Thursday, January 6, 2011
back to reality
Sorry for the lack of posts to finish up our trip but we lost internet at Shane's place and we were not able to finish it up. I will finish up new years and our crazy travels home but being tossed back to reality means it might take a few days.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
If hell were a train ride this would be it!
After stumbling out of bed in a state of...well, lets just say it was not optimal for long day on multiple trains we forced ourselves to take showers and eat some of the hotel breakfast. We headed back over the the nearby train station that luckily really close to the hotel. Matt Shane and I basically crawled onto the early train only to find that it was insanely packed. We had this bright idea to take regional trains back to berlin and this was suppose to take only 3 hours longer than taking the high speed I.C.E. train. Morgan may have been the wise one here and took the ICE even though it cost more money because she had Syd to worry about and didnt want to have to change trains a bunch and carry him around and such. So anyways we saved 100 euro or about 130 bucks by not taking the ICE and thought we were soooo smart for doing this. Well, about half of germany was thinking the same thing and sardines we would become for the next 11 hours.
The first train ride was the longest and was about 4 hours. Unfortunately the only available seats on the whole train were in the dining car on a high table seat that was only had about 5 inces of butt space. Lets just say it was very uncomfortable and the fact that we were in a state of post drinking distress this first 4 hours was NOT good times.
After getting to the first station where we had to change trains we realized how many people were planning on doing the same thing and it was a few hundred. Oh and it was freezing cold outside and the train was running 25 minutes late due to “weather conditions” Well this sucked because this means we miss the connection we planned to get at the next stop. Realizing that we were maybe going to have to fight for a spot on the train we decided to get right up to the edge of the platform to hope that a door would happen to land right in front of use. Sure enough the 2 car train...yes, this regional train was only two frickin cars for 200 people and it was already practically full stopped with a door conveniently directly in front of us! Talk about a lucky break! We got on and about 150 people were not so lucky and lucky was totally relative too. We were soooo lucky that we got to stand in the isle.
As the trains changes continued the crowds became less and less. Train number three we will call “Beware of flying luggage.” We thought we were lucky when we got a small room with about 10 seats in it but turns out we were not so lucky we picked the only seats next to a group of german white trash guys that decided that it was best if they yell the entire train ride. To top it off they put a huge heavy bag in the rack above the seats but didn’t realize that it was too big to go up there and when the train turned a corner guess what flew off the rack and straight into my kidney...Yep, the luggage hence the name of this train ride. It hurt like hell and was almost like getting punched in the kidney but what could I really do so I just pushed the bag off me gave a look and then laid my head back on the table to try to get some sleep.
Before catching train number four we had about 45 minutes so we grabbed a quick bite to eat against my better judgement at McDonalds....Gross as usual but it was fast and stopped our stomachs from eating their own insides. Train number four was mellow and we shared a small room on the train with a girl named Matilda. Matilda was going to visit her boyfriend for Silvester (we learned that silvester is what the germans call new years eve and new years day is called new years). It was fun to hang out and talk about the german education system and how it compares to the US system for a little bit and how she is in school to become a doctor. This was a short train ride and soon enough we hopped out of train number four and practically ran across the platform to catch the fifth and final train back to berlin!
Since this change was at a small station the connecting train waited for us all to get on even though our previous train was a few minutes late. Train five was also a bit crowded but at least we all had seats and we were in the final 1 hour and 30 minutes of what turned out to be an 11 hour day of traveling back to berlin. Hey we did save around $130 bucks which was nice and all of our trains went through some seriously beautiful countryside. I think we were actually going a round about way to berlin through the german mountains.
We made it back to berlin grabbed a quick bite to eat at falafel UFO around the corner from Shane and Morgans place and then crashed out around midnight. We didnt get up until 10am and man oh man was that needed because it was now new years eve and we were in for a late night or should I say early morning!
The first train ride was the longest and was about 4 hours. Unfortunately the only available seats on the whole train were in the dining car on a high table seat that was only had about 5 inces of butt space. Lets just say it was very uncomfortable and the fact that we were in a state of post drinking distress this first 4 hours was NOT good times.
After getting to the first station where we had to change trains we realized how many people were planning on doing the same thing and it was a few hundred. Oh and it was freezing cold outside and the train was running 25 minutes late due to “weather conditions” Well this sucked because this means we miss the connection we planned to get at the next stop. Realizing that we were maybe going to have to fight for a spot on the train we decided to get right up to the edge of the platform to hope that a door would happen to land right in front of use. Sure enough the 2 car train...yes, this regional train was only two frickin cars for 200 people and it was already practically full stopped with a door conveniently directly in front of us! Talk about a lucky break! We got on and about 150 people were not so lucky and lucky was totally relative too. We were soooo lucky that we got to stand in the isle.
As the trains changes continued the crowds became less and less. Train number three we will call “Beware of flying luggage.” We thought we were lucky when we got a small room with about 10 seats in it but turns out we were not so lucky we picked the only seats next to a group of german white trash guys that decided that it was best if they yell the entire train ride. To top it off they put a huge heavy bag in the rack above the seats but didn’t realize that it was too big to go up there and when the train turned a corner guess what flew off the rack and straight into my kidney...Yep, the luggage hence the name of this train ride. It hurt like hell and was almost like getting punched in the kidney but what could I really do so I just pushed the bag off me gave a look and then laid my head back on the table to try to get some sleep.
