part 3 of 2 weeks in East Europe
This is a very interesting thing in Vienna which we eventually encountered in some other countries. You gotta open the door of the metros yourself and this is not just a simple button operation but you've got to pull the handle. it's strange 'coz the doors close by themselves. they just don't open unless you need it to. saving electricity? or safety feature to save people from falling out of the train when the doors open? 
The little pizza shop at the metro station near the hostel. We were really hungry by the time we got to vienna 'coz we took an evening bus with no dinner and the sight of the pizzas was just mouth watering! The pizza man was really kind and he spun a couple of pizzas on the spot for us and performed the "roti prata" act and even let us choose our own toppings for the pizza. The pizzas were huge and 2.5euros for a quarter. yummies. but the next 3 nights we went back, the stall was closed. =( just our luck. 
This is the most famous cathedral of Vienna, St.Stephen's Cathedral. It's a little bit similar to St.Vitus at prague. Both gothic on the outside and really complicated with carvings and sculptures. It was pretty nice inside but there were just too many tourists and you had to pay to get in further. there were some crypts and stuff but we didn't go in eventually.
This is yet another church..there are many more to come. haha. but the churches in vienna have a very different feel from the others that we have visited and will visit. the churches in vienna are more elaborately decorated with alot more paintings and details. this church is one fine example. i can't remember its name. it didn't look like much on the outside but the inside was spectecular. even the ceilings were beautifully painted. 
We were there at a time when flowers were blooming all over the place. This is a close up shot of one of the very cute wild flowers. looks like little bells. really pretty. makes you want to pluck a bunch of them to make a bouquet.
Here is church number 3. This church had a very interesting painting on the ceiling. There's a little dome in the ceiling, seen in the bottom left photo. The dome is actually not very deep but the painting on it created an optical illusion of the dome being very deep and it looked different from different angles. there were also scary black figures placed around the altar and they looked very real. i was pretty freaked out by one that i didn't notice. then there's the figure of a woman in the white cloth. not very sure what all these symbolize but i'm surprised at how open they are to allow such "exhibitions" in a church. 
Church number 4 is very different from the other churches. I think it's a greek orthodox church and it's really unique. When you step into the church, you don't reach the main chapel. It's a kind of a strange greek-ish corridor/courtyard place with pillars with panels of greek carvings. The chapel was covered by paintings and very solemn. 
This is the parliament house in Vienna. It's the nicest one we've seen but it looked roman, nonetheless majestic. As you can see, the weather was simply terrible, grey skies and freezing cold after a couple of days of bright sunshine. made walking around a big hassle and totally uncomfortable. 
This is Schönbrunn Palace. the palace itself was magnificent already, but the gardens and parks around it were unimaginable. go to here to have a better view. the lousy weather meant bad shots. The "backyard" of the palace was built almost in symmetry and it even housed a zoo.
it's really really huge. and there was a hill with 2 winding paths on it in symmetry and a place called the "Gloriette" right at the top. We huffed and puffed our way up and the birds eye view of the city was pretty good.
As we were coming down from the Gloriette, there was this very very pretty bird perched on the edge of the huge pond. We started feeding it some wafers we got from Prague but the ducks got to it first. bleah. this bird swims and chirps though..don't know if it's some kind of duck? 
After visiting the palace gardens, we watched a Mozart and Strauss concert at the orangery of the palace. The acoustics of the orangery was really good. and the performance was even better. worth every bit of our 35Euros. If you ever go to vienna, watch a classical music concert. The music still sounds in my mind once in awhile. hah. 
The weather the following day was wonderful! super sunny which also meant not very nice photos but really good for walking around the city! i don't remember what this place was but i remember we had to pay to go in so we didn't. but i'm also sure it's another church. haha. 
Walking on, we found ourselves at this huge fountain built to commemorate Vienna's spring water i think. something like that. by the way, Vienna's tap water is supposed to be better than mineral water! behind the fountain was a soviet war memorial. there's more!
There was a beautiful rainbow behind the fountain! haha. brought about by the super strong sunlight that day. we took tonnes of shots of the perfect rainbow. it even forms almost an entire circle from certain angles. stunning!
We next visited Belvedere palace. another one of Queen Maria Theresa's amazing palaces. unfortunately, the parks was still in the planting stages. but this is supposed to be another breath-taking park when in full bloom and even without the blooms, it looked huge and symmetric. and the "pond" at the front porch was bigger than the size of an olympic swimming pool. or maybe two. wow.
Next up was stadpark which meant townpark..another HUGE park. with alot of monuments, the most famous being the golden sculpture of Johann Strauss, who was from Vienna, that's why he's a little more well-liked than Mozart here.
The beautiful flowers around stadtpark. And the trees full of white and pink blooms. Absolutely beautiful. My favourite flower being the bring yellow "chu chu" flowers. haha. they're everywhere and so adorable!
On the way to our next stop, we passed by this building with strange little faces on it. every man had a different expression. really funny. but very typical of european countries to have these weird things on the builidngs.
this is Hundertwasser House in Vienna. a really whimsical building designed by Hundertwasser. It's like a cartoon building, with uneven floors, alot of colours, strange stuff! And it is a residential building! Real people live in it! haha. i wonder what it looks like inside. must be pretty weird. 
We went in search for the ferris wheel next and found it at Prater! and also found a huge funfair! the strangest thing being the merry go round with real horses. haha. never thought such a thing existed.
And since we had food in our hands and there was a huge field, it meant picnic! haha. we spent a good 1 hour lazing around on the fields enjoying the perfect weather.
We took a train back to the central area to visit Rathus. which is the town hall. It's yet another gothic building and is as gothic as gothic can get. and again, parks are symmetrical! with fountains and benches at the exact same place. it's like a storybook..
We saw this church's huge peaks from rathus and decided to follow it. i can't remember what the church is called but it's really nice..again, similar to St.Vitus but even nicer. The two towers have spiral staircases built into them if you look carefully. A pity the facade's under renovation or we would have gotten even nicer photos. 
The stained glass in the church were one the most animated we have seen so far. the colours were so intense and the images really lively. very very nice.
After having macdonalds for dinner, we set out to see Vienna at night. And it was quite nice with the huge buildings lit up like christmas trees, but nonetheless boring with all the stores closed. bleah.
The next day, i got a photo with Mozart in front of the Mozart monument! haha. a fake Mozart at least. They are everywhere promoting the councerts and i just had to get a photo with one. 
We also went back to the parliament house for the "free tour" that the guide book recommended but turned out that we gotta pay for it so we didn't go in. scrooges. 
We spent the rest of the time in Vienna shopping for souveniors and hanging out around the shopping streets. and here's one of the tonnes of smartcars around everywhere in europe but not in linköping. they're cute. should be getting to singapore soon. i miss my big brown kia!! =( 
And finally, ice cream in vienna just before we leave. really really good gelato sold by an italian on a little ice cream bike. 3 scoops on a huge wafer cone for 2 euros. yums. and with that, we took a train to our next stop, Budapest. Budapest
Budapest was one of our least favourite spots. Not because the place wasn't nice. the Buda side was beautiful and scenic while the Pest side was messy and city like. But the place just gave us bad vibes. Maybe we were too tired by then and got kind of cheated with the food. but yah..the Buda side is worth a visit to make up for the lacklustre buildings in Pest.
On the train ride to Budapest from Vienna, we passed by huge windmill farms. a rare sight for singaporeans. but it looked really cool, all of them spinning in sync. 
We stayed at a hostel called Amazing Hostel. It's pretty amazing since it's set in a really really old building that looked like it's about to collapse. But the interior was really nice. It's a small home run hostel newly opened in December and the owner is a rather nice lady who really loves the place. The beds were comfortable and the place was like a palace compared to the 22 bed dorm in Vienna. 
