The hills are alive with the sound of music : Vienna

It's been a fun 3 days in Budapest, but time to leave for the city of music and the arts ...

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Just in case we were feeling a little too comfortable and getting used to the quirks of eastern Europe, we were reminded of the wonderful logic that is prevalent here. For example: to travel westward (towards Vienna), you actually leave from the East station here in Budapest, and then arriving from the east in Vienna, you are actually going to arrive at Westbanhof (west station). Awesome. Luckily, a little bit of prior reading helped us to expect this but for the unsuspecting traveler, well, what an opportunity to miss trains!

 On the way to Vienna

 Budapest Keleti eastern railway station ... very ex-soviet

 Kind of love that things are falling apart a bit :-p

OBB (austrian national railway) train to Vienna

Our room in Wien (German spelling of Vienna) is unlocked with a code on the door which is great since it means no keys to lose. To make the most of our short 24hr stay, we bought a 24hr transit card at the train station. Three rides pretty much pay off the card, so it was a no-brainer. You can use it on any type of transit within Vienna city limits which includes the incredibly clean and efficient U-bahn (subway system), any of the dozens of tram lines all over, buses, and even commuter trains. I feel pretty comfortable in Wien even not really speaking that much German - I can do basics much better than I can in Hungarian.

Of all the cities that we've been to so far, I think Vienna matches my expectations the most. What I thought this city would look and feel like is exactly how it does look and feel - very neoclassical, very structured, very formal. As a city, things are rather spread apart aside from a few clusters of pedestrian-priority promenades with shops near the Museumsquarter. This being a city full of museums, we did indulge in a few of the most interesting ones ...

First, and the one I wanted to see the most: the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (aka the Austrian National Gallery). Why? The single largest collection of Klimt in the world, and plenty of Egon Schiele as well. A. had told me about how she felt when she first saw "The Kiss" with its incredible gold-leaf inlay. Over tea back in SF, I had told her about how I can appreciate the nuances and details of music, or the technicality of the visual arts, but I've never really had that same sweepingly emotional feeling when I see paintings or sculpture. "Go see Klimt", A. said, and after having done so I can say that I am inspired.

 I had never seen anything like it ... pictures do it no justice because simply the way it was presented in the gallery was in itself an art piece (many of the frames surrounding klimt's pieces were made by his brother who was a goldsmith). This painting is huge, was the only thing displayed on a matte black wall of its own, and was so dramatically lit from various angles.

Not my image: (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Gustav_Klimt_016.jpg/450px-Gustav_Klimt_016.jpg)

The Belvedere palace, where the pieces are held, is gorgeous in its own right. Built by a gay prince who wanted to outdo all other Austrian palaces (leave it to the gays to do pomp!), the building complimented the works displayed inside. As a patron of the arts, the prince wanted to collect, sponsor, and preserve the art of his country, leaving Austria with the Belvedere collection today.

 Excellent transit system in Vienna - the trams and the U-bahn subway system ... longest wait time is 5 minutes. Little things like frequent transit make cities so much more livable ... such a simple thing. If you make transit convenient, people will use it which helps fund the system and makes it even more user friendly. We all comment about how convenient it is to get around europe with its rail system and public transit networks, but then come back to the US and all vote to throw out all public transit funding and only put money towards car-dominated plans which don't contribute to pleasant, livable cities and neighborhoods. 

 The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, upper belvedere palace where the Klimt collection is held

 View from the palace to the gardens

Can you imagine looking at defining pieces of Austrian art in this kind of environment? So beautiful

What I liked most about the Belvedere Austrian National Gallery was that the artwork inside was not completely dominated by Baroque christian pieces (or the opposite ... "modern" art that's already been done). Instead, there was a perfect mix of romantic period landscape, Austrian-focused art through various time periods and empires, the Klimt collection, the drawings of Egon Schiele, and a tiny bit of modern Austrian art. I am inspired to try my hand at painting, or my favorite, oil pastel. I always never really thought I could do it, but realized that I had never really seriously tried.

