Wow! I'm so glad I let a cute guy in my hostel in Poland convince me to travel to Slovakia via Vienna. This city is great. I thought I would be intimidated by the classy artiness but it's actually really cool and inspiring.
After lazing around and drinking beer in Cesky Krumlov for two days I thought I'd be a bit more motivated and actually check out some sites during my one and a half days here in Vienna. I arrived off the train late Thursday afternoon and was almost knocked out by the intense heat. It was 39 degrees and baking sunshine, plus when I got to the hostel after only minor dramas (involving me getting lost and being set back on track with the help of a woman giving me directions in German) I found out my room was about 5 degrees warmer than it was outside. Yuck.
So I went out and explored a bit to get my bearings. I checked out some of the cool buildings in the Innere stadt (inner city) and then wandered around the Museum Quartier until the sun cooled off a little. There were loads of groovy galleries and spaces inside the Museum Quartier - I spent ages playing with this high tech painting thing where you press a digital pen to a palette then paint onto a computer-screen canvas on a table. Then when I finished, the chick there pressed a button and my picture was projected up onto the wall. Once again I've become painfully aware that I'm severely lacking in artistic talent, but it was heaps of fun scribbling away anyway. Plus the gallery was air conditioned :-)
That night I went to an outdoor film festival at Rathaus Park. It was a really festive atmosphere with loads of people drinking and eating. The giant film screen was set up in front of this gorgeous old building (which might actually be called Rathaus), and I watched part of a bizarre musical comedy set in Greece but spoken in German. I couldn't understand a word of course, but the exaggerated acting, corny costumes and cheesy dance moves were universal.
Yesterday I was up and at it again for more touristing and spent the day visiting some famous sites, buildings and palaces that I should probably write down somewhere before I forget what they were. One of my favourites was the Belvedere Museum which is actually an art gallery inside a palace. I love wandering around inside opulent buildings, and this was sufficiently opulent for my tastes. The gallery houses the original of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss, which is one of my favourites (for the uninitiated, an image of it can be seen here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/image:Gustav_Klimt_016.jpg).
After calling back into the hostel yesterday evening for some food and my second shower of the day, I set off on a mission to spook myself with some night-time wandering around the cemetary where Beethoven, Brahms and Schonberg have memorial tombs. I got a little distracted, however, when the tram passed a huge neon sign advertising the Harry Potter movie "Original English Version". So with visions of air-conditioned comfort I ditched my plans for a graveyard stroll and went to the cinema for the first time in over 7 months. I had missed the first 8 minutes of the film (which I figured were unlikely to be integral to the plot) but the dude still gave me a discount on the ticket which ended up costing me only 4 pounds or so. Hooray! Securing a bargain almost made up for the fact that there was no air conditioning.
So today is another travel day. I'll be checking out of this hostel in an hour and then have to make my way to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. I don't actually know how to get there, but its quite close to Vienna so I'm sure if I just show up at one of the train stations I'll be able to work something out.
Travelling is fun!
So I went out and explored a bit to get my bearings. I checked out some of the cool buildings in the Innere stadt (inner city) and then wandered around the Museum Quartier until the sun cooled off a little. There were loads of groovy galleries and spaces inside the Museum Quartier - I spent ages playing with this high tech painting thing where you press a digital pen to a palette then paint onto a computer-screen canvas on a table. Then when I finished, the chick there pressed a button and my picture was projected up onto the wall. Once again I've become painfully aware that I'm severely lacking in artistic talent, but it was heaps of fun scribbling away anyway. Plus the gallery was air conditioned :-)
That night I went to an outdoor film festival at Rathaus Park. It was a really festive atmosphere with loads of people drinking and eating. The giant film screen was set up in front of this gorgeous old building (which might actually be called Rathaus), and I watched part of a bizarre musical comedy set in Greece but spoken in German. I couldn't understand a word of course, but the exaggerated acting, corny costumes and cheesy dance moves were universal.
Yesterday I was up and at it again for more touristing and spent the day visiting some famous sites, buildings and palaces that I should probably write down somewhere before I forget what they were. One of my favourites was the Belvedere Museum which is actually an art gallery inside a palace. I love wandering around inside opulent buildings, and this was sufficiently opulent for my tastes. The gallery houses the original of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss, which is one of my favourites (for the uninitiated, an image of it can be seen here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/image:Gustav_Klimt_016.jpg).
After calling back into the hostel yesterday evening for some food and my second shower of the day, I set off on a mission to spook myself with some night-time wandering around the cemetary where Beethoven, Brahms and Schonberg have memorial tombs. I got a little distracted, however, when the tram passed a huge neon sign advertising the Harry Potter movie "Original English Version". So with visions of air-conditioned comfort I ditched my plans for a graveyard stroll and went to the cinema for the first time in over 7 months. I had missed the first 8 minutes of the film (which I figured were unlikely to be integral to the plot) but the dude still gave me a discount on the ticket which ended up costing me only 4 pounds or so. Hooray! Securing a bargain almost made up for the fact that there was no air conditioning.
So today is another travel day. I'll be checking out of this hostel in an hour and then have to make my way to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia. I don't actually know how to get there, but its quite close to Vienna so I'm sure if I just show up at one of the train stations I'll be able to work something out.
Travelling is fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment