The Vienna Trip Part 6-Actually Vienna!

 Finally, Vienna! After several adventures, I finally get to my final destination. Unfortunately my camera died, so these were taken with my phone. Crappy pictures are better than no pictures at all, right? Anyways, and I stand on the trolly, shooting through the Ring Streets I got a glimpse of this ancient city and the high class aura that surrounded it.

 With multiple tours came a realization that I can remember the layout of cities and streets very well. I explored many different parts of Vienna, and some specific places will be touched on in the next posts. This picture shows one of the many churches littered around Vienna.

This building sports the Austrian crest, a double headed osprey. I think this is the parliament building, but I am not for sure. So many buildings had elaborate designs and pillars that "fancy" was the common building style at the turn of the century.

Even on the top of some regular building is the sign of a bright age past. This huge angel just stands up there, marking a building of no real importance.

The famous Ring Streets featured these wide walkways that were used in the 19th century primarily for showing off your newest poofy dress or mustache. They really add to the charm of Vienna, but were constructed for more than just looks. With the addition of these wide walkways, it made it harder to barricade off routes (which had happened before).

This is the entrance to the Hapsburg Palace. The center of the Hapsburg Empire was here in Vienna, and the castle was huge. This picture only shows 1/6th of what I saw. The Empire eventually falls around WWI, but left remnants of its glory behind.

This was just one of the exits of the Palace. I thought it looked cool. :)

The Vienna Trip Part 5-Salzburg Part 3 (The City)

 So, now I finally get to show off the actual City of Salzburg. It was insanely touristy, which really ruined a lot of it for me. The feeling the town gave off felt false, like an air put on for outsiders. Besides that, it was very pretty. This first picture was taken on my way back to the bus after the Hellbrunn fountains.

The city was divided into two halves, the first half being the "Old City" and the second half being more modern. This shows me crossing the bridge to get to the Old City, where you can see a castle on the hill and the cramped buildings. A lot of older cities did this because there was limited building space due to protecting city walls. Also notice the car advertisement on the side of the building. That is the new Volkswagen Beetle. It looks like a regular car. I do not like this.
 

 Inside the Old City is Mozart's "Geburtshaus," or birth house. This is one of Salzburg's claim to fames, and all the tourist stores nearby were full of Mozart stuff. While looking for a present for my mom, I discovered some chocolates that were sold in only Austria called "Mozartkugeln." After returning home and skyping with my parents, I showed Mom what I bought her. Apparently the business she works with has some ties in Austria, and every year they are given a box of these chocolates that she absolutely hates. Of all the things I bought her, I bought the one thing she hates the most. She will still be receiving this present because of the irony.

 Many old cities also have more than one castle. Obviously this is pretty impressive, but I'm under the impression that this may now be part of a university. Brett and I were by ourselves and there wasn't any tour guides to explain what this was.

Overall, Salzburg was pretty, but also very touristy and expensive. I walked around with Brett and our other roommate, an Icelandic guy whose name we couldn't pronounce and explored the small streets and alleys. We even found a restaurant named after me! :D

The Vienna Trip Part 4-Salzburg Part 2 (Hellbrunn Fountains)

After the Stiegl Brewery, Brett and I made our way to the Hellbrunn fountains. It was created as part of a palace for the 1612 Prince Archbishop, who designed his fountains for not only visual appeal, but for his own stupid enjoyment. Hidden throughout the beautiful pools and fountains are trick jets that soak unaware nobles or tourists. This is the very first sign I saw when entering Hellbrunn, and it made me very, very nervous.

 

The palace itself was wonderful and enchanting, but after the sign I knew better. This place was designed for some little 17th century punk who wanted to squirt water up ladies' dresses. I watched where I stood and, most importantly, where not to stand because the ground was wet.

The first trick fountain we found was this big stone table. You can see that every seat (except for the Prince's seat) squirts water, along with jets from behind. There is also water in the middle of the table where wine bottles were placed to keep cool. We were told that the mechanisms that run the fountains are almost unchanged from original construction.

It was pretty funny, but seeing how I had a camera, an ipod, and a blackberry I really didn't want to risk it.

These mentally incapacitated stag shoots water jets from the tips of each of its horns. At this point I was really questioning the Prince's sanity.

This joyful little...thing is essentially a giant music box. All the music and figurines (over 200 moving parts!) were water powered! It was cool, but something was wrong...the ground was wet. I stealthily positioned myself at the end of the group. Smart move, as I witnessed the jets come from behind. Sneaky, but not enough to trick me, haha! VICTORY.

 

Finally, there was a small cave/building that had religious statues and a special fountain that was suppose to show the power of the church. As I explored (and dodged jets) I found this statue. Ok, some guy is going to cut the Devil, and hes....wait...Is the Devil poking his nipple? Yes, yes he is. He seriously was. Why, I have no clue. I'm pretty sure that isn't in the Bible..but its in my blog! :D

Oh, and once you exited the Hellbrunn Fountains, you could see the Sound of Music Gazebo. Awww yeah :D

The Vienna Trip Part 3-Salzburg Part 1 (Stiegl Brewery)

The next destination on my way to Vienna was Salzburg, famous for being where "The Sound of Music" was filmed! Unfortunately this section starts out disturbingly.

