I saw Vienna the same week as the last three cities. It was a very busy week with a stop back in Od for the start of my German class in Rosenheim. Fortunately, in Vienna, I was staying with the best friend of my hostmom and so I had someone to pick me up from the train and show me around!
My first day Christine, Caro (baby) and I went for a walk through Vienna to see the Museums Quarter, the main shopping streets (Vienna has GREAT shopping) and we ate lunch at a cool cafe that sits suspended over the canal. I took the streetcar to the Belvedere Palace to see Klimt's works. A couple years ago my dad found two prints at the side of the road and hung them in our TV room. i always thought they looked a bit like Klimt but no one took me seriously. Well, guess what the first print on display is at the Belvedere Palace Museum is? It made me homesick! And I got in trouble for taking photographic evidence. I managed to see the entire Klimt collection and a few more in an hour and then had to run to make it to the meeting point for the Third Man tour. The Third Man is considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It's about a bombed out Vienna and the black market for watered down Penicillin. The best scenes of the movie are set in the sewer tunnels and underground canals of Vienna. Orson Welles was paid a huge amount of money to star as the main character, even though he is actually only on-screen for about 10 minutes. It's hugely famous in the English speaking world, but although set in Vienna, not a lot of Austrians know much about it. Except my tour guide. His mother was a huge fan and decided to write a book about it. You can buy that after the tour for 45 euros. She loved it so much she decided to show the film weekly. The venture has now expanded to a museum, that her daughters run. Her son does the walking tours, and in Summer, the canal tours too. One big, happy, family obsession. But a really cool tour. He gave us a lot of info about the city's history. I was there with a New Zealander living in Vienna, a Swiss man on holiday, and another lady from Bavaria!
After that I managed to get myself lost while only being 2 minutes from the place I was staying (I am so used to cities with a grid plan!) When I got back to Christine's they ordered Wienerschnitzel for me to try! It's kind of like if fish and chips was veal instead of fish. Lecker!
The next morning we walked a few blocks to the famous Nashmarkt, a flea market and permanent, daily farmer's market that has been in Vienna for hundreds of years. The stalls are flanked by cafes and we had breakfast in a cafe with a DJ! At 9 am! It was a fantastic people watching spot. After that I hopped on the Ubahn to visit Schönbrunn Palace. It's a beautiful palace with amazing grounds. Apparently Roman ruins were very trendy at the time of Marie Therese (mother of Marie Antoinette) so there are all these fake Roman ruins hidden throughout the gardens. The palace itself is bright yellow and looks great on a sunny day. Vienna loves the princess Sisi that was married to Prince Franz Joseph. She had hair down to her ankles and apparently spend 4 hours a day on it. She also never allowed any photos of herself after age 40. And she often didn't eat, it was noted. She was 15 when she married Franz Joseph and it sounds like that made her a very bitter, self-obsessed lady. For some reason he seemed to still really love her.
From there I visited the Freud museum! It was really the best afternoon ever because on my way there I found a Mexican restaurant and finally fulfilled my 2 month long craving for guacamole. The museum was really well done. It's small, but it's not expensive (which is uncommon in Vienna. The art museum was 16 euro plus 4 euro for audioguide!) and had tons of info. They had an exhibit on about Freud's love of travelling. He visited Italy some 30 times! He sent postcards home almost every day and they had then on display. It was really interesting picturing Freud as a fairly healthy human, with a family and interests and more than just a couch. He actually had a great sense of humour! There was also a list of ll the telegrams sent between the American secretary of state and British embassy securing the safe emigration of Freud, his family, and 10 other people that worked for him. In the end the Princess of Greece escorted him to England! Talk about friends in high places!
I walked home through the main shopping streets. It's like the architecture of Paris with the lights and signs of Time's square. The H&M there is all dark wood moldings and an old fashioned gated elevator. There is a famous chocolate store that made a giant 2-foot Faberge egg with a suspension bridge inside entirely out of sugar. You can actually go into the kitchen to watch the bakers (there were 15!) at work!
On Sunday morning we got up early to eat breakfast on the patio of a restaurant set in a butterfly conservatory at the Albertina Museum. I said goodbye to Christine and Caro and then stopped by the Art History museum to see the collection of Faberge eggs from Russia on display. They had the original of the egg made by the chocolate factory! Then back on the train home for a vacation from my vacation.
