Coffee. Beer. Vladimir.
Well, I got back from fall break today. At the moment, my two roommates are elsewhere, so I’m having a cup of tea, doing my laundry, and trying to sort through the various things that have accumulated in my bags over the past week.
B and I took the night train on Thursday, which left Berlin at about 8:30 and arrived in Vienna a little after 9 a.m. Due to a fussy baby in our compartment, and a genetic inability to sleep in a vertical position (we’d taken the cheap route by buying seats instead of beds, which I don’t think I’ll do again) I ended up getting only about three hours of decent rest, and B didn’t get much more. After finding our hostel, we spent the first day doing a self-guided walking tour, stopping at a few cafes, which are everywhere in Vienna, and sampling different kinds of cake and strudel. In general, we noticed at once how much calmer everything is in Vienna than in Berlin. Berlin is such a young people’s city, while Vienna seems more, “Yeah, we had an empire. We don’t anymore, but we still have really good cake and coffee. It’s cool.”
Our next two days in Vienna, after we’d gotten a decent night’s sleep, were more eventful. On Saturday, we visited the Freud Museum, which is located in the flat where he lived for, I think, about 35 years. That night, we went to the opera, which sells standing places for 2 euros an hour before the curtain goes up. Because we were a little far back in line, we ended up on the very top balcony, but we could still see a good part of the stage. The production was The Magic Flute, which I had seen before (but, obviously, not in Vienna). The next morning, we continued our cultural endeavors (and the standing) by attending Mass in the Hofburgkapelle, the royal chapel, where the Vienna Boys Choir sings every Sunday morning. We had to be in line before 8 a.m. for the 9:15 service and had to stand in the aisle of the church during Mass, but it was a terrific thing to do. I found it especially interesting that the Liturgy of the Eucharist was in Latin, and done according to the pre-Vatican II rite, with the priest facing the altar and the servers loading on the incense.
On Monday, we moved on to Salzburg, where Mozart was born and where The Sound of Music was filmed (the hostel where we stayed shows the movie every night at 8, and we watched it on the night we arrived). It was probably my least favorite of the cities we saw. There’s an Altstadt, an older part of the city, that’s pretty much been abandoned by the natives and turned over to tourism. I think it’s silly for tourists to complain about other tourists, but I just found it a little artificial. We did have a good time at the city fortress, though, where one of the archbishops had an organ he used to wake the people in the city up and to let them know when to go to bed. The fortress also had amazing views of the city (so that we could review our S of M geography, of course).
Finally, on Wednesday we took a third train to Munich. Munich is in Bavaria, the southeastern part of Germany, which one of my German teachers described as “the German Texas.” The common American stereotypes of Germans – tall, lederhosen-wearing, beer-swigging – come from Bavaria. We were planning to take a walking tour of the city that didn’t pan out (there were a bunch of people, like us, who had free passes for the tour from our hostel, but there weren’t enough paying customers), so we did some walking around on our own. The strangest thing happened when we were coming up to the state theater. We saw, as we were a block away, a bunch of police standing around, and police vehicles blocking off the road. Then, just as we came up to the square in front of the theater, a parade of people in traditional Bavarian uniforms started marching down the street. After taking various guesses as to what was happening – a state holiday? a pro-lederhosen demonstration? – we asked another spectator and found out that Vladimir Putin was in Munich on a state visit. We got a kick out of the idea that we and Putin were fellow travelers, if you will. We didn’t get a chance to buy him a beer, which was disappointing, but hopefully we can make it up to him some day.
Anyway, speaking of beer – on Thursday night (well, on Thursday I’d done some more culture type things that were actually a lot of fun, but I need to compress a little more, I think) we went on a pub crawl with some other Americans, some Canadian students, and an older French Canadian couple. The tour guide took us to the Hofbräuhaus, the oldest beer garden in Munich, where a bunch of us ordered the Maß, a liter of light-colored beer. It was a lot of beer. Tasted good, though. After that, we went to a few more bars, and finally ended up at an Irish-type pub (so much for local color). Unfortunately, after most of the people on the tour, in various states of inebriation, went home, B and I stayed a while longer, and at closing time, B found out that her camera had been stolen. B’s a big scrap booker and had taken more than 500 pictures of the trip, so she was really upset. Add to that a few Croatian men who wanted to “help,” and it wasn’t such a successful close to the night. We eventually made it back to the hostel in a taxi, though, and went to sleep about 5.
And the next day, the last of our trip, we took a tour of the concentration camp memorial at Dachau, which I think requires a separate entry (also, this one is getting too long). Anyway, apart from B getting her camera stolen, which sucked, I had a really great time seeing castles, listening to live music, living on coffee and cake in Austria and pretzels and beer in Munich, and just generally doing a little of the Europe on a budget thing. Also, B is a lot more outgoing than I am (granted, it doesn’t take much), so she would initiate conversations with people who were staying in our hostels or waiting in line with us, and we met some interesting people. Plus, especially after traveling by myself when I went abroad before, it was nice to have someone to notice things with, to go to a bar with, and to keep an eye on my stuff when I was in the bathroom.
So, tomorrow will be a day of planning lessons for Monday, resting up, and doing a bit of cleaning. Also, I’ll post tomorrow about Dachau, as well as anything else from the trip that seemed important but that I’ve forgotten momentarily.