After settling down, we headed out for dinner at a nearby pub. The food was pretty good and not too expensive. But one thing to note about eating in East Europe. The main course doesn't come with side dishes like fries. So if you're saving money, when the waitresses ask fries, croquettes, or whatever, say none. else it'll be another 2euros to your bill.
We walked around town for awhile after dinner and came across this limo a couple of times. The people inside the limo saw us taking photos and even raised a toast with their champagne glass out of the sunroof. haha. i wanna be in the limo too!
And here's bb in a man cut out of a pyramid at a small park in pest. haha. only he was tall enough to fit his head there. the rest of us were too short. bleah. 
One thing about the metros in Budapest were the neverending escalators. I don't think i have been on escalators that are this long ever. Not even the ones at Ocean park in Hong Kong. no fight. It's actually pretty scary to look down when you're on the escalator. I can't imagine what it's like for people with vertigo! eeks! 
This is the Synagogue near our hostel. It's one of the largest in the world. You had to pay to enter and there were even metal detectors at the door and alot of security guards. obviously we didn't go in. but the outside was nice enough. 
The next day, we took the metro over to the buda side early in the morning. This is the parliament by day and the ugly scaffolds covering a large part of it. it's in gothic style as well.
And at the side of the riger was this huge origami boat. haha. not made out of paper though.
The first stop was the Fisherman's Bastion. It's the nicest part of Budapest we think. It's a huge white terrace that is really impressive and fairytale looking. minus the tonnes of tourist, it would be a nice spot to just spend half a day doing nothing. 
And here's the birds eye view of the the pest side from the top of the bastion. there's only the parliament that really stands out. 
This is the Matthias Church behind the fisherman's bastion. It's quite nice and big but we didn't go in 'coz you gotta pay. bleah. stupid money faces! the roof of the church is really unique and colourful. 
This is the Budapest Castle, nicer from across the river. Nothing much on the outside. Maybe the inside is nice but we didn't have the time to visit it. But the flowers are nice. 
We went back to the pest side to visit the central market but! it was closed. bleah. but the building itself is nice, with the colourful roofs again. 
And then we saw this from the central market. The monument at the top of the hill at Buda! and of course, we crossed the bridge and proceeded to climb the hill! haha. 
At the foot of the hill or rather in the foot of the hill was a church built in a cave. It's really nice and cool, literally. The temperature is supposedly constant at 14degC i think..throughout the year. The place was really peaceful. 
Taking a little break mid hill. haha..it was a hell of a climb. but fun nonetheless given the sunshine. the weather in budapest was actually quite close to singapore. warm and humid. 
and we finally got to the top! yay! and the sun just had to be on the wrong side. the photos were all too dark. but still, we got to the top! and to think getting up was tough, getting down was worse! we didn't go down the way we got up and got a little bit lost in the high classed residential area in the hills but found our way after chasing for a bus and a tram. haha. 
And on the other side of the monument, by the citadel, we found a huge mass of motorbikes! we still don't know what was going on that day but there must have been at least a thousand bikes and alot of bikers dressed in biking gear. it was quite a sight. as we were going down the hill, there were still more bikers coming up to the very crammed with bikes hill top. i wonder what event it was. 
After we finally found our way down the hill and back to pest, we visited the Szechenyi Baths. Budapest is famous for thermal baths and men playing chess on floating chessboards while in the baths and Szechenyi is one of the most famous ones. But it is also closed on saturdays. bb n me didn't plan on bathing, just wanted to take a look but ricky and darren took their towels out for a walk, their plans to bathe being foiled by the early closure.
and that wraps it up for Budapest! haha. i'm really slow in blogging and i realize there's alot more to blog. here's still the very last part of this very long trip, Bratislava and Krakow. then there's the tallinn cruise after that and the Benelux trip and some other random stuff in Sweden. i'll try to be fast!
luv, jL
posted by jL-yZ @ 9:23 PM
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