SOLO EUROPE III: DAYS 6, 7, & 9 [BUDAPEST & VIENNA]
the next day, i had a late morning train ride (i normally travel between 7-9 am), but still got up early to be a tourist. i first stopped at a local coffee place that i also enjoyed the morning before (they played mostly billie eilish and adele music). i was probably judged for eating a premade greek salad along with my cortado at 7 am, but i try to fit in veggies whenever i can. i then took the metro to the train station. i was a few hours early so i walked down the street to kerepesi cemetery. i try to go to a cemetery in every country when i can. i think it is an interesting cultural custom to observe; how people honor the dead. i especially like visiting cemeteries that were influenced by art nouveau, such as this one.
arcade row
the mosaic dome of said arcade.
the morning sunlight was absolutely perfect. the cemetery was pretty empty & i enjoyed the quiet morning walk on my own (with my pack on my back). luckily, no one had a problem. i am always a bit cautious when i am towing all my belongings with me.
some of the burials are in ruin.
a sad woman....
another sad woman....
budapest keleti train station (c. 1884 - eclectic style)
i then went to the train station to board my train. it was so busy. i did not reserve a seat as i never did in the past & never had a problem (the exception being in italy as i believe it was a requirement). this entire trip was different. i was able to find an unreserved treat but got tricked by a local young woman to switch & did not realize until another person came up to me as i was now sitting in his reserved seat. i thought the woman next to me just wanted the window & wanted me to sit in her reserved seat. she had no reservation. oh well, it was not a horrible thing to happen but it was inconvenient & meant i had to stand for the rest of the ride which was a couple hours. i did end up talking to a couple of middle aged american woman who were traveling with a tour group.
once arriving in vienna, i stopped at the hostel to drop off my pack. luckily, they let me check in early. this time i stayed in a wombat's hostel, a big chain throughout europe. i have stayed in one when i was in venice, italy. the workers are always very nice & helpful. i think it is a requirement to be fluent in english. i had no complaints about my stay. it almost feels like a hotel & there are no surprises. you pay extra for the consistency. at this hostel, i got to talk to a few people so that was nice & there were a few girls who would leave the place a mess & keep the lights on late, but an eye mask & earplugs fix that all for me. it is not the hostels fault. i actually stayed at a floor that was only for women & you had to scan your card to get through the corridor.
my view from my hostel room. this window was actually on a slanted wall & i had to climb a ladder to open & close it.
the hostel was right next to the naschmarkt, night market, & was walkable to the main tourist hub. this was a big reason why i chose this hostel.
i then made my way to the old karlsplatz stadtbahn station that is now a little museum. the station was part of the above ground rail system used from 1899 to 1981. it was replaced by the underground. the station was designed by otto wagner. i would see his other designs throughout this trip. while in germany & austria, i knew i wanted to see more jugendstil architecture, the german counterpart of art nouveau. i also like learning about art masters incorporating creativity with utility in public spaces. there is an admission to the little museum, but i am happy to give my money to historic sites that need the money for maintenance of history.
karlsplatz stadtbahn (c.1889 - jugendstil style)
i then made my way to the opera house & some other outdoor sites to knock out as the next few days would be busy. i also started the rick steves audio tour. i really like the products he puts out, whether it is his books, videos, podcasts, or audio tours. he has old dad jokes & interesting little trivia in all his media. some people may think he is only meant for old rich americans, but he has a history of backpacking & provides info for all types of styles & interests. i think he is just aware of who his mainstream audience is, so caters to them. i can't blame him. during this trip was also the first time i used his app & listened to different podcast episodes about the cities or countries i was visiting. i would listen to them during train & bus rides. it really enhanced the trip.
vienna state opera (c. 1869 - renaissance revival)
after listening to some of the audio tour, i went to a mcdonalds. that is always fun to try once in a while when travelling internationaly, though the burgers & fried do not taste the same. i got a curry burger, corn flake nuggets, fries, & a nougat sundae. when i got back to the hostel, i talked to my bunkmate. a very nice young girl from san francisco. she gifted me a whole box of bandaids as i went through 2 entire boxes during this trip. surprisingly, my shoes created blisters on 4 of my toes & some bleeding. this had never been an issue during my trips. the pain of travel...
