Day 76-78: Vienna, Austria

So I am still playing blog-catch-up, but I am starting to make process. I will now embark on relaying my Easter break journeys (what do you know, its April again!?!). Just to give you the behind-the-scenes facts in a nutshell, my friend Bali (Singapore) and I had been planning this [AWESOME] excursion since about the first week in February. We were invited by our dear friend, Mateja (Slovenia), to visit her at some point during our stay in Europe, so we planned our trip around this.

In the next few entries, I will share my reflections on this amazing 12-day trip! We went first to Austria for three days, then spent about five days in Slovenia and four in Italy. It sounds like a lot (and it was!), but I hope you will enjoy reading and looking at the pics! Here goes :)

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Our trip began very early this morning. Bali and I had arranged to meet at 4:30AM to make a quick breakfast  before heading to catch our first train. I arrived drowsy and a few minutes late to Bali's flat to find no one in the kitchen (a huge surprise at this hour of the morning!). I dug my phone out of my strategically-packed backpack and gave Bali a quick call, which turned out to be a wake up call! She came to the door, still half-asleep and let me in. I made us some toastis while she got ready and finished packing.

We were supposed to leave shortly after 5AM to go down to the train station, as we had to walk. Since we were leaving so early, we could not take the train from Tilburg West (the station closest to campus). Rather, we had to walk all the way to Tilburg Central Station, about a 20-minute walk. As we were running late, we did not end up leaving Bali's flat until about 5:25AM. At this point, we were kind of flustered and began hurrying towards the station. Bali attempted to flag down a taxi to ensure that we would get there on time, with no luck. So we ended up jogging/running most of the way with our 8kg backpacks on our backs. Needless to say, it was a crazy trip to the train station, but very amusing to look back on!

We ended up arriving at the station about ten minutes early (whew!) so we rested and waited for our train. Finally, we boarded the train and were on our way to Nimegen. This is a city in the Netherlands right on the German border. We took the train here and were in town about an hour before our van was to leave to shuttle us to the Dusseldorf/Weeze airport in Germany. We waited inside a hotel lobby right next to the van stop and ate our toastis. We then hopped on the small 8-passenger van that took us to Weeze. Finally, we arrived at the Weeze airport, got through security, and just about passed out from fatigue while we waited to board our flight!


We flew from Weeze (Germany) to Bratislava (Slovakia). The plane ride was rather uneventful, as we slept most of the time, until the very end. As we arrived a few minutes early, the plane played the funniest announcement upon landing. On RyanAir flights, they play this trumpet tune that says "Another RyanAir flight on time. 90% of RyanAir flights arrive at their destination on time...". Its really quite funny! This was my first RyanAir flight, so it kind of took me by surprise and gave us both great amusement!

After disembarking the plane, Bali and I made our way through the airport to find the bus stop. On our way, we stopped for a quick snack: a croissant and some fresh-squeezed OJ.  We waited for quite a bit at the bus stop, as the bus was running late. However, we enjoyed the warmth of the sun, a nice change from the Tilburg weather! Finally, we boarded the bus which took us to the main train station in Vienna. It was a bit of a journey, but it was nice to see some countryside.

Finally in Austria, we now had to figure out how to maneuver ourselves amongst the Austrian public transit. First, we hopped on the metro, after buying a two-day unlimited metro travel pass. We took the metro to Kagran station, from where we had to take a tram to get to the Gudurwara Sahib (the Sikh place of worship that we were to stay at). Alas, we were somewhere, although the true adventure was only about to begin!

We arrived at the Gudurwara Sahib tired and worn out from our already long day of traveling. Honestly, all I wanted was a nice long nap! However, we still had to arrange our accommodations for the evening, as we had not yet spoken to the leaders of the Gudurwara Sahib about whether we could stay or not. Bali pulled out her Punjabi and spoke with the uncle that we thought was the head of the Gudurwara Sahib. He told us that since the Gudurwara Sahib was still undergoing construction and renovation, they were not currently housing travelers in the building. We were surprised to hear this, but the man also told us to wait until the lead Sikh came so that we could speak with him about accommodations for the night.

So, we went inside and made ourselves comfy. Bali said a quick prayer out of reverence for the place of worship. We met this adorable girl that turned out to be the daughter of the lead Sikh who we were waiting on. She followed us around the Gudurwara Sahib and helped make sure that we were situated. She was really sweet! In fact, everyone at the Gudurwara Sahib was really hospitable. They offered us coffee and tea and even welcomed us to join them for supper.