Before catching train number four we had about 45 minutes so we grabbed a quick bite to eat against my better judgement at McDonalds....Gross as usual but it was fast and stopped our stomachs from eating their own insides. Train number four was mellow and we shared a small room on the train with a girl named Matilda. Matilda was going to visit her boyfriend for Silvester (we learned that silvester is what the germans call new years eve and new years day is called new years). It was fun to hang out and talk about the german education system and how it compares to the US system for a little bit and how she is in school to become a doctor. This was a short train ride and soon enough we hopped out of train number four and practically ran across the platform to catch the fifth and final train back to berlin!
Since this change was at a small station the connecting train waited for us all to get on even though our previous train was a few minutes late. Train five was also a bit crowded but at least we all had seats and we were in the final 1 hour and 30 minutes of what turned out to be an 11 hour day of traveling back to berlin. Hey we did save around $130 bucks which was nice and all of our trains went through some seriously beautiful countryside. I think we were actually going a round about way to berlin through the german mountains.
We made it back to berlin grabbed a quick bite to eat at falafel UFO around the corner from Shane and Morgans place and then crashed out around midnight. We didnt get up until 10am and man oh man was that needed because it was now new years eve and we were in for a late night or should I say early morning!
Vienna to Munich
As Matt said in the previous blog post we went to bed exhausted and woke up a little bit later than we had anticipated. We had a train to catch around 2pm and plans to meet up with the girl who let us use her apartment for lunch at 12 but before hand matt shane and I were going to head to the central cemetery. Morgan wanted to go check out a different museum so she took off first then Matt, Shane and I hopped on one train that we thought would take us straight to it. Well, matt may have been a tad bit off because we ended up at the wrong cemetery! Google maps fail! After asking some local folk we figured out it was a few tram stops down the street so Matt and I hopped on the tram and headed in the right direction. Shane headed back to make sure he was back to meet up for lunch while Matt and I decided to try to see this one last thing and skip lunch. We knew there were some specific sites we wanted to visit and we were not too sure if it would be hard to find them or not but once we got there we realized this place was HUGE! It seriously had about one million people buried there! The goal was to visit the musicians area of the cemetery where Betheevon Schubert and Brahms were all buried and where a monument to Mozart was (No one know exactly where Mozart was buried because he was buried in a mass tomb). It was cool to be surrounded by such great composers who shaped music as we know it today. After Matt and I wandered around the cemetery a bit more checking out some other tombs and some of these were absolutely nuts. a few had their own alter built atop a grave site that was for an entire family. Also in the cemetery was a section for soldiers and all of the tombstones were identical and in perfect lines while everything else was a bit more haphazard. All in all the central cemetery was a cool experience and I am glad that we were able to squeeze it in right before we left.
On the tram ride back to the underground we had contemplated whether or not we should buy a tram ticket since our ride was only two stops and Matt actually said ehhh we probably don’t need to get once since we have not been checked at all up to this point. Famous last words!!! Luckily I decided to buy one when we got on and Matt followed. Sure enough as soon as we sat down there they were checking tickets on the tram. We would have been popped and wasted 40 euro or so and in fact the person right next to us did not have a ticket and the swiped his credit card and he paid the tram ticket right there on the tram. Talk about a close call on that one! We managed to navigate our way back to our Ubahn stop and grabbed a quick lunch at the station because we were too late to meet up for lunch but we did get to say goodbye and thanks at the apartment. Very nice to have a place to go to and didn’t have to worry about a hotel or check out times or any of that business.
We had a pretty mellow train ride from Vienna to Munich that was about 5 hours. Compared to the 9 hour train ride a few days before this was a short ride over to munich. We got into munich train station around 6pm and headed straight to our hotel which was real close to the station which was nice. We decided to take quick showers then head out to grab some food at a place that shane had been to a few times before that wasnt too much money but had really good traditional German food. This restaurant was right next to the main shopping street in Munich and across the street form a HUGE cathedral. I guess this cathedral has a little show that little wooden people come out and rotate around but we missed those shows which I for one was okay with.
3 pork knuckles please!
Matt shane and I all got a pork knuckle for dinner which came with knoedel. SOOOO GOOD! it has the skin still on it with a layer of fat underneath it and when cooked turned into cracklin’ and taste delicious. Yes I did take a photo and no it doesn’t do it justice. I think we all recommend that if you have the chance to eat a pork knucle, do it! We each had a dark hef beer there too and that was also good. Morgan had some roast pork that also was topped with cracklin’ just a different cut without the bone. Another good thing was it only cost us each about 10 euro which saved us some money for our next stop... HOFBRAUHAUS!
