on the way to somewhere
..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Vienna
Mar 9th
We arrived in Vienna around 2pm after catching a train from Prague. As always when arriving in a new city, our first task was to check-in and drop our backpacks off at the hostel. A quick read of the U-Bahn (metro) map and we dumped all of our loose Euro coins into a ticket machine. The U-Bahn was quick, clean and efficient, and before long we were at Volkstheater station – the closest to our hostel. We exited the station, looked around for street names to find out bearings, and found our hostel about 10 minutes away by foot.
Our hostel was excellent. It was basically a large two bedroom apartment that has been converted into a hostel/share house. We met many people, including a girl from Adelaide of all places, and an American boy who is currently living in Rome and has offered to give us a tour when we visit in a week.
I think I often make my decision on a city within the first day or so of arriving. On the first afternoon after we sorted out our accommodation, we walked past the Volkstheater, Naturhistorisches Museum, Parliament, Wiener Eistraum, and then through some of the streets nearby. It was sunny, and we were both extremely happy. I was in love with Jess and Vienna.
From there we passed through the Volksgarten, which without the support of the Summer months, was perfect. Many plants or areas were covered (presumably to stop the damage of frosts) or fenced off for maintenance, but the walk was still exactly what we needed. Time together, whilst relaxing outdoors.
We continued on to the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Nowadays it has been split up into different government run facilities, such as museums and libraries. Some are aimed at tourists, while others are for the locals. Following the directions of others at our hostel, we walked past the Spanish Riding School to see some Roman Ruins at Michaelerplatz.
By this time it was around 5:30pm and the locals were outside everywhere enjoying the sun. We returned to our hostel via the Burgarten, where there were teenagers playing soccer, families sitting on the grass and so on. It was really nice to see people just having fun.
We realised early in our visit that Vienna has it’s fair share of money. After visiting Poland, the cars in this city amazed me. I think the average family sedan in Vienna is an AMG or a Maserati. Literally in the first half hour of walking through the city I spotted two 4-door Porsches
We spent the next few days looking at the buildings and walking through the parks and shopping malls. As far as history goes, as in just about every city we have visited now, there is plenty. Palaces, churches and gardens are extravagant and really very impressive.
On our last day I was feeling a little under the weather. Travel takes it’s toll if you don’t relax, not to mention the cold taking it’s toll on two Australians. I had suggested to Jess that we visit a place called Donauinsel – Danube Island. She seemed a little reluctant but I managed to convince her. There was a U-Bahn station right on top of the island, so we caught the metro from Volksgarten. Donauinsel is a man-made island for all of the right reasons – it is part of Vienna’s flood protection system, however it is known to most as a recreational island, where locals can walk, ride, canoe, rollerblade, and even bathe at a man made beach. We walked down the Donauinsel and talked, just like we do at home.
Ultimately, I really enjoyed myself in Vienna. Albeit expensive and probably not the best location for a backpacker trying to travel on the cheap, we will be back.
Interlude
Mar 5th
Today we are on the OBB EC 531 train from Wien Meidling (Vienna) to Villach Hbf, which is in Southern Austria.
Before I begin though, I don’t want to detract from what we have done on this trip. The entire thing has been a great experience to date and we have learned a lot about history, geography, and most importantly eachother, and “us” as a couple. With the exception of Langkawi and Singapore (because a lot of time was spent in nature there) we have experienced times that have been boring, disappointing and in some ways depressing.
For sure, I sound like some 25 year old from Australia that has every opportunity in the world and still complains. It’s not like that.. You see, Jess and I aren’t really city people. I mean, we love our home town of Adelaide, but realistically we don’t spend every night sitting in a restaurant, or out on a terrace having a drink. When the weekend rolls around we head for the hills or go for a walk down Linear Park.
Stockholm was fun. Warsaw was exciting because of our friends. Prague was cheap and beautiful. Vienna is amazing and probably my favourite city so far (and one of us will blog about this soon), but as I sit on this train and stare out the window I am finally really excited about where we are at.
