Wien-The beautiful big wedding cake!
Trip Start
Oct 18, 2006
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19
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Trip End
Oct 19, 2007
Vienna,
Austria
Thursday, February 15, 2007
We spent the remainder of the drizzly Austrian afternoon walking around the city's famous cathedral- Stephansdom (St Stephens Cathedral), which is situated at the city's heart and which was surrounded by hundreds of horse and carriages
01- No idea what this buiding was called! beautifu
. The Gothic cathedrals tall latticework spire and amazing patterned roof was the loveliest l had ever seen on a cathedral...best viewed at night where the roof is a sort of purple green color. After walking around the Cathedral and main shopping streets in Vienna, Konrad and l started getting hungry and my head and stomach was only thinking of one thing: Viennese coffee and Sache. Both famous in Vienna, we went in pursuit of the best Viennese Cafe where you could get Melange (famous coffee...alot like a cappuccino) and the famous Viennese cake Sache. We found the perfect place thanks to my Lonely Planet Guide. A upper class Cafe, described as being typically Viennese with ferns, gold and a music abounding...it sounded great and was! We sat right next to the pianist playing a mixture of old classics, surrounded by greed ferns, painted fresco ceilings, good trimmings and amazing food and coffee...it was the perfect afternoon and l think we stayed there at least two hours! We then went in search of my and Konrad's first love: music. Vienna houses one of the best operas and Philharmoniker orchestras in the world....and we were in pursuit of some cheap tickets too see one of them. We firstly went and checked out the opera house....but that evening was the night of famous Viennese Waltz (Strauss the composer of the Waltz was from Vienna and this is one of the city's most famous events), which was being held at the Opera house...and Konrad didn't much like the idea of watching girls in white dresses dance away the evening
02- Unknown again
. So we decided to go check out the Wiener Philharmoniker. We were in luck, there were a couple of standing room tickets left and for under 6 Euros l got too see one of the best orchestras in the world perform that evening!! It was definitely one of the highlights of my trip! We had no idea what the repertoire and program was for the evening....we arrived and pushed our way as much to the front of the standing room section, until l could see a great view of the orchestra. The orchestra started playing, and l thought to myself, wow this music is making me sleepy....it wasn't just a thought....it was like l had thought this before. I soon realized that l had studied as one of my listening pieces at university the exact symphony that they were playing...and my way of remembering and deciphering the 1st movement from the 3rd movement (which sound very alike) was to think of how it always makes me feel sleepy. It was wonderful to see one of the pieces l had studied and almost learnt my heart in head for an exam performed right in front of me by the most amazing orchestra l had ever heard! Konrad and me just looked at each other in one section where the string section and especially the first violins (Konrad's First instrument) where just playing amazingly in sync and with such passion and fury. I will never forget looking out at the sea of bows, moving perfectly in time, almost like it were one huge bow. It was magical and beautiful! Konrad and l were quite tired after the performance, especially because l had been standing almost on my tippy toes for the last two hours, but we were blissfully happy and didn't want to go to bed. So we made our way to an underground Cafe and nightclub. One the way we passed by the Opera house, witnessing some of the couples going to the Waltz. It was amazing to see some of the womens white ball dresses, and hair and tiaras...it was just a shame to see them all dolled up and running through he rain
03- The famous Karlsplatz Cafe
. We then arrived at cafe only to find we were the only ones basically in this strange round and dark retro room, where we were watching the same strange black and white video clip repeat every 3 minutes. It was all a little bizarre, but we had fun talking about Konrad's new life as a musical student in Vienna (something lam immensely jealous of!) and reminiscing on a wonderful day!To top of my jealousy, Konrad took me the following morning to where he studies...The Vienna Conservatorium of Music! I was totally amazed by the place...compared to my own Conservatory back in Melbourne this was five star. It almost made me want to study music for another three years! We then meet with one of Konrad's musician friends who was living in what l would call the perfect musician's apartment in Vienna. It was beautiful, with high white greek inspired walls and ceilings, a huge grand piano was in the center of the perfectly polished floorboards....in short....l saw my three years of musical student life compared to theirs and got rather depressed! And he had not even taken me to the audio studio...where he seemed to help himself to whatever state of the art audio and recording equipment he needed for the weekend...for free!! SOOO jealous! Such is the life of a music student in Vienna!
We left behind my jealousy and headed off to the Nachtmarkt to get our breakfast and lunch for the day
04- Another beautiful dome for another building
. The famous food market in Vienna was a great place to witness some of the strange Austrian delicacies abounding here. I stuck though to the wonderful invention of Muesli and coffee! We however bought the largest slice of Turkish bread l have ever seen and some dips for lunch and set off back into the city center. We caught tram No.1 around the Inner Stadt (inner city) and Ringstrasse which for the price of one Euro provided us with a tour of all the main sites of the city, whilst we ate our picnic lunch and watched Vienna roll by for the 45 minute journey! It was a relaxing way to see all the beautiful sites and buildings that encompass the city. I have heard some describe Vienna as the big wedding cake (like New York is the big apple), a wonderful rich indulgence packed with galleries and museums...and during my two day stay there l definitely agreed with this description! Touring around the Ringstrasse on the tram we passed numerous Marzipan like buildings, like the Rathaus, Greek Revival-style Parliment, the 19th century Burgtheater, Gothic Votivkirche and the Postsparkasse...but they were only the beginning of the sweetness this city offers! I advise coming to Vienna if you love art, museums and music and food....otherwise avoid. In short....l loved it! Getting off the tram, we walked through a lovely Burggarten park towards the Hofburg (Imperial Palace). The seat of Austrian power for over 6 centuries, the various buildings range in Style from Gothic to late 19th century Neo-Renaissance. With so much too explore and a limited budget, we decided to limit ourselves to seeing the Austrian National Library (1722-35) and the Augustinerkirche. The library was simply breathtaking.....books reached for as far as the eye could see and my eyes beheld some of the oldest books and manuscripts l had ever seen before. The library in my eyes was a definite must see....it was beautiful...especially the grand, wood paneled Prunksaal, or Hall of Honor
05- Wien is full of amazing music, art and theatre
. Next we visited the Augustinerkirche, the former parish church of the Hasburgs which houses the spectacular late 18th-century tomb of Maria Christina, by Antonio Canova. It was probably the most moving tomb l have ever and ever will be likely to see. As if all those sights were not enough, we continued to the Viennese museum Oberes Belvedere. A huge baroque palace which houses Gustav Klimts famous and beautiful The Kiss and Judith and numerous Impressionist artists, including a lovely painting by Monet which l made Konrad stand in front of and study as he didn't understand what l liked about it so much. After about a minute of standing in front of it (at first reluctantly) l saw his eyes begin to change and knew he had suddenly found himself transported to another land...in this case a beautiful garden...and l knew he was under Monet's spell! He admitted he liked this painting the most, and we quickly rushed through the museum as his idea of studying paintings is to walk past them while heading directly to the exit! It was all quite funny, and as his parents were paying for the ticket...neither of us minded. Exciting the museum you walk through the French-style maintained gardens and have a lovely view over Vienna beckoning you. I stared at this beautiful city and thought of how it has inspired so many artists and musicians and probably at the same time ruined so many.
Enough pondering though for Konrad, his stomach once again was calling him, so we made a quick stop at his favorite Viennese Cafe...eating his favorite cake and of course a coffee before making our way to the bus depot where he dropped me off and l farewelled my German brother and beautiful Vienna/Wien....full of coffee, cake and inner happiness (which helped me manage the worst overnight bus trip of my life to Berlin!).
