Daily Life in Vienna

Before we leave the wonderful city of Vienna, Scott and I thought we could give you a glimpse of our daily life here.  Through Airbnb, we were able to rent a studio apartment in the 15th district of Vienna.  This allowed us to feel like we had a home, and provided a good location to explore the area. This is the plaza that our apartment is on, near a Catholic church with the same name called Maria vom Siege.  The church (and our building) have been under construction the whole time we've been here, hence the scaffolding you see.  We live basically at the bottom of the orange tube at right.

Our apartment was located near the Westbahnhof (train station), which became our center for shopping. The train station is very large and is actually sort of like a mall.  We were able to buy groceries here, clothes, and the occasional homesick cup of Starbucks.  This was one of the surprises about European culture, everything seems to revolve around the train station as people come home from the day, they grab food on the way home for the family, got haircuts, shopped, etc.

We also lived nearby this Wurstel stand, which became one of our favorite stops.  Our wurst of choice is a kasekrainer hot dog style.  In American terms- this is an improved version of a cheddarwurst put inside a hollowed out piece of bread, with a "hat" on top. Delicious...and just sketchy enough to be authentic (Seattle people- think taco truck).

Having an apartment made it possible for us to make dinners at home, but we occasionally ventured out into Vienna to get a taste of the local cuisine.  Of course, the most obvious Vienna dish is Wienerschnitzel.  (Wiener being the German way of saying "Viennese")  We consulted the Rick Steves and found a place known for its authentic schnitzel. [Side Note: we have yet to eat at a bad restaurant suggested by Rick Steves.]  It's called Schitzelwirt, off the beaten path and full of locals. We got to eat at a table with an Austrian couple and a Czech couple.  We had a great conversation with each other in broken German/broken English including saying "Cheers" in three languages.  And the schnitzel...well, it was HUGE and delicious. Definitely the best we've had here.

We spent our last few days in Vienna to squeeze in the things we still wanted to do.  One of those included a trip to the Vienna Woods.  Vienna Woods is a hilly, forested area  outside the city where locals go for some nature time.  We enjoyed a crisp, fall  hike through the woods. We even found one last hut to have some strudel and beer for a break!

For our last night in Vienna, we attended a Mozart/Strauss classical concert at a famous Viennese venue, the Kursalon.  Vienna is well-known for its musical past and it seemed pretty mandatory to experience this in some way.  The concert also included opera singers and professional dancers (mostly doing the waltz, which is what made Strauss famous).

We have really enjoyed getting to know this city and calling it home for this short time.  Vienna will always hold a special place in our hearts.  If anyone plans on traveling here, we have LOTS of tips! We've been in Europe for a total of two months now, and are getting ready to head to a new continent!  Africa, here we come!

Budapest, Hungary- Days 2 & 3

Scott and I were ready for another day full of sightseeing in Budapest, however, we quickly learned that it was a Hungarian National Holiday and most sights were closed. The Holiday (observed Oct. 23) is two-fold. It is to commemorate the Uprising against Soviet regime in 1956 and also is the day in 1989 that Hungary was declared independent.  Pretty big deal.  More on these events later.

In the meantime, Scott and I had to fend for ourselves in sightseeing land. We decided to do one of our walking tours, where we saw the Millennium Monument.  It was built in 1896, to commemorate the millennium that had passed since Hungary was originally founded in 896 by the Magyars.

[Side Note] Magyar is pronounced "Mud-jyar".  We found Hungarian extremely hard to pick up, and we are not alone.  It is not a typical Indo-European language, and its only close relatives are Finnish and Estonian. Let's just say it seemed like a relief to return to German (where I understand maybe 10% instead of 0%).

The statues seen in this monument are of the most prominent leaders in Hungary's history.

We sort of stumbled around the city for a while and maybe we made a couple food stops. Hungary is known for its pastries, many found at bakeries called "Fornetti" that are everywhere. Delicious. In general, the food we had in Hungary was awesome!

We finished the day going to our favorite ruin pub, where this happened...

On our last day, we were set to head back to Vienna but needed to do one more stop. We went to a museum called "The House of Terror".  We tried to go here the day before, but because of the holiday, the line to get in stretched around the block!  This day, it wasn't quite as busy.

The museum was dedicated in 2002 to commemorate the two regimes of terror the city of Budapest (and Hungary) were forced to live under-  the Nazis and the Soviets. It's one of those museums (like a Holocaust museum) that isn't very pleasant, but important to remember in a "don't let history repeat itself" way. 

