Thursday, October 30, 2008

More info about Austria

B&B's in Salzburg:
Am Moos
Pension Jahn
This is where I stayed, owned by a Taiwanese family, they were really helpful in planning our day and pointing us in the right direction.  While the hostel is a bit far from the main area of Salzburg, it is close enough to walk.  Breakfast is included as well.

 

Hostels in Wien:
Wombat's
I would highly recommend "the Lounge" over "the Base".  I stayed in both as the Lounge one was booked up.  The Base was in a older building and was really far away from the main street.  At night it was a bit sketchy trying to get to the hostel.  They also have hostels in other cities, but I didn't try them.
Homestay
My travel partner and I had originally wanted to stay here the duration of our visit to Wien, but they were booked.  Essentially its a room in their apartment, but everything was really clean and affordable.  I stayed there one night by myself for 25euro - I had the whole room to myself and didn't have to pay for the other (lack of) occupants.  If I go back to Wien for an extended stay I would probably stay here again.   While they speak English, knowing Mandarin is helpful.

 

Wien Info:
Wien Tourism Info
Wien Metro

When I was in Wien I opted for the Vienna card.  While the savings with the card weren't that great, I more than made up for the cost of the card by traveling on their public transportation.  I got it in the airport and started using it right away.  The card is valid for 3 days.

In Salzburg, there is a similar card, but we didn't get it.  It was more expensive than the Vienna one and didn't offer as many perks.  Also, I was only there for day...

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

10.24.08 More of Wien

Today was the last full day in Wien for me and my travel partner was leaving in the afternoon to head back to Maastricht (she was on her way to Barcelona!).  Our day started at the Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  The building was originally a low income apartment complex and now is a tourist attraction.  While no tourists are allowed inside, many still come to look at the building.  As we approached, I could see where the architecture switched from typical buildings to that of the Hundertwasserhaus.  The colors of the building were crazy, with random columns here and there.  My eyes didn't know where to look first - there was something interesting to look at everywhere my eyes went.

Next to the building is the Hundertwasser Village.  This village was designed for visitors who came to see the Hundertwasser Haus could experience what it would be like inside the building.  The village is now filled with tourist shops and some art galleries.  The design though, was just as colourful as the building across the street.  There were no straight lines and everything was so fascinating to look at.

We next headed to the "Ring" Boulevard (Ringstrasse).  This road circles the city centre and goes past important buildings such as the Hofburg Palace and the Austrian Parliament building.  We went to look at the Rathaus, or city hall.  The day following my visit was National Austrian Day and they were in the process of setting up tents for the celebrations.

The Parliament was next.  Despite the two buildings being really close (almost neighbours) they varied quite a bit in terms of architecture which I found a bit odd.  In front of the building is a fountain depicting Athena.

We wandered some more without a set destination in mind.  We stumbled upon the Museumsquartier, but we had decided - no more museums!  Finally we ended up by the Hofburg Palace were more tents and military displays were being set up in preparation for the next day. 

There were a number of interesting food stalls set up, but we planning on visiting a cafe soon for some cake.  The Sacher Hotel is known around the world as the makers of the Original Sacher Torte.   The word "original" is in the name because of a dispute  between a competing shop, Demel, over who really had the original.  The Demel cake is now called "Demels Sachertorte." 

The cake consists of two layers of dense, not overly sweet chocolate cake (traditionally a sponge cake) with a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle and dark chocolate icing on the top and sides. It is traditionally served with whipped cream without any sugar in it as most Viennese consider the Sachertorte too "dry" to be eaten on its own.

Source: Wikipedia

So with all this hype about the cake, I had to go try it.  Honestly?  It didn't seem all that remarkable.  It wasn't too sweet, which is good, and I found it a bit too dry even with the cream. 

After resting for a bit in the cafe, we headed on a series of musical encounters.  I wanted to visit the monuments of various composers around the city.  First stop was Mozart. 

Then it was off to Stadtpark to see Strauss, Beethoven and Schubert (respectively).

After our walk in the park, my travel partner headed to the airport while I went in search of my homestay for the night.  I had a high school friend doing her exchange in Vienna and we had arranged to meet up that night for dinner and some wandering around the city.  We walked through the Naschmarkt, sort of a farmer's market in the middle of Vienna, visited the Vienna Prater, before meeting her friend for dinner.  We went to a very Austrian pub and I tried a couple of Austrian food items.  First up was Sturm, called federweisser in Germany, is a partially fermented wine and is only available during certain times of the year (usually early fall). 

It was really sweet and didn't taste like wine at all.  But towards the end of the night it really didn't sit all that well.  We ordered two dishes of Knödel to share between the three of us.

They're essentially a dumpling made from potato with a meat filling served with some gravy.  I found it to be really really salty, but otherwise not bad. 