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i did find this old "stained glass" it is glass & stained, but not as old as it probably looks (but is at least from the 70s are earlier. i am tempted to age it earlier as the frame is wooden & not plastic). i was pleased & like having things on my walls from my travels. it was also only 2 euros!
i could not spend that much time at the flea market as i had a reserved ticket to the belvedere palace. this is one of the busiest tourist sites in vienna, so i got an early time slot. i took the streetcar to the palace, but got there early enough to find a coffee stand. there was only one place nearby, but it did not disappoint. it was a cute little coffee & pastry place right across from an old church, so i was able to sip on a melange & admire the church. a melanges is a common viennese espresso drink similar to a cappuccino.
the cute coffee place.
enjoying a melange & pastry by the church. very aesthetic.
the belvedere palace (c, 1717 - boroque)
the palace was built as a summer residence for royalty. the palace is now several art museums & i only went to the upper museum as that was the art i was the most interested in. the upper is known for housing klimpt's the kiss. i also recognized the famous painting of napoleon on a horse. not a novel idea, but i really noticed how everyone was taking photos of themselves in this museum. the irony of going to an art museum & not looking or taking photos of the art, but of yourself. social media is wild.
interiors of the upper belvedere palace.
klimpt's the kiss, one of the most famous paintings of all time.
i then made my way to the old town area of vienna with the first stop, being mcdonalds for a little snack & a latte (it was really bad). nearby is st. stephen's cathedral. the gothic exterior is cool to look at & there is even a cannonball stuck. near the entrance, there is even "05" graffiti that was made during wwii & is a symbol of austrian resistance. i was interested to see the catacombs, but decided to stop since i did not want the time constraint. instead, i listened to rick steve's audto tour from the lobby as i decided to skip admission. i am not really interested in catholic chapels.
st. stephen's cathedra (c. 1365 - romanesque & gothic)
the cannonball is below the statue.
i then finished rick steves vienna audio walking tour that showed some cultural & historical sites. i then went to the house of austrian history, which tells the history of austria after wwi. not my favorite museum, but this was the only history museum about the city &/or austria that was open.
there are a lot of touristy horse drawn carriages
after i made my way across the river via a streetcar to the vienna crime museum, but first needed to find some food. fortunately i ran into a wiener stand (fun fact: vienna in german is wien). this is how we get the name in english.
i had a delicious wiener in a roll with all the fixings, including crispy onions.
the vienna crime museum had so much character. it was much larger than i thought & way more explicit; numerous photos of naked dead bodies. i found it very overwhelming. there were also mannequins which normally do not bother me, but mixed with all the murder & torture made me uneasy. there was a young college student working the museum & she was so nice and helpful! when she learned i was traveling alone she gave me some hidden gem locations for history to visit.
i had some extra time, so i took the u-bahn to the schonnbrunn area. nearby is another otto wagner station, called otto wagner hofpavillion. it was the king's private railway station from his summer residence. the station was only used twice. there is a little museum inside with some exhibits & you can visit some of the rooms & admire the decorative arts.
otto wagner's imperial station (c 1899)
the waiting room
i then walked over to the schonnbrunn. i did not have a lot of time, so i only visited the outside gardens. if i had more time, i would have visited the palace & orangerie. it started pouring out of no where, so i had to wait it out under a tree.
palmenhaus schonnbronn (c. 1882)
i then made my way back to the hostel & was craving soup after the rain, so i found a ramen place nearby the hostel that also sold pho (you could never get away with that in socal). it was good, but pho adjacent. the broth was pho like, but had ramen noodles & all the extra veggies (including daikon). i also got a bottle of coke & they actually gave me a glass with ice (though only 2 cubes)! it is not normal to have a drink with ice in most of europe.