The House of Terror is one of the most well done museums I have ever been to.  The museum, in a very moving way, honors the Hungarian citizens and the freedoms that they lost during this time.  I won't try to explain everything in the museum, but here are some quick facts if you don't know about this history:

-Nazis officially took over Hungary from 1944-45. In only this one year, 10-15,000 people (mostly Jews) were murdered and 80,000 sent to Auschwitz and subsequently died there.
-Towards the end of World War 2, Budapest endured a 100-day siege by the Soviet Army.  This resulted in the death of 38,000 civilians and the destruction of 80% of the city.
-The Soviets took control and started arresting citizens who were deemed ethnic Germans or "potentially dangerous" (basically whoever they wanted) and sent them to "gulags" in Soviet Union (usually Siberia).  In total 600-700,000 Hungarian citizens were sent to work camps. These camps had very poor living conditions, and many did not return home.  The atrocities that existed related to the gulags were not discovered until years later.

-Hungary is particularly proud of the 1956 Revolution that occurred in Budapest.  The Hungarians had had enough and staged a revolution.  Unfortunately, the revolution was crushed by the Soviets and many Hungarians that were involved were either executed or arrested.  After this, 200,000 Hungarians fled to western countries to escape communism.
-On October 23, 1989, Hungary was officially declared independent and began taking the down the fence that had divided it from Austria and the Western world.

We could not take any pictures inside, but outside they had a statue to represent the "Iron Curtain".  The words of the inscription are:  "Shall we live as slaves or free men? It isolated the east from the west. It split Europe and the world in two. It took away our freedom. It held us in captivity and fear. It tormented and humiliated us. And finally we tore it down."

Needless to say, Scott and I learned a lot by going east of the Iron Curtain.  Their history has played out so differently than the western countries we have been in.  It's definitely a story worth hearing and I'm glad we were able to.  

Budapest, Hungary- Day 1

Scott and I headed out of Prague on the looooong train ride to Budapest, Hungary.  We arrived at night to find our hostel and prepare for the next few days of sightseeing.

Early the next morning, we decided to do a Budapest Walking Tour to get the lay of the land and learn more about the city. Our guide was a native to Budapest, so we enjoyed learning about this city from a local.  We walked around and found a couple statues that had interesting stories behind them.

The police officer in this picture was known as a...ladies man.  Budapest locals (and tourists in the know) walk by and rub his belly for some good luck in love.

This statue is called "Little Princess". It was dedicated in 1989, a pretty important year for Hungary as they finally became independent and free of Soviet rule. We would learn much more about this throughout our stay in Budapest. As our guide explained, it's significant because it's a statue simply about a little girl full of joy.  This was in contrast to the statues that had dotted Budapest for years of military leaders and soldiers. This one also has a superstition- rub her knees for good luck.

We continued across the Danube over the Chain Bridge and up the "Castle Mountain" to get a great view of the city.  Most of old Budapest has been destroyed over the years, particularly during a 100-day siege towards the end of WW2.  All of the bridges and most of the historic buildings have been repaired or rebuilt. 

One of Hungary's famous foods is Goulash.  I was familiar with "goulash" from a dish my wonderful, Midwestern mother made that was sort of casserole style with noodles and ground beef.  The real thing is more of a beef stew with a red broth.  It's delicious and great for a cold, fall day. 

After lunch, we headed to another attraction that Budapest is famous for- the Szechenyi Baths. These are public, medicinal baths supplied by 2 thermal springs. There are several indoor and outdoor pools here.  The style is very different than our other "bath" experience in Iceland.  Here, the baths are in a Neo-Baroque style building from 1913.  There were even more pools, saunas, and steam rooms than in Iceland.  Other highlights:  old Hungarians playing chess in the pools and synchronized swimming practice.  

Here is one of the indoor pools: 

And the outdoor pool:

Note that the air temperature outside was upper 40s (F), so the warm water (usually around 100F) felt amazing.  We felt refreshed and warmed up, so we went for a great dinner and then to a ruin pub. Ruin pubs are abandoned buildings that were never rebuilt after WW2, and now they have made them into bars. They're filled with old cars, machines, essentially "junk" but it creates a cool vibe. A great action-packed day in Budapest! 

Prague and the Czech Republic!