For those who don’t know what hofbrauhaus is, it is a enormous beer hall filled with sining germans, live music and 1 liter steins of beer..MMMMMM we did a few laps trying to find a place to sit and settled in on one of the tables on the outter edge which was nice cause every once and a while we would get some fresh air form outside that would come in. After liter number one Morgan headed back to the hotel and Matt Shane and I ordered round number two...so 16 ounces at dinner and now in another 64 ouces in and the good times were a flowing. In a whirlwind of laughs, bathroom runs, photos and conversations with our table neighbors who also turned out to be americans, almost getting scamed into buy a hofbrauhaus keychain with my picture on it, we ended up ordering third liter of delicious frothy beverages and our table mates actually picked up the tab on this round which was cool. So now in 3 liters and a pint at dinner in about 2.5-3 hours we were primed and ready for a fun walk back to the hotel. The details of this enchanting mature walk home will remain unblogged as will the the night and following morning for everyones benefit. Munich was good times even though were were only there one night and didnt get too see all that much. From what I did see it is a very clean big city, well at least the city center where all the shops were and I would like to try to make it back there some time.
On the tram ride back to the underground we had contemplated whether or not we should buy a tram ticket since our ride was only two stops and Matt actually said ehhh we probably don’t need to get once since we have not been checked at all up to this point. Famous last words!!! Luckily I decided to buy one when we got on and Matt followed. Sure enough as soon as we sat down there they were checking tickets on the tram. We would have been popped and wasted 40 euro or so and in fact the person right next to us did not have a ticket and the swiped his credit card and he paid the tram ticket right there on the tram. Talk about a close call on that one! We managed to navigate our way back to our Ubahn stop and grabbed a quick lunch at the station because we were too late to meet up for lunch but we did get to say goodbye and thanks at the apartment. Very nice to have a place to go to and didn’t have to worry about a hotel or check out times or any of that business.
We had a pretty mellow train ride from Vienna to Munich that was about 5 hours. Compared to the 9 hour train ride a few days before this was a short ride over to munich. We got into munich train station around 6pm and headed straight to our hotel which was real close to the station which was nice. We decided to take quick showers then head out to grab some food at a place that shane had been to a few times before that wasnt too much money but had really good traditional German food. This restaurant was right next to the main shopping street in Munich and across the street form a HUGE cathedral. I guess this cathedral has a little show that little wooden people come out and rotate around but we missed those shows which I for one was okay with.
3 pork knuckles please!
Matt shane and I all got a pork knuckle for dinner which came with knoedel. SOOOO GOOD! it has the skin still on it with a layer of fat underneath it and when cooked turned into cracklin’ and taste delicious. Yes I did take a photo and no it doesn’t do it justice. I think we all recommend that if you have the chance to eat a pork knucle, do it! We each had a dark hef beer there too and that was also good. Morgan had some roast pork that also was topped with cracklin’ just a different cut without the bone. Another good thing was it only cost us each about 10 euro which saved us some money for our next stop... HOFBRAUHAUS!
For those who don’t know what hofbrauhaus is, it is a enormous beer hall filled with sining germans, live music and 1 liter steins of beer..MMMMMM we did a few laps trying to find a place to sit and settled in on one of the tables on the outter edge which was nice cause every once and a while we would get some fresh air form outside that would come in. After liter number one Morgan headed back to the hotel and Matt Shane and I ordered round number two...so 16 ounces at dinner and now in another 64 ouces in and the good times were a flowing. In a whirlwind of laughs, bathroom runs, photos and conversations with our table neighbors who also turned out to be americans, almost getting scamed into buy a hofbrauhaus keychain with my picture on it, we ended up ordering third liter of delicious frothy beverages and our table mates actually picked up the tab on this round which was cool. So now in 3 liters and a pint at dinner in about 2.5-3 hours we were primed and ready for a fun walk back to the hotel. The details of this enchanting mature walk home will remain unblogged as will the the night and following morning for everyones benefit. Munich was good times even though were were only there one night and didnt get too see all that much. From what I did see it is a very clean big city, well at least the city center where all the shops were and I would like to try to make it back there some time.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Vienna day 2
We woke up fairly early on Tuesday to get a start on our day. Morgan had expressed interest in seeing the Spanish Riding School, so Scott, she and I made our way over. The school is located in one wing of the Hofburg Palace (one of 3 or 4 in Vienna), so it was a pretty extravagant building by default. There were several hundred people already in line and inside, so once inside we stood and watched for an hour or so. The school was housed in a long threatre-like building with 2 viewing levels supported by massive columns. The ceilings were supported by huge stone arches and decorated like that of a medieval cathedral, with large sculptures on either end. It was slightly reminiscent of the colosseum on the inside (even though I’ve never seen it). Oh yeah, horses train and perform there on a regular basis. We were only there for a training session, but the riders had the horses doing several drills and exercises in quite elegant fashion set to Classical Viennese Music. If Austrian women are anywhere near as obedient as the animals, I may have a change in location very soon. We found seats on the upper level and watched for a bit longer before leaving.
