Day 29 - Living the Good Life, Vienna Style

Hey Team,

Well, it's my last day in Vienna before I take a night train to Switzerland and a couple of mountains tomorrow.      Full day today as I went to a special Mass (see below), followed by a trip to a museum, a battle royale with a hot beverage, and then a couple of hours of cruising around looking at the sights.  Here's the rundown:

It's Sunday, so I went to Mass this morning at the Hofburg Palace (can't seem to get away from here for some reason).  This is the Augustinian Church and a crypt in here holds the hearts of many of the Hapsburg rulers.  Just the hearts though.  The bodies are elsewhere and a few have some other piece of them in another place somewhere in Vienna.  A little pretentious I thought but to each their own I guess.

Anyway, back to the Mass, they had a full choir and orchestra play the music.  Even thought the priest spoke in German, it was the first time I was ever happy that the service went on for over an hour and a half.

Remember the building that I stood in front of yesterday that I didn't know the name of.  Well, turns out I went there today.  It's called the Kunsthistorisches Museum or as I'm going to refer to it because I can't pronounce the other way, "the building that has the pretty pictures".

This is the main staircase.  This easily was the most beautiful museum I've been in since the Louvre.

It's so gorgeous in fact, that I'm going to give you another shot of the entryway.

This is what happens when you're a Centaur and the horse side of your brain wins the battle with the human side and you poop on the kitchen floor.  Very sad.

This was my favorite painting in the museum.  It was done by Raphael (the Turtle with the red bandanna (thanks for the correction Wilson) for those of you who forgot) and it's called Madonna of Belvedere.  Of course, this guy is considered one of the greatest Renaissance painters of all time.  Notice all of the triangles used to construct this image.  Bonus points for whoever finds "Where's Waldo".

Here we go again.  Beautiful girl, tons of personality and the only thing running through my brain is, "If she only had a head".

OK, who can pick out which one is me?  Anyone? I know. . . I couldn't figure it out either, and I took the picture.

BTW, since I blend in so well, this probably means you should start addressing me with a "Hail Caesar" or something like that whenever we hang out.  I am a just ruler though, so no kneeling before me is required.

This is city hall or as it's called here The Rathaus.  I found this highly amusing that the place where all the politicians in town hang out was called the Rat-haus.

The building compares favorably with Marienplatz in Munich even down to the little red flowers hanging off the windows.  I do dig their courthouses here in Central Europe.

And here's a shot of me almost drinking my first full cup of coffee.  This is a cup of Vienna Melange.  I really thought I was going to get it done, but I choked in the final seconds and gave away the easy victory in the end.




So, that's a wrap for Austria.  Tomorrow is Switzerland and the Alps, and maybe even a snowball or two.  Later. . .

Day 27 and 28 - Vienna: So It Turns Out They Do a Bit More Than Make Sausage

Hey Team,

Well the swing back west has begun as I made my way to Austria again.  I'm hopeful that there will be no more driving tickets like last time (mainly because I don't have a car), so hopefully, this visit will be much more pleasant.  As I said on my last post, Day 27 was a scheduled day of rest.  I hadn't really had one since Paris, so I took the time to get to Vienna and then to catch up on some blogging and administrative stuff regarding the trip.

It's really amazing how much time is spent on this trip setting up hostels, trains, activities, etc.  Good thing I'm not really anal or nit picky about stuff or it could take a really long time.

Well anyway, it was hard taking the day off, because I hated wasting the time, but truthfully I needed a break to recharge the batteries.  So Day 28, I was ready to go full steam.  I had a full day of activities planned and I'm glad to say I hit all of them.  Here's the rundown...

So before I could get started, I had this desire to look at table settings (my passion in life as you all know).

Unfortunately, Crate and Barrel is not big over here so I had to pay 10 euro to go find something suitable to my very refined tastes.

This is at the Hofburg Palace which was the home to the Hapsburg Rulers that we discussed in the Budapest posts.  Vienna was the main seat of their empire and they ruled this area for centuries.

This was all of the silver and plating for the palace.  In all seriousness, even I enjoyed looking at it.