Prague was our first stop on our mini Eastern Europe tour.  We arrived in the afternoon and quickly went to see the Slav Epic which is a set of 20 paintings by Czech artist Alfons Mucha.  The paintings depict the history of the Slav people from early times.  It's a pretty cool way to share their history and is... well... HUGE.  Each of the paintings are gigantic.  This picture gives you a sense of scale (that's Shannon in front).

My favorite painting was the first which shows the Slavs as early nomadic pagan people hiding from invaders (probably Huns or Germans).  The fear of the people is poignant and the struggle of the Slavs as they are surrounded by more powerful neighbors is a common theme throughout history.  Finished in 1938, this theme continued after the paintings were finished with Nazi and eventually Soviet control.

We finished this day with a great Czech meal.  Czech food is a delicious spin on meat and potatoes.  They also have great beer around here.  Many say it's the best in Europe.  While my heart still lives with German Weissbeer, Czech beer is a close second.

You may notice, that glass says "Budweiser"... what gives?  Well, the Czechs have their own Budweiser beer which is entirely different (better? blasphemy! ok, probably) than our Bud.  The name actually is from a region in the Czech Republic so it basically means "Beer from Budweis" it reasons that multiple groups starting making beer in/inspired by this region.  For more on the ensuing legal battle, check here.

The next day, we walked the sites of Prague and learned about their (non-beer related) history from a Rick Steves audio tour.  The main square area with it's big astronomical clock were particuarly cool:

To end our site-seeing day, we headed over the Charles Bridge to Castle Hill where we had a fantastic panorama of the city:

We finished our Prague visit with another hearty dinner and a bizarre Black Light Theater show.  Pretty weird modern art stuff worth checking out if you're ever in Prague.

Our time in the Czech Republic was pretty short, but here's some of our notes:

-The history of the Czech Republic left them as a pretty consistent underdog.  This vibe was felt throughout the city and we kind of appreciated it.  While Austria is full of palaces and "the high life" it was nice to come to a place a lot more down to Earth.

-The Velvet Revolution, which ended in the end of Soviet control in then Czechoslovakia in 1989, sounds pretty incredible ousting the commies peacefully without any causalities.  It's crazy to realize this happened in our lifetime.

-Our money goes further here and this was one of the first place (besides Italy) where this was true.  This means we ate (and drank) really well.  The Czech Inn (enjoy that pun, we sure did) was the best hostel experience we've had in Europe.

-Besides beer, we also tried Grog which is water, rum, lemon, and honey.  Delicious, especially as the weather chills down.

Back in Vienna!

After our mountain weekend, we had a nice slow-paced week in Vienna.  One thing that has been interesting to Shannon and I is how Vienna has started to feel like "home".  When we arrived in the train station we felt this strange familiarity with the place that was just nice.

The local movie theater was having a ski film festival so we had to check it out, they showed both this year's Teton Gravity Research movie (recommended) and a few local films (also recommended).  We learned that crash reels and their hilarity cross all cultures.

We also went to check-out the local hockey team, the Vienna Capitals.  The Capitals had a good game and won 3-2.  The style of play (much less physical than in North America) was the same here as in Salzburg.  We learned that part of the reason is that the rink is wider so they have more room to skate/less conflict.  Jury's out on how we feel about this (we may have been caught yelling "JUST HIT SOMEBODY!" a few times, it can be difficult to see your opponent skating around unimpeded).

We also got around to touring St. Stephan's cathedral, the biggest church in town.  It's quite impressive inside, although I particularly appreciated the cannon-ball that (as Rick Steves described) is still lodged in the building from some distant war... another sign that Vienna is trapped between Eastern and Western Europe, this particular ball came from a Turkish invasion.  The church itself has some fantastic gothic architecture and the South Tower is really impressive.

And of course, we enjoyed Vienna cafe culture.  One bike ride (of a few) took us around the downtown ring path to a beautiful cafe where we had this chopped up pancake dessert called "kaiserschmarrn" and beers/wine.  It seems like this is pretty normal for the Austrians to do on any given afternoon.  It's the good life.

Our next adventure would take us officially into Eastern Europe first to the Czech Republic (Prague) and then on to Hungary and Budapest!

More Mountain Time

Since we had gotten our skiing in the day before (with good weather), we decided to get a little Alps hiking in while staying in Mayrhofen.  The weather was cloudy, with a little rain, but felt pretty appropriate for a fall day.

As we have mentioned several times, mountains are so much more accessible in the Alps than in the U.S.  We took a tram up to about 7000 feet so we could immediately start hiking in the Alpine.  None of this forest walking.

We did a relatively short hike (~1 hr.) to a hut that was still open called EdelHutte.  We were excited to do one more hut trip, since most huts are shutting down for the season.  Per usual, the hut did not disappoint. We had some homemade "kuchen" (cake), beer and coffee. This was a great way to warm up after hiking in the rain for a while.  Scott and I discussed (again) how to get the hut business going in the U.S.

We were pretty sad on the hike down knowing that this would probably be our last hike in the Alps for this visit.  We have enjoyed it so much, and hope to come back and explore more hut-to-huit hiking!  This view is looking down on the Zillertal Valley and Mayrhofen, where we were staying.

The next day, on our way out of Mayrhofen, we decided to do a little side trip to Innsbruck.  Innsbruck definitely gets a vote for potential "Places we would live in Europe".  Runners-up include almost anywhere in Switzerland and Munich.  The reason we know we would like Innsbruck is because it's a medium sized city surrounded by mountains.  Skiing and hiking opportunities are abundant.  Sounds like a little city we call home, right?  (Shout out to Seattle!)
Anyway, in Innsbruck, we climbed up the old town tower to get a good view of the area.

After a quick lunch and some sightseeing, we were on our way back to Vienna!

Mountain Time!

As the weekend approached, we decided we were ready for some mountain time.  After a handful of big European towns in succession (Venice, Munich, Salzburg) we were ready to escape the city.  We discussed a hut-to-hut trek, but many of the high alpine huts close in October and we wanted more of a base-camp... the deal was sealed when I discovered an open ski area outside of the town called Mayrhofen in the Zillertal valley.

Our first night in Mayrhofen we accidentally stumbled into a restaurant that was above our normal budget range.  Instead of bailing we decided to indulge in some good Austrian Alp food.  A very worthy splurge.  I had venison medallions and Shannon had a local beef specialty.

The next morning the weather looked good so we headed to the Hintertux Glacier area for skiing.  The glacier tram system tops out at over 10,000 feet and we were staying around 2,500 feet.  There is a LOT of vertical relief in the Alps.  The skiing was fantastic with almost 24 km of trails open and groomed (in OCTOBER!).

Some quick ski cultural observations:

-In the US we have green/blue/black ski levels of difficulty.  Here they have blue/red/black (in that order, blues are easy, red is intermediate).  We found the difficulty to be similar to the US.

-They groomed mid-day here which was appreciated.

-They are serious about skiing and racing.  The terrain leads to the racing bias, open alpine terrain with good grooming = speed.

-We rode only t-bars and gondolas.  In the winter I think they use more chairs at the other lower elevation (less-prone to storm) resorts.

-We rented equipment and it was (by far) the nicest rental equipment either of us has used and we didn't pay extra for the performance stuff.

-Apres ski culture seems very high energy with bumping music and vibes.

-Apfel strudel with lunch = Success.

Vienna Beginnings

After a few nights in Salzburg, it was time for us to slide along to our home for the month of October, Vienna.  Our time in Vienna was strategic with easy access to the Alps and parts of Eastern Europe.  It was also a big enough city that we were able to find a great deal on a studio apartment complete with kitchen, dining table and chairs, and a washing machine.

During our first week or so in Vienna we explored the city slowly, we were both recovering from a bit of a cold and enjoying not being on the move every few days.

Eventually we did a city walk and saw beautiful buildings like Stephan's Cathedral (more on that in a few posts), the Hapsburg palace, and the overall beauty of downtown Vienna.

Vienna is well known for it's cafe culture and we enjoyed stopping for a Sachertorte on one of our downtown treks.

Later that week, we headed to Schonnbrun palace   which was originally a hunting lodge before being summer accommodations for the Hapsburg dynasty.  The Hapsburgs ruled in this area for almost 7 centuries (from around 1200-1900ish).  Schonnbrun was a pretty interesting look at the upper class lifestyle by Vienna royalty.

Really the biggest impression it had on me was reminding us how about 100 years ago Austria (and other parts of Europe) were ruled by Kings of hereditary descent.  Hard to imagine as an American.
The Palace has a huge adjacent park/garden area and we (ok, maybe just me) really enjoyed the laybrinths they had built.

On top of this slower paced sight-seeing, we've also been nesting in our home.  We've gotten to know our favorite grocery store (and foods), picked out some clothes that will be helpful later on the trip, mastered public transit, figured out the washing machine, etc.  A great first week in Vienna.

