I find myself on the west bank of the Danube on a sunny afternoon so beautiful that hardly a cloud has dared to show itself. The hazel-green water laps gently at my toes as I sit lazily on concrete steps that disappear below me into the murky river. As far as I can tell, the only thing blue about the beautiful blue Danube is its reflection of the sky, but sitting here now, I can still understand completely why one might be compelled to compose a song about it.
To either side of where I sit are people - families, groups of friends, boys playing soccer - and several happily barking dogs. People are riding their bikes, sunbathing topless, and swimming in the river. I've just finished a salami sandwich and three yellow-green apples, and now my stomach is feeling full and I am feeling happy. An old man swims up to the steps and I am sure he has just completed a lap across the entire river. His endurance seems impressive until I watch a brown dog swim eagerly around in the water in front of me with a stick in it's mouth for nearly 15 minutes before getting tired and returning to the shore, panting heavily and barking much less than before. I am in a great mood and I long to turn to somebody and converse about the fabulous weather, but everybody around me speaks in a cheery German-sounding language I can't understand, so I have no choice but to sit quietly.
Marc and Alex are lounging in the grass under a tree somewhere, but I don't have it in me to refuse an opportunity like this, to bask in the sunny glow of a Vienna afternoon with my shoes and shirt off and my feet in the river. I envy the people paddling around in the refreshing water, who upon entering it all seem to wince at its temperature for a few moments, before dunking their heads and succumbing to the joy of the moment. I have no towel and no swimsuit with me though, so I will remain on land today. I notice the sun hangs deceptively high in the sky, despite it being nearly 7, and I decide that it is probably time to move on. I pull my feet out of the river so that they may dry for a moment, and begin gathering my things together. I get my shoes on, gather my apple cores, and head off to find Alex and Marc. We have many more places still to explore.
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First, my apologies to you dedicated blog readers for letting so much time go by since my last posting. I can assure you it is not due to lack of interest in writing. There were two main reasons for my temporary absence from blog-land. The first is that we have blazed through three of Austria's largest and most beautiful cities in less than a week, including our days of travel. I would love to post daily about our adventures, but it can be difficult to sit and type when there is much to see and do. The second reason is that Alex got me hooked on reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, which turned out to be quite the page turner. I got through its 500-something pages in about four days, which might be the most reading outside of engineering textbooks that I've done in quite some time. I have a copy of the Da Vinci Code ready and waiting in my backpack, but I am going to try to hold off on it until I return to the United States and I have more time to get sucked into another suspenseful novel.
So, Vienna sausages, edelweiss, the Alps, The Sound of Music, apple strudel, wiener schnitzel, and the Governator himself - the beautiful country of Austria is famous for all of these things, and they are all part of the reason why I've found myself enjoying this little mountainous corner of Europe so much. Coming into Austria, I wasn't sure what to expect. When I thought of Vienna, I thought of opera. Salzburg was Sound of Music territory. Innsbruck, I figured, would be up in some mountains somewhere. Other countries on our itinerary stood out much more to me, Austria simply being that week in our trip between Eastern Europe and Germany. Little did I know how enchanting a place awaited.
We arrived in Vienna in the evening, going through the usual motions of getting directions, finding a map, and navigating our way through unfamiliar streets and subways to the hostel we had reserved. This process used to be more arduous, but these days our backpacks seem lighter and the unfamiliarity less stressful. We don't care much for getting wet, but we definitely don't mind getting lost.
We ended up having dinner at McDonald's of all places, for a reason even I found hard to believe – it was our most healthy option. I bemoaned the idea of another slice of pizza, and could not stomach the thought of more strange pitas filled with meat. So we chowed down at McDonald's, where I actually had a salad for what felt like the first time in weeks.
The next morning, we headed for one of the most famous places in Vienna, the Schonbrunn Palace. With gardens rumored to rival those of Versailles only a few subway stops away, we knew it was a place we had to visit. The palace turned out to be grand but not particularly exciting, so we walked around it to the back to explore the gardens. Thankfully for our budget, we could wander around to our hearts content for free. It took only a moment inside before I realized that these gardens were actually much prettier than Versailles. There was no doubt that the French had won the size contest, but on technical perfection, the Schonbrunn gardens were the victors, and at several square kilometers, their size was certainly nothing to look down upon. The place was definitely big enough to get lost in, and that could be helped by the maze of hedges we explored towards the center of the grounds. Rows of colorful roses, perfectly sculpted topiaries, ponds filled with goldfish, glamorous fountains, ducks, countless marble statues, a zoo, and an indoor palm garden were only some of what we found inside. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves.