So this is about 5% of the candlesticks that this room showed.  Pretty sure they didn't use all of them at once so it seemed a little overboard, but if there's ever a blackout, we all know where to go

Here's a shot of part of the Hofburg Palace.  Needless to say, this things a little bigger than your average house.

It was impossible to get the whole thing in one shot, so here's a model of the entire complex.  The picture above is that piece in the upper middle.

Here's how much of a snob I've become on this trip.  I took a tour of the rooms where the royalty lived.  I saw this and thought, "That's it?  This is what these people are bringing to the table?  They wouldn't let the serfs live in this place at Versailles."

It is a bit more plain, however, they made up for it in a different part of the palace.  So nobody panic.  Royalty still spends an inordinate amount of the lands they rule's money making sure their 4th personal toilet has a fresco painted on it or something similarly important.

So after the Imperial Apartments, I went to this other museum at the Hofburg, the Treasury.  It has a ton of stuff from the Holy Roman Empire including the crown jewels.  I thought this piece was most interesting though.  The spear to the left is The Holy Lance, which, it is quite possible, could have been the spear used to pierce Jesus' side at Golgotha.  There's no way to prove this definitively and when I read it, I thought, "Yeah right".  But I went and looked it up and they did some extensive studies that indicate it is highly likely that it is a 1st century Roman weapon.  Again, you'll never know, but it's been in the possession of the Holy Roman Empire and now Austria for over a 1000 years, so regardless, it's pretty cool.  What I thought was amazing is that it was just sitting in the corner of this one room.  No fanfare, just hanging out in this glass case.  I would have thought there would have been neon signs and a mime pointing the way or something like that.

Here's where the pretty part of the Palace is.  This is all marble and fine woods and stuff.  It's so white and bright you almost feel like you're walking in a cloud.  They totally redeemed their selves here as I thought this was better than anything I saw at Versailles

This area of the Palace housed the museums of the very similar antique instruments, armory, and Ancient Ephesus artwork.  As you may know, Vienna is the mecca of classical music.  Even before Mozart, Strauss, and Beethoven, traveling minstrels in the Middle Ages would frequent and be patronized by the folks of Vienna.  The music vibe in Vienna was my favorite part of this city (I went to two concerts while I was here).  This is a shot of the composition of instrument of a later Viennese orchestra.

Next was the Armory Museum which had the most impressive display of armor I'd seen on the trip.  This put Invalides in Paris to shame.

You can see from the shot here that torturing horses was a favorite past time in the Middle Ages.

If you remember from close to the beginning of the blog, I showed you a picture of a bunch of armored guys where one of them was way smaller than the others.  Well I found out what that was today.

Apparently in the Middle Ages, instead of buying your kid football gear or a fireman outfit, you had a custom suit of armor made for them.  So if you're looking to one up that Mom at preschool who just won't zip it about how awesome her little Johnny is, buy your munchkin one of these.  That'll shut her up for at least 20 minutes, maybe even 30.

Come on dude.  Seriously?  This is too much even for me and you're talking to someone who was forced to wear an absurdly ridiculous baseball banana cup everyday of his life for about 15 or so years.

What I want to know is who let this guy out of the house looking like this.  He must have had no friends (which honestly, is anyone surprised) because if he did, they would have beat the crap out of him the second he walked into the room.

This was the look on everybody's face when the knight from above showed up (uninvited of course) to their house party ("Ladies. . Hot tub?  Hot Tub. . Ladies?")

Here's a shot of a relief from the Ephesus art exhibit.  Ephesus was in present day Turkey and was the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, The Temple of Artemis.  It was a major player in the Ancient World and is the city in Paul's Epistles to the Ephesians.

I want to tell you what building this is, but I honestly don't know.  I always get in trouble for not being in the pictures so I thought, "This looks important.  I'll take one here".

Mozart Statue Alert!!  While born in Salzburt Mozart did a lot of his best stuff here in Vienna.  This is also where he died.  Like I said, they love their musicians here and they know the tourists know it too.  You have to be careful when picking a concert here, because if you don't pay attention, you'll be watching some freshman music major and a couple of his buds in perfumed wigs playing a fifth hand version of the Marriage of Figaro for the low low price of 30 euros.

