Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Vienna, Austria

Saturday, November 17, 2012



In lieu of traveling to Paris, I chose to travel to the one place I had been most looking forward to visiting, Vienna. Melanie, Tiffany, Ben and I decided the combined 24 hours of traveling would be worth the taste of cider at Vienna’s Christmas markets. Though a rock fall at Gotthard Pass nearly rocked our trip’s travel plans to Vienna, my mom’s birthplace (and located in my favorite country, Austria)! Alas, the smart and dependable Swiss transportation system corrected the problem disrupting the rail line between Bellinzona and Zurich by providing buses detour the rock fall on the tracks. One piece of bad luck turned out to be fruit two strokes of luck: we made it to Wien two hours early and I discovered a beautiful little Swiss town that I can hardly wait to visit one day, Flüelen.

Schönbrunn Palace
Ready to brave the cold Vienna weather, our uncharacteristically small traveling group woke up at 7:00 get an early start in the beautiful city of Vienna. While we knew that Vienna was supposed to be enjoyed at leisurely stroll, however we accepted that we would have to see as much as we could and that we would be back again in our lives. First up was the Schönbrunn Palace. The palace, a former residence to the empress and emperor of Austria, was comprised of 1,441 rooms and hundreds of acres including a garden and a zoo. Although I was not allowed to take pictures in the exquisite palace, this allowed me to appreciate the words of the little audio guide I held up to my ear better. My favorite room, the Hall of Mirrors, overlooked the gardens and just so happened to be the same room where Mozart performed for the Empress Maria Theresa just before he hopped on her lap and kissed her.


The Gloriette
The landscape architecture outside the palace was beautifully complimented by the gorgeous weather. I felt guilty fast walking through the green gardens and passing reflecting pools to the top of the hill were the Gloriette, a structure created by Maria Theresa out of recycled stone. The structure, which houses a café in present day, was built on the spot where the palace was initially intended to be built.

Hungry for some food, we set out for the Naschmarkt. Instead, we stumbled upon the neighboring St. Charles Church. The church’s exterior grounds were in full preparation for its Christmas market’s opening the following weekend. After sidestepping to see the church, we arrived at Vienna’s most visited open air market, the Naschmarkt. I enjoyed our visit and for the first time allowed myself to try any food that called my name. I had never done that in a market before and I decided the largest market in Austria would be a great start. Not only did I find HUMMUS, I also sampled feta cheese filled green olives and peppercini, pumpkin seed oil, assorted Lebanese food, and had my first warm cup of Glühwein. The vendors were incredibly friendly… However, their friendliness upon my inquiring about a pink tinted hummus resulted in my subjection to taste testing fish egg paste (never again).

With full bellies, we walked down Vienna’s large shopping street, which was decorated in Christmas attire, to the Wiener Staatsope, renamed the Vienna State Opera House after the Hasburg Monarchy took control. Touring the opera house, I learned how the opera house help shaped Austrian culture. The building’s resume was impressive. Though five bombs hit near the end of World War II, fortunately the only severe damage was to two of the three intermission rooms. Despite the beautiful architecture, in the mid-1800s when the building was being built, the structure was quite controversial; this building’s design was so contested that it resulted in one of the two architect’s suicide.
The only original intermission room
The front of the 262 foot stage
The grandest room of the tour by my standards was the actual performance arena. However, judging by monetary price cap, the royal tea room was the most heavily demanded section of the house; a mere twenty minutes in this room costs 5000 Euros to inhabit. With costs at approximately 100 million Euros per year to run the house, 40% of these expenses are covered by ticket sales or the renting of a box suite. For only eight people, these boxes cost 18,500 Euros to rent for an entire opera. Shockingly, the 60% of running expenses not funded by the public is financed by the government—that’s a whole lot of 60 million Euros just to operate one opera house. Though pricey, the stage alone is worth paying to see. The 262 foot long stage requires over 200 people to move only one set and replace it with another. Fortunately for our crew, we were able to sit and watch this process while our guide pointed out the Imperial box and listed off trivia.


We marched from one house of song to the next: St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The Roman Catholic Church made the list of my top three favorite churches with its watercolor walls. The unique projections ornately decorated what could have been just another church I saw in Europe. In addition to the stain glass walls were intricate gold accented frescoes on the ceiling. I wish we could have stayed longer, but instead we had to trudge on to our next sites. Leaving a place of worship for the Hofburg Palace, I walked through a square where Hitler delivered a speech to citizens of the edelweiss nation. Hitting the museum square at dusk, my disappointment in how much more was left in Vienna to discover on a later date was short-lived as we followed our excitement to Rauthsusplatz for some cider and sausage at our very first Christmas market!



St. Stephen’s Cathedral



Wiener Christkindlmarkt und Adventzaube… One of Vienna’s Christmas Markets!

Wiener Christkindlmarkt at Rathauspark
Wiener Christkindlmarkt sparkled like ornaments on a tree should. November 17, 2012 marked what I would consider the most exciting day of the Christmas season except for Christmas itself in Wien, Austria… the opening day of Christmas markets. The Christmas markets in Vienna are the first to open in Austria for the reason being that they are both the largest and most visited. Melanie, Ben, Tiffany, and I decided to seek out the biggest and oldest market of all: the Wiener Christkindlmarkt! With the sun already set, we were best able to see thousands of beautiful lights strung from booth to booth and covering every tree in Rathauspark.

While it appeared that there were over one hundred booths, it appeared that the majority of them were things that could have been found in America. Though there were many westernized oranaments, the magic of Christmas came alive most when exercising the spirit of giving. In search of a Christmas hat for our student conduct advisor at CESA, Jeff, I met a true Viennese shop owner selling Christmas hats. After finding the perfect hat for Jeff and talking with the nice salesman, I received my very first, “Merry Christmas!”

The magic continued as we walked the booths and bumped into people happy to share the holiday cheer with a smile. The prices of ornaments ranged from 5-20 euros and for once this price was one that we were unable to budge. There were also beautiful nativity crèches and Christmas decorations… if only I had deep enough pockets and enough room in my suitcase to take it all home! My favorite purchase were little, extremely breakable, bird ornaments. These ornaments were the very same type that my grandma had brought back from Vienna, my mom’s home town, to my mom when I was younger. I was thrilled to find some of the very same ornaments me and my siblings had broken as children… hopefully these will last longer!

Our group had anticipated a fantastic meal from market booths all day, and that’s what we got! There were booths interspersed through the decorations selling glühwein, candy, pretzels, sausages, hot apple cider, indigenous Viennesse treats, and there was even a chocolate fountain. The coolest part about ordering a drink at the market was the mugs that came with it. For the price of the drink and a 2 euro deposit, one can keep the customized mug depicting the Rathauspark Christmas scene. Ben attempted to buy only the mugs as gifts and got just that! With a tasty drink, we also enjoyed our long awaited sausages. Ben ordered a frankfurter while the girls chose bratwurst, both wrapped in a massive bun with (free!) ketchup and mustard.

Busy from a long day of touring, after wandering the huge market our group sat down for, practically, the first time all day. There were children’s rides, toy scenes created with Christmas lights, and even Santa’s village where children were able to take pictures with the man and his big belly after whispering what they wanted for Christmas into Santa’s ear.

The happiness, excitement, Christmas music, and most importantly holiday cheer giggled throughout the little Christmas village, also known as the Wiener Christkindlmarkt. Leaving the kingdom of Christmas, our group agreed in unison that the market was truly special and perhaps so appreciated for its authentic Christmas cheer and the absence of commercialization.






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