The Wiener Schnitty

We chose an overnight bus to leave Poland for neighbouring Austria. We were going to Vienna. Our first breath of air taken in this gorgeous city was at the Erdbergstrasse bus station at about 0530hr - and that was some cold air... Exiting the S-Bahn in the city's main square, Stephansplatz, a short while later brought us above ground at the foot of the huge and stunning 13th-century centrepiece, St. Stephan's church (Stephansdom). Vienna's city centre can be summed up in one word: grand; with its huge squares, massive pedestrianised areas, the coffee houses, the restaurants serving Wiener Schnitzel and strudel, the Marzipan shops, all housed within the typically 5- to 6-storey buildings that line every strasse and which look somewhat like impressively detailed marzipan sculptures themselves. Our first thought.. Where can we find free WiFi? We had contacted a few couchsurfers and had not yet heard back from them so we needed to check on this first in order to figure out what to do with our bags! Starbucks was the go. And those wonderful free 30 minute cards just kept on coming... Anyway, the upshot was that we managed to find ourselves a lovely CSer by the name of Raph but he was out of town for the day and would be back by evening. So we found a locker, dumped our bags and ventured out. Now Friedensreich Hundertwasser is an artist that simply appeals to me. Not necessarily for his actual art, but for his impressive visions on the natural (and physical) environment and our place within it. Born originally in Vienna he travelled the world for a good portion of his life, spending a lot of time in his second home, New Zealand, where he left his mark in the form of a number of artistic installations, the most famous of which is the Hundertwasser Toilet (!) in the North Island. He also left quite an impression on Vienna (Wien in Deutsche) with a number of central buildings having been playfully designed and "unconventionalised" by him. His idea on the need for uneven flooring to promote wellbeing permeates his buildings, as does his insistence on replacing the greenery that the building has caused the removal of. We visited a few of these buildings, one of which was his "art house", Kunsthaus Wien, with a number of weird displays from other artists, the strangest being a collection of random mechanised pieces of junk metal that did not resemble anything and did nothing apart from move up and down and make noise. Art in its purest form... I had been looking forward to finding the giant ferris wheel, Riesenrad, in which Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy share their first kiss in the movie Before Sunrise. Don't ask me why... It wasn't too hard to find, though - it stuck out above the skyline like a big red wheel (which of course it is) and it wasn't long before we had stumbled across the coolest and largest free-entry amusement park we had ever seen, Prater park. We even found the Breakdance ride and just had to have a go - my phone came out of my pocket here and I thought I had lost it for a fair while until luckily a guy, who had jumped on the ride into the same carriage after me and must've found it on the floor, handed it in. A good day had by all.. After a late snack from an Anker bakery (it felt like every meal we ate was from one of these places - loving the bakery food!) and a brief unguided round trip tour on the Ringstrasse circle tram line, past the neo-Gothic-style museums and the oddly Greek-style parliament building, we finally got the call from Raph - he was now in town. We met him and he advised us that he was in the middle of moving and studying for his upcoming exams so we weren't able to stay at his new apartment... Gulp. He suggested instead that we take the key to his old apartment and stay there on our own! So basically 2 days of free use of a house just outside the Innere Stadt of Vienna.. Brilliant! Unfortunately apart from spending a few hours of the first night with him cooking dinner, chatting and the like, we didn't see Raph again until we dropped the keys back just before we left. Shame, because he seemed like a really cool and friendly guy. The majority of our exploration was undertaken in the first day and the second was much more relaxed. The last thing we did here was to watch a Viennese Opera, the night before we shipped out. It was quite a modern performance in a relaxed atmosphere, encapsulating dancing and singing all to some of the most well-known tunes of Mozart and Chopin as performed by an extremely talented 9-piece orchestra. We were really impressed by the standard for the €20 or so that we each paid - although, we found out later that we could have seen something fairly similar for about €3! Oh well, we still had a great time and it was worth every eurocent.. Mid-the next day we made tracks, train tracks (terrible I know) - I think we both felt like our 2 days in wonderful Wien were certainly not enough, with so much that we didn't get to see (especially any of the numerous art galleries and museums). Just have to remember that for next time....

Photos:

Reisensrad

a fight with artwork along the Danube Canal

Stephansdom

the entire city is lined with these buildings

found this gem in an underground station - no more dull excursions to the toilet, this one plays Mozart while you poo, brilliant

it just sounds funny

Parliament

a trend was started a few years back when a political party posted "Danke" signs around the city thanking its voters following an election - the precedent has been set and now it is frowned upon if any party (even if they lose) fails to post these signs

one of Hundertwasser's creations

just grand