Hello, goodbye

Having arrived at the beginning of February, I’m amazed that we are towards the end of April already. The past months have gone by rapidly, ever reinforcing the idiom ‘time flies when you’re having fun’. Today two incredible people, Raffaele and Solvita, left Vienna. I’ve known them for such a short time but they were two of the most instantly likeable people I’ve met.

On Thursday Susan, one of the Americans we met in Budapest, came to visit. In exchange for free accommodation for a few days, I can take up a return offer for Copenhagen where she currently studies – along with the promised guided architectural tour. Thursday was Solvita’s Birthday so on Friday she invited us all around Raffaele’s flat to celebrate and also say farewell. It transpired that most of the music Raffaele had on his computer was of a romantic nature which, combined with the candle-lit setting, produced a fairly uncomfortable but amusing atmosphere (I made plenty of jokes anyway).

At least Raffaele didn’t play Jeremih’s “birthday sex”!

Albanian Guy, Susan, Me, Cindy, Tiphaine, Stéphanie

 

On Saturday Susan and I walked around the city centre, and then met up with Şefkat and Pelin in Prater park to relax in the sunny weather. We then took a ride on the Wiener Riesenrad (€8 student), a c.65m tall Ferris wheel in the amusement park in Leopoldstadt which looks out over the rooftops of Vienna.

The Riesenrad was erected in 1897

Originally supporting 30 gondolas, only 15 were replaced with post WWII restoration

On Sunday morning Susan left to visit Prague and in the evening I met with Raffaele and Solvita in Travel Shack to enjoy a few games of pool and table football. On Monday morning I gave a presentation on Peter Behrens and his factory designs for the AEG as part of my history of architecture course. Then Tuesday night was the final farewell for Raffaele and Solvita at a bar in the MuseumsQuartier complex. At the end of the night we all said our farewells (albeit interrupted by a drunk local) at Praterstern Station and left Raffaele and Solvita to return to their lives in Italy and Latvia. 

Everywhere you go, you always take the weather

For the last few weeks the weather here has been brilliant – not too hot but something comparable to an average summer day in England. On the morning of Thursday 12^th April my parents and grandmother came to visit me in Vienna. I don’t know how they did it, but they seemed to have brought the rainy weather with them! Knowing my way around the city, I walked them from sight to sight with little regard for their fatigue after their early start and long flight; after dropping off their luggage at the Nh Belvedere Hotel, I marched them down Kärntner Straße to Sephansdom and from here to the Hofburg Palace, the Parliament, and the Rathaus. At Rathausplatz there was a festival celebration with plenty of beer huts and people dressed in their finest lederhosen. On our journey back towards the hotel we passed Museumsquartier, and decided to take a detour along Mariahilfer Straße to find a restaurant. With more shops than eateries (which were chain restaurants), we took a small side street and settled for ‘Gelateria Frascati’, an Italian Restaurant (not just an ice cream store as you might expect from the name).

Rathausplatz

The weather the next day had improved, so we seized the opportunity to walk around the Belvedere Gardens before heading to the Schloß Schönbrunn and taking a tour around the palace. The tour concentrated on the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth (known as ‘Sisi’) of Austria. Of all the information taken in that day I remember most clearly two things; that Franz Joseph had some impressive mutton chops; and that Sisi suffered a tragic assassination by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni (with a three sided file).

Inside the Schloß Schönbrunn

Parents at the Schloß Schönbrunn gardens

That evening we went to an orchestra performance accompanied by opera singers and ballet at the Palais Auersperg. The orchestra played music by Mozart and Johann Strauss. After we went to the Zwölf Apostelkeller, a traditional Austrian restaurant.

The oval performance room in the Palais Auersperg

The following day the drizzle came back so we took a tour inside the Hofburg palace and saw some impressive, but rapidly very boring, collections of ornate gold, silver and porcelain tableware and furnishings. We saw more of the royal rooms and amusingly the audio guide made many references to the Emperor’s “frugal” lifestyle – by this it meant, an elaborately furnished room with paintings and all, but with a single bed in place of a double (the tour certainly wouldn't have made his subjects more comfortable about paying taxes). In the afternoon I had to depart to attend Şefkat’s birthday celebration at Centimeter Restaurant.