Austria! Salzburg!

We finally made it to Austria and, before heading to Vienna, spent a couple days in Salzburg.  Salzburg is a beautiful town on the edge of the Alps and the Salzach River flows right through town.  Salz is the German word for "salt", and Salzburg was settled because of the salt mines near it.  

Of course, one of Salzburg's more modern claims to fame is its association with the von Trapp family and hence, The Sound of Music.  The actual von Trapp family fled Salzburg during WW2 and much of the 1965 movie was filmed here.  Being a pretty huge fan of the movie, I was excited that we were able to go on a Sound of Music tour.

Here are some of the movie locations we visited:

--Schloss Leopoldskron, used as the back of the von Trapp mansion in the film.  Also where they filmed the scene where the children fall into the lake.  The front of the mansion was filmed at a different location.  Trivia fact: the front of the house was a different color than the back of the house.

--The famous gazebo.  This has changed locations throughout the years, mainly because so many tourists flock to it.  Unfortunately, you cannot go in the gazebo. Too many people would try to reenact the "16 Going on 17" dance scene, and some were injured.

--Wolfgangsee.  We took a beautiful drive through the countryside to get to this lake.  This was shown in one of the opening shots over the Alps.  Scott and I mostly enjoyed the opportunity to get back into the Alps.  We even got to have a pastry stop at a hut, just like old times.

--St. Michael's in Mondsee.  This is where they filmed Maria's wedding scene.  A beautiful church, although not quite as big as they make it seem in the movie.

Scott and I happened to come across a hockey schedule while in Salzburg, and since they happened to be playing the night we were there, we decided to check it out.   It was pretty fun, similar to the WHL games we go to in Seattle.  Go Red Bulls! (oh yeah, the founder of Red Bull is from Austria)

After Salzburg, we headed east on the train to Vienna!

Germany Recap

We were in Germany for all of 4 nights which we can tell you is definitely not enough.  Things just sort of played out that way, which is ok, we'll be back.  Here's some quick thoughts on Deutschland... specifically Southern Germany around Munich.

-Beer:  Wonderful.  I (Scott) really enjoyed all the Weissbier and Oktoberfest beer.  Now that we're in Vienna, I hate to say it, but the beer doesn't match up.

-Efficient and Clean Public Transit:  We found Germany to have great efficient and clean public transit.  This really just pertains to Munich (the only big city we visited).  We always stood in a big group at the Subway expecting the train to be jammed.  Then a gigantic train would arrive and we'd all have seats.  Even with Oktoberfest crowds.  I think this was also reflected in the cleanliness of Munich in general.

-Big Pretzels and other Foods:  We really liked most of the German food (wurst, schnitzel, etc)  we had.  Big pretzels are good.

-Autobahn:  Zoom zoom.  Enough said.

-Reaction to WW2:  It seems like Germany has done a really good job of acknowledging WW2 and many of the travesties that occurred during that time while focusing on not allowing those things to happen again and not letting the past cripple the nation's future.

Germany- Rothenburg

Scott and I had one more day to stay in Germany, so we decided to explore the countryside of Bavaria.  We rented a car in Munich and headed north to Rothenburg.  Before the peaceful countryside though, we got to drive on the Autobahn. Since we were going (way too) fast, it was hard to capture this in a picture  <Scott's note:  I got our rental car to 160 kmph, basically 100 mph, at this speed we were still passed with regularity>.  Eventually we reached a place where we drove on some country roads, called the "Romantic Road".  It felt a little like the Midwest, rolling countryside and farms.

We reached the town of Rothenburg, which is a well-preserved medieval city.  The stone wall still surrounds the town and some of the buildings date back to the 13th century. The town is situated on top of a hill and looks down on the river Tauber.

All of the buildings in Rothenburg are built in the Bavarian style.  Basically, Leavenworth has nothing on this place. (A joke for our Washington friends.)  Other notable things about Rothenburg include:

A famous wood-carved altarpiece in St. James Church.  This was made by renowned German sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider in 1501. This picture shows the intricacy of it, but doesn't capture the size.  It's actually about 30-40 feet high.  Impressive work.

A Medieval torture museum.  Yikes....

And....schneeballs.  Yep, that means "snowball".  They're deep-fried dough, so you can't go wrong.

Our time in Germany had come to an end, we really loved our time in Rothenberg for a little relaxation small town style after Munich...on to our "home" for Europe- Austria!