On the train ride to Salzburg from Regensburg, the train stops somewhere after Munich and will not start. An announcement comes over the speakers in German, and the lady next to me was nice enough to translate. She said that the train could not continue because the rails were locked. Ten minutes later another announcement explained the rails were locked because there was a police barricade on the tracks. Another ten minutes passes, and another announcement finally explains what is going on. A man had committed suicide by jumping into the front of the train in front of us. Not my train, the one before. I almost took that train, decided to get food instead.

So, it took the police half an hour to clean up the tracks and then we were on our way. Wonderful omen for the start of a trip...

Anyways, once I arrived in Salzburg I made my typical beeline to the hostel first, where I met my friend Brett. We were in a 6 person room, which we shared with an Icelandic guy who plays Team Fortress 2 and an awkward American/Romanian couple that never left the room. Awesome. Once Brett and I settled down, the two of us and the Icelander went to the old city to find food.

End day one. Day two begins with a tour...

of the Stiegl Brewery!

This brewery, located on the outside of town, makes delicious Austrian brews that are available in Jungle Jim's in Ohio! Notice the scenic mountain backdrop and the pretty yellow color. The whole thing had a very home-based feel to it. This brewery was around during the time of Mozart, so these people know how to make a good Wiess.

The entrance led to a nice courtyard in the center of the brewery, which was decorated in Oktoberfest and pumpkin themes. The whole place seems very...non-industrious.

The courtyard was filled with people eating the local ham stew (which I had and loved) and drinking various beers (biers), such as Goldenbraus and Radlers. Right next to this courtyard was a gift shop, where we bought the tickets for the tour. It was only 9 euros, a wonderful price! This 9 euros included more than just a self-tour...

The museum was based in the old brewery rooms and were filled with various nicknacks and trinkets of the past. There were many different rooms, but my camera kept dying and messing up the pictures it took, so this is the only room picture not distorted. You can see a pyramid of bottles from the past 100 years or so of production.

This crazy lady was one picture on a wall entitled "How Do You Open Your Stiegl?" I think this lady's answer was "without the help of my meds."

At the end of our tour we were given three beers and a free glass. Three beers cost 9 euros by themselves, so by taking the tour they just gave me a free glass...ok! The beers here (from left to right) are a Weiss (very smooth and sweet), a Radler (half GoldenBrau and half raspberry juice), and a typical GoldenBrau (not my favorite and not that bad). Definitely worth 9 euros...Brett and I left happy with our glasses to set out for the next tour.

Oh, and my blog has a new fun feature! Notice the fish at the bottom of the screen? Click to feed them :3

The Vienna Trip Part 2-Regensburg

My second stop on my trip to Vienna was Regensburg, one of the only cities not damaged in WWII. Upon exiting the train station, I was greeted by a lovely fountain with a statue of some guy on top. I don't know the history behind this, but it was sure pretty! After a little navigation I located my hostel and set out to see historic Regensburg.

The first thing I found was an ancient church, but photography was prohibited so no pictures from that. I found the second church of Regensburg, which is shown below. This monster of a church can be seen over buildings and isn't very hard to locate. Unfortunately, because Regensburg is an old town there are no main roads, just a bunch of alleys. I tried to relocate my hostel and ended up at this church three different times.

Even though they were very frustrating to navigate, the alleys were very pretty and housed many shops to visit. My favorite shop by far was the hat shop, seen on the right side of the picture...

So many wonderful hats! Very expensive hats, but wonderful, elegant hats that I would love to bring home! It was around $100 per hat...I was ok with this. I didn't buy anything, but I think I should have. Hats!

Of course I ran around in the alleys, taking pictures of the old fashioned charm. I have no idea what "Kuss" is, but it looked cool. I may have gotten lost, but I really enjoyed it. I wish my hostel was in the area around the church and not next to a bunch of gothic clothes shops and pot joints. 

I asked the receptionist at the hostel about a good place to eat. She recommended Da Luigi, which was located by the church. I was told to look for a small alley on the left of a certain road. It took me half an hour and several trips up and down the road to find the alley. It was so small I had to turn sideways to get in. Once past the main entrance the alley widened to reveal Da Luigi. The food was delicious and the waitress was very nice. She wanted to practice her English skills with me, a common occurrence in Europe. After one night's stay in Regensburg, I headed to the third stop in my trip...

The Vienna Trip Part 1-Wurtzburg

For my Vienna and Modernity course my class was required to head to Vienna for half a week. Starting on Friday we had until Wednesday to get to our Viennese hostel. I took the chance to do a little traveling through Germany and Austria beforehand. Interestingly enough, there were several groups formed for traveling before also, but they included expensive Italian hostels and other things out of my budget, sooo...I traveled alone until Salzburg, where I planned to meet up with one other student. With itinerary in hand, I set out on my solo adventure.