Following the Belvedere, we took the tram to the museumsqarter to stop by the Hotel Sacher to try the world famous Sacher Torte

Car free streets mean lively neighborhoods - it's that simple

 Our original Sacher Torte ... favorite of the Austrian princess who personally stopped by to pick up her cake in the past

Washed down with a Viennese coffee ... and in Vienna, coffee is always served with a small glass of water (excellent tap water in Vienna, coming from the mountain reservoirs)

Interior of the Hotel Sacher

Walking around the Museumsquarter:

 The Spanish Horseriding School ... oookay?

Afterwards, we popped over to the astoundingly huge Austrian National Library. Part working library, part home to different museums/collections, it was a first for me to be in a library so grand. We bought a pass to the four main areas of interest: the state hall housing the prince's library, the papyrus museum, the globe collection, and the museum of Esperanto

State hall with the prince's library was amazing. While we were there, a film crew was working to document a special feature with a spokesperson from Google being interviewed. They were showing some of the oldest books in the collection (handled with white gloves, of course). We had seen a sign mentioning the Austrian library effort to digitize these historic books and put two and two together ... Google was probably helping to sponsor this immense project.

 Austrian National Library ... yes that whole thing, plus many more buildings behind it

The gate to the library

 The State Hall and Prince's Library

 Showing some old travel posters from the early 1900s trying to draw tourists to Austria

 Google spokesman being interviewed alongside Austrian National Library employee documenting the effort to digitize the historic books

A bit tired from running around all day, we walked through the naschmarkt which is a collection of semi-permanent stalls along a long pedestrian walkway. Lots of cafes to eat at, but craving something "Eastern", we had pho at a vietnamese place outdoors. Ian had fun watching the Japanese/Chinese ("it's all the same thing anyways") restaurant across the path fight with our waiters for customers, both trying to drawn them in. We picked the right spot though - the staff spoke Cantonese at our restaurant (along with Vietnamese, German, and English .. wow) but the owner/manager of the other place was some eastern european guy with a bad attitude. Roasted duck pho was spot on!

The naschtmarkt

The next morning we woke up to pouring rain outside and the coolest temps we've felt since leaving SF. 

 Rainy morning in Vienna ... put the built-in raincover over my Deuter backpack

Stopping for morning tea and a delicious apple strudel in the cutest shop ever which used to actually be the King's pharmacy! Three lower levels of caves under us

We quickly saw the Globe Museum (largest collection of old globes in the world) as well as the Esperanto museum. It's so incredible to think that way back in the day, the countries that had the most accurate maps had an advantage in exploring, conquering, and exploiting much of the world. I didn't know that globes were pretty much made of paper mache and plaster

Deflated globe 

Major shipping routes of the world

Esperanto museum was really interesting too, since as a fan of learning language I was already familiar with Esperanto as an attempt at creating a modern "universal" language that had common roots with many world languages and could easily be learned/understood by those who already spoke a romance, germanic, or slavic language. I was most surprised to learn that there were many attempts since Socrates' time to create a universal language. This all stems from the old legend that god split up mankind into many tongues as a punishment (tower of babel) so to once again speak a universal language would signify a return to harmony of the human spirit. Thought-provoking how today English, with all its terrible mishmash, lack of standardization, and myriad of grammatical and syntax exceptions is looked at as the closest to a modern "universally" used language ... 

Did you know that many brands today have Esperanto-based names? Take, for example, watch company Movado!

As the rain continues we are on the train to Prague. When the train arrived, everyone rushed for the doors so we hurried, confused, as well. Why were some of the train cars old, rickety, and white colored with Czech writing on the outside (nobody getting into these cars?) while others were red with the austrian OBB symbol? Inside was even worse. Our ticket says no reservation but after checking with the conductor we are in a cabin like all the others which says "reserved". And why was there so much commotion when we boarded? Either way, whether I can stay in our cabin or get kicked out and have to sit in the dining car, we'll get to Prague somehow. I'm just glad that we didn't do what one other group did: in the commotion and confusion, two girls of one group got off of the train to try to see a different train car, with their other friends still on board. Well, the train doors closed and we left from the platform, leaving them behind. I told Ian we are never to separate like they did! Such is the confusion of Eastern Europe - just like back in Budapest. 

Now to study my Czech phrases ...