We waited in a nearby cafe on the grounds of the Hofburg for Shane, who was coming from a seminar that ended up being cancelled. Can’t a guy learn some stuff? We had really expensive coffee and headed over to the Kaiser-apartments located just across the courtyard from the school. Our ticket included audio tours of the Royal Silver Collection and the Sisi Museum (Empress Elizabeth), parts of which we intended to skip. The tours were structured in a way that you were forced to walk through all of them, so Silver and Sisi it was. Much along the lines of the Treasury we toured yesterday, we again saw that the Habsburgs and other ruling families of the Austria-Hungary empire had no qualms with proving their superiority through whatever means necessary. It was more than just silver; gold, precious stones and work from the hands of the best artists in the area adorned the most magnificent collection of dinnerware I’ve ever seen. It might be the most impressive viewable display in the world. Entire sets of ware created for individuals or families, designed to reflect their story and their current level of status. Some empresses had an entire set simply for traveling. Everything was either or out bronze silver, or gold. None of this glass or metal crap. A different plate for each part of a course. A different glass for each beverage. These are the apparent luxuries available when pillaging, plundering and ruling over most of Europe for 500 or so years. Must keep this in mind. One humorous display involved a ceremony which the people of Vienna performed to remind themselves of humility. It involved washing the feet of 10 paupers, but of course had its own set of highly stylized basins & other ware and was basically a huge celebration. Nice try Vienna. You couldn’t be humble if you tried. And that’s why I love you.
The Sisi museum was actually kind of interesting. Sisi (Empress Elizabeth) was a normal girl who just happened to get involved with the heir to the Austrian Empire, Franz Joseph. We followed her life from just before their involvement to her death. In between, we were shown how conflicted she was about entering in to the public limelight, her obsession with her looks and weight and her general state of constant depression. She and FJ became estranged as she would essentially leave the palace to go on road trips with her homies all the time. She took a lot of shit for this form the public, but FJ was such a good man that he claimed it only made him love her more. She grew to become known internationally, which many claim only contributed to her emotional struggles. She was murdered by an anarchist who stabbed her in the chest with basically ended up being a prison shank. Hardly the way a empress should be killed. Show some class, anarchists.
We finally got to the Kaiser-apartments, where we saw the living quarters of Sisi and Franz Joseph. Scott may have mentioned earlier that we saw their living quarters yesterday. Let’s not get confused here between the summer residence (Schonbrunn, yesterday) and the winter residence (Hofburg, today). The apartments here were much like the ones seen at Schonbrunn. We saw further evidence of Sisi’s eclectic and conflicted personality by the way in which her rooms were decorated. For someone who avoided the pressures of being one of the most powerful and important women in the world, she sure knew how to utilize the perks. In contrast to the plain and simple decor of the hard working FJ, Sisi’s rooms were decorated in the most luxurious examples of Rococo style that I saw anywhere in Vienna. Hard carved wooden moldings painted with bright gold adorned the walls and ceilings. Also present were paintings of her family and children by the most well known artists of her time.
Unfortunately, the tour didn’t include the Great Halls where grand feasts were held for some of Vienna’s most esteemed royalty. I want my money back.
We were all super hungry, so we went to had pizza and beer a ways down the street. After recharging, we walked around the state/govt buildings (Prathaus, City Hall, etc...) No shortage of magnificence in the construction of these buildings either. I believe these buildings are currently being used for modern Viennese government. It must be soul crushing for city and state workers in the US to come to places like Vienna and see that state employees literally work castles adorned with sculptures from antiquity.
We had a little time before dinner, so we made our way over to the museum area. We decided on the MoMuk (modern art). Probably the most impressive exhibit was the Photorealists, a modernist movement based on photographs. I walked around the half of the first exhibit admiring photographs, until I realized that they weren’t actually photographs. Even after reading the blurb about the movement and the artists, there were a couple pieces where I argued with myself over the whether or not it was a painting. At some point, the Photorealists and Warhols turned in to some pretty inventive “pieces” about porn and sexuality. Museum time started to end for us when the blood became a main fixture in the exhibit. Shit got out of control when we hit the piece with the replica of human bodies tied down with rope and and plastic wrap onto a bed. We left immediately after, mostly because the museum was closing, but I’m pretty sure we would’ve left anyways.
We got back to the house and needed more food ASAP. We left around 9 and couldn’t find anything open. Berlin is nice because a lot of restaurants and bars are open late. Vienna should take notes. We ended up eating at the same place we ate the first night, but it was a bit more crowded this time. We all tried something different; Scott got boiled beef with applesauce/horseradish sauce (yes, you read that right), while I tried the Wienerschnitzel (veal scallope schnitzel). Mine pretty good, I don’t think Scott was as happy with his. But it’s all part of the experience. Morgan and Shane both had egg battered Schnitzel. We headed home after a bit and setup camp. Shane, Scott and I watched the second half of Home Alone. Went to bed exhausted.
We waited in a nearby cafe on the grounds of the Hofburg for Shane, who was coming from a seminar that ended up being cancelled. Can’t a guy learn some stuff? We had really expensive coffee and headed over to the Kaiser-apartments located just across the courtyard from the school. Our ticket included audio tours of the Royal Silver Collection and the Sisi Museum (Empress Elizabeth), parts of which we intended to skip. The tours were structured in a way that you were forced to walk through all of them, so Silver and Sisi it was. Much along the lines of the Treasury we toured yesterday, we again saw that the Habsburgs and other ruling families of the Austria-Hungary empire had no qualms with proving their superiority through whatever means necessary. It was more than just silver; gold, precious stones and work from the hands of the best artists in the area adorned the most magnificent collection of dinnerware I’ve ever seen. It might be the most impressive viewable display in the world. Entire sets of ware created for individuals or families, designed to reflect their story and their current level of status. Some empresses had an entire set simply for traveling. Everything was either or out bronze silver, or gold. None of this glass or metal crap. A different plate for each part of a course. A different glass for each beverage. These are the apparent luxuries available when pillaging, plundering and ruling over most of Europe for 500 or so years. Must keep this in mind. One humorous display involved a ceremony which the people of Vienna performed to remind themselves of humility. It involved washing the feet of 10 paupers, but of course had its own set of highly stylized basins & other ware and was basically a huge celebration. Nice try Vienna. You couldn’t be humble if you tried. And that’s why I love you.
