After the year end accounts, 31 January tax return dateline and before I start with deutsche, I thought I should have a good rest. So I suggested a supposedly relaxing trip to Vienna and Budapest via Bratislava to Jesmine and Royce. It was a relaxing trip, but the word relax did not apply to both my legs. I have never walked that much in my life!
Anyway, back to my eastern europe trip. Jesmine, Royce and I flew to Bratislava, the Slovakian capital a bit like Sarikei/Bintulu (was about to say Miri but that would definitely anger my cousins) en-route to Vienna, the Austrian capital. The distance from Bratislava to Vienna is like Ampang to Sunway or perhaps Klang. Although near, there is nothing similar about Vienna and Bratislava.
Vienna is a beautiful city. Vienna is also synonymous with music, being the home to Mozart, Beethoven, Frank Schubert and Johann Strauss. When we were younger, we watched a movie about Johann Strauss Jr and how this King of Waltz composed his greatest ever masterpiece, The Blue Danube. And I remembered so clearly Jesmine decided to take up violin thereafter. She was quite good then and we played together a few times.
We went to Bratislava via Ryan Air. It was really cheap but we've been warned about Ryan Air. Not to indulge in further details, Air Asia is much better. In fact, Air Asia is much better than EasyJet. Not saying that because I'm from Malaysia and Air Asia is a Malaysian product, but because I've travelled a few times via Easy Jet and Ryan Air, I feel Easy Jet and Ryan Air lack common sense. When you travel via Ryan Air - read the small prints. When they say 1 hand carry bag, that means you can't carry a handbag and another bag, be it plastic bag or laptop bag. And if there's any muck-up, you WILL miss the plane. Don't kid yourself that 'they'll understand my situation', they won't. Easy Jet also dua kali lima. When they say check-in time 2 hours before flight, mai keh kiang line up before that thinking the earlier the better because Loon and I had to queue up again after we queued for more than 1 hour because when we reached the counter, the check-in for our flight was only opened at 2pm. It was 1.45pm when we reached the counter. Then again, can't expect first class when you don't pay first class.
From Bratislava's Stefanika Airport, you can find buses taking you to Vienna just outside the airport. It costs €10 at most per person. In Vienna, they speak German. They can speak good English and are more friendly than Parisians who refused to speak in English even when they are conversant. After going to a few cities, I find Vienna as my favourite city. I just love the feeling of music and efficiency combined. Vienna is clean and the people dress very well. I've seen baroque and classical architectures in other cities and Vienna's is as magnificent as the rest but there is just something about Vienna that I really like. Some people say Vienna is too clean, well, it can never be too clean. Ancient giants like Rome and Budapest should learn from Vienna. You don't see many graffiti as you do in Rome and Budapest, and as tourists, you will be put off by graffiti.
Vienna's transport system is very efficient, modern and of course, clean. Except the doors of the trains aren't automatic, you need to yank open the door when you wish to enter or exit. Many times I just stood there, expecting it to open by itself like it did in London. Then you'd listen "Oi!!! Open the door la!" from Jesmine.
If Jesmine is writing this, she'll write about the architecture and how astonishing the design/art/carvings are etc. But I've been to Rome and Paris where the architectures and grandeur were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, so I was looking for something different in Vienna.
We stayed about 3 minutes walk from the Westbahnof Station. Basically, there are 5 lines in the underground system, U1, U2, U3, U4 and U6. Don't ask me where's U5.
Typical picture of the Viennese Underground
The heart of Vienna is the Innerestadt - the area that lay within the city walls, until they were demolished in the mid 19th century. The center point is Stephansdom, a gothic cathedral, which is surrounded by the wide Stephansplatz. Some of Vienna's most beautiful buildings were built along it, among the most important are the Staatsoper (State Opera House), Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts), Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum), Parlament (Parliament), Rathaus (City Hall) and Burgtheater (Palace Theater).
Night view of St Charles in Karlsplatz
Mozart was baptized and married in the chapel, and he later died in Stephansdom.
View from North Tower, Stephansdom
Stephansdom is named after St Stephens, a martyr of the Christian church who was stoned to death at the gates of Jerusalem forty years after the birth of Christ.
The crypt of Rudolph, from the House of Habsburgh, one of the most important royal families of Europe, one of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors and rulers of Austrian and Spanish empires who originally came from Switzerland.
An artist work reads 'I forgive you' - the 'I' and 'you' are unknown
I view Viennese as proud people. Proud in a good way ie proud to be Viennese, proud of the German language and will accept no nonsense. We were at the Stephensdom, and took the tour of the catacomb under the Stephensdom. Talking about the catacomb, I scared Jesmine and Royce about how the catacomb in Paris was like ie dirty, wet and eerie... only to find the catacomb in Vienna to be cleaner than my flat will ever be. The tour guide, a very clever and no nonsense looking man told us that he will only be speaking in 2 languages ie English and German. An Italian women asked if he can speak in Italian, and his exact answer to her was "You come to Austria and you have limited understanding of Deutsche and English, that isn't very intelligent, is it?" wo... how rude... and incredibly proud! But it is the true and I really liked him for being so straight forward. "I will not be conducting the tour in Italian, I think it's best if you get a refund for what you've paid for." and showed her the door.
