A few weekends ago, my friends and I bussed south of the border to Austria to visit the lovely city of Vienna. After dropping our stuff off at the hostel Ruthenstienner (that may be incorrectly spelled but for me it's okay), very quaint little place, and headed out on the town. The first restaurant was a microbrewery with delicious food of ginormous portions. The beer we had there tasted even better than most Czech beers, not all, but some of the crappier ones. We then decided to do what we do best, pick up some beers at a mini-mart and roam the streets aimlessly. Especially the first night of sight-seeing trips, I think the best way to start off is by wandering. We saw all kinds of cool things, Mozart himself (he stood really still and didn't talk to anyone, which I thought was a little rude of him), we saw the National Library, I think, the National Opera, all sorts of cool sights. Vienna has a very distinct appearance at night, something very different from most parts of Prague. Vienna is incredibly well lit, every statue and every building. Last night (in Prague), I was walking in the Old Town Square and the giant statue of Jan Hus, a very revered public figure known for his leadership in the Protestant revolt in the 1400s, was almost completely dark with only a few small lights shining up on him. The millions of restaurants that lined the perimeter of the square are illuminated so one could still see the statue but if it were in Vienna, it would have a much bigger literal spotlight. I think the best way to gauge this is to compare the smaller backstreets in the non-touristy areas. Even the road to our hostel in Vienna, not off a main road really, not much traffic, street lights were prominent and shining. The road to my dorm here in Prague is no Time Square (don't worry Ma, there are a few lights and it's perfectly safe).
For our only full day in Vienna, we were on a mission to see almost everything. We started by spending a few hours at an open market. This market had everything, food stands, clothes stands, antique stands, people selling X-Box games, the whole nine. The only thing that I didn't find a nice selection of was shot glasses. For those who don't know, I have a shot glass collection in my room back home of over 150 shot glasses that I've collected with the help of friends and family over the past 10-12 years probably, so I look for them everywhere I go. It was a really cool experience to have, very European, I think, because of the amount of bargaining. One of my professors started a class by explaining the importance of bargaining. To bargain is to give value to the desired item, and to accept the given price means that you do not really care for the item and is a sign of disrespect. I think that is a very interesting idea in terms of interpersonal relationships. It seems as though he/she selling the item values the relationship to the customer more than the money made from the transaction. The professor told us that of course that type of transaction wouldn't fly in the US because our religion is money. I don't completely disagree with him, and he didn't mean his comment as malicious, but more to make a point about interpersonal relationships in a market setting.
Anywho, the rest of my trip was very much like what anyone would experience being in Vienna for a day and a half. We saw the Hapsburg Palace, Museums' Quartier, the giant and glorious buildings right next to the Hapsburg Palace that had a great lawn for napping, took a look around the MUMOK, etc, suuuuper classy of us. I want to close this entry with a few observations about the cities to which I have traveled. Well, I guess I can't really compare Munich to anything because my vision was slightly impaired most of the time, plus I didn't see any of the city besides the Oktoberfest grounds and the inside of one restaurant where the waitress, in her 50s and unattractive, had her belly hanging out for the world to see (against its will) and snorted with each step she took. The one thing I did notice about Munich and Vienna is how much of wider cities they are in comparison to Prague. Besides maybe one or two main streets in Prague, every street is one lane, which sometimes includes tracks for the trams. There just seems to be a lot more space in the center of the other cities. It makes sense as Prague is the smallest city out of these three, I guess. Don't get me wrong, it's not something that I dislike about Prague; in fact, I like taking trams out of the crowded city center. Maybe Prague feels smaller because I know it better than the other cities, who knows?
In Vienna, there is also more space to relax in the city center than there is in Prague. In Museums' Quartier, I remember laying on these plastic benches/couches that were shaped like this: \_/. We spent around an hour just lounging outside of MUMOK in these because of how relaxing it was to lay on these and watch people walk by, plus they were all different fun colors. There were plenty of people asleep in these thingies all over the place. Then, just a walk across the street away is a huge lawn in between the Austrian Museum of Natural History and some other giant museum. These museums are also a spitting image of each other, it's kinda neat. Most of the architecture is Baroque but the influence of the Renaissance style is seen all over. My conclusion is that the city is much more recreational and less functional, with a greater focus on leisure than work. Prague, on the other hand, can't be pinned down that easily, I don't think. This city is all over the place in terms of its architecture since no one ever tore anything down. Architects just built in the style of the time which is why you see Gothic next to Romanesque next to Baroque and so on. It makes the city interesting because you can see a plethora of styles on just one street. Here's to Prague being all whacked out architecturally, it's awesome. Also, here's to Vienna and Munich for also being cool, just not as cool.
I'm going to go get a pivo. Thanks for reading.
All the best,
Than