As we roll on the beautiful little villages pass by. Forests are everywhere, broken up by green grassy fields. As we climb the mountains, snow begins to litter the forests. We pass through a lot of short tunnels so the mountains must be steep, and every so often we will cross a river on a very picturesque bridge.
Usually a short distance from a village will be a small industrial area, however they aren’t ugly like those next to most railways. Yards are small and tidy. It is interesting, not repulsive.
As we rise higher into the mountains there is the occasional chairlift in the distance – if you look closely you can see people skiing down the slopes. The clouds amongst the snow capped mountain peaks make me imagine just how fresh the air must be out there.
We are on our way to Udine in Italy. By the time I post this we will be there. We alight the train in Villach and catch an Intercitybus from there. Here we will stay with Jess’ family, something we are both really looking forward to.
Like I have said, we are learning. We have realised that even though we are overseas, we still have the same interests. For example, while the museums here are obviously well setup and have a lot to offer, we never go to them in Australia, so why would we be completely amazed about one on the other side of the world?
This may read negatively, it isn’t intended. With just over a month of travelling behind us we have made some really important observations that will help us to enjoy all of our future travels.
From Udine we will explore Italy a little, then fly from Rome to Brussels. It will be a short stay in Brussels (it was the cheapest way to Amsterdam from Rome) and take a bus for a week or so in Amsterdam where we will see one of our favourite bands, Phoenix, in concert.
From here we aren’t 100% sure on how things will go. We will either head to Geneva in Switzerland or Stuttgart in Germany, and then make our way to see more family in a town called Domat/Ems, just outside of Chur in Switzerland. If we head to Geneva first we will probably visit Stuttgart after Domat/Ems, and vice versa. I’m hoping to visit the Porsche museum in Stuttgart but we’ll see how we go. If it’s too hard we won’t bother. Jess is all for it though – just another reason why I married her.
Regardless of what happens after Amsterdam, I think this will be a part of the trip that we will really love. We will get a chance to see some more countryside and some smaller towns – it will be a nice break from the major cities.
I am a little sick, but feel a lot better now than I did two days ago. We have been eating well and avoiding alcohol which has helped a lot. Hopefully in a day or so I’ll be 100% again.
Anyway enough typing for today. Time to stare out the window some more.
Holiday Perfection in Prague
Mar 2nd
Even though our visit in Prague was only short we loved absolutely every minute of it. Prague is the perfect destination for a holiday, as proven by the thousands of tourists it has even during the off-peak time when we stayed. While the masses of Poms (and other nationalities) looking to get on the booze for the cheap do take their toll on the city, with loads of advertising for pub crawls, they can’t tarnish the beauty and magnificence that is the city of Prague.
We arrived in Prague via train from Warsaw, travelling through beautiful countryside. After catching a metro train to the station nearest our accommodation, we wandered through the quiet streets trying to avoid the frosty winds. We walked down a little backstreet to find our accommodation, Hotel Inos, glowing like a warm oasis on a cold night. After settling in at the hotel we headed out to find some dinner. We ended up getting pizza from a local bar/cafe. Upon entering the bar we were taken aback by the volume of smoke that filled the entire room – clearly no smoking laws did not apply here! Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long for our bargain margherita pizza (93 CZK = AUD$5.40) which we took back to the hotel room to enjoy.
The next day was just perfect! After a lazy morning, we walked to a local store to buy some food for breakfast. We took our bread rolls and cheese and started walking along the river. Not even 5 minutes into walking and we were fronted by a massive stone wall which appeared to have old buildings on the ground above. We took the long stair climb to the top and discovered an impressive church, beautiful parks and an amazing view of Prague. We sat on a park bench, taking in the view while eating breakfast. It felt so good to enjoy the sunshine that we sat for about half an hour, just taking everything in.
We continued on our walk and made our way along the river and around Old Town. Since everything is so cheap we decided to shout ourselves a “fancy” 3 course lunch at a restaurant along the river. Vegetable soup, delicious chicken steak and a chocolate pancake set us back 190 CZK (AUD$11.20) each. Again, feeling the sun shining on our faces was just too good to give up, so we sat at the restaurant terrace for what felt like hours, soaking up the sun and taking in the river view and tourists wandering by.