Typical Schitznel aka Pork Chop (nothing too special, Malaysian Pork Chop maybe tastier)
If you like cheese, you'll like this - can be very pricey
My highlight of Vienna is the visit to Zentralfriedhof ie Central Cemetry. There lies Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss and Hadyn to name a few. If you visit the site, you won't find any information on where the most interesting graves and crypts are, fair enough as it's a working cemetery and not a tourist attraction.
Entrance of ZentralFriedHof
Sesat in Zentralfriedhof
Johann Strauss II Tomb in ZentralFriedhof
Beethoven's Tomb - a rose each to some of my favourite composers
I've played piano classically since I was quite young and since forever, my aunty Charlotte (also my music teacher) had been drumming symphonies, movements, sonatas, concertos composed by these music geniuses. So it made this trip extra special for me. She must have had the worst time drilling into my thick skull appreciation of music and how these geniuses made all the difference to classical music. I wasn't too interested then, I was only interested in playing songs I like at that time ie pop songs and all those rubbish. omg I was also so into backstreet boys and take that and boyzone... sia soi wa now. So I must mention that the trip to Vienna was special because my mother was willing to spend tens of thousands of ringgit then in my music education. If you think about it, many parents even today think music education isn't as important as maths tuition for example. When I say music education, it means proper classical music education and not playing recorder or castanet in primary school. But knowing how to play a music instrument is special to a child. It will not help you secure a job or get 20As in SPM but having had the chance to learn a music instrument, I know there is a difference. So if you have the financial means to support your child to take up a music instrument, why not?
In the baptismal chapel where Mozart's son was baptised, the base of South Tower.
After 3 days in Vienna, we took a bus to Budapest. Orange Bus it's called. The service, in particular the 'bus stewardess' on that day - 3 words... KA NA SAI (like shit). First of all, understanding of English - even uncle rubber tapper's English back home is better and she's just insincere and rough! Not cut for customer service la. Sometimes I just don't understand how is it acceptable that you can't speak good English or understand simple English phrases when your country is heavily dependent on tourism and you're sort of front of house! Of course I don't expect them to speak perfect English, even I don't speak perfect English but at least don't ask me 'what' 10 times. Travelling around made me appreciate how Malaysians in general speak fairly acceptable English. I have friends like Seademon, Lillian, Cheryl, Alice, Hope, Eva (although Singaporean but still considered Malaysian) and Mandy who speak and write superb English. Then again, for Malaysian to speak English with grammar mistakes - standard too low lar... but for these Europeans who can't sum up an English sentence - EXOTIC ma! Cis!
If you have more money, you can travel by train, it's faster and you might not need to tolerate illiterate wannabes. We had a really good apartment (7Seasons) in the centre of Budapest. Very modern and fully equipped apartment and very reasonably priced. In Vienna, Jesmine was in-charged. In Budapest, Royce was in-charged. And did I tell anyone that the distance I walked in Budapest is equivalent to the distance I walked in total for the last 1 year? Basically, Budapest is divided by the Danube River ie Buda and Pest. We stayed in Pest and when we were at Buda (di bawah bukit), we had to hike a small hill to the Citadel (on top of the hill). And then walked all the way down, cross the Blue Danube via Margaret's Bridge to Pest and took a train back. It was a good walk, but very tiring.
Magnificent St Stephen's Basilica in Budapest
Down town Budapest
Traditionally dressed Hungarian boys and girls
Fishermen Bastion in Buda Castle District
At Heroes Square
Budapest is different from Vienna. It gives a totally different vibe ie people dress well but not as well as Viennese. Dirtier but structures are magnificent especially at night. Very romantic city and people are perhaps less educated although culturally rich! Except those working in the hotels and tourist attractions, the rest of the population can't even understand "what time do you close" even with hand signals. I think I made Budapest sound awful, but don't get me wrong, Budapest if BEAUTIFUL, maybe more beautiful than Vienna or even Paris but I wish the people there watch more MTV, the more entertaining way to learn English.
The beautiful view of Buda Castle from Pest
Walking towards the Buda Castle
Finally, it was time to return home... I had a good time with Jesmine and Royce and wish Loon was here. I can imagine him standing at 1 spot for 1 hour perfecting a picture - but it's nice to see him so engrossed. Also wish Pearly was here... it'd be great.
The must-tries in Budapest, Caramel Almond Coffee, and traditional delicacies
Famous Pixie, with Buda Castle as background
So here you go, another write-up to encourage friends to travel if time and money permit. I should perhaps rephrase that, money, we can always earn, time, we can't... so find time to travel.
1 comments:
where's gon's pics leh??
Post a Comment