Busy in Vienna and Bratislava

Knowing that I leave Austria soon has really activated my “do as much as you possibly can while you still can” drive. I’ve done a lot this week, from going to the theater, to travelling to Bratislava, to visiting an aquarium. It’s part of the reason why this post is going out a little late — I didn’t get a chance to sit down and finish writing the post until pretty late. 

Food, Food, Food

ice cream…

I went to several food-related events during the week. The first one was with IKI, where to commemorate the last week of summer, we went to an ice cream parlor by Marliahilferstrasse, Gelateria La Romana. I ordered what was basically a black forest ice cream, and it was delicious. But what I enjoyed even better was the chance to get to know more people who are studying at IKI. Only a few people came to the event, but it meant we could all talk a little more.

…Apple Strudel…

On Tuesday, I went with a few other people who are in my German course at IKI to Schloss Schönbrunn. However, instead of viewing the castle like I did on my own back in August, we went to go see a Strudelshow! Before going to the show, we walked through the gardens up to the Gloriette. There’s a cafe inside of the Gloriette, where we had a small meal (I split Kaiserschmarrn with Sayuri) before going to the strudel show.

The strudel show itself was very entertaining. One of the bakers at Schönnbrunn made the strudel in front of us, while explaining the different steps to making it. At one point, they picked up the dough and tossed it in the air, and rolled it with their hands in the air. The dough got so thin it was transparent! Our ticket included a small piece of strudel from an earlier show, and it was fantastic. I made sure to grab the free recipe card (in German and in English!) so that I can make it myself at some point.

…and Zwetschkenkuchen!

The final food-event of the week was another IKI-sponsored event. Just like in August, they hosted a Wiener Schnitzel cooking party! This time, I made sure to get into the dessert group. We made Zwetschkenkuchen, or a plum cake. It wasn’t too difficult, but one major difference I noticed between baking in America and baking here is that they measure all of the ingredients by weighing them. The experience definitely gave me something in the U.S. system of measurement to be grateful for.

 

Ein Volksfeind

One of the BCA events this past week was going to see a play at the Burgtheater. We went to see a play called “Ein Volksfeind.” It was very difficult to follow what was happening, and highlighted how much I have left to learn to be fluent in German. Thankfully, during intermission Benjamin helped fill in the gaps of what we didn’t fully understand.

The play was about this conflict surrounding a healing spring, where the water had been poisoned. The main character, the doctor at the spring named Tomas, was trying to convince his brother, the mayor, to close the spring due to the health risks. However, the mayor did not want to do so because of the profits that would be lost. Additionally, if the spring was closed, Tomas would lose his job and couldn’t support his family.

Throughout the play, there were giant gnome statues that were moved around the stage. According to Benjamin, they represented the pressure from the community. They were only fully acknowledged by the characters at the end of the play. Another interesting feature of play was that all the characters who were from the town wore ice skates the entire time, while outsiders wore regular boots or slipped when they wore skates.

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Bratislava Day Trip

There’s something magical and lovely about exploring a city on your own, sitting in silence on benches and admiring views, going at your pace and doing what you want. And Bratislava was quiet, still. Of course, there were the expected groups of tourists and people in the Old Town and at the castle, but it wasn’t overly crowded or busy. It was peaceful. I’m not sure whether it was a result of the overcast day, or if it is always like that in Bratislava, but it was nice all the same.

Earlier in the month, I had the idea to visit Bratislava because of how close it is to Vienna — an hour by train, close enough that there are multiple people at IKI who commute between the two cities to go to class every day. I figured that it would likely never be as easy and cheap for me to travel there as it is now. So I asked Lucia, a woman in my IKI class from Bratislava, what sights I should check out in the city. Although she wasn’t able to meet me there, she did give me a list of places I should go.

The Old Town

Most of the morning I spent exploring the Old Town. I visited the St. Martins Cathedral, Micheal’s Gate (which is the only gate that has preserved the medieval fortifications), the Old Town Hall, the Primate’s Palace, the Clarissine Church, and the City Walls. It sounds like a lot, but everything was close together.

