044. Rockin’ around the Ringstraße*

On Thursday I arrived in the land of the Habsburgs, giant pretzels (bretzels), many, many palaces and where (on a more serious note) Hitler developed his ideologies that would make it into Mein Kampf and change the world forever, a.k.a Vienna, Austria. Welcome to part one of my Wien adventures (with little history tidbits from Professor Valentine)…

Lessons learned: a) I tend to not eat the traditional food of the places I’m going to (Indian in Czech Republic, pan-Asian in Austria…), b) I am the supreme navigator of all big cities, I swear. I can walk somewhere once, take the metro once and I know where I’m going even if I don’t speak a single Czech or German word, and c) Vienna is so much more expensive than Czech Republic. Holy moly.

Thursday
We got on the bus around 8:30am and arrived in Vienna about two hours later. After storing out luggage at our Wombat hostel (if you’re ever traveling and you need a hostel and there’s a Wombat in your area, book it. They’re beautiful), we headed out for the first day of our two day tour of the city with our fabulous tour guide Jeff. Our first stop? The famous Naschmarkt, the Kensington Market (in Toronto, I don’t know the Vancouver equivalent) of Vienna, where I had this for lunch:

Lunch at the Naschmarkt

Post sausage and fries, we stopped in the Secession building which is the hallmark of the Secession art period (google it, it’s interesting) where I saw this three-wall frieze based on Beethoven’s 5th symphony by Gustavo Klimt. On our way to the Kunsthistoriches Museum built by Emperor Franz Joseph to house the imperial family’s art collection, we passed by the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) where, fyi, Adolf Hitler was rejected from twice. The Kunsthistorisches Museum is actually two buildings (although we only went into one) that has this fantastic statue of “Emperess” Maria Theresa sandwiched between them.

In front of the Kunsthistoriches Museum (with Maria Theresa chillin in the backgound)

The museum itself houses the most ridiculous collection of beautiful art, from frescos by Kimt, to Renaissance painters like Titian, Carveggio, Renault, and Albrecht Dürer (whom I learned about in HIST 220, whooa connections!).

Dürer's All Saints Picture

We ended our first day at Stephenplatz (or the square with St. Stephen’s Catherdral) after passing by the Habsburg’s winter palace and the Neue Burg where Hitler announced the annexation of Austria in March 1938.

Neue Burg

The evening was a little less crammed with history and involved breakdancing, schnitzelburgers, the best gelato and wine gardens.

Friday
Our first stop with Jeff was at the Karlskirche (Charles Church), built to celebrate the end of the bubonic plague, and by far my favorite building in Vienna. Look at it, it’s beautiful!

Karlskirche

After passing by the best preserved Red Army monument (see 1945 Soviet Union take-over/liberation depending on who you’re talking), we headed to Belvedere Palace (no photos because I wasn’t allowed). The Belvedere is another palace-turned-museum that was once owned by Eugene of Savoy. If I thought Thursday was an art historian’s/art nerd’s dream I was mistaken. The first painting I saw was Jacques Louis David’s famous 1801 painting of Napoleon on the Great St. Bernhard’s Pass. Holy crap, one of my favorites, next to Klimt’s The Kiss.  Belvedere also had a little Monet, Manet, van Gogh, Renoir and of course, Klimt’s The Kiss.

Belvedere Palace/Museum

I also had my second best meal of the entire trip so far at a place called Wok and More. It’s very similar to Mongolian Grill except it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. You pick the foods you want in your stir-fry and the sauce and they cook it up and deliver it to your table. You also got complete access to their buffet of spring rolls, goyza and dessert. Not to mention you can go back multiple times to create more stir-fry concoctions  which I totally took advantage of. It was fantastic.

Om nom nom

Before our tour guide left, he took us to what he calls “the most amazing postmodern architecture of the ’80s”. It reminds me of Gaudi’s architecture in Barcelona.

Hundertwasserhaus by Friedensreich Hundertwasser

To finish off the night, a few friends and I decided to have a nerd night which consisted of visiting and riding the famous Vienna ferris wheel (no photos because I forgot my camera) that can be seen in the movie The Third Man starring Orson Welles (which we saw later that night) and hanging out at a Viennese carnival/amusement park.

Saturday
The last full day in Vienna began with a visit to Schloß Schönbrunn (Schonbrunn Palace, or the summer home of the Habsburgs). For €12.50 I got to go through a really cool maze and hang out in an awesome park that was definitely designed for children and tour 26 of the 40 rooms that make up Franz Joseph and Elizabeth’s old home.

Schloß Schönbrunn

I ended my time in Vienna with an hour+ long jaunt up to Kahlenberg (where the Austrian army and allies charged down from to defeat the Ottomans during the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683), more food from Wok and More and gelato for dessert. Not a bad three day trip to Austria.

View of Vienna from Kahlenberg

* The Ringstraße (Ringstrasse) was once the fortification walls of Vienna until they were torn down and a street was put in. All along the Ringstraße are cultural, governmental and social institutions.

Stay tuned for my reflections of Brno, Czech Republic and my wonderful culinary improvision skills.