We ended up waiting at the Gudurwara Sahib for a total of five hours until the lead Sikh finally came. They all went upstairs and said prayers for awhile after dinner while Bali and I mapped out our plan of action for our next few days in Vienna. Afterwards, we were bored and so we snuck into the kitchen to help this one younger Indian man about our age that was making roti in the kitchen. We watched for a bit and then began helping him form the roti. It was super-fun! I was cooking legit Indian food! And it turned out really yummy too :)

We still were unsure as to where we would be staying for the evening, even though everyone had been assuring us all afternoon that the Sikh would find some place for us. We finally met him and Bali spoke real sweet to him in Punjabi. He was nice and offered us a place for the night with a Sikh family. We graciously accepted the offer and rode home with him and another Sikh. We were dropped off at the family's home and shown to our shared bedroom. We were so thankful for a place to rest our heads for the night! We quickly showered and hit the bed after such a long day!


Friday, April 2, 2010

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to get ready and hit Vienna! We thanked the family for their hospitality before heading out for the day. We walked to the nearby metro station, where we each bought a quick cappuccino to wake us up! Then we boarded the metro to head to Schronbrunn Castle. We took it past the usual stop for the castle, as Bali had read that going one stop further gives you a nicer view of the Castle after getting off the metro. So we did and walked through the gardens before we came upon the backside of the castle. We got there super early, so it was nice and quiet! We walked inside and purchased tickets for the day. Then we went out front of the castle and ate our breakfast that we had packed- roti!

We headed back inside the castle to take the tour of the rooms available to see. It was a really interesting castle. We walked through about thirty rooms that had been lived in by royalty back in the day. Schonbrunn was the summer home of Maria Teresa during her time. All of the rooms were elegantly furnished and elaborately decorated. Each one was unique and featured magnificent art. We spent well over an hour meandering through the rooms and enjoying the audio tour in English.

After our tour of the Palace, we went outside to the Eastermarkt that was taking place in front of the castle. It was nice and we enjoyed looking at all of the hand-made crafts and things. We then headed inside for the apple strudel demonstration that was part of our ticket package. I guess this apple studel is quite popular in Vienna. It was fun to see the guy make it. He was rolling and tossing the dough like it was pizza crust! It was crazy!

We took a short break for some lunch before heading to the maze (in which I did not get lost, thanks to the oodles of people all walking in the same direction!) and the Palace gardens. It was a gorgeous day so it felt really nice to be outside and enjoy all of the nature of the Palace. We then ascended the high hill to the Gloriette, another famous structure hidden behind the Palace. It was a bit of a hike up the hill, but totally worth it! We had a great view of the city of Vienna from the top of the mount. We chilled for a bit at the top, before beginning our next adventure.

 We left Schonbrunn and headed for the Meidling Train Station where we planned to buy our train tickets for the following afternoon to Maribor. We were shocked that the tickets ended up being 42-euro, when we had anticipated 20-euro tickets; we had waited to long to buy them, so the price had gone up. After getting our tickets situated, we headed to the Mac's across the street where we got a light afternoon snack and made use of the free Wifi. Bali's mother was unhappy that we were not staying at the Gudurwara Sahib and that we were staying with a family, so she had requested that we find a hostel for the night. We used the internet to find a hostel that had an opening for two and called them. We had a room!

After taking care of all our business, we turned to retail therapy to relax ourselves a bit! We went around in this small shopping district around the McDonald's where we went in several Austrian stores including Bippa and Billa. We made a few purchases before taking the metro to the Nasch Markt nearby. Everything was closing up as it was nearing five o'clock, but we enjoyed walking through it and made a mental note to come back the next morning.

Fatigued from all of our walking, we began our trip back for the day. First we took the metro again to Kagran. Here we had a bite of dinner- kebabs! I swear, Bali and I could live on kebabs on trips and be totally happy :) We ate at the metro station before taking the bus to the Sikh's house nearby. We explained to them that we were heading to Maribor earlier than we had thought (which was a lie) and that we would not need a place to stay that evening. We gathered our things and headed back to the bus. We took the metro again to the area that our hostel was in. When we got off, we had to walk a ways to the hostel, but we finally arrived! We were pleasantly surprised at the hostel to discover that we had a four-person room all to ourselves! Lucky us :)

We rested for a few minutes and freshened up. We had planned to go to the tower nearby in which we could take an elevator all the way to the top for a cup of coffee and a nice view of the city, but it was nearing eleven, and we decided that we did not have enough time to get there and back. So we decided to go to Backbone, an Irish Pub nearby that we had passed on the way to the hostel. We chilled there for a bit. I sipped on a delicious glass of Viennese white wine, while Bali had a nice cappuccino. It was a relaxing end to our crazy day. We headed back to the hostel for the evening to get some good rest for our final day in Vienna.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

We got up early (again!) and headed to breakfast at the hostel, as it was included! They had typical hostel breakfast food, and we enjoyed bread, cheese, nutella and coffee before heading out for another long day. We checked out of the hostel and hopped on the metro to Prater, the small theme park in Vienna. We got there really early, so we bummed around until the park opened (at 10AM). We climbed a tree outside the park and took some crazy pictures.