The Sisi museum was actually kind of interesting. Sisi (Empress Elizabeth) was a normal girl who just happened to get involved with the heir to the Austrian Empire, Franz Joseph. We followed her life from just before their involvement to her death. In between, we were shown how conflicted she was about entering in to the public limelight, her obsession with her looks and weight and her general state of constant depression. She and FJ became estranged as she would essentially leave the palace to go on road trips with her homies all the time. She took a lot of shit for this form the public, but FJ was such a good man that he claimed it only made him love her more. She grew to become known internationally, which many claim only contributed to her emotional struggles. She was murdered by an anarchist who stabbed her in the chest with basically ended up being a prison shank. Hardly the way a empress should be killed. Show some class, anarchists.
We finally got to the Kaiser-apartments, where we saw the living quarters of Sisi and Franz Joseph. Scott may have mentioned earlier that we saw their living quarters yesterday. Let’s not get confused here between the summer residence (Schonbrunn, yesterday) and the winter residence (Hofburg, today). The apartments here were much like the ones seen at Schonbrunn. We saw further evidence of Sisi’s eclectic and conflicted personality by the way in which her rooms were decorated. For someone who avoided the pressures of being one of the most powerful and important women in the world, she sure knew how to utilize the perks. In contrast to the plain and simple decor of the hard working FJ, Sisi’s rooms were decorated in the most luxurious examples of Rococo style that I saw anywhere in Vienna. Hard carved wooden moldings painted with bright gold adorned the walls and ceilings. Also present were paintings of her family and children by the most well known artists of her time.
Unfortunately, the tour didn’t include the Great Halls where grand feasts were held for some of Vienna’s most esteemed royalty. I want my money back.
We were all super hungry, so we went to had pizza and beer a ways down the street. After recharging, we walked around the state/govt buildings (Prathaus, City Hall, etc...) No shortage of magnificence in the construction of these buildings either. I believe these buildings are currently being used for modern Viennese government. It must be soul crushing for city and state workers in the US to come to places like Vienna and see that state employees literally work castles adorned with sculptures from antiquity.
We had a little time before dinner, so we made our way over to the museum area. We decided on the MoMuk (modern art). Probably the most impressive exhibit was the Photorealists, a modernist movement based on photographs. I walked around the half of the first exhibit admiring photographs, until I realized that they weren’t actually photographs. Even after reading the blurb about the movement and the artists, there were a couple pieces where I argued with myself over the whether or not it was a painting. At some point, the Photorealists and Warhols turned in to some pretty inventive “pieces” about porn and sexuality. Museum time started to end for us when the blood became a main fixture in the exhibit. Shit got out of control when we hit the piece with the replica of human bodies tied down with rope and and plastic wrap onto a bed. We left immediately after, mostly because the museum was closing, but I’m pretty sure we would’ve left anyways.
We got back to the house and needed more food ASAP. We left around 9 and couldn’t find anything open. Berlin is nice because a lot of restaurants and bars are open late. Vienna should take notes. We ended up eating at the same place we ate the first night, but it was a bit more crowded this time. We all tried something different; Scott got boiled beef with applesauce/horseradish sauce (yes, you read that right), while I tried the Wienerschnitzel (veal scallope schnitzel). Mine pretty good, I don’t think Scott was as happy with his. But it’s all part of the experience. Morgan and Shane both had egg battered Schnitzel. We headed home after a bit and setup camp. Shane, Scott and I watched the second half of Home Alone. Went to bed exhausted.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
day one in Wien (vienna)
After having to rush to the west train station (which was luckily right by the apartment that we were staying at) we made it to our train with about 3 minutes to spare and now we have a bit more time to play catch up on our blog which is nice. Well now we are up to December 27th, our first day in win, and we had a full day ahead of us. The plan was to start the day out by goig to Schonbrunn palace. After a hop skip and a ubahn ride over to we made it to the palace. IT WAS HUGE! It reminded me of walking up to the palace of versailles outside Paris but not as crazy. We headed up to the palace and decided to take a tour of the apartments. On the tour took a stroll through the palace with the help of our audio guides and learned a bit of history about the austrian empire. Walking through the office of Franz Joseph and how he might have had the most crazy work ethic i have heard of. He felt that put in 14 hour work days starting at 5 am. He believed that it was his duty to work hard to benefit the austrian empire. Strangely he also did not seem to take advantages of all that he had at his finger tips keeping his office, smoking room and bedroom all very simple. Oh and by the way he had an absolutely amazing mustache and chops and I will be working hard to someday achieve this look even though matt keeps telling me I need to shave my face and get a haircut.
