Vienna der zwei
Vienna Day Two.
No luck on the weather front, so I use the overcast skies as a ticket to sleep in an extra hour. When I awake and do the morning routine, I decide to head out to the Naschmarkt, to see what all the fuss is about. I arrive to see people setup with little tented stalls, selling everything including the kitchen sink. No really, I actually saw someone selling the taps from a kitchen sink. It was like witnessing the leftover unsold artifacts from about 300 neighbourhood garage sales all piled up and concentrated in a 500 squared meter area. There's war memoribilia, clothes, jewelry, records, books, old tv remotes, and all sorts of local foods on sale. I wuss out on the local food, and order the one thing I can safely pronounce in german instead "pizza". Its good value, but tastes kinda bland.
From there I walk up and make another attempt at the Leopold museum, and this time I go in. I really enjoy lots of Egon Schiele's work, and the Klimts on display aren't bad. There's also an exhibit largely featuring these and other Austrian artists called the Naked truth, that was pretty good too. From there I make a determined (and long-winded) effort to see the Danube canal, so I splish-splosh through the rain for about 45 minutes to get to it. I spend maybe 5 minutes there, take 1 picture, then start the long walk back, passing through a really neat looking church called stephensplatz.
My feet ache, and I decide to give them a rest by taking in 'Batman begins' in the english cinema. I think my feet enjoyed the film more than the rest of me, and the ultra-cheesey one liners don't really translate very well from comic book to silver screen. They come off as hokey, but the film overall isn't bad and has a decent story and setup of how batman comes to be.
Back to the hostel to catch up on email and writing, and then out to try again to reach Jas by phone. Finally some success, and I use up my entire calling card just enjoying a really good chat. Leaving the phone booth my stomach rumbles, so I make my way out to a little place selling cheap weinerschnitzel. Finally I luck out with yummy local cuisine thats not too expensive. Its really delicious, and tastes almost the same as a breaded chicken sandwich (only better).
Belly full, I get back to the hostel and join up with some fellow travellers and play pool in the hostel bar. Its teams, so I befriend a german girl (who speaks almost no english) into joining my team for a game. We win the first one but go on to loose the second, and after that I call it a night.
Its tough because I've been to so many great cities recently, that I've become almost desensitized to all this great archtiecture, culture and history. As a result, Vienna just doesn't stack up compared to Rome, Venice, or Paris, but had I just visited this city, or done it in a separate trip, I'm sure my outlook would be different. The crappy weather also seems to unjustly sway my opinion, maybe I'll have better luck next time (in 25 years when I'll be able to again afford such a trip).
No luck on the weather front, so I use the overcast skies as a ticket to sleep in an extra hour. When I awake and do the morning routine, I decide to head out to the Naschmarkt, to see what all the fuss is about. I arrive to see people setup with little tented stalls, selling everything including the kitchen sink. No really, I actually saw someone selling the taps from a kitchen sink. It was like witnessing the leftover unsold artifacts from about 300 neighbourhood garage sales all piled up and concentrated in a 500 squared meter area. There's war memoribilia, clothes, jewelry, records, books, old tv remotes, and all sorts of local foods on sale. I wuss out on the local food, and order the one thing I can safely pronounce in german instead "pizza". Its good value, but tastes kinda bland.
From there I walk up and make another attempt at the Leopold museum, and this time I go in. I really enjoy lots of Egon Schiele's work, and the Klimts on display aren't bad. There's also an exhibit largely featuring these and other Austrian artists called the Naked truth, that was pretty good too. From there I make a determined (and long-winded) effort to see the Danube canal, so I splish-splosh through the rain for about 45 minutes to get to it. I spend maybe 5 minutes there, take 1 picture, then start the long walk back, passing through a really neat looking church called stephensplatz.
My feet ache, and I decide to give them a rest by taking in 'Batman begins' in the english cinema. I think my feet enjoyed the film more than the rest of me, and the ultra-cheesey one liners don't really translate very well from comic book to silver screen. They come off as hokey, but the film overall isn't bad and has a decent story and setup of how batman comes to be.
Back to the hostel to catch up on email and writing, and then out to try again to reach Jas by phone. Finally some success, and I use up my entire calling card just enjoying a really good chat. Leaving the phone booth my stomach rumbles, so I make my way out to a little place selling cheap weinerschnitzel. Finally I luck out with yummy local cuisine thats not too expensive. Its really delicious, and tastes almost the same as a breaded chicken sandwich (only better).
Belly full, I get back to the hostel and join up with some fellow travellers and play pool in the hostel bar. Its teams, so I befriend a german girl (who speaks almost no english) into joining my team for a game. We win the first one but go on to loose the second, and after that I call it a night.
Its tough because I've been to so many great cities recently, that I've become almost desensitized to all this great archtiecture, culture and history. As a result, Vienna just doesn't stack up compared to Rome, Venice, or Paris, but had I just visited this city, or done it in a separate trip, I'm sure my outlook would be different. The crappy weather also seems to unjustly sway my opinion, maybe I'll have better luck next time (in 25 years when I'll be able to again afford such a trip).
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