That evening our plans to tour the old city of Vienna were rained out, so we decided to head to the movies. When seeing American films in a foreign country, it is important to be mindful that you are attending a showing with subtitles rather than a dubbed version, since both are available. We decided to see Bruno, which the three of us had been looking forward to for some time. From the creators of the beloved Borat, we had high hopes, most of which were dashed after actually seeing the movie. It is rare that I find myself leaving a movie certain that I enjoyed myself but knowing I actually didn't like the film I had just witnessed, but that was largely how I felt. The movie was without a doubt hilarious, but at the same time insulting for just about anybody from America, and especially for gay men. Insulting can be funny, but the three of us found most of it tasteless and without any real purpose. Furthermore, the plot was thin and, while the movie definitely had its shining moments, the film really just did not stand up to its predecessor, Borat. Oh Well.
We began our next day early, knowing that we would be leaving for Salzburg the following morning. We chose first to visit the cemetery where most of Austria's famous composers were buried. Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert, to name a few, could be found in the Central Vienna cemetery, which we reached by the #71 tram. Ironically, the Austrians, who as a people are somewhat fascinated with death, refer to dying as “taking the #71.” When I say that Austrians are fascinated with death, I am speaking of their idea that a man who dies without a lavish and extraordinary funeral has utterly wasted his life. People in Austria often contribute funds during their lives to a sort of saving-up-for-death account, which is used to finance their funeral as well as the upkeep of their burial site. Companies seem to be based entirely around the routine maintenance of these grave sites, with many of them posting their business's name and phone number on the graves for which they are responsible.
On either side of the main area of the cemetery were the Jewish sections, easily spotted by their decidedly unmaintained appearance. It was not immediately obvious why the Jewish sections were so extremely overgrown, to the point of literally requiring a team of men with machetes to reach some of the graves, which we guessed had been engulfed for decades. We hypothesized that perhaps the cemetery did not take much responsibility for maintenance, leaving that to the private companies that were paid to keep things neat by the families of the deceased. Most of the graves in the Jewish section were from before the 1930s and, very sadly to say, the children and grandchildren of the people buried in those sections probably could not pay to maintain the graves because they had been killed during the Holocaust. With nobody to finance the upkeep of the Jewish sections, they were simply left to nature, which was slowly swallowing the many grand stone monuments into the overgrowth. To us, it was another sad example of how wars have shaped the landscape of modern Europe.
We departed the cemetery and took off towards central Vienna, making a stop at another formal garden site, the Belvedere Palace, which contained even more examples of fabulous Austrian gardening. After grabbing some lunch, we rode the subway out to Danube Island to sit in the sun among locals and enjoy the view of the river. Dipping my feet in the water could not have felt more refreshing. Some parts of Europe seem to be completely unaware that the invention of air conditioning has occurred, and as a result we haven't stopped sweating for what feels like weeks. Trains, hostels, subways, and pretty much any other confined space we enter is hot, humid, and not very comfortable. These days, I take pretty cold showers and find myself drinking liters of water a day to deal with the heat. Getting to sit outside with my shirt off and my feet in the water was pretty wonderful.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around other Viennese landmarks, including the amusement park with the world's first Ferris Wheel and the Vienna old city. I feel that the architecture in old Vienna is every bit as magnificent as the most majestic places we've seen in Europe. In fact, Vienna may be home to some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. We wandered past City Hall, a towering structure with architecture so ornate, one might believe it to be a cathedral of some sort. In the square in front of the building, a huge mass of people milled about, with some sitting at tables enjoying food and fancy looking drinks. We had inadvertently wandered into the Vienna Summer Film Festival, which was accompanied by a very classy international food fair. Well dressed locals sat around enjoying the company, the fancy food, and the great weather, while we wondered about the purpose of the big screen at one end of the square. We soon found out from the posted festival schedule that the screen was used for nightly showings of various films, and that night would be Mozart's Requiem.
We killed an hour and a half walking around some famous squares and returned excitedly to the festival to find a huge crowd of people sitting in front of the giant screen. Just as we walked in, the showing of Mozart's Requiem began to play. We sat and watched for the entire hour while people came and went. It wasn't as amazing as seeing a real orchestra play Mozart in front of City Hall in Vienna, but the recording was still pretty fantastic, and the towering structure of City Hall served as a magnificent backdrop. I couldn't have asked for a more enjoyable final evening in grand Vienna.
We headed to Salzburg the next day, a city deeper into the heart of Austria. I knew only that it was the primary setting for The Sound of Music, a classic that admittedly I rather enjoy, so I was excited. When we arrived, we found a city much more modern than we had expected. Nestled along a river as most European cities are, there was of course a small old medieval city section as well, found beneath a towering castle compound on a cliff high above, which dates back to the 1400s.