So here I am on vacation, just minding my own business, when some yahoo starts flapping his gums about tuna sandwiches at this place here in Vienna.  "They famous throughout Europe" and whatnot.  I informed this guy that he shouldn't be so careless with his boasting because he happened to be in the presence of a world famous tuna sandwich artist.  I went over to see what all the fuss was about and it will come as no surprise to all of you who have had the pleasure, nay the honor, of sitting down to a meal of my "Tuna Surprise" that this stuff came in a very distant second.  They tried so hard too, I almost felt bad for them..

So that night, I splurged a little and went to a classical concert at the Hofburg Palace performed by the Wiener Hofburg Orchester (Wien is how you say Vienna in German).  It wasn't my favorite classical music, mainly a lot of waltzes and polkas by Strauss and Mozart, but this is what Vienna is famous for.  I had a great time and really enjoyed the whole show.

Here's the Hofburg Palace at night.  Quite a sight.

This is the full orchestra at the Redoutensaal Room.  Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Strauss, and Mozart all performed in this very place.  Very cool.

Day 26 - No Thermal Baths (sigh), but a Good Day Nonetheless

Hey Team,

Like I said in the last post, weather was really bad on Day 2 so I had some ground to make up on my final day in town.  While it was still quite cold, I caught a break with the rain, so I got a full day in of sightseeing.  Here's the shots.

This is the Budapest Great Synagogue.  I had never been inside of one before and I picked a good one to go in.  This is the 2nd largest in the world next to the one in NYC.

This is the Hungarian Parliament Building on the Pest side.  In keeping with the theme from the last picture, this is the 2nd largest one in all of Europe next to Parliament in London.  This was really the only disappointment of the day, as I couldn't get inside.  691 rooms and they don't have room for me.  I don't get it.  Don't these people know who I am?

This is a national memorial for the 1956 Uprising I talked about yesterday.  If you look closely, you'll notice a big hole in the middle of the flag.  Under communist rule, an emblem was placed in the middle of the old Hungarian flag.  One of the protesters, during the uprising, hastily cut it out.  This symbolizes that here.  The one constant I've found in all of the former Eastern Block countries is their intense loathing of everything involved with Communism.  Young and old, they all get this really sharp glint in the eye when it gets brought up.  I'm not sure if they just dislike the movement or Russians, but if I was one, I'd think real hard before coming for a visit. . . or practice my Australian accent.  Seriously, I've met more Australians than all the other countries combined.  They are a ton of fun by the way.  Haven't met one yet who wasn't immediately ready to treat you like your best friend.

Here's the front of St. Istvan's Church.  Like everything else of note in this town, it was built for the 1896 Millennium Celebration. I was excited to see it for no other reason than it was not a Gothic design.

Here's the inside shot.  More modern looking with domes and marble and everything.  If I see another gargoyle or flying buttress, I'm going to go have to temporarily become a Protestant I think.

So it's not easy to see, but this is the Holy Right Hand of St. Istvan. Yes, you too can come to Budapest and go check out the 1000 year old appendage for the low low price of $2.  And if you tip the nice old man who pushes the button to light up the box here, he'll go through a 30 second spiel telling you this is the Holy Right Hand of St. Istvan.

Apparently in an effort to make some extra cash, the church had to choose between this or renaming the church St. Macy's at the In And Out Burger Basilica presented by Citi.  Good call I think.

The cafe scene in Budapest is similar to Vienna.  I went to this famous cafe called Gerbaud's.  As you can see, I've been following a very strict diet on my travels.

Here's a detail shot of the Chain Bridge.  The Scarecrow still refuses to visit the city in protest for being passed over for this spot here.

I crossed the Bridge and went over to the Buda side of town.  This is a shot across the water of the Parliament Building.  As you can see, this is no joke of a building.  As you can see, Pest is flat as a pancake.  Buda on the other hand. . .

. . .is quite hilly.  Here's a look at the Buda Hills.  Interesting fact of the day.  The English word "booty" comes from the Hungarian word "Buda" which means "large and volumptuous".

