Memories in Austria from June 7 to June 16

Day 1 in Vienna – June 7, 2012

Leaving Budapest makes me sad, but going to Vienna makes me so excited. Another cultural experience has been waiting for us. So, the day before we left the country, we made sure that we have the necessary foods for the trip and cash because we need to buy train ticket. We woke up early and started walking at 5am heading to the Train Station, Budapest- Keleti. We supposed to leave at 6:05 am; however, there was something wrong with the rail jet, so we were transferred to another train that left at 7:10. We reached in Wein Meilding station in Austria at 9: 58am. Of course, travelling is not really all fun. I felt so tired specially, you can’t sleep well and you have to wake up so early. This train or Railjet 60 is much faster than the train we had from Bekes while the train from Debeljaca to Becej is the slowest of all. This is really second to Bullet Train. They have comfortable seats and ventilations. They give us program to inform us about the flow of the trip and they have a monitor that informs which stations we stop. Even I had two hours power nap on the Train, but I felt it’s no good enough still.

As soon as we got off, I saw Perry and her husband waiting to pick us up. She was so warmth and cordial to welcome us. Her husband had to drive us going to their house. As I said, sleeping on the train was no good enough, thus I have to sleep in the car and sleep in their house. He-he he. 

I met their children Atilla with his gf and the daughter named, Raziye. Later on Tibor’s uncle (Peshtibastsu) and his partner, Martina came. We had a 30 minutes walking around the village. We saw the train station in Silberwald.  We picked cherries and mulberries along the way. After that, we had cake and tea for snacks. We’ll… can’t hide it, but I was really so tired for the trip, so I have to sleep from 5pm until 8pm while they were watching the wedding of Aurora. Later on, I woke up for dinner.

June 8, 2012

Second day was not really busy. Uncle Stefan had to drive us to the city center, Vienna. We left at Perry’s house around 10pm. He toured us around his workplace and the strawberry farm, Bauernladen Trimmel. We bought 2 kilo of strawberries for his wife. While going on his our way back to his house to the Badhausgasse next to Lerchenfelder street, I was sleeping. We were welcome by his partner, Martina with tea and gave us map. After then, we had to explore the city. We have to remember the orange two towers church nearby, so we will know if we’re home. We went up street and from there we found the public market. Then, going down, first we found the St. Francis church. Later on, we saw the Rathaus when we were heading to Hamerlingplatz. Along the way, we saw some nice buildings and underground parking lot. Nice! They managed to occupy the underground spaces to minimize crowd and traffic, even how small the place is. Of course, you will discover some rental bikes owned by the bank. All you need to do is to swipe your credit cards and you can use the bike in instant. It’s free for first hour and succeeding hours will be charged 1 euro.

First famous tourist destination is the Rathauses, which us under renovation now. Not only Rathauses or Townhall, most parts of the buildings here in Vienna or Wein has been redone. Rathaus that has 7 inner courtyards was designed by Friedrich Schmidt in 1873 is located at Friedrich Schmidt Platz, and this is also known as neogothic building where summer concerts are being held.

Along the aisle from the Rathause, you will see the famous musicians and composers like Beethoven and Mozart.  Side by side to that were the two parks with the fountain in the middle. You can enjoy the fresh, cold and clean drinking water.

Next famous spot we visit is the parliament house where you will see the famous leaders like Julius Ceasar. This building is a copy of ancient Greek edifices. It is richly carved ornaments and Athen fountain facing Ringstrasse. Inside is the central huge pillared hall.

Finally, we had time to relax and upload videos and pictures in Volksgarten, which has a lot of beautiful varieties  of roses. They are well arranged and organized in the park. You can take pictures and you can just relax. Near to that, we saw some museum or Theseus temple, memorabilia’s and monuments of Grillparzer, I enjoyed taking pictures of the flowers. They are really pleasing to the eyes.

Finally, we went home aimlessly. We just took the street going up and then turn left. But, even then… we found the right way. We had saucy chicken for dinner.

June 9, 2012

Third Day … The challenging day – map reading

We had to wake up and we got ready by 10am. We left the house maybe almost 11am after the very nice breakfast. Ate Martina has to make lunch /baon for us.

We just walked aimlessly going back to where we came from yesterday because Tibor was looking for a shopping mall. We ended up somewhere that urged us to look at the map. Finally, we had to go down and look for the centre. While going there, we found the Vienna University and Leopold’s museum. We saw some beautiful white buildings and the famous of all, the (Schlosserei, Krutisch), church which is under renovations.

Before reaching there, we bought chocolates that took us to different directions. We also took picture that has my mom’s named “ AIDA”. Then we saw monuments of Nemais Vergessen and beautiful castle for military services and sports ministry in Schlickplatz.