The next day, our final day in Prague, we went on a free tour of the Old Town and Jewish Quarter. Hosted by Sandemans New Europe (the same company that ran our free tour of Berlin), we once again had a very entertaining, enthusiastic and knowledgeable host. Huw (pronounced Hugh) our Welsh tour guide certainly kept us engaged, despite the cooler weather, with his lively and dramatic storytelling of the various events that contributed to Prague’s rich history. I definitely think that people visiting cities such as Prague and Berlin, or any other city with a vast history, should go on a walking tour. The wealth of information that both guides we’ve had have presented us is very impressive and give the sites that we passed so much more meaning.
Maybe it was just the sunshine, or the cheap food, or the gorgeous old buildings for as far as the eye can see.. whatever it was, Prague has certainly made a massive impression on us as a perfect holiday destination. Added to that all the mountain bikes we saw ride past.. we definitely need to come back to further explore this amazing city
Warsaw, Sochaczew and elsewhere in Poland
Feb 28th
We originally planned on visiting Poland to see our two friends, and nothing more. Anton, our friend from school was visiting his girlfriend Ola, who lives in Warsaw. Since he was there for a few months it was perfect for us to catch up with them on the other side of the world. Ola has visited us in Australia, so it was nice to see her in her home country too. We had no real plans of what we wanted to do and what we wanted to see, just that we wanted to see them.
Our visit to Poland was however, unintentionally relevant. The day before our train from Berlin to Warsaw we had visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, as Jess has mentioned in her post on Berlin. It had set us up to see just exactly what this meant for those affected by the war.
As our train slowly brought us into Poland and eventually Warsaw we realised that Poland wasn’t going to be a rich country. We arrived in Warszawa Centralna, the central train station, to the familiar face of our friend from Adelaide. We had a quick greeting then began walking to Ola’s apartment, a quick 10 minute walk down the road. As we began walking Anton explained to us how Warsaw was a combination of old and new. It is predominantly filled with old “Commie Blocks”, aka apartments built for the masses in the communist days, with some newer buildings dotted around the place, usually by the larger corporations and some newer apartments.
We arrived at Ola’s apartment, welcomed by Ola, a welcome banner on her door, and lunch. We had a bite to eat over a catch up, and then changed for the night ahead. I won’t bother telling too much in detail here – Anton and Ola had friends around to farewell Anton from Poland (he is leaving soon), and to meet us. We went through more than enough vodka at their place, and then left for the local pub for more booze. Long story short the next day was one of the worst and best days of my life.
We woke around 8am, in a rush for the train. What train? Honestly I had no idea. I had an agonising headache, but had no time to think about it. We put our clothes on from the night before (and smoking is legal in pubs here, so that didn’t help the hangover situation) and began our power walk to Centralna. We were heading to Sochaczew, the town in which Ola’s parents live, for a feast. Excellent – I needed food.
Jess and I bought our tickets, and as Ola was buying tickets for herself and Anton, the train arrived. We ran for the train, and Ola followed. Anton was hanging out of the door to keep the train stationary, however it just left. Ola was left at the platform! Some cursing in Polish and a few phone calls from Anton to Ola and her father, and we found out what was happening. Ola was on the next train and had a refund for the tickets, and the Police were waiting for our train at Sochaczew. Long story short, Ola’s father has a bit of power with the authorities and he isn’t afraid to use it. The hilarity of the situation perked me up a fair bit too which was great.
We went back to Ola’s parents’ place, and met her mother and auntie; before long Ola had arrived too. Ola’s father offered to take us to a town nearby that had a thermal pool where the water is heated naturally. We spent around an hour or so there, just relaxing in the water, and occasionally running out to roll around in the snow. Yep, true story, we were in bathers, on the snow. It sounds bad but realistically it was maybe a few minutes of freezing cold and then you’re back in the perfectly warm pool again.
We returned to Sochaczew to find the biggest feast we have ever had waiting for us. It was around 3 or 4pm by this stage and we were given soup (served in bread), ribs, chicken cutlets, potatoes, salads and more. And cakes of course. Thinking this was it we settled down on the sofa to watch some Winter Olympics. About two hours later we found us eating dinner. More vodka, more beer, more soup, pierogi, and so much other food. We were all so full, and extremely satisfied.
