Where All Good Things Must Come to an End

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Wow, last day in Europe. At least for this trip. As pretty as Vienna is, I’m not in the mood for an early start. Besides, tonight I have to take long haul flight back home. I ended up spending my morning sitting at the lobby and having skype call with my mum and hubby. My to do list in Vienna is still long but I still feel sour after what happened the last several days.

I’m finally able to push myself out of bed and walked out the door. It’s 10 am and I’m late. On the way to Rathaus, we got lost and ended up in front of the Parliament building instead. It’s gorgeous though. Pretty Greek style statues with contrast gold embellishment. The sky was blue as well and make such a nice backdrop. After almost 30 mins or so, we continue to walked to Rathaus building. It is so ornate. Vienna is definitely prettier than Oslo. Their building have more details.

For some reason there’s not much of tourists though. In my mind I’m trying to find a reason where are all people. But I’ve lost track of the days already. Then there are a couple from a certain nationality which I’d rather not mention. The man called me from afar, and ask me to take their picture. But then he also requested that I took full size picture of them, from toe to the top of the Rathaus! With a pocket camera! He said, you just walk there and pointed out somewhere a bit far. The opposite direction of where I am going. And did not even bother to say “please”. Gah, this is too much reminiscing of office situation. And then it hit me – o wait – I CAN say no. I said no, and walked away. I don’t typically refuse request to take pictures but his attitude is off putting. He’s calling me from distance – you don’t have to walk THAT far! I’m still like, nah – I don’t wanna do it. It was a good laugh for me and M.

We then took the metro to Museum Quartier. There we split to different direction. Before entering KHM – I decided to take early lunch in nearby supermarket. KHM was very nice – but quite expensive. I’m already used to Stockholm’s museums where everything is free with Stockholm Card – and now paying 12 something Euro seems a lot. Their café is situated in this amazing hall with patterned floor. Kim Kardashian would’ve loved these grandeur black and white marble floors. Not only that – the painted ceiling is gorgeous as well. There are many giant pictures inside and you can take picture without flash. There’s also a lot of sofa for you just to take everything in. The funny thing is, if you’re standing too close to the pictures – alarm will get triggered and a computerized voice tells you to back off. The only 2 pictures that I recognized were the Adam and Eve because it was featured on Desperate Housewives opening song. Yeah, I’m not too artsy. On the ground floor, you can also see some Egypt ruins and sarcophagus.

I’ve spent about good 3 hours at KHM, much longer than I thought. I won’t have time to visit any other sites. So many things I’ve missed – the Hofburg Palace, other museums in Museum Quartier, etc. With only 30 mins left before my appointment with M, I only went to see some furniture stores nearby. I managed to still grab a bite at local bakery though, forgot the name. At only 1.7 euro, that apple pastry it’s somehow way tastier than Café Demel. So that’s it – so many things missed in Vienna. Well, that gives me a reason to come back one day – I guess.

At the long way back to Asia, I had lots of time to rethink about the journey and list down what were my “12” moments. What is a “12”? Well, I basically like to rate things from 0 to 10 scales – because I hate ambiguity. So a “12” moment is basically when you are happy beyond beliefs. In this trip, those would be :


• Actually getting the Schengen Visa to go to Europe – for some reason getting the visa was actually not that easy. I had to wait and persist for 4 years but I'm finally there. In my “master plan” I supposed to go to Russia that summer but my intuition tells me to apply for Norway instead. And it was accurate, Norway was the path that leads me to Europe. Cheers to the girl who never gave up.
• Driving an Audi A4 & got swanky apartment in Norway – we did road trip in Norway and got free upgrade. M drove most of the time, but he let me drove around in the parking lot of Marche ha ha… For the apartment – I’m very proud of myself for finding that value for money deal. Only paid for what a dorm will cost you in Oslo, but we actually got a loft for 4 people with fully equipped kitchen, cable TV, wifi, and with modern amenities.
• Seeing wild animals in Norway – I saw wild moose, horses (apparently they are chubbier in the wild) and mountain goats. Seeing them in the wild is something special for me.
• Twelve-rainbows-in-a-day, again in Norway – during the road trip we were surrounded by rain; but on the last day – we saw like 12 rainbows in a day; literally! Like everywhere we go – there’s a rainbow right on the corner. It was amazing. And to end the day even sweeter, we enjoyed a very long blue sky sunset that gives this amazing warm glow over the lake, barley fields and pretty much everything we saw.
• Being stalked in Stockholm sounds creepy. But I’m referring to one particular event in Kaknas tower. I wasn’t planning on going there – I was just instinctively catching a bus. I didn’t know you can borrow a key to get unobstructed view – again I was just giving nice try. A group of tourists from different nationalities ended up following me around because I was the only one who has the “magic key” ha ha… Such an accomplishment.
• Aurora-like sunset in Stockholm - M wanted to see aurora so bad but we’re not in the right season or location. But the closest I’ve encountered aurora is when one sunset in Stockholm looks like aurora dead ringer. It was so magical.
• Enjoying street performers in pretty Prague was another highlight. On a cold and rainy night I stumbled upon these string quartet street performers playing top 40 musics. I enjoyed their performance so much! Plus, Prague old town is the prettiest town I’ve seen – hands down.
• But I guess, for me, the best part was actually being able to spend quality time with my bestie M . We lived 4000 miles apart so traveling is pretty much the only time where we can be together over extended period of time. Had lots and lots of laugh and heart to heart discussions along the way. He even cooked for us one night, and randomly insisting to teach me how to shoot pool ha ha...And yes, just like brother and sister we don’t necessarily always get along all the time – but for me the laugh and happiness outweigh all of the bitterness. I can only hope it’s the same for him too…


Hhh… great times… Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. I could only wish there’s another trip on the horizon.

PS: Little did I know that time, just merely three months later – I’m back in Europe for another adventure at different side of the continent. Stay tune!

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Photos

Inside KHM
Look at those GIANT paintings!

The Paintings Featured in Desperate Housewives Opening
The only 2 paintings I'm familiar with ha ha....

Comments

[Ali]

I'm glad you didn't give up on the visa!
I've enjoyed your photos of Europe a lot :)