my "pho"
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the next day i took a day trip to bratislava, but that will be in the next post so i can keep all of vienna together. the day after that, i panned to visit carnuntun, an old ruined roman fortress outside the city, but it got too complicated. when doing last minute research the day before i realized i made a mistake in my itinerary & that they are 2 locations (the museum & ruins) not close together with minimal bus service between the two. it was not very practical & i did not want to be strannded, so i decided to scrap those plans & instead spend more time in vienna visiting museums. this worked out well as i really liked some the museums i visited (even more than those museums i had already gone to that were a part of my original plans).
i decided to go to the musuem of military history for the sole purpose of learning more about wwi. i know quite a bit about wwii & not wwi; it is often overlooked. now learning more, i really want to go to saravejo to learn more about wwi & the more recent civil war that happened in the 1990s. i really want this to be my next international trip, but i have no plans as of right now.
the armory
it was a pleasant walk through swiss garden. the building was built in the 1850s, but partially destroyed in wwii, as it was a military building. the museum is quite large, even though part of it was closed for refurbishment, and covers centuries of military history. there are many exhibits hosted in the grand building. like i said, i really enjoyed the wwi wing and learning more about the fall of the austro-hungarian empire. in fact, my great-great grandpa was in the austro-hungarian military. i also found it interesting learning about the ottoman empire as i only recall a bit from college & high school.
the building is also used for government events
an exhibit
the wwi exhibit had a lot of interesting paintings depicting war.
you can see the car that franz ferdinand was assassinated in (and also his uniform which is kind of weird - as you can still see the died blood).
the arsenal
after i took a bit of a walk to the bus station that would take me to the central cemetery. i decided to be brave and eat at a confectionary, konditorei oberlaa. the confectionary is actually inside the cemetery, which i thought was fun. viennese go this cemetery just to have dessert & coffee. these are my kind of people. austria is known for intimidating wait staff so i was nervous, but i think the waiter had sympathy towards me as he was really patient. due to the language barrier he told me to go inside & take a photo of the cake slice i wanted. i also got a sausage and a roll to snack on as i did not have a meal. the one unfortunate thing was bees. lots of bees. no one else seemed bothered & did not scream, but they were landing on my food. makes it harder to eat. the bees did not win & i ate my food anyways.
cake, a melange, & sausage with a roll.
i also stopped at the funeral museum, which shares the history of austrian funeral customs & the cultures relationship with death. i was so dumb, i could not figure out how to go in and realized one of the walls was a door. i did not realize this until someone exited. i was just waiting. i really enjoyed all the dark humor. there was a lot of it. they had some really funny merchandise, including:
- bestattungsmuseum wien (we put the fun in funeral)
- der letzte reiseleiter (the least tour guide, with a picture of the grim reaper)
the cutie mascot of the funeral museum.
this cemetery is huge! some of the most well known austrians are buried here including beethoven, viktor frankl, franz schubert, johann strauss, & hedy lamarr, i only picked a portion to look at & continued on my walk back to the bus stop.
an arcade
beethoven's grave
ceiling of the catholic cathedral in the cemetery (c. 1911 - secession)
a mausoleum
since i had so much time, i also visited the leopold museum. i like art, but i find art museums to be so expensive, including this one. i did get to see more klimpt though, & probably my favorite painting of his i have ever seen.
klimpt's death & life
i discovered in austria that mcdonald's serves softer serve with espresso. it was so good! i never saw it in germany :(
i enjoyed my soft serve while walking to my hostel, including through a cute street of shops.
i also stopped at a spar grocery store (they even have these in budapest) & got premade dinner as i wanted something convenient. i got a very good buddha bowl & cheese sandwich with seedy bread. i ate it back at the hostel, while i updated by travel journal. i also made friends with a nice girl from frankfurt. she was so open talking about taboo topics in germany and teaching me the difference between the culture throughout the regions.