It was so nice to be able to stay in a home again. We only spent a few days at Ola’s parents place, however that time was some of the best in the trip. You stay in a hotel, a hostel, and even Ola’s apartment, and you get the impression that while people may live there, they don’t consider it home. It’s a place to stay while they achieve something. We thank Ola’s family very much for making us feel so welcome. They both really went above and beyond for two complete strangers – it was so generous.
Throughout the rest of our time in Poland we stayed predominantly in Warsaw. Anton toured us around a fair bit during the day (including taking us to the Warsaw Uprising Museum which was excellent), and then any other time she could spare we would spend with Ola. One night we walked through a much more “classy” looking part of Warsaw and had some chocolate at E.Wedel’s, and another night we grabbed some Chinese and feasted upon it back at the apartment.
We were lucky enough to be toured through Old Town by one of Ola’s friends and gain some solid local knowledge on the area and how it has been rebuilt. While many countries may take these “historic” areas for granted, Warsaw clearly does not. The majority of these buildings were destroyed by the Germans during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. As a result, in order to have this area live on, they have all been rebuilt, often funded by local families and small businesses.
There is so much I could talk about, but for fear of dragging on I will leave it at this. Poland itself is a very interesting place. The history is not too far in the past, and you can see it all around you as you catch a train, drive along a highway, or walk along a street.
To Anton and Ola, thanks for taking care of us and guiding us around. Thanks for the food, thanks for the local knowledge, thanks for the accommodation, and thanks for the comfort. It was nice to be able to let our guards down for a few days and know that we were safe in your hands.
Vampire Weekend at Astra Kulturhaus in Berlin
Feb 27th
I’m no music reviewer, I’ll leave that to my brother in law (re: savetwofour.com). I am however, a music lover and a tourist in a foreign country and these two things combined with an awesome set is a beautiful thing.
Jess and I booked these tickets quite some time ago. We had no idea where the Astra was, how big it was or what the crowd was like. We have however, been fans of Vampire Weekend for a few years now, and we planned on being around Berlin at this time so we took the chance.
We walked towards where the Astra should be… It wasn’t there. No signs, just a scummy looking courtyard. We walked passed assuming it was elsewhere but ended up back at the gate to the courtyard trying to find out where to go. We walked inside, through the snow and mud and found a light with an “Astra” logo. As it turns out this whole area was some sort of (probably pseudo) underground music scene.
While the outside of the building was tired and covered in graffiti, the interior was very grand. There were multiple bars, cloak rooms, plenty of velvet and a couple of chandeliers to light the place up.
We grabbed a few overpriced drinks (5.50EUR is a lot to backpackers!) and then found our way to the front of the stage in prime position for the support band, Fan Death.
Fan Death were alright. They supported well with some quality music and their drummer was great, although their general act and image was a bit too “bandwagonish” for me. You know.. Karen O (YYY’s) clothes, an ET doll as their prize posession and so on. Regardless, they put on a good show and lets face it, a live band is always better than on an album. No disrespect! Before Fan Death finished, I was lucky enough to take a quick photo of Vampire Weekend’s set list. Jess and I were both so stoked at this point – it was the first concert we’d been to for years as we’ve been saving for this trip.
Vampire Weekend went off. For those who don’t know they are an Indie Rock band from New York City. Ezra Koenig, the lead singer kept telling the crowd he wanted us to sweat. We were drenched by the time the concert was over, and we weren’t the only ones. The concert was an opportunity to see the band as musicians, rather than seeing them on a film clip. Bass guitarist Chris Baio swapped guitairs every second song, and played a double bass at one stage.
They played songs old and new. Jess loved Oxford Comma while I’ve been struggling to get Cape Cod out of my head ever since. Their set actually helped me to enjoy and understand some songs of theirs that I had previously felt indifferent to.
Ultimately we had a great night. We were able to really let loose and have some fun. We walked back to the S-bahn and went back to the hostel for a few hours sleep – at 5:30am we were up to board our train to Warsaw, but that is another story…
