Pre-semester Trip (Part 3)

Vienna

Day 2

We started the day with a tram tour around the ring street (district). I hate taking trams or buses in Europe during summer simply because there was no air-con!! Poor ventilation inside the vehicle. Honestly, I do not find anything great about the ring district except for endless line of trees along the street.

Next stop: Stephansdom. Another cathedral, but this one had impressive exterior athough it had stood since the 10th century. Interior was normal. I’ve never really been able to appreciate cathedrals and churches so I was not particularly impressed here. At the open space outside the cathedral, we were persuaded by a concert promoter to purchase tickets for a classical performance at 8:30 pm in the evening. All of us except Shaowei agreed to give it a try and we paid an extravagant 23 euros.

At 12, we watched this special clock which had saints which paraded for 10 minutes every 12 noon.

I grabbed a quick lunch at a roadside stall. They really have very loooooooooooooonngg sausage. The way it was presented was a bit obscene though. One edge of the hotdog bun was cut off and the remaining long piece was inserted into a drill-like machine which made a hole in the bun. The sausage was then inserted into this bun. S-exciting stuff.

Vienna has always been famous for its special coffee called mélange. Basically, it is a mixture of cappucino and hot chocolate. We went to Café Hawelda which was supposedly very famous for this coffee. I thought it tasted normal, albeit a bit lighter than the usual cappuccino, and the 3.40 euros I forked out for it was a bit too steep.

We then went to the cemetery where the tombs of Mozart, the Strauss family and Beethoven were located. Each tomb in this cemetery had its own design and was very well-maintained.

Belvedere Palace was our next destination. After a few palaces and gardens, I was starting to get sick of having to visit another palace. Somehow, they all looked the same to me at this point. We took many stupid photos while resting on the grass patch outside the Austrian National Library which was in the same complex.

We ended the evening with a bang. Initially, I had this apprehension that we might have been cheated by that guy on the street. This was not helped when we stepped into the concert hall which had quite poor seats and poor lighting. The guy mentioned air-con in the concert hall, but there was only the natural one. Luckily, once the concert commenced, it totally proved me wrong. The pieces put up by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra never failed to mesmerize me throughout the night. They did not play the whole length of a piece as it would have put all of us to sleep. The music changed every now and then and occasionally, was accompanied by soprano or tenor solo/duet as well as ballet dancers. Good stuff. I had been waiting for something different other than museums/castles/palaces. Good way to end our trip to Vienna.

Prague

By the time I reached Prague I was really quite tired of travelling already. I was in no mood to explore museums/palaces/castles. I did not really enjoy myself as much in Prague, but to be fair, Prague is a beautiful city with plenty of romantic restaurants. I would probably have enjoyed it more if it was my first destination.

We did minimal sightseeing and the pace was pretty slow. The famous Charles Bridge was bustling with many street performers, artists, painters, etc. There were many restaurants on both side of the river bank.

Anyway, the food here is relatively cheap compared to those in the previous cities. For comparison sake, 1 plate of beef goulash here cost me about 3-4 euros while I would have paid double elsewhere. If you were to visit Prague, you must have dinner at Restaurant Olympia. It is dirt cheap and the portion is ridiculously big. I paid a total of 8 euros for a plate of roasted rabbit, an appetizer of pork crackling and 1 pine of Pilsner beer. Shiok.

We visited Prague castle on our second day, but the only thing worth noticing here was another cathedral called Saint Vita.

In the evening, I decided to split from the group and took a stroll with Sinhui. We had dinner at one of the restaurants by the riverbank. Nice ambience, quality food. Paid 26 euros in total, but once in a long while, at the right place with the right person, it is worth it.

pre-semester trip (part 2)

Finally I have access to internet!! Internet is like a luxury here. In school there is wifi which does not seem to work. My hostel is a piece of shit although it is not as bad as I had expected it to be (of course, there's no internet connection). I am at mcdonalds now to eat dinner and access the wifi. Anyway, I will post some photos of the hostel in a separate post.

Ok now I shall continue with an update of my trip to central/eastern Europe.

Innsbruck

Small town but arguably one of the best places I visited. The highlight of this city is the rocky mountains called Hungerberg. We went up by a cable car and the view from the top of the mountain was simply breathtaking.