On Sunday we met up again in a café near Stephansplatz and I taught them Briscola with a pack of Italian cards specially brought back for me from Trento by Federico. With my parents and grandmother needing to catch a flight in the afternoon I said cheerio and went home (where I then cried for days on end…. honestly).

We no speak Americano

For a couple of weeks Chloe, Zharah, Anne, Federico and I had planned to visit Budapest for a long weekend, so on Friday 30^th March Federico and the girls took an afternoon Eurolines bus to Budapest (costing around £14 including return). Due to lectures I took a later train and arrived at 10:30. I hadn’t thought to bring a map so I approached a guy and girl whom I had heard talking with American accents to discover where they would be travelling. Luckily our hostels were in the same area, so we all took the metro and I soon arrived at the street for the Ginkgo Hostel. Checking in, I discovered that the others had gone out for a drink and unfortunately my Vectone SIM card decided not to work in Hungary, so I ventured out, found a public telephone, and arranged to meet them back at the hostel.

The girls decided to call it a night, whilst Federico and I went to Lámpás, an underground bar they had visited earlier. Although the bar looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for some months, it had a fantastic grunge atmosphere, served cider, and had a DJ playing some great tunes – the Hungarian equivalent to Portsmouth’s Honest Politician! The next day we ascended Gellért Hill to see the Szabadság Szobar (Liberty Statue, 1947) and a superb panorama over the city. Our next destination was the Budavári Palota (Buda Castle) and the Castle District on its northern side. The district streets are lined by colourful houses which lead onto fantastic historical public buildings including the late Gothic Matthias Church (14^th century).

Liberty Statue

  

Statue of the Hortobágy horseherd by György Vastagh, 1901

The Széchenyi Chain Bridge - suspension bridge across the Danube opened in 1849

  

Halászbástya (Fisherman's Bastion) - neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style terrace

  

The Castle District

Arriving back at hostel I struck up a conversation with some American students (Ben, Lauren and Susan), studying in Copenhagen, and Federico and I were soon showing them the art of Briscola (Italian card game). Playing in teams Federico and I managed to confer in Italian to gain advantage. Lauren, Susan, Federico and I later went back to Lámpás but to our disappointment there was no DJ and the atmosphere had changed completely. We stayed for a drink and then followed Susan and the directions on her iPhone to another bar called ‘Instant’. The club featured a central covered courtyard overlooked by a gallery which adjoined a labyrinth of smaller rooms; some with chairs and sofas, others dancing area – all with psychotic Alice in Wonderland themed décor. Going to the bar to get a drink Federico discovered his wallet was missing, but assuming he had left it at the hostel we continued the night. Back at the hostel Federico couldn’t find his wallet, so we both returned to Lámpás to see if it could be found. With no luck at Lámpás, and not knowing the directions to Instant - or even wanting to travel that far at such a late hour - we went back to the hostel.

  

Covered courtyard inside Instant

  

The following day we visited the Dohány Street Synagogue. Built between 1854 and 1859 it is the largest in Europe. Later Federico and I walked to the police station to report his missing wallet. Frustratingly none of the policemen spoke English or German. We then met up with the girls in the city centre to go sight-seeing and visit Hősök tere (Heroes Square) and the Városliget (City Park). At the hostel we saw the Americans again and decided to all go out to a restaurant along Károlyi Mihály utca. On the way back to the hostel Susan and I split off for a pleasant walk along the river bank and visited the Parliament building which was transformed by lighting in the night.

Heroes Square

Moat at Vajdahunyad Castle

The next day I accompanied Federico to the Italian Embassy to get his emergency identity card whilst the girls went shopping. After returning to the hostel to get our swimming gear, and towels, and to meet up with Susan, we all went to the Gellért Thermal Baths near to the Liberty Bridge. Back at the hostel we collected our bags, said cheerio to Susan and set off towards the bus terminal and the end of our trip to Budapest.