Hello again! Let me tell you all about my trip to Vienna!
First of all, Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. In the centre at least, every single building looks like a palace, and it's very easy to imagine yourself wandering around a couple of centuries ago, complete with period costume. That's the dream, anyway. My dear friend Zeynep was kind enough to go to university in Vienna this year for her year abroad, meaning I could stay with her instead of having to find a hostel. She took me round the important tourist sites, a job with which she will no doubt soon get bored because everyone who comes to visit her this year will want to do exactly the same things. Fortunately, as I was one of the first visitors, she has not yet lost all interest in being a tourist.
On Friday we visited the Hofburg, which was really interesting and had some delightful historical musical instruments, including the tiniest French horn I've ever seen. There were also some rather dashing suits of armour and truly scary weapons in the armoury, and some convincingly real-looking horses.
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| So, so small |
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| My good sir, what a lovely full skirt |
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| What am I doing |
After the Hofburg, we went to a Wiener Kaffeehaus, which was incredibly exciting for me due to the fact that we spent a whole term learning about Austria last year, and Kaffeehäuser featured heavily. I ordered a Melange (it's basically just a coffee) and a Gerstnertorte which looked nicer than the more traditional Sachertorte. For those Bake Off fans among you, it looked just like the Schichttorte they had to make in this season of Bake Off - lots of layers of very thin sponge sandwiched together with some sort of filling. It was delicious, but incredibly rich! However, as we learnt last year, they really do always bring a small glass of water when you order a coffee, so that was helpful.
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| Gerstnertorte |
Also on Friday, we went ice-skating! I really love skating - I only seem to go about once a year at the moment, but every time I do, I decide that I absolutely must become a celebrity just so I can go on Dancing on Ice and show them my moves. Friday was no different, and I quietly made this decision while outwardly appearing no more skillful than most of the other skaters. There was a certain amount of falling over from some (Zeynep), and I did lose any claim to Good Friend status when I laughed for five minutes after a particularly spectacular fall. In my defence, I was only laughing at her reaction to falling over - "I bellyflopped! I've fallen on my innards! Oh god! I think my knees are bleeding! I can't believe it! My poor innards! I bellyflopped!!!!!!"
After all the excitement of the skating, we decided to return to the flat and have a quiet night in to recover.
On Saturday we went to the Upper and Lower Belvederes, which again were lovely. The Upper Belvedere is especially grand, with huge gardens behind it.
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| Perfect tourist indeed |
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| The Upper |Belvedere |
Unfortunately, on Saturday we made the two-pronged mistake of not bringing any food with us, and having a very small breakfast of only two pieces each of the tiny Toastbrot that Germans and Austrians seem to consider a sufficient size. This meant that at about 2.30 we were too faint with hunger to carry on, so we investigated the museum cafe. Sadly, everything was so overpriced that we couldn't bring ourselves to splash out on more than a small packet of chocolate wafer biscuits, which we ate at a table in the cafe, trying and failing to look inconspicuous. When pressed by a waitress, we ordered a single glass of water, at the price of 30 cents (for tap water!!), for which we expressed our disdain by leaving a pile of 30-cents worth of change on the table, in 1 and 2 cent coins. Refreshed, we continued to the Lower Belvedere, where Zeynep had promised me terrible modern art. However, we were disappointed; the exhibition seemed to have been changed since she'd gone there the week before, and instead of 'proper shit' there was an actually lovely exhibition about Monet and the artists who had been inspired by him.
After the Lower Belvedere we went to the Karlskirche, where they've built a lift and scaffolding structure that allows you to climb right to the very top of the church so you can see the painting on the ceiling. This was a new and not entirely pleasant experience; while I've on several occasions climbed to the top of a church, such as last month in Cologne cathedral, it's always been up a staircase with walls around it so you can't see how high up you are. The one in the Karlskirche, however, is pretty much in the centre of the room, and worse, is made of flimsy scaffolding that actually sways when you move around. This fact, and Zeynep saying, while we were going up in the lift, "Imagine walking round that" while pointing to a narrow ledge running round the wall right at the top of the ceiling, made me feel somewhat queasy, and it was such a relief to get back down to ground level without incident that my leg actually cramped up and I nearly fell over. So in conclusion, although there used to be no problem at all, I am getting worse and worse at dealing with heights as I get older. And I have a huge amount of respect for the artists who painted the Karlskirche ceiling, and also any ceilings in churches. I have no idea how they did it.
On the way back to the flat we had a restorative Döner kebap, at Zeynep's insistence. Previously I have mistrusted kebabs, as in Britain it seems they can be somewhat deadly. However, according to Zeynep and others, in Germany and Austria this is not the case, and I must admit it was delicious. I apparently made the mistake of getting a brown meat one instead of white meat (chicken) the first time I had one, which was the other day in Leipzig. I have learnt my lesson though, and I'll not be making the same mistake again - thank you, Zepnep.
That evening we went to Travelshack, a bar/club where all the Erasmus students go, and met up with Abbie and James from Manchester! It felt like ages since I'd seen them, although of course I saw Abbie at the training course in Cologne, so it was really lovely to catch up with everything they've been doing. I had plans to go to see them in Mannheim/Heidelberg this week, but thought that I should spread out the excitement of seeing them so I think I'll go next term instead.
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| Yay friends |
We managed to see them again briefly on the Sunday, when we went to the festival for the police, army, ambulance/Red Cross, and fire brigade. Zeynep and I stumbled across a demonstration by the police of their police dogs, which was absolutely amazing. They showed us various behaviours that the dogs have to learn, for example walking between the trainer's legs and following them without any vocal signals - going backwards, forwards, sideways, stopping - which lets the trainer concentrate on pointing a gun and looking scary, see the picture:
They also showed us one where the dog was left guarding a bag while the trainer walked away. A police officer pretending to be a criminal came up and tried to take the bag; he circled round but the dog kept its front legs on the bag and always faced the attacker. Whenever he got too close, the dog would run and attack him until he fell back, which is when the dog would return to guarding the bag.
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| What a good dog |
Basically, the dogs were not only incredibly obedient, intelligent, and intimidating, they were also so cute it made my heart hurt. Their enthusiasm for what they were doing and their obvious pride when the trainer praised them was utterly adorable. Also they had toys they were given as a reward when they did something right, which looked completely incongruous - these huge, vicious-looking dogs that are trained to attack people (albeit only their arms - they will never attack above the neck or anywhere that will endanger your life) and will not let go of their clamp on your arm until the trainer says so still love playing with stuffed toys just like normal dogs.
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One of the cutest dog/trainer pairs because they clearly love each other (the man was
very smiley). The turquoise thing in the dog's mouth is a rabbit toy. How. Adorable. |
After the dog demonstration I managed to pull myself together and stop being so emotional, and we saw Abbie and James again, got some food, and drank some Glühwein in the rest of the festival bit while discussing Game of Thrones, a surprising and unexpected mutual interest. Zeynep and I introduced them to Langos, the garlic bread thing that we had experienced on Friday - it's essentially a flat bread which is deep-fried and then spread with garlic paste and salt, i.e. heaven on earth.
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| The most amazing food in the world |
The one problem I had with Vienna is the underground system. Not the system itself, of course; that is brilliantly efficient, and faster than London tubes. The problem is the fact that you don't need a ticket to get through a barrier, because there is no barrier. There's nothing to stop you from just getting on a tube apart from your own conscience and the thought of being caught by a ticket inspector. However there are so few ticket inspectors (Zeynep has never been checked, and most of her friends have only been once) that you think, is it worth buying a ticket? Shall I schwarzfahren? And then you spend the entire journey stressed and on edge until you finally make it out, free and triumphant. Or, you feel so worried that you buy a ticket (it's only €2.20 for a single, which is nothing compared to London) and then you can travel feeling calm and smug, safe in the knowledge that you are not breaking the law. And then you get off the tube and think, what a waste of money. Although, personally I don't think it's a waste, as the sense of comfort and relief you get from buying a ticket means spending the money did have a purpose. Maybe I'm too law-abiding for my own good. But anyway, Zeynep and I agreed that it would be much better if they had barriers so you were forced to buy a ticket and didn't have to go through the internal struggle every time of whether or not to break the law.
All in all, Vienna was absolutely delightful. It was fab seeing Zeynep - there's something about old school friends that's just different from all the others. You can reminisce about the good/bad old days and endlessly gossip about your mutual friends and acquaintances, and you've spent so many years together that you can be honest all the time and not get offended. It's even better when you also have shared interests, so you can watch films such as Hercules and High School Musical, eat your own weight in crisps, and sing songs from Wicked, to name but a few. So thank you, little one, for showing me round, introducing me to the grubs (potato croquette things that look like huge insect larvae), and letting me laugh at you when you complained about your 'broken innards'.
I'm already looking forward to my second trip to Vienna in May - just in time for Eurovison 2015!
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