Being the big cheese of Austria has some percs for sure. Franz Joseph had his right hand man who had a room adjacent to his and this guy was there to bring him food, snacks and anything he might need or want at the drop of a dime. Now Franz Joseph met and decided to marry Elizabeth (Sisi) when she was 15 and they wed shortly after. He was adored her but royal live was not what she wanted and ultimately became very depressed and kept to herself (more on Sisi to come in the post for day two in Wien because we went through the Sisi Museum). Sisi’s rooms, yes rooms, were just through the smoking room and were a bit more lavish. Connected to Sisi’s room was the first full functioning toilet in the palace. It was in a 3ft by 3ft room and was not much more than a toilet and walls but im sure this toilet made her life a tad bit easier and nicer.
After the apartments we made our way to the great hall. This hall was nuts the ceiling must have been about 30-40 ft high and was decorated with what seemed to be hand carved wooden plants painted in gold. While we were there the hall was under restoration and parts of the walls were covered but from what we could see it was nice. I guess they would hold concerts and thanks to our audio guide we learned that Mozart played a concert for Sisi and Joseph when he was only six years old! I guess when he was done he ran and jumped on Sisi’s lap and gave her a great big hug. I guess they knew Mozart would be the Cats Pajamas even at age six! Also in this grand hall were huge chandeliers with about 40-50 candles which were now replaced by electric candles and electricity was installed in the place by none other than Thomas Edison. These were not just normal electric candles because the flame would flicker and move around on top of the candlestick to give it a real flame look.
After the the tour of the inside of the palace we made our way through a section of snow and ice on the ground to make our way to the back of the palace where the gardens were. If we thought this place was huge before the land it is on is even more nuts. Due to it being winter a lot of the plants and flowers either died or had been removed from the garden but it was still pretty beautiful. We walked over to where this huge fountain was and decided it would be a good idea to try to ice skate on it without ice skates. It was fun and I think shane captured and action shot of my slide about 3 seconds before I almost ate it. Then when we were getting off the ice we saw a since that said please keep off the ice of the fountain or something along those lines in german...OOPS. Oh well, it was fun. The palace has the worlds oldest zoo on its grounds and we were able to walk by it but the though of spending some of our time in Wien at a zoo didnt seem like the best of ideas and to see the animals out and about in the snow seemed a bit sad so we just walked along the side and were able to see a few animals like an american buffalo and some other kind of huge buffalo or yack or something with big ol’ horns.
After walking through the gardens for an hour or so we made our way back to the Ubahn to see a bit more of the city. We saw that vienna had some cool big Cathedrals so we decided to go check out one of them. I dont remember the name but it had 2 towers that you could go up in and get a view of the city for a couple of Euro. Walking into the Cathedral was crazy cause as soon as you walked in it was a total time warp. Everything was old and super cool looking inside. One thing that struck me right away was the 6 foot floating Jesus on the cross hanging suspended about 15 feet in the air directly in the middle of the church. After snapping a few photographs inside we made our way up to the south tower. We decided to go up the south tower because although it was not as high we were able to go outside on it. We had to take a tiny little elevator that with a austrian man who was playing his hand held radio and whistling along with the tunes that I could not make a word of and the lift opened up to a shady metal structure and stairs that took us up to the stable stone tower. from up there we could see half of Vienna. We could only see half because the other half was blocked by the pointy roof of the Cathedral. The view was really beautiful and you could really see how big Vienna really is from up there. It was cold and the wind was blowing pretty good so we didnt spend too much time up there but we did snap a few pictures and then made our way back down the tiny lift to the cathedral floor below.
After checking out one of Wien’s Cathedrals we decided to head over to Hofberg Palace which was another palace occupied by Joseph and Sisi. Due to the time that it took to explore their other palace we decided to pick one section of this and come back the next day to really explore it. We made our way to the treasury which was full of all kinds of crazy. Making our way through the treasury we were greeted by a crown that had to have been worth a million dollars in just gold and gems alone, not counting any historical value. Some of the stuff that they had was just insane. For example we saw the worlds biggest emerald and it was seriously the size of a softball! Walking through all the gems gowns treasures and shiny things we made our way over to the relics section of the treasury. In the relic section they had either pieces of bone, flesh, hair of a saint or someone really important encased in a structure, usually beautifully decorated. Some of the craziest claims they had relics in there were the following in no particular order:
1. A part of the cross that Jesus was crucified on. It was maybe about 2 inches by 5 inches in size and was made into a cross.
The Christ spear. This spear was said to have punctured Jesus in the side while he was being crucified. I remember seeing a discovery documentary on this...well, i am 99% sure it was the same spear and they did all kinds of crazy tests and wanted to do more but were not permitted to remove the gold that was covering half of it.
One of the nails that was nailed through jesus to hold him to the crucifix. The nail was about 6 inches long and looked to be very old and who knows maybe it was the actual nail but I am not sure who determined this or how they know.
A few relics that said that they had a piece of Christ himself.
Now I am not sure if these relics are accurate or how they know or who found them but im sure if this topic interest you more information is available on their website or online in general.
After the treasury we decided this fun filled day had to come to a close so we took a walk through the hofburg to see some of its buildings such as the library. It was beautiful and especially illuminated by the lights shining up on it. On our way home we stopped by a market to pick up some stuff to make dinner, another nice part of staying in an apartment. We made some food watched the first half of Home Alone on shane’s macbook and then called it a night. All in all a good day and a beautiful city.
