I arrived in Vienna Friday afternoon. Alone, in a foreign city that has a language I don't speak. I was slightly apprehensive, but mostly excited for the whole adventure. I had my dictionary if I needed it, and I was prepared. I get to the hostel, grab a map, spend a little time looking it over, and decided to start out. I walked down Mariahilferstrasse to get to Wien city center. Mariahilferstrasse is a pretty lengthy street (befitting its name, I guess) and it is all commercialized. I saw at least four H&Ms, 2 Claires, a couple McDonalds, a KFC, and a few Starbucks. Yikes. I went down to Maria-Thersten Platz, which had the Kunst Historical Museum, and the Natural History Museum, and this neat statue in the middle. As well as a lot of symmetrical shrubberies.
This is part of the statue, and the..... Natural History Museum. Which I did not visit. After I stopped here, I continued walking, and found the Volksgarten!
Vienna is the first city that I've seen that's sort of in bloom. Rome is getting in there, but Vienna had their stuff together. The Volksgarten was a bit scarce, but the gardens in front of Rathaus had daffodils and such already planted.
Honestly, I could have just sat in parks for the entire weekend and been totally content. It was pretty, and calm. Even on Friday and Saturday night (alright, I didn't see much of Friday night, but Saturday!) it was pretty quiet. Peaceful.
After sitting in Rathaus Platz for a little while, I decided to keep moving. And found Freud Park right in front of Votivkirche
I don't know what this is. Chairs, around a table. The chairs had names of countries on them, but I think the only one I could really make out was Hungary (Ungeria or some such) And all of the trees that have been planted around this had a plaque with a country name in front of them. I didn't get it. But it's Freud Platz... what's there to get? I went into Votivkirche, too. Because churches tend to be free for the visiting. And are some of the most beautiful places you'll ever see.
I've been taking pictures of pipe organs as a result of my music book. However, I've discovered that they're pretty interesting. So many different styles, and sizes. They're kinda really pretty.
Then I walked past Parliament.
Which had Greek statues all over it? This is Athena. And in front are a myriad of other Greek characters. It seemed strange to me, I can't quite explain it. I mean, why shouldn't they have Greek statues in front of their Parliament?
Somewhere in here, my stomach really started to hurt. Bad. And this is where one of those bad bookend moments came in. I went back to my hostel at around 7:00ish (I think, I can't really remember) and I climbed into my bed, fully clothed, and tried to sleep. And got ill. I think I had a little bit of food poisoning from the morning where I had a breakfast sandwich in which the egg might not have been superb.... So I spent a fair amount of time in bed. I had chills, probably a fever, and eventually got sick. Allow me to lament for a moment. It sucks being sick. It sucks being sick in Rome. It sucks even more being sick in a city you've never been in before all by yourself with no one to really care about you (not even for me, just about me). It was lonely.
But Saturday I awoke fresh as a daisy (almost) and decided to take on Vienna! Saturday was planned to be my museum day. I was going to tackle the Freud Museum, the Mozart House, and the Haus der Muzik.
Freud Museum
Was fascinating. Not so much in a visual type way, but in a 'Freud lived here' type way. Which is pretty cool. I saw his couch, too. The Mozart House was kind of a letdown. I mean, Mozart lived there, which is fabulous, but they had a headphone walking tour type thing, and it was just too much information that wasn't particularly interesting. But it had some of his scores, and I liked that. The Haus der Muzik would be enjoyed mostly by people -fascinated- by acoustics. It was pretty cool. But! You couldn't take pictures in the Mozart House or the Haus der Muzik. And being a photographer, I wanted to document things visually so.bad. I blame people that use flash. It's usually their fault.
And! In between museums, I had a bratwurst. In a hoagie roll. And the bratwurst was filled with cheese. Oh my, so delicious. And huge. And covered in mustard and ketchup. For cheap! It was like... 3.20euro. Good deal. :)
After my bratwurst, I went into Stephensdom
Another really pretty church in Vienna. Of course. Aren't they all. This one had a massive pipe organ. I like sitting in churches. Just thinking about all that goes into them. How they're a testament to God, and works of art. I feel that it's sort of contrary to the word of God. I mean, it's a huge material object. Granted, it's a house of God... but that money could have gone to, I don't know, feeding the homeless? Helping the lepers? These are the things that I think about in churches. I just sit myself down in a pew, and think about religion. It's a good little period of reflection.
I walked down to Karls Platz (I think some of this might be out of order...)
Nice little fountain thing going on here. I'm sure this guy was really important. I'll research later ;)
And then I walked around in front of Karlskirche, because I had plans, and didn't have time to get inside.
Pretty! But I hoped on the metro at Karlskirche (first time taking the metro in Vienna) And it was really nice! I got off at Prater and went to the park, because that's where the Reisenrad is!
And the Reisenrad was a huuuuuuuuge let down. I mean, it was still nice to see. But the rest of the park was nice. And it's free to get in and walk around. Rides cost a ridiculous amount, though. When you first get in, it looks a bit sad, kind of like a desolate Coney Island. The more you got in, the nicer it looked.
That's the Reisenrad. It used to have twice as many cars. Sometime around WWII, I think, they removed half. There's a reason for it, I just don't remember. And, coincidentally, I took this while I was waiting for my 3euro schnitzelsemmel to be ready. Which was pretty much a glorified chicken patty. But it was delicious :)
It was fun to walk around at night. All pretty and lit up like parks get.
I went back to the hostel after that. Did some reading for class, went to sleep. Daylight saving finally caught up to Europe. I took my time, went out to Schonbrunn. I didn't take pictures, the light was too harsh. But I read for fun in the gardens and just chilled until it was time to take the bus from Westbanhof to the airport, and fly back to Rome. The trip back was stressful... but I don't particularly feel like sharing that story right now ;)
Next weekend is Belfast for my birthday, then finals week (one final!!) And then I fly home. 2 weeks until I'm back in the States. Where did my time go?
<3
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