We were able to tour some of the old city on the evening we arrived, but the next morning we awoke to the sight of torrential rain, which persisted throughout the day. As I've said, we are not huge fans of getting wet, so we decided to call off our sightseeing. Instead, we headed to the cinema and saw the new Harry Potter movie, which was fantastic as always. We also found some information about the Sound of Music bus tours, which take visitors around the Salzburg area to see various landmarks and filming locations from the movie. We heard that they are a good time, but unfortunately they were also well over our budget. Not to be disappointed, we got our Sound of Music fix while watching one of the two daily showings of the movie in our hostel as we waited out the rain.
The next morning we wandered back into the old city, strolling by the homes where Mozart lived as a young man. We took a funicular up the steep hill to the castle complex above Salzburg, bypassing many stairs on our way to enjoying the gorgeous views it afforded. From above we could see the towns all around and the Alps in the distance, and with its 360 degree visibility to the surrounding land, I could see why the complex had been favored as a defensive position during centuries of wars. We also got to tour many of the old fortress buildings, most of which date back to before the 18th century.
That afternoon, we boarded a train to Innsbruck, our final city in Austria. As is the case with many of the places we visit, this was a stop on our trip pulled straight out of a guidebook rather than from a personal recommendation, so I had no idea what to expect. After a delicious sandwich, I fell asleep for the first half of the short two hour train ride. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked at how drastically the landscape had changed around us. We now rolled along under sunny blue skies, huge mountains towering above both sides of the lush green valley through which we were traveling. Whereas many of the cities we'd been to in the past weeks could be considered pretty or cute, this mountainous countryside was just amazing. I think it must have been weeks since we'd witnessed such wide open, natural beauty, and I very much welcomed its return. Big cities are great, but it's always the forests, meadows, mountains, plains, and oceans that really speak to me.
We got off the train, found our hostel, and went about our usual self guided city tour, which almost inevitably becomes a quest for dinner. The air had cooled off considerably over the past few days, to the point where we were getting a bit chilly. It was a nice change from all the sweating we had been doing! We each got a pizza and we walked to the river to sit and eat. A city of 122,000, Innsbruck looks like a big city stuffed in between two mountain ranges. From nearly anywhere in the city, a glance up the street in one direction or another inevitably ends with views of a snowy, not so distant peak or two. In fact, Innsbruck has a very modern tram and cable car which can move visitors from the center of town all the way up to the highest peak around the city in only 20 minutes. The return trip is just as easy, but a reasonably well organized system of hiking paths also allows people to get some exercise and hoof it back down.
That is exactly what we decided to do with our one full day in Innsbruck. We stocked up on trail mix and water from the grocery store, forked over about ten euros for a one-way ticket up the mountain, and set out on our adventure. We first rode the tram up out of town to the cable car station. From there, the cable car heads up the steeper parts of the mountain, transporting visitors to two stops at about 1600 and 2000 meters of elevation. The view from the air was stunning, and only got better and better as we quietly ascended, the silence interrupted only by the Michael Jackson song being piped in and the soft murmur of conversing tourists.
When we exited the cable car, we were looking across at mountain peaks that before had towered high above us from down in the city. We all wore shorts and t-shirts, and the cool mountain breeze served as an instant reminder that we had gained some serious altitude. This was also indicated by the large patches of snow still persisting well into the summer, which we of course stopped to walk through.
The walk down to the bottom was gorgeous and uneventful. The paths, many of which were simply gravel roads, took us past lazy cows and cow pies, through meadows of wildflowers and along steep cliffs, and to several very tiny mountain towns. We stopped in one to have our lunch, enjoying one of the best views I've had while sitting at a picnic table. A man lay snoring on the table next to us, and I had to admit that he had picked a pretty great spot to take a nap.
There was no napping for us though. We continued on our merry way down the mountain, strolling past a dozen or so mountain bikers laboriously making their way up. Strangely enough, throughout the day I found myself wishing we were getting the kind of invigorating exercise that comes from gaining altitude rather than the more relaxed pace that comes with shedding it, which probably says something about what all the walking through Europe has done to my body. I can only hope once I get home, I still feel like going out and running around everyday! Another downside to riding the cable car up and walking down is that there's really no sense that one has earned the stunning view from the top. Furthermore, that view actually gets less and less mesmerizing as the day progresses. Next time I find myself in Innsbruck, I'll wake up earlier and earn the beautiful views off the top by hiking my way up.
Perhaps we had worked harder than I had originally thought, as evidenced by the intense soreness in each of our legs the next morning as we hiked to the train station. Hopefully there will be less hills in our next destination, Munich! |
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