Lunch at the top of the mountain was superb. I paid 7,60 euros for this plate of mixed salad with duck breast meat.

Salzburg

This town in Austria was where the famous musical "Sound of Music" based its storyline and where the film was shot. This town was also the birthplace of Mozart.

Day 1

We started the day visiting Mirabell Garden which was one of the spots used in the SOM movie. Trust me, you'll never find flowers as beautiful as those in Europe. Botanic Garden can just go and eat "merde". After lunch, After lunch, I visited the Mozart Geburtshaus where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born. From the background information I read, Europeans during that period believed that hot water was especially harmful for the body as it opened up pores that allow bad air to get into the body. The Mozart family was one of the few families who still bathed (the rest did dry scrubbing).

Mozart Wohnhaus was Mozart's second home where he grew up. This museum was not to be visited for people who cannot appreciate music. When the audio guide started talking about C Major or D Major..blah..blah..blah..i was like HUH? I understood almost nothing after more than one hour in this museum.

Then the weather turned nasty and I experienced hailstorm for the first time in my life. It so happened that I was under an umbrella, but I held it so close to my head that I could feel some “gravels” hit my head. Initially I thought the wind was so strong that it blew the gravels from the flower beds in the balcony of the houses nearby. Then it dawned on me that it was raining ice. Still not convinced enough that what I saw was true, I picked one ice gravel and indeed, it melted on my hand.

Day 2

Some of us spent the whole morning watching the Sound of Music movie at the TV room since we were going for the SOM tour in the afternoon. I thought the movie was too slow and dramatic for my liking. The tour itself was not fantastic. It was quite a waste of money especially for the extravagant 33 euros I paid. The tour guide was trying very hard to be funny and entertaining but her British jokes were just too much for me to swallow.

Well, at least I learnt some stuff about the movie:
1. Hollywood used 2 houses for Captain Trapp’s villa. Leopoldskron was a house by the lake used to film the back of the house.

2. The gazebo was moved from Leopoldskron to Hellbrunn palace.
3. Eldest child of Captain Von Trapp was a boy and not a girl as depicted in the movie.
4. The von Trapp family did not escape from Nazi by hiking the mountain; instead they took a train to Italy.
5. Christopher Plummer did not sing Edeilweiss.

The row of trees in Mondsee used to film the kids hanging down when Captain was driving back with the Baronette.

I had apple strudel when we stopped by at Mondsee. Rather costly at 5.40 euros. After that, we headed back to Mirabell Garden where the tour ended.

Day 3

Our first destination was Hellbrunn which has a topological feature of water spurting out of the garden. The compound consisted of the palace, the trick fountain and the Schloss Garden. The trick fountain left a special impression on me. As the word suggested, there are a lot of water surprises as we walked around the compound. There was a dinner table made of stone which could seat 8 people. This table was used by the then archbishop to host his friends. As soon as his friends were drunk, he would secretly turn on the fountain which would spurt out from the middle of the seat right into the ass(h**e). Funky dude. Haha.

There was this water jet that was so forceful that it could lift up an object weighing 7 pounds. There was also this tunnel of criss-crossing water jets that we had to go through to get out of a cave. I naively thought there was no trick so I stood in the middle of the tunnel to pose for a picture and before I knew it, there were jets of water shooting on my ass from behind. Damn paiseh cos there were a lot of people watching and laughing at me.

Schloss garden and the palace were not special. Only after we climbed up to higher grounds then we could see a better view of the garden.

Next stop was the Salzburg Zoo. This zoo really simulated the natural habitat of the animals. Actually there was nothing much in this zoo except a few exotic animals I never saw before, such as the very cute prairie dogs and Llama which is a horse with human-like hair (which is funkier than any of ours) which perhaps could only be found in fantasy movies.

We had to rush to Feschtung Hohensalzburg which was a fortress because it would be closing at 7 pm. By the time we reached there, it was already 5:30 pm. The journey up to the fortress was torturous as the slope was really steep (took about 15 minutes). My knees were really giving way after so much climbing within the past week. We toured the torture chamber and the salt chamber in the fortress and saw models of how the fortress had evolved over the years. Sinhui and I managed to get the entry to the observation point which provided us with a breathtaking panoramic view of Salzburg.