Finally, while looking for St. Stephans Dom Cathedral, we saw the old and small chapel, which has this image of St. Ruprecht, when you go up to that chapel. The front of the chapel has this title, “ S. Sepulcri Heirosolmitani and RUPRECHTS-KIRCHE.

As we went on, it was already a walking street. A lot of people were doing their business specially shopping and having lunch. We saw another monuments and amazing and creative old and huge clock with zodiac signs in it; calesa, Wustenrot, Franz Leo company building, gallery, monuments of Gutenberg, V Mozarthaus, souvenir shops, Vienna International Press center and most of all… the highlights of the trip, St. Stephen’s dom. There were a lot of amusements you could see around the church. There are people who are looked like statue, rallies (religious and politics objectives). I had the chance to cover video inside the church. Next to that cathedral is the Dome church. This is the famous landmark in Vienna.

I was so tired that I suggested to my husband to stop in McDonalds. I was surprise with their toilet that I had to pay 50 cents per usage. I thought it’s free. They have high tech touch screen and you can see in front of you your orders and they have also equipped with the computer inside though their Wifi was so slow and poor in signal. I had uploaded only 2 videos and still 5 of the pics were failed to upload.

Any ways, we need to go home because we have to find our way back home. We’re getting too far from the centre. Now, our problem is how or get out from the centre. So, we need to go back where we from. We saw people who were selling tickets for the Opera concerts. My honey and I bought 29 euro each ticket for tomorrow at 8pm. I am excited for that.

Finally, when we were out in that trap, we went out at Dr. Karl Lueger Platz. We need to check our map to see where we are. We have to stop and go. Sometimes, we fight and we had disagreements, but we able to worked out still. My honey convinced me that this is just part of the adventure – map reading. I have to cheer up. So, we just follow the railways of the trap, so we won’t get lost and find the Lerchenfelder Street. Finally, we did… But it took time. It was very challenging and confusing. The writings on the map were too small that we had difficulty in reading it. But, anyway… unexpectedly,, we discovered a lot of beautiful places and building along the way and tourist spots. So the next time, it won’t be hard for us to go back. We can even go by with out the map. 

Lesson learn… don’t go up anymore and walk aimlessly…or else you will get lost. Just go down and find the centre of Vienna and you are safe back home. We passed by the Stadt Park, Schwazenberg monument, Burggarten, Heden plats, Maria Thersien platz and natural history museums. We didn’t detailed picture on this because we were lost. I was thinking to go back here the next day.

June 10, 2012

Day four in Vienna was the most important one. We visited the graveyard of Mozart and Beethoven in Schonbrunn Cemetery. We spent 2 to 3 hours looking for their tombs, but we found the famous novelist and writers and university professors. Later, when we were about to go home, we saw the signage that said “musicians”, then we’d gone to this spot and had had picture taking with the grave stone of Beethoven, Mozart and Strauss.

I was really tired and the cloudy weather with cool breeze made me feel tired and sleepy. I slept in the car. I never noticed that we’re in Schonbrunn Palace. My husband had to wake me up. From the moment we got off from the car outside the palace, I saw some information on how to get tickets and there were also souvenir shops that were selling book guide about the palace, which Martina had to buy for us as a gift. Well, she was very warmth and generous that she had also to tour around the place and took pictures of us.

We took videos around the garden or called Kronprinzegarten, which has full of flowers and beautiful shaped. We went up to the Glorrieta Panorama Terrace, which helped us to see the entire city. At 5pm, we had to go home to eat early dinner because we’ve scheduled to watch an opera concert. So… this time, we experienced to ride the underground train in Vienna.

After eating the very special pancake made by his uncle, we had to rest for 2 hours to get ready for the opera. We had the location, but his uncle wanted to end us to the Weiner Royal Orchester in Palais Auersperg. However, when we reached there, our tickets were not in Palais Aursperg, but in Imperial Hall Vienna. It was a little disaster because we had no more time and it was passed 8pm and for sure the program had started. So, we beg to the receptionist to help us because we were at the wrong concert, then, she gave us the map and told us on how to get to the place. Thank God… we found the building at Beethovenplatz. We missed the first music, but we were there. It’s better late than never. After giving them the tickets, we’d given our seats and we enjoyed the beautiful music of Mozart and the king of waltz, Johann Strauss. We went home with full of fun and thrill.

  

June 11, 2012

Fifth Day in Vienna was a bit relaxing and more sight seeing discovery.

