Wandering in the rain

Quote from Eero (which applies to our day out): 
"Everyday student life in Vienna: See a French movie (directed by a Finn) at the international film festival, have some Glühwein and noodles, see some army vehicles, jet fighters and a dog show, shake hands with the Bundespräsident. Nothing special..."

Meeting the President of Austria and his wife was a complete accident, but it did happen! I hope the pictures turn out.

Prague

Actually Margot's side of the room, my side is covered in laundry at the moment

Joanne and I both had a free week at the beginning of October, and knew that we needed to take advantage of the time to travel somewhere new. After hearing rave reviews from others who had been, we started planning a trip to Split, Croatia for some sun and relaxation. However, Oktoberfest and the weekend came without either one of us making it to a train station (they did not list ticket prices online), and finally changed our minds the day before. Joanne used her super sleuth skills and booked us onto a bus for Prague for 15 Euro each, return. (The bus, in addition to having comfortable seating for naps, also offered free wifi.) So, after next to no research and quick unpacking/packing on my end (just moved into a fabulous new flat), we were on our way to Prague!

Side note, the new flat is actually a shared penthouse for four. As we are at the top, we also have a massive balcony complete with comfy lounging furniture. Not much use as it gets colder, but nice to sup and have a glass of wine in the sun. My new roommate is Estonian and studying linguistics at Vienna’s main university. Very interesting lady! The first impression, a less than 24 hour visit before I left for Prague, was positive.

The first night in Prague was extremely uneventful, for me anyways, as I’d had no sleep in the new dorm and was generally exhausted. We checked into our very swanky hotel/hostel (which featured live music on the last night of our stay) and wandered into a traditional Czech restaurant around the corner. The CZK is fabulously inexpensive, so a massive dinner and wine (which was always a double, as they liked to fill the glasses) was around 6 Euro! Afterwards, Joanne went and explored some of the city while I played cards with one of our roommates, James in the beautiful lounge.

Prague castle: weak and weary welcome

The first morning we were moving slowly, and bumped into another Canadian at breakfast. Apparently the city has Segway tours!  Gavin, having already been in Prague for a few days, decided as a final treat to have a three hour tour of the old city on Segway. We went straight to the front desk after breakfast to join, but the tour was already booked up. They offer them in Vienna as well, so I’m hoping to try it out in one of the other cities we spontaneously buy tickets to visit. Segway groups always look ridiculous, with matching helmets and awkwardly balanced cameras, but there is no doubt of their entertainment value.

After way too much food, it was time to work our way up to Prague Castle, which involved crossing over Charles Bridge. The change of the guard was actually a decent display that samples different ceremonial performances made dependent on the visitor. A marching band played throughout, while motorcycles did stunts and soldiers whirled their weapons. The castle was hilarious to visit! Defenestration has a long and honourable history in Prague. In the castle it is commemorated at a nice window off the main hall.

View of the city from a famous window

In the evening, opera! Don Giovanni premiered at the Estates Theatre in 1787, so naturally we had to check out Mozart’s preferred venue. Joanne and I got ourselves embarrassingly lost trying to find the Theatre, but one truth about older European cities is that there will always be a tourist office. (Another fact of travel is that everyone you encounter will speak fluent English until you need assistance in some form.) The opera was absolutely lovely! There is nothing like having the music from the pit wash over you as the skirts swirl and swords swish on stage. Heavenly.

Our hostel advertised a free (tips based) walking tour of the city, which beats wandering without a guide explaining the history. Jacob (not the Czech spelling or pronunciation, but what he went by for simplicity), had one of the strangest accents I have yet to encounter on this trip. A Czech native, his family moved to London for most of his primary schooling before returning. However, Jacob returned to the UK for university in Scotland, which naturally added polish to his rhetoric. Anyways, enough about the eccentric guide!

For a few years, the world’s most overrated tourist attraction:

The city was concerned about its ranking thanks to the astronomical clock, so added a trumpeter who plays at the end of the show. It is now not as overrated as the peeing boy statue, etc. While I admit the ‘show’ is lame, I don’t think it would ever be impressive. The clock itself is the marvel! Think about the round wall clock you’ve spent far too much time staring at while at school or work, then consider how nifty knowing the moon and stars in addition is. (Then try to recall the last time you went stargazing, eeek.)

Outside the Estates Theatre: The ghost from Don Giovanni, BOO!

How much do you know about Prague? If you’re anything like me before the trip, almost nil. As such, Jacob’s history spiels were particularly compelling. While the castle building and religious struggles have a larger scale, the stories of WWII and Communism were, for him, personal, and for me, quite unsettling. The rebuilding has made it easy to forget in most areas, but the Jewish quarter naturally has its monuments and museums in memorial. Canada has been so lucky!

After trying to visit another castle and failing (accidentally took the tram to the end of the line, which was good as we saw so much more of the city), we came back to the hostel to change. Some roomies were home! They were both single travellers looking for company, so 4/6 in our room went to dinner together (same place as the first night actually, to sample more of the menu) for traditional cuisine. For the evening, two of us went to the ballet, and two went to local beer gardens.

