Following the customary introduction, let's get back to the story... I got to Vienna after what can only be described as the shortest train ride I have been on this trip. After a mere 1 hour on the train from Bratislava, there I was - Wien Sudbanhof. I believe I did mention in one of my very early posts (the one in which I gave a brief glimpse of my "itinerary-to-be") that Vienna and Bratislava are the two national capital cities which are closest together. So, as you can imagine, ex crossing the seamless EU-to-EU / Schengen-to-Schengen border between the countries, the journey was as complex as taking a regional train from London to Oxford (or equivalent in other European / World countries - use your imagination!). After getting into Vienna, I was fooled into covering the distance between the train station and my hostel by foot. My bberry GPS, which has proved so darn reliable (except in Bosnia i Herzegovina where, surprisingly, there are no GPS details available at the micro or city level), tricked me into believing (I will obviously not admit that it was a question of foul judgement or technological "interpretation" on my behalf!) that the hostel was closer than it actually was and that a short stroll down the boulevards of Vienna would not be such a bad idea. After a whopping 1 hour "et quelque" on the street, I finally got to my hostel. Vienna has been one of the only places where I have not been fully able to mingle and integrate with the local hostel crew. I did have plans to meet my friend Laura for dinner so I had to pass on the former. Wise decision though as I pointed out above. After meeting in the eponymous Stephansplatz, we hit a traditional Viennese restaurant, where we were fortunate enough to taste the delicatessen referenced above and in the title line. Due to her professional commitments of the next day (it was Wednesday evening) and my ill-fated state of health (as, although I did not share this with you, I was feeling like crap for a few days - just a bit under the weather and with a mild cold, stuffed/runny nose, bad caugh... the works!), we decided to cut the evening festivities short after dinner, but did agree to meet for lunch the next day.
After a rather early night and after reading up on the good news that Barsa was through to the next round of the CL (as I did not see the game - much more fun to spend time with Comunello!) I was set for a 10-hour sleep. I woke up early on Thursday in order to make the most out my only (full) day in Vienna. For those of you who have not been to the city, it is not as small and manageable as others I have been to on this trip, so I thought it to be a good wise decision to wake up early. I spent the early hours of the morning (8:30am-10:30am) posting from a downtown Starbucks which, by the way, cut my bandwidth speed after 1 hour (you guys are cheap!). Afterwards, I went to Stephansdom (or St. Stephen's Cathedral) and checked out other famous sights such as Stadtpark (which is filled with statues of Strauss and Schubert) and Schwarzenbergplatz, I headed north to meat my friend for lunch. We had a very good meal in an Italian Pizzeria (you know, Italians loooove their pizza - and so do I for that matter. The one I ordered, for the curious ones, was a complete innovation for me as it consisted of a 4 cheeses base topped with ham. Absolutely brilliant and delicious!) in the company of two of her colleagues. Afterwards, I spent most of the early part of the afternoon walking in the old town and the surrounding palaces, gardens and monumental buildings. One can truly feel a sense of "grandeur" (if only historic and archaic - please do not interpret in a negative way) and imagine how the city was the capital of one of the most prosperous and powerful empires in Europe (and the world) prior to the turn of the century and the outbreak of WWI. I was really blown away by the innumerable golden statues, gigantic palaces and wide avenues of the empire-that-was. To add to the already beautiful scenery, the fact that all of it is so condensed in the old town makes it even more stunning. Only two sights which are worthy of central Vienna's charm, and which I visited in the late afternoon, are the Belvedere Palace and Gardens in the South (http://www.belvedere.at/jart/prj3/belvedere/main.jart?rel=en) and the Schonbrunn Palace and Garndes in the West (http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en/), the latter one could be compared to Versailles (France) or El Escorial (Spain) - two absolute musts in anyone's visit... gorgeous settings.
After an entire day of walking, and although Vienna was the only city where I purchased a public transportation ticket (believe it or not!) - as I bought one of these all-you-can-ride multi-transport passes - I got on an overnight train to Krakow, Poland at c. 9pm. Arrival time in Krakow: the next morning at 7am, revitalised and full of energy to head over on a day trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Until then, here are some pics from my stay in Vienna. Enjoy!
pv