One last thing – our hostels were pretty good overall, but you can’t really wash your hair decently in a hostel shower. So, that’s at least one good reason to be glad I’m home!
B and I took the night train on Thursday, which left Berlin at about 8:30 and arrived in Vienna a little after 9 a.m. Due to a fussy baby in our compartment, and a genetic inability to sleep in a vertical position (we’d taken the cheap route by buying seats instead of beds, which I don’t think I’ll do again) I ended up getting only about three hours of decent rest, and B didn’t get much more. After finding our hostel, we spent the first day doing a self-guided walking tour, stopping at a few cafes, which are everywhere in Vienna, and sampling different kinds of cake and strudel. In general, we noticed at once how much calmer everything is in Vienna than in Berlin. Berlin is such a young people’s city, while Vienna seems more, “Yeah, we had an empire. We don’t anymore, but we still have really good cake and coffee. It’s cool.”
Our next two days in Vienna, after we’d gotten a decent night’s sleep, were more eventful. On Saturday, we visited the Freud Museum, which is located in the flat where he lived for, I think, about 35 years. That night, we went to the opera, which sells standing places for 2 euros an hour before the curtain goes up. Because we were a little far back in line, we ended up on the very top balcony, but we could still see a good part of the stage. The production was The Magic Flute, which I had seen before (but, obviously, not in Vienna). The next morning, we continued our cultural endeavors (and the standing) by attending Mass in the Hofburgkapelle, the royal chapel, where the Vienna Boys Choir sings every Sunday morning. We had to be in line before 8 a.m. for the 9:15 service and had to stand in the aisle of the church during Mass, but it was a terrific thing to do. I found it especially interesting that the Liturgy of the Eucharist was in Latin, and done according to the pre-Vatican II rite, with the priest facing the altar and the servers loading on the incense.
On Monday, we moved on to Salzburg, where Mozart was born and where The Sound of Music was filmed (the hostel where we stayed shows the movie every night at 8, and we watched it on the night we arrived). It was probably my least favorite of the cities we saw. There’s an Altstadt, an older part of the city, that’s pretty much been abandoned by the natives and turned over to tourism. I think it’s silly for tourists to complain about other tourists, but I just found it a little artificial. We did have a good time at the city fortress, though, where one of the archbishops had an organ he used to wake the people in the city up and to let them know when to go to bed. The fortress also had amazing views of the city (so that we could review our S of M geography, of course).
Finally, on Wednesday we took a third train to Munich. Munich is in Bavaria, the southeastern part of Germany, which one of my German teachers described as “the German Texas.” The common American stereotypes of Germans – tall, lederhosen-wearing, beer-swigging – come from Bavaria. We were planning to take a walking tour of the city that didn’t pan out (there were a bunch of people, like us, who had free passes for the tour from our hostel, but there weren’t enough paying customers), so we did some walking around on our own. The strangest thing happened when we were coming up to the state theater. We saw, as we were a block away, a bunch of police standing around, and police vehicles blocking off the road. Then, just as we came up to the square in front of the theater, a parade of people in traditional Bavarian uniforms started marching down the street. After taking various guesses as to what was happening – a state holiday? a pro-lederhosen demonstration? – we asked another spectator and found out that Vladimir Putin was in Munich on a state visit. We got a kick out of the idea that we and Putin were fellow travelers, if you will. We didn’t get a chance to buy him a beer, which was disappointing, but hopefully we can make it up to him some day.
Anyway, speaking of beer – on Thursday night (well, on Thursday I’d done some more culture type things that were actually a lot of fun, but I need to compress a little more, I think) we went on a pub crawl with some other Americans, some Canadian students, and an older French Canadian couple. The tour guide took us to the Hofbräuhaus, the oldest beer garden in Munich, where a bunch of us ordered the Maß, a liter of light-colored beer. It was a lot of beer. Tasted good, though. After that, we went to a few more bars, and finally ended up at an Irish-type pub (so much for local color). Unfortunately, after most of the people on the tour, in various states of inebriation, went home, B and I stayed a while longer, and at closing time, B found out that her camera had been stolen. B’s a big scrap booker and had taken more than 500 pictures of the trip, so she was really upset. Add to that a few Croatian men who wanted to “help,” and it wasn’t such a successful close to the night. We eventually made it back to the hostel in a taxi, though, and went to sleep about 5.
And the next day, the last of our trip, we took a tour of the concentration camp memorial at Dachau, which I think requires a separate entry (also, this one is getting too long). Anyway, apart from B getting her camera stolen, which sucked, I had a really great time seeing castles, listening to live music, living on coffee and cake in Austria and pretzels and beer in Munich, and just generally doing a little of the Europe on a budget thing. Also, B is a lot more outgoing than I am (granted, it doesn’t take much), so she would initiate conversations with people who were staying in our hostels or waiting in line with us, and we met some interesting people. Plus, especially after traveling by myself when I went abroad before, it was nice to have someone to notice things with, to go to a bar with, and to keep an eye on my stuff when I was in the bathroom.
So, tomorrow will be a day of planning lessons for Monday, resting up, and doing a bit of cleaning. Also, I’ll post tomorrow about Dachau, as well as anything else from the trip that seemed important but that I’ve forgotten momentarily.
One last thing – our hostels were pretty good overall, but you can’t really wash your hair decently in a hostel shower. So, that’s at least one good reason to be glad I’m home!
posted by Q at
7:20 PM
1 Comments:
charming, darling, as always.
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