I was very pleased James was willing to come to the ballet as well (frankly I’m surprised the other two could say no to 1 Euro tickets). It is a little weird to go to the theatre by yourself, and in this case it was the massive Czech National Theatre. The intricate decoration did not disappoint! I will admit to not being a fan of the ballet though. Television and movies make the performance a tad underwhelming, even as you realize that amazing feats of the human body are in front of your eyes. The music though… mmmm. We saw Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake! I may have to delete it from my ipod now, the sound is just sad after you have experienced a live performance. I just lay back in the chair, let my eyelids droop, and began to float.  The bus ride home I tried to hold onto the magic, by putting buds of Mozart in my ears and napping.

Oktoberfest

After Graz, our Orientation program tried to keep us busy. On Monday we toured the Belvedere, another palace in Vienna that has been converted into museum space for fine art. Naturally, after all of our other events, the Tuesday talk from the WU librarian about how to take out books was underwhelming… We all needed the rest though! A nasty cold caught seemingly everyone in the program, so the lecture theatre rang with the sound of sniffles. Needless to say, there were some quieter days of attempted recuperation in the hopes of being hale and hearty for OKTOBERFEST.

The trip: depart Wednesday evening on an overnight train, arrive Thursday morning and attend the festivities, train home to Vienna

I heard reports of individuals saying their cough medicine interacted strangely with the alcohol. I was healthy at this point, but still could not finish all the beer included with my tickets (there were obliging friends to help remedy that situation). Only two of the one hundred and fifty who arrived on Thursday morning failed to make it back to the train in the evening. This was probably a win for the organizers, considering.

And, in a lame conclusion, the return accident… In reaching the UBahn platform once we returned to Vienna, I tripped and stubbed my toe. Relatively certain it is broken, as this post is being written a week after the fact. (Still sore, and now in technicolour!)

Graz

Day trips outside of Vienna are magical. The picturesque landscapes you view, by window or train, or almost comical in how stereotypically quaintly European they are. The intricately carved church rising from the centre of the plain village, the rolling slopes covered in hay bales or vineyards, all add up to beautiful views. Naturally, I have barely seen them under drooping eyelids as we had to arrive at WU very early to make it to Graz.

Graz! A better name would almost be “Second”. It is the second largest city in the second largest state boasting the second largest opera house in Austria, etc. The most obvious landmark for the city is Schloßberg, the castle mountain. The castle was never occupied, which means when an embarrassed Napolean forced an Austrian surrender he included a certain demolition in the conditions. The clock tower was never taken down, so overlooks the city and gives residents the time accurately to this day. (However, the size of the hands is reversed, as the hour was considered more important, and the longer arm is more visible.) I found out that Kepler lived in Graz, so had a great nerd-out when we passed by his old house. Yay physics!

We had a walking tour through the old city with a local guide. Things were pretty, history was had, and tired feet were made. We cheated and took the furnicular in the mountain to reach the castle ruins. (The mountain could serve as a hideaway in case of nuclear attacks, as such the little of the interior we viewed was impressive to say the least.) View of Graz! The building that induces a “one of these is not like the others” feeling is called The Friendly Alien, and is the city’s Art Museum. One of my favourite things when traveling so far has been finding the juxtaposition between the ancient and modern.

After our acquaintance with the city was formed, we loaded on the bus once more to a rural vineyard. A traditional meal was served, including some of the best cheeses I have consumed on this trip. As usual, we were running far ahead of schedule, so had time to walk out into the sunny field to munch on grapes we picked and nap. We tried five wines over the course of the evening tasting. However, the sturm I’d had with my meal was still the clear winner! Too bad the season ends soon.

Politics

Our Orientation program, to introduce us to a more serious side of Vienna, included a tour of parliament in addition to a political lecture from a well-spoken expert and a visit to OPEC. The presentation was very impressive, as the professor was cognisant of the international audience and able to make parallels between cultures, or contrast them, in terms of their world views. I feel like I can understand local Austrian behaviour and cultures in a better context, which makes living in Vienna that little bit more natural and comfortable.

Anyways, hurrah pictures!

Can you tell which house of the parliament had to be rebuilt after bombing in WWII?

OPEC pics, stolen from Joanne (I forgot my camera). They actually served us drinks and snacks before presenting their mandate to us in the very comfortable press room.  Also, I found out why there was a friendly police officer on my way to the doctor: he was standing at the entrance to OPEC! I’d walked past it twice before without realizing the significance of the building. This is Vienna, every building has something nifty or interesting to it. Hearing a Middle Eastern spin on oil and gas propaganda, instead of the normal Albertan, definitely entertained me. Business students were relatively friendly, but there were hippies in the audience on the attack the PR lady had to handle questions from. I think she faked that her English was worse than it really was to get out of parts...

We wanted to be Saudi Arabia, whee! Women may not be able to drive there yet, but they can vote, so why not?