We were going to Prater to ride the Reisenrad, a gigantic ferris wheel that is a symbol of the city of Vienna. It was first erected in 1897 and rebuilt in 1945, as it had been destroyed by fire. It was something I had been told to do by friends, as it offers a great view of the city from the top. And we had magnificent weather (once again!) so we had a splendid view of the whole city. I really liked riding the Reisenrad, as it was something really unique and significant to Vienna...plus, I love ferris wheels!

After our ferris wheel ride, we took the metro back to the more "toursity" area of the city. Bali and I have refused to call ourselves tourists, as we try to avoid the t-shirt wearing, camera-clicking mobs at all costs. We instead consider ourselves "visitors of the city" and try to fit in more with the locals. So we took an alternative route and walked through some quieter streets towards the Danube River. We came across a beautiful Mexican-architecture church, which we went inside to see. Then we walked right to the river's edge. We enjoyed the view of the river for a few minutes before heading towards another Viennese specialty that Bali had researched- the Ankruhr clock.

We knew we had reached the clock, as there were swarms of tourists there waiting for the clock to chime noon. It is special to see the clock at noon, because at that time, all of the characters pass through one by one in a parade, so you get to see all 12 characters that represent each hour. The figures are all Austrian historical people, like Maria Teresa and Joseph Ferdinand. It was a really neat thing to see!

Afterwards, we went to a nearby Strock, an Austrian bakery that is everywhere in Vienna. Here we tried sachertorte, an Austrian specialty! Its kind of like a chocolate cake with an apricot jam inside. It was pretty good, but really sweet! We split a piece and rested for a bit before heading out again to see a bit more of the city. We walked up the street to see St. Stephens Cathedral, although we did not go inside. Fed up with the massive crowds of tourists, we hopped on the metro again to head back to the market we had gone to the evening before. I must say, Bali and I became quite good at navigating the Vienna metro. Its a really easy and convenient system, so that made it easy on us! We arrived at the market and looked around for some good deals. We each bought a little token of remembrance from Vienna. I bought a hand-made Easter egg, which I had wanted to find while in Vienna.

We hurried back through the market to get back to the hostel where we had stored our luggage for the day. We picked up our things and headed to the Meidling Train Station. We got a quick bite of lunch in the station before boarding our train to Maribor. We were pleasantly surprised to get our own cabin on the train. We had plenty of room to spread our things out and enjoy the two-hour train ride through the Austrian Alps. We were told the day before when we purchased our tickets that we would have to get off in Graz, Austria and board a bus for the rest of the journey to Maribor. This was actually not complicated at all, and we enjoyed our bus ride, as well as train journey to Maribor. The bus dropped us off in front of Maribor (Slovenia) train station. Here, we attempted to get some hot coco (from a vending machine that was out of hot coco mix) while we waited for our dear friend Mateja to arrive with her boyfriend Saso. They were to pick us up at the train station, and we would all go out for a nice dinner in Maribor to celebrate our arrival in Slovenia.

Bali and I had already discussed the massive hug that we intended to give Mateja upon meeting up with them. And that we did! We were also pleasantly surprised to find Mateja's good friend, Polona in the car with Mateja and Saso. Bali and I had met Polona when she came to visit Mateja earlier in the semester at Tilburg. It was so good to be with friends and have the pressure taken off of Bali and I to navigate!

Saso drove us to this great little Cuban restaurant, Cantante, where we had some delicious (and inexpensive) Cuban food! We enjoyed our food and each other's company as we caught up about the last few weeks of our lives. Polona was so sweet; she had gotten Bali and I each a gift to welcome us to Slovenia. She gave us each tourist information all about Slovenia, including some of the places that we would visit in the next few days. I saved the wrapping paper, as she had wrapped the gifts in Slovenian newspaper! After dinner, we each enjoyed a fancy cocktail (drinks are CHEAP in Slovenia!) before heading out.

After dinner,  we dropped Polona off at her car parked nearby in Maribor and went to Illy to meet up with some of Mateja's and Saso's friends for drinks. Saso was meant to pick up our tickets for the Dalai lama on Tuesday from a friend  that had purchased them for us. It was nice to meet so many of their friends and speak English to them!

At this point, we were pretty exhausted, so we stayed for just a bit before heading home for the night to Saso's house in Slovenska Bistrica. We stayed in his parent's home that is still in the process of being built. Since it is not finished, his parents do not live here yet, so we had the whole house to ourselves! Bali and I gave Mateja and Saso the gifts that we had purchased for them as a thank you for their incredible hospitality in hosting us. We chatted for a bit and got acquainted with the house before hitting the sack for the evening.