My first planned stop was Wurtzburg, a town full of castles, churches, and a statue bridge. It sounded like a cool place to stay, and I was right. My hostel was on the other side of town, so I was able to get a glimpse of everything before I settled in. I wandered down the quaint little streets happily, my only goal to find the river. My hostel laid on the other side of the river...somewhere.

Everything was cute! 

I eventually found the bridge, but not before annoying everyone as I drug my suitcase across cobblestone (thump-thump-thump-thump). The bridge was one of the prettiest things I have seen since I have been to Europe. The scene was set by an accordion player who played his lovely tunes as I wandered dumbstruck over the bridge. The scene was helped by the huge castle sitting on the hill. Yes.

The small red building at the end of this street is a wine joint that opens up only at night. You can pay 8 euros for a glass of wine and a poker chip. You return the chip with the glass to get 6 euros back. This was they can cover costs for lost glasses.

This looks even better at night when they light it up.

I was able to make enough awkward hand gestures for the German man who took this to understand I wanted a picture.

As I got closer to my hostel, I realized I would be right under the castle and not too far from the bridge. Right below the castle were vineyards. So. Pretty!

Unfortunately I didn't get to go to the castle. :(

So, I settled into my hostel room and decided to explore more! I went back across the bridge to see the famously pretty churches. One was medieval, one was renaissance, and the other appeared...uh, red. I have no clue.

The red one shown above also had an interesting archway above the main entrance. Jesus with swords in his mouth? Wow, that's....odd.

???

As night fell, I wandered back to the bridge to enjoy a glass of wine from the previously mentioned wine joint. It was beautiful. The castle was lit up along with the church steeples, the lights reflecting on the water, the small street band playing music. People everywhere, enjoying wine and life. It was wonderful...Until the very drunk German guy threw his arm around me and offered me free alcohol. When I said I wasn't interested he proceeded to ask me on a date for the following night...No thanks.

 

I walked back to the hostel, happy with how the night had gone. I met a girl in the lobby from a nearby American college. Back to the bridge! She got a glass of wine and we walked around to the churches. We stumbled across this chalk street art when a second German guy threw his arm around me. Apparently this one was having his bachelor party and wanted some girls to come along...No thanks. :\ After a night at the hostel I got up and headed back to the train station to head to stop #2...

I hope it never rains, or else this is going to be lost forever :(

The Lovely German Town of Trier!

On one of the trips organized by the school took us to Trier, which is right over the German border. This town was first created by the Romans, which then gave way to the medieval times, and then to present day. This means that Trier has tiers, and every times someone excavates in order to build Roman artifacts are found. Trier also sports several large Roman ruins, some larger than the ones found in Rome! For example, here is the ruins of the largest Roman bathhouse.

 Apparently Italy isn't too thrilled with such a ruin belonging to Germany.

This bathhouse is very well preserved and is featured on the opposite side of the courtyard. The courtyard, surrounded by well trimmed hedges and white statues, opens up to reveal the wonderful pink mansion built by an archbishop. Behind this mansion is a Roman Basilica built with thin bricks. The scene is odd because the two buildings class, but its so cool to see so much history in such a small area!

 Mmmmmyes

Once I approached the house the wonderful details began to become clear. The house is covered in gold accents and beautiful statues. The building has now been turned into an office building, which I suppose is...ok but I really wish it had become a museum. 

Right behind the archbishop's mansion is the Roman basilica. Not only is it huge, it is also in impressively good shape. It is now a christian church/museum that still uses the Roman heating system built into the church. It is very hard to believe that this building wasn't made in the past 200 years, that is how good of shape it is in.

Because the archbishop lived in Trier, he had to have a church. What ended up happening is the archbishop took the old medieval church and updated it by sticking a newer styled church on the side. When the shroud of Christ was "found," a new Italian church was stuck onto the back of the previous two. Its very...interesting looking. 

 Here is the inside. You can "see" the shroud of Christ in the very, very back.

Once you walk a little further, you run into the shopping district of Trier. The whole street is pedestrian only, and all the buildings look like they come from a kid's book. It is wonderful. The shopping is cheaper in Germany, so I try to come back here whenever I can. Its only 6 euros. :)

 

 The third Roman ruin in Trier is the Black Gate. It was once the entrance to the Roman city and was a sandstone color, but all the pollution has turned it's patina black. The black coat actually helps preserve the sandstone, so it is never removed. Oh, and back in the old days some old guy climbed into one of the rooms and refused to come out for 5 years. People fed him through a hole in the top of the room, and he spent the whole time praying. I guess after 5 years he came out and became a saint.

 

 The Black Gate was made into a church after the saint crawled out, but when Napoleon came through he freed the Gate. He was a huge fan of the Romans and wanted to see the Gate in all of its glory.

 Oh, and only a stone throw away from the Black Gate is Karl Marx's childhood home. The only thing to indicate this is the small plaque under the window. The lower portion of the home is now a Euroshop, the European equivalent to a Dollar General.