Vienna (Cont) and Budapest

Chris and James arrived early the next morning. And I mean early. I was awoken around 4 am by a phone call telling me that the pair were at the tram station nearest Nate's apartment. I dutifully threw on my shoes and jacket and left to pick them up. I met them there and we returned to the apartment were all three of us collapsed onto the floor and fell asleep.

In what seemed like no time our alarms were going off and we rose groggily to take showers and head out to see the city. We got out the door in about an hour and Nate took us back to Schönbrunn as Chris and James had yet to see it. It was just as beautiful as the day before and I happily returned with them, snapping multiple pictures as we walked. We climbed the hill once again and looked down at the palace built for two people. We then walked back past the Obelisk and boarded the trams again to head downtown.


It was at this point that we realized that it was an hour early then we had originally thought. In Europe apparently, daylight savings time begins a day before it does in the United States. So we had believed that we had left the apartment around 10 am when in reality it was 9 am. We suddenly had another whole hour.


We arrived downtown and promptly began a whirlwind tour of Vienna. The city was gorgeous! Everywhere we turned elegant and elaborate buildings and statues and monuments stood to greet us. Notable stops along our tour included the Hofburg zu Wein (the official residence of the Viennese president), the Austrian Parliament, and the old Rathaus (town hall). 

Belvedere Schloss

By this point all of us were pretty tired due to lack of sleep so when we saw an opportunity to take a tram we thought would loop around back to the city center we jumped on it. However, it turned out this tram lead us away from were we wanted to be. We remained on it for some time however as we were just too grateful for the break. We got off some time later and took another train to the second palace in Vienna, Belvedere. This palace was also stunning. It wasn't quite as beautiful as Schönbrunnen but was still pretty amazing. We took pictures in front of it and by that time it the sun was starting to set.


We decided however to make one more stop before heading back to Nathan's apartment. There was a giant amusement park and fair-type thing located on the river called Prater. We walked around the park for a bit and bought a quick dinner before once again getting back on the train and heading to Nathan's place. There we rested for a short time before going out with the 'Viennese' students.

The next day (the 31st of October and Halloween) we woke at 5 to take the tram to the bus stop in order to find a bus I had booked that would take us to Budapest. Everyone was exceptionally tired but we managed to reach the large train stop which also contained our desired bus stop. The stop proved a little difficult to find however. I asked several Viennese public transport workers and they pointed us in the right direction. It turned out the bus stop was around a corner and down half a block but we eventually found it. The giant orange bus sitting beside it was our first clue. We checked in with the driver and boarded. The accommodations were nice! The bus was spacious, comfortable and had free wi-fi.

Our Orange Ways bus!

The ride to Budapest took about two hours and I spent most of it gazing out the window as the incredible scenery flashed by. Before I knew it however our bus was speeding through the streets of Budapest. And I mean speeding. The driver showed no fear as he slid the huge orange bus through lines of traffic, coming rather uncomfortably close to other vehicles on a number of occasions. We made it to our stop without incident however and all the passengers disembarked. 

The three Americans quickly gathered outside and I called one of our Hungarian friends named Aniko, who was in town and had planned to meet us. She answered and we quickly met up near the entrance of the underground rail. She had already purchased our public transportation tickets and we accepted them gladly, then took an underground train, and then a bus to another Hungarian friend's apartment where we had arranged to stay that night. The rails were extremely old (60s possibly) and extremely loud. The doors of the trams slammed such with such force that they looked capable of taking off a man's arm.

At the apartment, we dropped off our things and immediately left to explore the city. Our first stop was a shopping mall, apparently a popular venue in Budapest. The mall was huge and looked identical to those we were used to in the United States. Our next mission was lunch and we ate some traditional Hungarian goulash (a soup). It was delicious and extremely cheap. Hungarians used a currency called Floriants and it took about 200 of the little guys to equal one euro. Which meant we were carry around 10,000 Floriant bills for most of the day.

After lunch we toured Aniko's campus, which looked very new and modern, before stopping in a Hungarian grocery store to purchase their favorite type of liquor, Palinka. After selecting what Aniko assured us was a watered down version of the super-strong drink, we continued walking up the street toward what Aniko called Heroes Square. On the way we were passed by a Google Maps car taking images of the streets. Kind of an interesting chance encounter.

We arrived at Heroes Square which was a giant monument to the kings of old Hungary and several of its freedom fighters. It was an impressive monument and we spent some time walking around it. After admiring the monument we headed back to the riverside to see the Hungarian parliament building. It was incredible! It looked like it had stood several hundred years and was extremely intricate and elaborate. The weather was also very warm, and the river flowing past behind the large structure certainly added to the effect.

Me in front of Heroes Square

Aniko and I in front of the Hungarian Parliament.

After looking at the Parliament we crossed the river to get another view of the building. It was an amazing sight. After gazing across the river for a moment we decided to see the palace that sat on top of a hill overlooking the rest of the city. We walked for a time before Aniko spotted a bus that would bring us to the top of the hill and to the palace. We jumped aboard and began the harrowing climb. And it was harrowing. The bus looked to be about the same age as the underground rail cars and wasn't in the best of conditions. It rattled over the cobblestone streets with a sound like a machine gun and the back floorboards of the bus were literally being ripped up as the bus jostled and jumped.

Nevertheless, we made it to the top alive and started walking to an excellent view point Aniko knew of. We found it, an old fortified wall with a great view of the river and the rest of the sprawling city. We uncorked the bottles of Palinka and wine and started drinking, inventing a drinking game to keep us entertained involving pedestrians and cars on the street below as well as boats edging along the river. We remained on the palace wall for a long time, talking and laughing. Finally, Aniko suggested we go directly to a club she knew of that was free entry.