I know what you're thinking.  "Kenny, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.  There's no way anyone is going to buy that . . no way.  These posts used to be ok, but now you're reaching. . . . . But it would be just like him to put that in and it actually be true.  No, no way.  But maybe. . . Crap, now I have to go look it up ($%!@? Jerk)".

This is St. Matthias which is a Gothic Church, but it's a different kind.  For one it's not absurdly huge, and secondly, the outside displays some Asian influences. Unfortunately, like most of Europe it's seemed, there's a lot of restoring going on.  Takes quite a bit away from the shot, but you can see the entrance on the left.  Very pretty.

These tower looking things may be younger than me, but I thought they looked cool so they made the blog.  This is right outside of the church.

So no post about Budapest would be complete without a shot of my new friends from favorite hostel so far, the Budapest Bubble.  You're looking at a regular international convention here with no less than 5 or 6 countries represented (and a ton of Australians of course).  This group was the first time I felt like I was hanging out with people I'd known for more than 2 or 3 days.  Very family type atmosphere and we had a great time together.

This shot was at what is called a "Ruin Pub", which are a few buildings thoughout Pest that were left to rot by the Communist regime.  After they left, some folks picked them up and turned them into these really cool bars.  These places are huge, like a whole building.  The best way to describe this one is to compare it to the best frat house you've ever been in.  Room after room of couches and chairs and good music and stuff like that.  Really good time.

All the best to all of yall and safe travels going forward.  I'll be in touch.

Tomorrow is a scheduled day of rest for me.  I haven't really had one in a good three weeks, so I'm going to catch a train to Vienna tomorrow and then do nothing else afterwards.  Next post will be for the next 2 days then.  Later. . .

Day 24 and 25 - Europe's Most Underrated City

Hey Team,

After a brief pause for some serious stuff we're back with our normally scheduled programming.  Left Poland behind and headed toward Hungary and it's capitol city of Budapest (Buda-Pesht).  This town is awesome.  And when I say it's awesome I mean it is probably #2 on the list of places I've been on the trip.  This is truly one of the great European cities on the continent.

Everything here is just a little different than everywhere else I've been.  All around is a sea of Slavic and Germanic people and then you have Hungary.  Their ancestors are descended from a nomadic tribe from the Central Asia steppes called the Magyars.  They speak Hungarian (obviously) which is not anything at all like anything else around it.  Speak German, French, Spanish, and English.  Great, won't help you at all.  You're more likely to understand someone from India (Indo-European language) than you are somebody from Hungary.  While the original inhabitants are thoroughly integrated with Europe (very little physical differences between everywhere else I've gone) there is just a different feel to the country.

The Danube River, one of the major rivers in Europe, cuts this city in half.  In fact Budapest is actually two cities put together.  On one side of the river is hilly Buda and on the other is flat Pest.  I about a 20 minutes walk from the Danube on the Pest side.

Budapest is the second capitol of the later Habsburg Dynasty or the Austro-Hungarian Empire along with the main capital of Vienna.  I don't know if I was sleeping during this portion of History class but I remember very little being discussed about these guys.  I know we talked about them, but it took up about a half a page and then we went back to talking about England or something like that.  This is what they did though:  From Wikipedia

Their principal roles were as:

• King of the Romans
• Holy Roman Emperors
• Rulers of Austria (as Dukes 1282–1453, Archdukes)
• Kings of Bohemia (1306–1307, 1437–1439, 1453–1457, 1526–1918),
• Kings of Hungary and Croatia (1437–1439, 1445–1457, 1526–1918),
• Kings of Spain (1516–1700),
• Kings of Portugal (1580–1640),
• Kings of Galicia and Lodomeria (1772–1918), and
• Grand Princes of Transylvania (1690–1867).

Other crowns held briefly by the House included:

• King of England (1554–1558)
• Emperor of Mexico (1864–1867)
• King of Lombardy-Venice (1815–1867)
• King of Poland (1916–1918)

 They were major players for 600 straight years until Franz Ferdinand (not the singer people), who was next in line for the throne,was assassinated, which set off WWI.  Like I said, they were a big deal and Budapest was a major hub for a lot of it. For centuries empires have often considered Budapest to be the barrier between East and West, and you can see the influences of both in their architecture.  

