EuroTrip - Day 44

In Search of Rest

Spoiler Warning: Nothing significant to talk about today.

It is a Monday (26th Oct) today. So it means that many places of tourist interests will be closed today. And it is the National Day in Austria. Which means that it is holiday time for all the Austrians. They will be out there on roads. Celebrating the spirit of their nation. They will crowd every monument that is even remotely close to their heart (read every damn place in the city). Finally the most important of it all - we are finally really tired in this leg of EuroTrip. It's been almost a week since I have slept properly or taken a bath. Continuous walking in the day, evening at the station waiting hall and night in the train schedule is taking it's toll on us. None of us spoke about it explicitly but this fact is not the easiest one to hide. Today, from the word go we all looked tired and were in search for some rest. So the first thing we did was to take some more rest in the waiting room as 6am is anyway a real really time to reach any town. The half-charged us got ready as the clock clicked 8am and we left to see the city that is called Vienna or Wien or Vien - the karmabhumi of Mozart and Beethovan.

The central part of the city hosts the Imperial Palace and the MuseumQuartier and it should be the starting point of any trip that intends to cover Vienna in one day. The tourist information (TI as HotTiii calls them now) center is located just opposite Albertina and gives the required assistance in a really friendly manner. Our walk started from right outside the TI and as around that corner the State Opera is located (By now, you must have realized that every city in Europe has a opera). It has regular shows and guided tours but we are not the Opera type people.

From the Ringstrasse (the central ring), we moved towards the St Stephen's Cathedral. The road has the who's who of luxury brands and local brands competing with each other. Some of the grand old buildings have been transformed into these luxury outlets while other still hosts some places of cultural interest like the Museum of Fine Arts.

St. Stephen's is another world renown cathedral. It's architecture is similar to the one we had seen in Koln. The narrow towers ending in a sharply angled conical top. The 130m high main tower overlooks the whole of central district. Inside, it's quite chaotic (I'm sorry to say but this was the most chaotic place I have been in Europe). The walls are decorated with hundreds of golden artifacts symbolizing some old stories. With the flood of tourists around you, it's really difficult to get a feel of this place. I did not find any peace inside so came out quickly. To my surprise, it was the same feeling for others too. Sometimes I feel we should let these places be themselves instead of being some major tourist attraction.

We crossed a couple more churches and other historic buildings (there are hundreds of them in every city) to reach the entrance of the Hofburg (the former Habsburg winter residence). This place also hosts the museum dedicated to life of Sissy (Empress Elisabeth).

As it was the Austrian National Day, their army was hosting a function for the aam aadmi. They showcased their skills and their life and let everyone get a feel of it. It was a time when a cycle riding guy gets to see inside the cockpit of the fighter helicopter, or a 5 year kid enters the fighter tanks. Most importantly, it was a time when the people whom these armies are guarding get to see how are they so much safe and protected. There was a small reality check when one of the officer told me 'It's a national holiday. Everybody takes rest. Nobody goes to work. Except us!!' The price you need to pay for wearing that uniform is really high.

A power nap in the garden in front of the palace was followed by the long walk to the railway station. Somehow, the Monday morning blues were not ready to leave us. A couple of museums that we would have loved to watch were closed so it was end-of-day-in-Vienna for us.

The plan was set that me and PooCh will take the 5pm train to Praha while the others will leave for Berlin. For me, there was too much of Praha left to be explored. The plans looked perfect but the execution failed. We missed the train because we could not understanding the connections between UBahn, SBahn and Trams. The next train would have left at 6pm but then it would have been very late by the time we would have reached Praha. So we had to change our plans and decided to join the rest of the gang on their train to Berlin.

The sun sets at 5pm and by 6pm the city nightlife starts blooming. All the buildings glow with a shine that is hard to miss. In Europe, they do it really well with lighting their major historical as well as modern buildings. It adds an altogether different beauty to those otherwise beautiful places. A long walk along the Ringstrasse and in the central district was over in no time as we chatted. For the first time, I seem to have got in some meaningful discussion. Too much of bakwas just switches off my fuse.

A couple hours of rest in the waiting room and we were on the train for the night. It's a long journey so hopefully we will get a longer sleep. The seats look really comfortable. I hope there are lesser number of ticket/passport check tonight.

See yea in Berlin tomorrow.