We walked down the hill this time and caught a bus that took us back to the city center. There we walked a few blocks to the club Aniko had mentioned. It was indeed incredible! The drinks were very cheap up to a certain hour and the music was very good. It had multiple dance floors and everyone had a good time. The other two guys freaked out when they discovered a back room were you could sing karaoke. Surprisingly about half the songs being sung were in Hungarian. Usually English songs dominated any club scene. After a few hours in the club we were all worn down and managed to catch a night bus back to our friend's apartment and crash for a few hours. 

The next morning came much too early. I struggled out of the bed I had shared with Chris and James first and grabbed a quick shower. I then shook Chris awake so he could take his turn. Our bus left around 9 and we hurriedly caught a train back to the stop and said thank you and goodbye to Aniko before boarding a bus of the same bright orange color. In no time at all we were back in downtown Vienna and calling Nathan to arrange a meeting. We met him and one of his German friends who had studied abroad in the United States and then caught a train out to the cemetery.

It was apparently Viennese custom to visit the graves of loved ones on November the 1st (All Saint's Day) and Vienna had quite an amazing cemetery. We walked around the expansive grounds for a time, looking in at the beautiful church they had erected there and paying our respects at the graves of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. Before long it was time for me to catch a train to the airport and all of the others walked back to the station with me. We said goodbye and took trains in separate directions. I arrived at the airport ten minutes later and waited outside my gate, finally able to relax a little. 

Soon I boarded my plane and in an hour and a half I arrived in the Frankfurt Airport. I went downstairs to the train stop there and had to wait just over an hour for my train. When it arrived I boarded and was unable to find my seat. A passing employee told me to just take an empty seat. So I did and half-dozed all the way back to Cologne. It had been a very, very long weekend but an excellent one as well!

Gettin' out of the Country

So for a while the fact that I have yet to leave Germany has been hanging over me. Don't get me wrong, Germany is great! But I still felt the need to get around Europe a little bit while I was here. So of course I jumped at the opportunity for an extended weekend when I learned that classes would not be held on Tuesday the 1st of November due to the observance of All Saints Day in Cologne. This would mean a 4 day weekend if I missed my one German class on Monday the 31st. So the opportunity was there, now to find a destination.

That came up rather organically as well. Several international friends had just gone on a trip to Vienna and Budapest and claimed both cities were amazing. This claim was verified by other sources and a train ticket between the two capitals proved to be astoundingly cheap. I coordinated with the two other American students from the University of Minnesota who were studying in my program and they agreed that a weekend in Vienna and Budapest sounded like a great idea.

The plans were quickly laid, the two of them would be in Munich on Saturday for a soccer game so I would fly down to Vienna that day and stay with yet another University of Minnesota student who was living and studying in Vienna (it really pays to know people). I would then meet up with the other two on Sunday. We would spend that Sunday in Vienna, travel to Budapest Monday, return on Tuesday and then each catch a plane back to Cologne. Fool proof plan!

Well it turned out that there were a few snags in the plan. First my online plane ticket to Vienna was booked for the wrong date. I called the airline to correct the situation but they claimed they had no planes flying out of Cologne on any other day. So I was forced to cancel my ticket (receiving only a partial refund) and rebook with a different airline. By that time the tickets were not cheap either so the amount I payed for transportation alone gave me a headache. The situation was not helped by the airline staff who, it appears, were based somewhere in Eastern Europe, where English was taught to be spoken in a ridiculous accent and  at twice the normal speed. Needless to say I was not thrilled.

After that headache I arrived without any hiccups in Vienna. My comrades traveling to Munich weren't so lucky. They had planned to travel with a German ride-sharing platform called Mitfahrgelegenheit. Unfortunately their ride cancelled at the last minute and neglected to tell them until they called him repeatedly. Thinking fast though they immediately looked for another means of transportation and after exhausting air and rail they rented a car and drove down to Munich.

Meanwhile, I had met up with two other Carlson students who were living and studying in Vienna. I walked with one to the beautiful Schönbrunn Gartens, about a 10 minute walk from the apartment complex in which they lived. The gardens were beautiful, particularly during the Autumn season! They were also massive! As we walked deeper and deeper into their recesses I began to gain an appreciation for just how detailed and large they were. They were also meticulously cared for and all of the paths were perfectly straight. 


We climbed a steep hill to the south of the gardens and looked down over everything. From our vantage point we could see the Schönbrunn Schloss, a massive palace purchased by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II in 1569 and originally used as a royal hunting ground. In 1638 it became the summer residence of the Empress Eleonora Ganzaga. In recent history it was used as a headquarters by the British garrison stationed there after World War II and now serves as Vienna's chief tourist destination. 

The Schönbrunn palace.

After taking in the extraordinary view, we descended the steep hill in front of the palace and approached the monolithic structure. At the base of the hill was a gigantic, intricately carved fountain depicting the sea god Neptune and an assortment of water sprites. We completed our tour of the beautiful grounds and headed back to the apartment to rendezvous with our fellow student. We then boarded the street train for a flea market that was set up every Saturday in a square across town. 

We arrived shortly afterward and stepped out of the underground tram stop to view a huge square filled with stalls and people. We started picking through the tables piled high with assortments of odds and ends. It looked as though some vendors had literally just thrown the contents of their attics into a box, thrown that box on a table and were now attempting to sell everything. Have the fun was searching the piles of junk for interesting artifacts. Some of our more interesting finds were a gas mask, Soviet military surplus, and a German Arbeitsbuch (work book) from around the Nazi era. Throughout our search Nate bought an iPod cord to replace his old one and I found a French Franc and a Brazilian Cruzado, both of which were no longer being minted. 

We ate dinner there at the flea market and then headed back to the apartment were we rested for a short time and then met up with some of Nate and Tom's friends before heading out for a night on the town.