Now Im going to pass the baton over to matt to do a write up on day two in Wein...should be an exciting one because we saw some funky stuff at the modern art museum...we will see how detailed he decides to get ...readers be warned :)
Being the big cheese of Austria has some percs for sure. Franz Joseph had his right hand man who had a room adjacent to his and this guy was there to bring him food, snacks and anything he might need or want at the drop of a dime. Now Franz Joseph met and decided to marry Elizabeth (Sisi) when she was 15 and they wed shortly after. He was adored her but royal live was not what she wanted and ultimately became very depressed and kept to herself (more on Sisi to come in the post for day two in Wien because we went through the Sisi Museum). Sisi’s rooms, yes rooms, were just through the smoking room and were a bit more lavish. Connected to Sisi’s room was the first full functioning toilet in the palace. It was in a 3ft by 3ft room and was not much more than a toilet and walls but im sure this toilet made her life a tad bit easier and nicer.
After the apartments we made our way to the great hall. This hall was nuts the ceiling must have been about 30-40 ft high and was decorated with what seemed to be hand carved wooden plants painted in gold. While we were there the hall was under restoration and parts of the walls were covered but from what we could see it was nice. I guess they would hold concerts and thanks to our audio guide we learned that Mozart played a concert for Sisi and Joseph when he was only six years old! I guess when he was done he ran and jumped on Sisi’s lap and gave her a great big hug. I guess they knew Mozart would be the Cats Pajamas even at age six! Also in this grand hall were huge chandeliers with about 40-50 candles which were now replaced by electric candles and electricity was installed in the place by none other than Thomas Edison. These were not just normal electric candles because the flame would flicker and move around on top of the candlestick to give it a real flame look.
After the the tour of the inside of the palace we made our way through a section of snow and ice on the ground to make our way to the back of the palace where the gardens were. If we thought this place was huge before the land it is on is even more nuts. Due to it being winter a lot of the plants and flowers either died or had been removed from the garden but it was still pretty beautiful. We walked over to where this huge fountain was and decided it would be a good idea to try to ice skate on it without ice skates. It was fun and I think shane captured and action shot of my slide about 3 seconds before I almost ate it. Then when we were getting off the ice we saw a since that said please keep off the ice of the fountain or something along those lines in german...OOPS. Oh well, it was fun. The palace has the worlds oldest zoo on its grounds and we were able to walk by it but the though of spending some of our time in Wien at a zoo didnt seem like the best of ideas and to see the animals out and about in the snow seemed a bit sad so we just walked along the side and were able to see a few animals like an american buffalo and some other kind of huge buffalo or yack or something with big ol’ horns.
After walking through the gardens for an hour or so we made our way back to the Ubahn to see a bit more of the city. We saw that vienna had some cool big Cathedrals so we decided to go check out one of them. I dont remember the name but it had 2 towers that you could go up in and get a view of the city for a couple of Euro. Walking into the Cathedral was crazy cause as soon as you walked in it was a total time warp. Everything was old and super cool looking inside. One thing that struck me right away was the 6 foot floating Jesus on the cross hanging suspended about 15 feet in the air directly in the middle of the church. After snapping a few photographs inside we made our way up to the south tower. We decided to go up the south tower because although it was not as high we were able to go outside on it. We had to take a tiny little elevator that with a austrian man who was playing his hand held radio and whistling along with the tunes that I could not make a word of and the lift opened up to a shady metal structure and stairs that took us up to the stable stone tower. from up there we could see half of Vienna. We could only see half because the other half was blocked by the pointy roof of the Cathedral. The view was really beautiful and you could really see how big Vienna really is from up there. It was cold and the wind was blowing pretty good so we didnt spend too much time up there but we did snap a few pictures and then made our way back down the tiny lift to the cathedral floor below.
After checking out one of Wien’s Cathedrals we decided to head over to Hofberg Palace which was another palace occupied by Joseph and Sisi. Due to the time that it took to explore their other palace we decided to pick one section of this and come back the next day to really explore it. We made our way to the treasury which was full of all kinds of crazy. Making our way through the treasury we were greeted by a crown that had to have been worth a million dollars in just gold and gems alone, not counting any historical value. Some of the stuff that they had was just insane. For example we saw the worlds biggest emerald and it was seriously the size of a softball! Walking through all the gems gowns treasures and shiny things we made our way over to the relics section of the treasury. In the relic section they had either pieces of bone, flesh, hair of a saint or someone really important encased in a structure, usually beautifully decorated. Some of the craziest claims they had relics in there were the following in no particular order:
1. A part of the cross that Jesus was crucified on. It was maybe about 2 inches by 5 inches in size and was made into a cross.
The Christ spear. This spear was said to have punctured Jesus in the side while he was being crucified. I remember seeing a discovery documentary on this...well, i am 99% sure it was the same spear and they did all kinds of crazy tests and wanted to do more but were not permitted to remove the gold that was covering half of it.
One of the nails that was nailed through jesus to hold him to the crucifix. The nail was about 6 inches long and looked to be very old and who knows maybe it was the actual nail but I am not sure who determined this or how they know.
