 1 Italian, who were grabbing a bottle of water. They work for an airline (the Aussie was a stewardess and the Italian was a pilot) and were in town on an extended layover because their plane was having difficulties. I asked if they happened to be flying to London next, but alas,
they were going on to Moscow, and while I would love to visit, I have neither the time nor the visa to go.
Soon we departed and went into the heart of the city to check out the MAK museum. It had a fairly impressive collection of a wide range of things, from artwork from throughout the former Austrian Empire and the world to furniture, rugs and ceremonial vestments. There was also a treasure trove of items of every kind (textiles, metals, modernist furniture, etc) in the basement that was open to the public but intended for visits by students. On interesting item in the textile room was what was listed as a Jewish prayer shawl, within half a second of looking at it, Aaron and I could both tell from its huge size and square shape that it was a chuppah.
Across the street from the MAK was the city park, which happened to be playing host to a local wine and food festival. So we had the luck and pleasure again to stumble upon a wine festival. This one was significantly more expensive than Bratislava, but even more fun, as the place was packed and the selection of
both wine and food much more expansive. After a few hours here (as long as we could without worrying about missing our train), and discovering that Austrians love poppy seeds, we made it back to the station and boarded for Ljubljana.
The train ride itself, actually both legs (Vienna-Salzburg and Salzburg- Ljubljana), was uneventful. The stop-over in Salzburg was very odd. We were fortunate to meet a few other English-speakers who were on our train so we knew we were in the right place. We also chatted with an Austrian girl who was going to the Croatian coast to study to be a marine biologist (yes, odd that this would be the calling from someone from a landlocked country) for a good bit of the 3-hour stop. But the completely random part was that there is a Salsa dancing club that meets in the train station every Friday night. After getting over the fact that this is in fact the case, we each went in separately to dance a bit (someone had to watch the bags) and just generally have some fun. Definitely the best train stop I have ever had.
Saturday, May 31st:
We arrived in Ljubljana very
Clock
Margolis loved the clock early this morning, and knowing how the only thing open would be one specific church, we decided to walk around the streets a bit. We walked down from the train station over the Dragon Bridge (really just a bridge with some statues of dragons on it) to the market area, which was surprisingly massive and stocked by fruit and vegetable vendors. It was right next to the church that was open, which we ducked into. A lovely structure, but the coolest part was the intricately carved door. that showed faces and what looked like hellish battle scenes.
Round about this time, we decided to see of we could scare up some food, but we found only one place that was even open (and it wasn’t all that good), so after a very quick bite, we walked to the funicular to the castle, which was finally opening up. We were probably the 9th and 10th visitors of the day. Aaron and I were both so tired, that we actually fell asleep for a few minutes each in the 3-d video presentation on the history of the city. The castle, did, however, offer perfect views of the city and have some very
cool, if somewhat out-of-places pieces of modern art.
As we believed we had a 2:45 flight, we decided to head back down into town and towards the bus station to get to the airport. We did cover a bit more of the very cute little town, including the tripe-bridge (a bridge that is three crossings with cars in the middle and pedestrians on either side), and the beautiful plaza just to its north. We hopped on the bus to that airport, and made it there with no trouble. Unfortunately, we discovered that Aaron had misread the ticket. Check in started at 2:45, with the actual flight leaving at 4:45. Now, I probably should have double-checked as I have flown EasyJet before and should have known. Oh well. So we hung around the airport for a bit, eating and reading. After we checked in, and were waiting for the flight I texted my old housemates asking if anyone would be home tonight about 8ish to let me in - I had ok’d at the start of my trip that Aaron and I could stay for a few nights (Aaron 1 and me 2). The responses I got were 1 non-response (from
the guy who took my room, so not all that enexpected), 2 sorry but try someone else, and 2 berating me for being so last-minute. This was disheartening, but I figured I would try my luck, and could stop at Daniel’s or bug the landlady.
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