My only disappointment with the town was the weather.  It was cold.  For all the northern folk it probably was not a big deal (39 degrees) but for someone who doesn't need all of his fingers to count how many times he's seen snow, this was not comfortable.  On top of that, Day 2 was that temperature and raining which really put a crimp on my sightseeing plans, which is why I've combined the two days instead of doing just one.  Here's some shots of my walking around.

This is a shot of the Hungarian Royal Palace in Buda. It's apparently a shell of it's former self as it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over.  Today it houses a museum instead of the Royal Family.

This is a shot of the Chain Bridge, the prettiest bridge spanning the Danube in town.  I'm on the Pest (flat) side looking at Buda (hilly).

Here's a shot of St. Istvan's (Stephen) Basilica in Pest.  I'll have a better shot later, but I wanted to include a picture that had some blue in it rather than the cold cold cold (did I mention cold) clouds that I've been seeing for the last week or so.

This was my first stop, The Hall of Terror.  As I said, Hungary has had a very colorful history.  Because it's at the crossroads of abutting empires, it's been destroyed and rebuilt more than any other place I've visited.  This used to be the home for both the local Nazi and Communist strong armers.  If you didn't like the government, often times you were taken here and "taught a lesson".  Unfortunately, that lesson often was torture and death.

It has now been turned into a museum that shows what kind of atrocities where committed against the populace.

They wouldn't allow pictures but I snuck this one. These are the actual gallows that were used after the 1956 uprising against the communists.  Hundreds were killed or executed after the Russians came into the main square of Budapest with tanks to face off against the populace who were armed with home made bombs and simple rifles.  The year 1956 is a big deal in Hungary and we'll see several other shots that deal with remembering this unsuccessful resistance to communism.

This is a shot of Hero's Square which celebrates the 1000th anniversary of the Magyars inhabiting Hungary.  Half of the beautiful buildings in Budapest were built to commemorate this anniversary which was in 1896.  All of the statues in the monument are the key players in the Hungarian Hall of Fame.  Unlike Cooperstown and Canton, requirements for admittance requires that you've been dead for at least 100 years and look good riding a horse.

Here's a detailed shot of the original leader of the "Hungarians".  This is Arpad in the middle everyone.  He's not considered the founder of the Hungarian Kingdom, but he is thought of as the originator of the Hungarians, thus why he is assuming the top spot on the monument.

This is the backside of the monument.  I just liked this shot.

And now we get to the really awesome part of the day folks.  What's this you ask?  Could it be a nice church?  Maybe some government building?  Nope.  This is what the entrance to their swimming pool looks like.  Actually it's a bit more than a pool.  These are the world famous Szechyeni Thermal Baths.  Inside of here is basically an Olympic Pool sized Jacuzzi.  Apparently, Budapest is sitting on top of these huge thermal springs that supply therapeutic baths to the populace.  It was the coolest thing I did in Budapest.

Here's the pool.  Remember, it was below 40 outside and there are 50 people out here just hanging out.  There are three different pools and they are all at different temperatures getting up to a little over 100 degrees or so.  I stayed in the hottest pool.  While I was there I ran into two girls from DC who were over the age of 20 (this has been a rarity.  Surprisingly, I have found that not a lot of people at my point in life are not taking seven week vacations).  We chatted for a while and ended up going to dinner and hanging out.  They had to leave the next morning but I had a blast hanging out with some American folks for a change.

Here's a shot of Alyssa, who was one of the girls I hung out with.  The other was Alice who unfortunately was behind the camera instead of in the shot with us.  This is a picture of my first round with the drink Absinthe, which was outlawed in the USA until 2007 apparently.  As I said, we had a great time and I was sorry to see them leave so soon.

By the way, there is no chlorine in this thing so no peeing in the pool people.  Actually they don't use chlorine because the water is not recycled.  It is replaced continuously from the underground bath.  They do put certain therapeutic agents in the water, and you can actually subsidize paying to go to the pool for medicinal purposes.

If you go to Hungary, this is the thing you absolutely have to do to live like the locals.  Young, old, male, female. . .  I saw everyone here.  So if you're ever in Budapest, go to the Baths. . .

Just think, this too could be you one day. . .