All of the buildings in the Old Town were beautiful, and exploring the area was a lot of fun. I only used Google Maps to get to the Old Town, but the rest of the sights I found just by walking around and occasionally checking the map I got when I bought my train ticket to Bratislava.

There were also these really cool statues in the Old Town. One of them is known as Čumil, or “The Watcher.” Another one I liked was called Schone Naci, and was based off of a living person named Ignac Lamar.

The Bratislava Castle

After exploring the Old Town, I decided to walk up to the castle. From there, I had a really nice view of the city. The grounds surrounding the castle were also pretty; there was a baroque garden, as well as a park area. For a while, I let myself just sit on a bench outside and people watched for a while.

Then, I bought a ticket to go inside the actual castle, which is a museum. The museum detailed some of the history of Bratislava. It also had a gallery of works by Martin Benka, a 20th Century Slovak painter.

I also climbed to the top of the tower in the castle, which had an amazing view of the city. Then I climbed down a really small spiral staircase into the room where the crown jewels were on display. I’m not exactly sure how many steps I took inside that tower alone, but my legs definitely feel it now.

On the way up to the castle I passed by a cat cafe, and on the way back down I decided to stop inside. That’s another nice thing about exploring on you own — no one can stop you from going into a cat cafe if you want. I drank some tea, pet some cats, and enjoyed the atmosphere. At one point, a woman started talking to me in Slovak, not realizing I wasn’t a local. Once I corrected her, we had a short, but nonetheless good, conversation.

It may not have been a place that one goes to sight-see, but I don’t regret going at all.

UFO Tower

I then went to the UFO Tower on the other side of the Donau. It’s easy to see where it got its name.

From the top of the tower, there was a fantastic view of the city. I feel like “going to towers to see a nice view” is just becoming a theme in these blog posts, but there’s a good reason for it. Seeing a city from above is always great, as evidenced by the pictures below.

 

After seeing the tower, I made my way back to the Old Town to eat a pretty late lunch. I sat outside at a restaurant near the city center, and watched the people go by as I ate bryndzové halušky, a Slovak dish with potato dumplings, sheep cheese, and bacon (it was delicious).

Once I was done with my meal, I slowly made my way back to the train station to head back to Vienna. I didn’t realize how long the day had actually been until I passed out within ten minutes of sitting down in the train. I’m definitely glad that I took the chance to go see Bratislava. It may not be the most famous city in Europe, but it was still a fantastic place to visit.

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Last Sunday in Vienna

For my last Sunday in Vienna (wow, typing that made me sad), I met up with my friend PJ to go to the aquarium, Haus des Meeres. She has a year pass to the aquarium that she got from her host family here, and I hadn’t been yet, so it was a good place to meet.

The aquarium is housed inside of an old anti-aircraft tower from World War II (like the one we saw in the Augarten), and had 12 floors. They had a wide variety of animals, both aquatic and not. In addition to the fish tanks, there were two giant rooms that spanned across multiple floors with monkeys and birds that had free range to fly and climb throughout the area.

One of my favorite exhibits was the one with Puppi, a giant sea turtle that used to be owned by a family in Austria. She had been a house pet for years, until she got too big and the family donated her to the aquarium. Now, whenever the workers go to clean the tanks, she doesn’t leave them alone until they pet her.

At one of the top floors of the aquarium, there was a balcony with yet another great view. It was a little chilly, but that was alright.

It was really nice being able to hang out with PJ one more time before I leave Vienna. I’m sad, but chances are that it won’t be the last time we see each other. She’s staying in Vienna for a while longer, and might be moving to Berlin in the future, so we can always try to visit each other before I leave Europe.

After hanging out with PJ, I met the BCA group to paint the ceramics we made a few weeks ago. I’ll save that story for next week’s post so I can have a photo of the finished product, too.

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What I’m listening to this week: Der Letzte Kaiser by Wiener Blond. The next time I write a blog post, I’ll be in Germany, so I chose this song as a sort of goodbye to Vienna.