Vienna

Day 1

We stayed at Wombats the Lounge which was apparently one of the world’s best youth hostel. And its reputation is well-earned. The room and toilet were indeed in top condition. Service was excellent; two thumbs up, I would give more if I could.

Our first destination was Nachmarkt which is a flea market selling many different asian spices as well as local delicacies. After much contemplation, we settled for a restaurant which served Tafelspitz which was a dish recommended by a Viennese we met on the train. Tafelspitz is basically boiled beef of which the meat was taken from the neck of a cow. I would say it was not very special but apparently the locals love it. I also shared a plate of beef goulash which is a kind of Austrian curry cooked with tender beef. I love this dish! Eugene ordered this drink called “sturm” which is half-wine half-water (simply put) but it was actually a wine which is ‘halfway through’ to become a ‘real’ wine.

Tafelspitz

Beef Goulash

We then headed for Schonbrunn palace (again!). We toured around the rooms but I could not recall much after listening to the audioguide. Besides, the weather was super hot and it was stuffy inside the palace, especially with such a big crowd. All I could remember now was that one of the kings called Franz Josef had many children who suffered terrible deaths.

Privy garden next to the palace was not special as well. Just more flowers. The life-size maze was the only other interesting thing. At 6 plus, we proceeded to the Gloriette which was the highest point in the castle. Walking uphill was again a torture; my knees totally gone. Up on the gloriette, we had a nice panoramic view of Vienna. And since we had nothing much to do up there, we ended up taking stupid photos in silhouette. The girls posed as “charlie’s angels” while the guys posed as “apes in evolution”. A German engineer who happened to be there even asked us to pose for his SLR.

Could you see me?

Cool playground they had there.

The Gloriette

Update on Day 2 and Prague will follow soon. Stay tuned.

Pre-Semester Trip

Greetings from Salzburg, Austria! Since I have a little bit of free time now, I shall make a brief update of my pre-SEP trip. Other than Salzburg, so far I have been to Geneva, Munich and Innsbruck. Geneva has nothing much except for the famous "jet d'eau" or fountain which shoots really high and of course, for the UN headquarter.

Munich

Munich is a city rich in history. I took a city tour and I learnt that 80% of the buildings and architecture has been reconstructed after the post World War 2 destruction. They were built in the same way as before they were demolished so I actually would not realise this if I didn't have a guide with me. Interestingly, the old town hall is "newer" than the new town hall. I walked through the exact spot where Hitler was once shot and then ran away during his attempt to rise to power. There were not many memorials to commemorate the end of WW2, partly because the Germans wanted to close this dark chapter in their history. So, memorials came in very subtle forms such as a long yellow line on an alley which honoured the anti-Nazi activists who once marched through this path before they were eventually condemned to death.

Of course, I did not forget to go the famous Hofbrauhaus to soak in the atmosphere for dinner. This place was officially the birth place of Nazism. I ordered a pork knuckle and beer at a reasonable 7 euros. The service was super lousy though. The waiter was very rude and unfriendly. He refused to take our orders till we tipped him 2 euros. In the end, our bill amounted to 33.60 euros. I gave 50 and only got back 15 euros change. The rest went to his pocket as a self-imposed tip. Later on I found out that this was the norm here.

I also went to Viktualienmarkt which is one of the beer gardens. In a typical beer garden, chestnut trees are planted for the purpose of shelter from the sun. A typical lunch includes a Bretwurst and a 0.5L beer. Over here, beer is like dirt cheap, but contrary to popular belief, it is NOT cheaper than mineral water.

I also visited Dachau memorial site which was once a concentration camp for the Jews during Nazi's reign. The barracks were sickeningly cramped. For what I call a master bedroom size of a hotel room, there was once over 1500 people living in it. The crematorium after the Jews have been prosecuted in the gas chamber was also disturbing as they even had some crematoriums the size of babies and kids.

The last place I visited was Allianz Arena, one of the famous stadiums used to host 2006 World Cup. The interesting thing is that it changed colour 3 times. First, whitish-yellow, then red and blue. It looks like esplanade except that it was much bigger. The stadium switches to red when Bayern Munich is playing home and blue when TSV1860 is playing.

Next part on Innsbruck and Salzburg will come soon.