A few relics that said that they had a piece of Christ himself.
Now I am not sure if these relics are accurate or how they know or who found them but im sure if this topic interest you more information is available on their website or online in general.
After the treasury we decided this fun filled day had to come to a close so we took a walk through the hofburg to see some of its buildings such as the library. It was beautiful and especially illuminated by the lights shining up on it. On our way home we stopped by a market to pick up some stuff to make dinner, another nice part of staying in an apartment. We made some food watched the first half of Home Alone on shane’s macbook and then called it a night. All in all a good day and a beautiful city.
Now Im going to pass the baton over to matt to do a write up on day two in Wein...should be an exciting one because we saw some funky stuff at the modern art museum...we will see how detailed he decides to get ...readers be warned :)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Hey matt! Want a cookie?
December 26th, 6:30 am wake up call for a train ride that all of us are super excited for our 9 hours of sitting in one place. I guess one good thing is that we didnt have to change trains at which was nice. This post wont be too exciting due to the fact that we spent most of the day on the train but a few cool things did happen. First of all the entire countryside was beautiful! It was covered in snow and along the way we saw some cool castles and buildings. We pretty much followed this river most of the train ride which made the scenery pretty dang nice. Morgan got this game called Mau Mau in her stalking which is the german version of Uno... Each game took a little over an hour to play which helped pass the time. So, at the end of the game when you play your last card you are required to say Mau Mau because if another player says it before you then you do not win and you have to draw 5 more cards. Well, lets just say shane was way better and yelling "BOOM!" to talk crap then saying Mau Mau. I think we all regretted calling him out on it due to the fact the game went on for another 30 min or so..
Another highlight of this lovely 9 hour train ride was the eating of a delicious "cookie" .You will soon see why cookie is in quotes... We had packed some stuff to make lunch on the train and shane and I decided it would be funny if we could get matt to eat some of Syd's food. For those of you who do not know who Syd is, Syd is shane and morgan's dog that has come along this trip with us. Anywho, after eating our sandwiches and about 4-5 hours on the train making all our brains turn to mush a bit we asked matt if he wanted a cookie for dessert as he had finished his sandwich first. At first we thought there was no way he would fall for it because it was just a piece of you average dry dog food. After a second matt said "yeah, sure i will have a cookie" and shane tossed him a delicious piece of syd's food and matt tossed it directly into his mouth...all of us burst out laughing and matts face turned from sour to laughing along with us. Then matt flipped it on us a bit. He pulled the dog food out of his mouth for a second and then said "eh, lets give it a try" and tossed the food back into his mouth and began chewing... He actually ate it!!! I seriously laughed until I cried which I hace not done for some time. He was a good sport and it helped pass the time on the train.
Once we got into Vienna we got to shanes friends old apartment that still is furnished with a few things (she is moving and right now has 2 places). Super nice of her to let us stay here for free!! Although it was obvious that someone had been smoking in the apartment recently it was still a free roof over our heads with a heater which is 100% necessary due to the fact that while in vienna it has been in the teens. We went out to try to find a place to eat which was a little tough because it was sunday and things close early. We did find one restaurant that was open and had some good local food. I would get a bit more into the food but we are about to leave for our train to Munich so for now we are out...but we are going to try to catch up on all the fun things we did and saw here in vienna and post them as soon as we can. I am not sure if we are going to have internet in munich but we will be back in Berlin in a few days. Hope everyone is doing well!
Another highlight of this lovely 9 hour train ride was the eating of a delicious "cookie" .You will soon see why cookie is in quotes... We had packed some stuff to make lunch on the train and shane and I decided it would be funny if we could get matt to eat some of Syd's food. For those of you who do not know who Syd is, Syd is shane and morgan's dog that has come along this trip with us. Anywho, after eating our sandwiches and about 4-5 hours on the train making all our brains turn to mush a bit we asked matt if he wanted a cookie for dessert as he had finished his sandwich first. At first we thought there was no way he would fall for it because it was just a piece of you average dry dog food. After a second matt said "yeah, sure i will have a cookie" and shane tossed him a delicious piece of syd's food and matt tossed it directly into his mouth...all of us burst out laughing and matts face turned from sour to laughing along with us. Then matt flipped it on us a bit. He pulled the dog food out of his mouth for a second and then said "eh, lets give it a try" and tossed the food back into his mouth and began chewing... He actually ate it!!! I seriously laughed until I cried which I hace not done for some time. He was a good sport and it helped pass the time on the train.
Once we got into Vienna we got to shanes friends old apartment that still is furnished with a few things (she is moving and right now has 2 places). Super nice of her to let us stay here for free!! Although it was obvious that someone had been smoking in the apartment recently it was still a free roof over our heads with a heater which is 100% necessary due to the fact that while in vienna it has been in the teens. We went out to try to find a place to eat which was a little tough because it was sunday and things close early. We did find one restaurant that was open and had some good local food. I would get a bit more into the food but we are about to leave for our train to Munich so for now we are out...but we are going to try to catch up on all the fun things we did and saw here in vienna and post them as soon as we can. I am not sure if we are going to have internet in munich but we will be back in Berlin in a few days. Hope everyone is doing well!
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