Day 8: Vienna
Again I'm paying for Internet access, but I know better to promise to keep it short this time. So, last we left off I was deciding between the park and the football. I opted to visit the park, but found they were showing the game on a big screen, so two birds with one stone. There was also some sort of wine festival going on, so I was able to get a tasty dinner al fresco and write a postcard sitting by the edge of a pond.
Today I got up early, hoping to catch a 9:20 train to Vienna that wasn't on the schedule but that the tourist info office assured me existed. It turns out it does exist, but was some sort of intercity express that cost twice what the afternoon trains cost. Despite that, and because it was starting to rain in Budapest, I coughed up the extra 3,000 Forints for the early train.
By not much after noon I was in Vienna, and since I'd booked ahead in case there wasn't an early train, I was able to head directly to my hostel and had most of the afternoon free. I grabbed a cheap lunch by buying some ham and cheese from the supermarket and eating it with some bread that I'd swiped from the hostel breakfast, then took the U-Bahn (subway) into town. I found a gallery that was showing a very nice exhibition of surrealist art, including pieces by Dali, Miro, Picasso, and Pollock, then just spent some time wandering around in downtown and around the Hofburg. I grabbed some pho for dinner, and now I'm at an Internet place blogging before heading back to the hostel. Or maybe to a pub for the football game.
My first impressions of Vienna are that it's very nice and very clean. It's old-fashioned Europe, but in a different way than the sort of medieval charm of Krakow; it's more that 17th century ostentatiousness, all wedding-cake buildings and wide avenues and strictly manicured, obsessively designed gardens. There also seems to be more museums per capita than anywhere else, which is good since I'll likely be here through Monday and need somewhere to visit. For now, my list includes the Mozarthaus, the Kunsthistorisches Museum (classical art), and the Museum Moderner Kunst (modern art). If I get really ambitious there's all the museums in the Hofburg Palace, and I may even try to go to the opera!
Today I got up early, hoping to catch a 9:20 train to Vienna that wasn't on the schedule but that the tourist info office assured me existed. It turns out it does exist, but was some sort of intercity express that cost twice what the afternoon trains cost. Despite that, and because it was starting to rain in Budapest, I coughed up the extra 3,000 Forints for the early train.
By not much after noon I was in Vienna, and since I'd booked ahead in case there wasn't an early train, I was able to head directly to my hostel and had most of the afternoon free. I grabbed a cheap lunch by buying some ham and cheese from the supermarket and eating it with some bread that I'd swiped from the hostel breakfast, then took the U-Bahn (subway) into town. I found a gallery that was showing a very nice exhibition of surrealist art, including pieces by Dali, Miro, Picasso, and Pollock, then just spent some time wandering around in downtown and around the Hofburg. I grabbed some pho for dinner, and now I'm at an Internet place blogging before heading back to the hostel. Or maybe to a pub for the football game.
My first impressions of Vienna are that it's very nice and very clean. It's old-fashioned Europe, but in a different way than the sort of medieval charm of Krakow; it's more that 17th century ostentatiousness, all wedding-cake buildings and wide avenues and strictly manicured, obsessively designed gardens. There also seems to be more museums per capita than anywhere else, which is good since I'll likely be here through Monday and need somewhere to visit. For now, my list includes the Mozarthaus, the Kunsthistorisches Museum (classical art), and the Museum Moderner Kunst (modern art). If I get really ambitious there's all the museums in the Hofburg Palace, and I may even try to go to the opera!
posted by Carlos at 8:42 PM
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