on the way to wein

well i somehow managed to make to vienna in one piece after a day trip to eger. this equalled about 8 or 10 hours on the train but you know it's all good. i nearly missed the train because lucky for me the budapest train station is HUGE and i went to the wrong platform on the opposite side of the station. i made it even though i was late.. the train was luckily still sitting there! and i got really confused because little did i know that wein is vienna in german! HOORAY! i think i just repeated myself. however.
by the way FROHE MONTAG! which it really isn't... it's been pissing it down all day today and i have a swollen ankle.. which i fell on last night. long story. i'll explain later.

so my hostel was called 'hotel huttledorf' and was at the end of the line on the metro. lucky me. but it was clean and i had lovely roommates for the first three nights.

this is me and nadia my friend i met from mexico in the morning at breakfast


gotta love the hostel breakfast. i was really sick of bread and jam and yougurt after those four days!

and here she is with her huge pack


nadia was one brave girl. she was seeing more places than i saw.. in two weeks! i can't believe that she was seeing so much. she was ending in barcelona where a job was waiting for her.

she told me a good place to get off at - karlsplatz. a metro station i learned to dislike.
and so here is the first thing i saw a museum... with mozart of course.


i don't remember the name sorry. and this i think is the opera. you can get 4 euro tickets for standing room but i thought since i only had a pair of ripped and ragged jeans and a dirty sweatshirt they might throw me out!


here is a giant church in the karlsplatz park

it is notoriously large

war monument


and spouting fountain


next i found the unters and oberes belevedere galleries. this was a real treat. the unters was an old palace with rooms and rooms decorated magnificently. i snuck two photos


the gold room!!!


here is a very strange looking crow outside


and here is the oberes belvedere


the oberes belvedere was more gallery style where you will find the kiss by gustav klimt. there were a lot of other really interesting pieces too but i can't remember that anymore
here is the stair way in the oberes


this is the garden looking back towards the unteres


and this is the oberes from the front which is also right by the train station and miles from anything else (including the subway)


i found also a free botanical garden. i visited all the gardens because my mom wasn't with me to force it on me!






VIENNESE DUCKS!


next i took a tram to the freud museum. this one isn't as interesting (i'm assuming) as the one in London becuase none of his possessions remain there except for some furniture, his coat, hat and cane and a chest. this is because he was slowly taking everything out of the house to flee to london during WWII and he managed to do this despite the fact that the gestapo had his house under 24 hour survellance. sadly he died the next year i think after getting to london.. or a few years after anyway.
here is the foyer to freud's house!


and inside!


and his front door!


i think it is incredible that i stood in the room where he wrote his most important theories! (did you know it was also recently his 150th birthday (if he had still been alive... but i can't remember when)

next i took the tram and got off at a park... but i can't remember the name


it was on the main drag though and here is a big building...


and the parliament buildings


and a museum by the museum compound (yes they have a museum compound!)




that evening i found myself at a restaurant in a back alley that was impossibel to find but lovely and small. i had spinach struddle and red wine. i then met a friend who was dining alone. her name was bridgette. she was from near frankfurt i think and had been to vienna at my age and had just returned no holiday. it was so facinating to listen to her stories about vienna when she had been there and all the things that had happened in her life. it was really a nice visit. she also took me to the stephansplatz chruch. when we walked in there was a service ending and the choir was singing lowly it was cold as ice as it is built of stone and there was the smell of frankenscence in the air. it was an amazing experience. and bridgette said she always tried to imagine how those places were when that church was first built sooooooooooo long ago. what a cool thing to think!
after that we went to a medival wine cellar where we had a delicious white wine and chatted some more.

anyway here is me and bridgette at karlsplatz on the way home


here is the subway when we got to huttledorf... i was the only one in the car

and it was a full moon that night
incredible!!


no one was in my hostel bed when i got home this time but i woke everyone up and someone magazine fell on my head and i yelled out JESUS!

the next day me and every tourist in the whole of vienna went to schonbrun palace


i didn't go inside. it was beautiful though i'm sure and it was from the outside too

(for mom: look for tess the duck two!)





then i went to the stephansplatz church
and i think i went shopping too. i have a mild obsession with henney's!




it rained that day and while i was on my way to find the holocaust memorial i sat down becuase i was lost and a random old man started talking to me. he told me about this building which is attached to a complex of buildings that are very important and start with an h or g i can't remember (damnit!)


anyway one of the domes flanking this dome (the one on the left was damaged by fire a few years ago. the tiles were replaced and were meant to turn green but becuae of the pollution they turned black instead! (so if this dome has the black tiles in it that that is the one i'm talking about... but the brightness or something on this screen is really messed up so i can't actually see the image very well)

he also told me about these sculptures


on the other side is one of a man fighting with some things. he is portrayed completely nude while as you can see the female is not.. and this was because it was inapproriate to show a female nude... PSYCHOANALYZE THAT!!! (craziness) p.s. i've developed a minor obsession with psychoanalysis.

anyway the nice old man told me how to find the holocaust memorial which is also called juden platz (place of the jews)
and here it is. it is by rachel whiteread british artist


then while walking back i found this lovely dog outside a jem shop.


i went to a service at the sthephansplatz as it was good friday. that was boring sorry to say. and freezing so i left at communion

the next day on the advice of bridgette i went to the market at kittenbrucke IT WAS AMAZING!!!


the flowers


the dried fruit


(have you ever seen dried kiwi before!!!)

THE OLIVES!!!!


and the cheese oh the cheese!


and a jack!!!! awww little jack!


by the way vienna is the city of jack russles. and so is berlin.



the market was one of my favourite places. and i got a little thimble there too which was lovely.

here is the (fill in name here) which was built by gustav klimt as a radical new art like school and collective place for young artists


it's on the euro coins in austria!

then i went to another park in the east of the city where I SAW A HERON up close it was unbelievable.




also while at this park was approached by a rambling old man who only spoke german and talked at me for half an hour about capital cities. it was a tad strange.

i also went to a dreadfully boring but free museum called MAK. it was full of glass and rugs and chairs and a really really strange yves klein show about the elements. i think yves klein is off his rocker. there was an intersting room which i analyzed.. two i think. hey i was bored you gotta do something to keep the mind active! plus i was reading theory the whole month

here is a photo of the stephansplatz church
it is the emblem of vienna


then i went to sperl which was a cafe i read about in my guide book. bless you guide book! it was amazing there!


did i mention i had a toast with brie and ham and something else on it and viennese iced coffee! yes amazing!
here it is: (the place not the food!)


the next day i went to see the vienna boys choir which was absolutely fabulous! here is teh church which was pretty boring


99% of the people there were tourists and didn't ever go to church so i was shocked when no one stood or sat or even shook hands for peace... except one woman behind me. then i missed my train and it started to rain. but i ended up in the nice park from before (not the heron one but the one before that) and met a couple from cologne who i talked to for awhile about what they were doing and i told them to go to the wine cellar and sperl. then they went on their merry way.

and then in the afternoon i left vienna on a train headed for prague. :)