We needed to upload the videos and pictures, so we could erase them and start new one. We stayed in Volksgarten from 9 am to 11am. We hid my HTC phone at the back of the Grillparzer ‘s statue. We went straight ahead and we saw the beautiful palace named Hofburg or Palais Imperial. This is an extensive building complex 13^th to 20^th century. In this building, the visitors can find the well-known collections such as secular and religious treasury, national library, and the Spanish Riding School or Spanish Hofreitschule. Across to that Spanish riding school is the famous museum of Sisi’s silver jewellery collections. As we go through, we found out an entrance going to the Stephansdom. Well, it was late for us to find out this new way because we’d lost already.  We needed to go back and had to hop on the tramp no. 2 going to the Schwazernbergplatz. Along the way, we saw the Grade Kirchi and Burgtor palaces, which are now museums. We took pictures of the famous statues G. Rafael Donner and Russian soldier monument in Schweizer Garten, which was built in 1945. We stopped here to eat our lunch and of course to enjoy the beautiful and refreshing fountain in front of us.

Then, we just wanted to explore the place. As we went along, we saw an entrance gate on our right side 21Er haus, Upper Belvedere and lower Belvedere map. We were not so excited when we were inside. We thought it was just simple garden. So, Tabor told me that he would have a little rest. And so he did. Ok, I will take pictures here and I will wake you up as soon as I finished.” I said. As I went along the pine trees and garden, I was so surprise what I saw. I dropped my jaw and said WOW. We finally found the Belvedere palace accidentally. It was erected as a summer palace for the Prince Eugen in 1714-1733 and is considered to be one of the most beautiful baroque monuments. The architect Lukas von Hildebrandth divided it into lower and upper palace connected by a magnificent garden. Now, this lower palace is a showcase gold museum.

I hurriedly woke up Tibor and he was star- struck by this beautiful palace too. So, we went up and took a lot of pictures there. Oh!!! I was so tired and I even slept on one of these benches.

We went home at 4pm to get ready for our next adventure to the Vienna’s Amusement Park which this biggest ferries wheel or the giant wheel in Prater as their trademark. It was then, first time to go by underground train two of us alone. Before you go through the ride, there was a replica about the history of the wheel. This giant wheel was constructed around 1896/97 and offers a splendid view of the city. It is the landmark of the Prater, which used to be the hunting ground for the imperial court. Today it serves to be the amusement park. We tried some thrill and extreme ride of the world’s highest Chairoplane that let you go up while you are turning. The Praterturn is the world’s highest chairoplane ride, which is an official entry in the Guiness Book of Records. From there, you can see the stunning view of Austria City.  It was really exciting. Afterwards, we played table soccer and bumped cars. We ended up day just fun. All first time happening in my life- spending euro like using high tech toilet for 60 cents and buying 1 euro novel “ The Tale of the Body Thief by the author of Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice.”

June 12, 2012

On the sixth day, it is time to say good bye to Uncle Stephan and Ate Martina. We had to get ready by 8am and Ate Perry had to pick us up from the Danube City. This was our longest train ride from Lerchenfelder Street to Kagran. At the parking lot, we saw Perry waving and she was waiting for us there. She took us to the Donau Park. In the park, we saw there the Donauturm where you can have bungeejumping. I have discovered from the monument that the Japan’s lion’s club had donated 1000 Sakura plants for Vienna, Austria. Aside from that, we saw the memorabilia of the Revolutionist Che Guevara, Simon Bolivar, some ancient technology ad artefacts of other countries has made and a small lake. This park is located near Donau or Danube River.

This new city has been called as the Donau City where the business centre is such as the United Nation Organization or Vienna International Center and Austria Center Vienna along the Bruno- Kreisky Platz. You can see the Andromeda Tower, Tech gate Vienna, Strabag Haus, Ares Tower, Saturn Tower and Mischek Tower.

Finally, we went to the biggest mall in town, the Donauzentrum. This is the last part of our tour before we went back home to Perry’s house at 111 Silberwald, Strasshof, which is the outskirt of Vienna, Austria.  From there, we stayed for couple more days to finish our accommodation and transportation bookings.  While staying here, we enjoyed the window-shopping in Donau Zentrum and we went to the beautiful park named Irrgarten. It was surrounded with different beautiful flowers. They have gardens that are Mexican and Chinese inspired. You can see mini-lake and along side has beach sand cottage.  This is really a good place for relaxation and sun bathing. They are actually celebrating the International Art Day starting from June 6 t0 21. They showcase their art exhibition – painting or photo.

Staying in Vienna caters different experiences to us. Even a week to stay here is not enough because there are more places to discover, explore and experience. We thank you to Kizilirmak family special thanks to Piroska, Mustafa, Raziye, Atilla ,Martina and Uncle Stefan for giving us home and making our journey a memorable one. Before we left Vienna, we had a good dinner and laughter with them. We'll miss them as we go on to our next trip.