Great news for my next big trip though! In April I've been invited to join my hostfamily in the Netherlands!
My first day Christine, Caro (baby) and I went for a walk through Vienna to see the Museums Quarter, the main shopping streets (Vienna has GREAT shopping) and we ate lunch at a cool cafe that sits suspended over the canal. I took the streetcar to the Belvedere Palace to see Klimt's works. A couple years ago my dad found two prints at the side of the road and hung them in our TV room. i always thought they looked a bit like Klimt but no one took me seriously. Well, guess what the first print on display is at the Belvedere Palace Museum is? It made me homesick! And I got in trouble for taking photographic evidence. I managed to see the entire Klimt collection and a few more in an hour and then had to run to make it to the meeting point for the Third Man tour. The Third Man is considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It's about a bombed out Vienna and the black market for watered down Penicillin. The best scenes of the movie are set in the sewer tunnels and underground canals of Vienna. Orson Welles was paid a huge amount of money to star as the main character, even though he is actually only on-screen for about 10 minutes. It's hugely famous in the English speaking world, but although set in Vienna, not a lot of Austrians know much about it. Except my tour guide. His mother was a huge fan and decided to write a book about it. You can buy that after the tour for 45 euros. She loved it so much she decided to show the film weekly. The venture has now expanded to a museum, that her daughters run. Her son does the walking tours, and in Summer, the canal tours too. One big, happy, family obsession. But a really cool tour. He gave us a lot of info about the city's history. I was there with a New Zealander living in Vienna, a Swiss man on holiday, and another lady from Bavaria!
After that I managed to get myself lost while only being 2 minutes from the place I was staying (I am so used to cities with a grid plan!) When I got back to Christine's they ordered Wienerschnitzel for me to try! It's kind of like if fish and chips was veal instead of fish. Lecker!
The next morning we walked a few blocks to the famous Nashmarkt, a flea market and permanent, daily farmer's market that has been in Vienna for hundreds of years. The stalls are flanked by cafes and we had breakfast in a cafe with a DJ! At 9 am! It was a fantastic people watching spot. After that I hopped on the Ubahn to visit Schönbrunn Palace. It's a beautiful palace with amazing grounds. Apparently Roman ruins were very trendy at the time of Marie Therese (mother of Marie Antoinette) so there are all these fake Roman ruins hidden throughout the gardens. The palace itself is bright yellow and looks great on a sunny day. Vienna loves the princess Sisi that was married to Prince Franz Joseph. She had hair down to her ankles and apparently spend 4 hours a day on it. She also never allowed any photos of herself after age 40. And she often didn't eat, it was noted. She was 15 when she married Franz Joseph and it sounds like that made her a very bitter, self-obsessed lady. For some reason he seemed to still really love her.
From there I visited the Freud museum! It was really the best afternoon ever because on my way there I found a Mexican restaurant and finally fulfilled my 2 month long craving for guacamole. The museum was really well done. It's small, but it's not expensive (which is uncommon in Vienna. The art museum was 16 euro plus 4 euro for audioguide!) and had tons of info. They had an exhibit on about Freud's love of travelling. He visited Italy some 30 times! He sent postcards home almost every day and they had then on display. It was really interesting picturing Freud as a fairly healthy human, with a family and interests and more than just a couch. He actually had a great sense of humour! There was also a list of ll the telegrams sent between the American secretary of state and British embassy securing the safe emigration of Freud, his family, and 10 other people that worked for him. In the end the Princess of Greece escorted him to England! Talk about friends in high places!
I walked home through the main shopping streets. It's like the architecture of Paris with the lights and signs of Time's square. The H&M there is all dark wood moldings and an old fashioned gated elevator. There is a famous chocolate store that made a giant 2-foot Faberge egg with a suspension bridge inside entirely out of sugar. You can actually go into the kitchen to watch the bakers (there were 15!) at work!
On Sunday morning we got up early to eat breakfast on the patio of a restaurant set in a butterfly conservatory at the Albertina Museum. I said goodbye to Christine and Caro and then stopped by the Art History museum to see the collection of Faberge eggs from Russia on display. They had the original of the egg made by the chocolate factory! Then back on the train home for a vacation from my vacation.
Great news for my next big trip though! In April I've been invited to join my hostfamily in the Netherlands!