I remember we were sitting at the bar eating and taking pictures of our food.  Apparently that caused quite a scene as many of the locals didn't understand what we were doing.  A number of people were looking at us and laughing silently and we were oblivious until someone sitting across from us at the bar came over loudly and said enough with the picture taking - he was going to take a picture for us so we could start eating.  And so that is what he did and now we have a picture (and all the local's probably think Asian tourists are crazy...)

And so ended my stay in the Austrian capital.  I went to bed relatively early that night as I had to get up at 5am the next morning to catch a 4 hour train to Prague!

 

To see more pictures click here.
Read the rest of the series: Day I, Day II and Day III.
For some tips on travel in Austria click here.

10.23.08 Back to Wien

After spending a day and night in Salzburg, we headed back to Wien with a three hour long train ride.  After dropping off our bags we headed to the Belvedere Palace.  There is an art gallery here, focusing on the works of Klimt, an Austrian painter.  We decided to not go to the museum, instead just wandering around the gardens.  Most of the Earth was dug up, similar to the Mirabel Gardens in Salzburg, but it was still pretty nonetheless.  I can only imagine what it would look like during the spring and summer when the gardens are filled with blooming flowers. The day we were there was extremely cold.  The wind was blowing and just being outside made you want to cringe.  Horrible day to be traveling - such a big difference compared to the Salzburg the day before. 


Looking at the Upper Belvedere from the gardens

 
The Lower Belvedere from the sculpture garden

After wandering the grounds of this massive palace, we headed to another massive palace - the Schönbrunn Palace.  The palace showcases the lifestyle of the Hapsburg monarchs before their downfall in 1918.  The palace was mainly used as a summer residence and had a large area for hunting and recreation.  Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria, used the palace the most during the 19th century.  He was born and also died there, spending the majority of his time within this palace.  We toured the palace, seeing the majority of the rooms.  Honestly, I don't really remember much about the rooms.  They were very grand, filled with paintings, elaborate decorations and fancy furniture.  We were given an audio guide, but it went through so much information so fast. 

The palace was HUGE!

After taking the tour inside, we headed out into the grounds.  There are tons of things to see and do within the grounds of the palace.  It has its own zoo, a maze and labyrinth, a number of fountains and various different buildings.  We walked to see the Neptune Fountain and the Gloriette.

Looking at the Neptune Fountain and the Gloriette from the Palace.

The Gloriette was set on top of a hill.  We could see quite a distance surrounding the palace into Wien.  The world "gloriette" meaning, little glory, is a building that is usually placed in an elevated area and the one in Wien is no exception.  This one was originally used as a dining hall and festive hall for Franz Joseph I.  Now it holds a viewing terrace and a small cafe.

The view from the Gloriette.

After wandering around the gardens in the FREEEEZING cold, we headed back into the city in search of the Haus der Musik.  The museum itself was very interactive - there were tons of things to play with and/or touch.  Kids would probably really enjoy it.  I was a bit freaked out touching everything (germs! >.<)  The museum started with some information about how sound is made and how we perceive sounds.  One of the first exhibits went through a series of sound illusions and the reasons behind them.  That was really interesting!  For example, a scale is typically made up of 8 notes and as you continue the notes get higher and higher.  They showed one scale that never seemed to end.  Its called the Shepard's scale and they have examples of it on the internet.  Using science, they tried to explain what was going on, but so much of it was over my head!  I didn't understand it at all.  In another area of the museum, they went through the different eras of music and had examples of the various well known musicians at the time.  It reminded me so much of music history class!  We were given audio guides so we could hear music as well as the narration. 

In a final area focusing on the Wien Philharmonic Orchestra, they had this display where you could "compose" your own music using a set of dice.  Here are our results:

By the end of the museum, we were starving and we went in search of some good Austrian food.  One of my high school friends who is currently on exchange in Wien recommended we head to Figlmuller for some Schnitzel.  En route to the restaurant we stumbled upon the Musik Meile Wien.  There were tons of stars on the ground with many composers I am familiar with, and some that I was not. 

 

We finally made it to the restaurant, ordered our schnitzel and when it came, boy was I glad we decided to share.  The portion was HUGEE!  Bigger than my face - probably twice the size of my face. 

We ordered it with a side of potatoes and salad which were both very yummy.  I found the schnitzel to be really salty (a trend I'm starting to notice in European food), especially around the edges.  The centre was less so and tasted much better.  Now I've had schnitzel in Austria!

 

For more pictures, click here.

Read the rest of the series: Day I and Day II.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

10.22.08 Storming Salzburg

While in Wien, we decided to take a day out and head to Salzburg for a day trip.  The train ride was about 3 hours each way.  Much of the filming for the Sound of Music took place in and around Salzburg.  I was really excited to see the city and see where everything was filmed.  Most of the larger buildings that were used in the movie weren't in the city and required a tour for you to see them.  It was a bit pricy and took up a lot of time so we elected to not do the tour.  Instead we wandered the city and saw as much as we could. 

Our first stop was the Mirabell Gardens where sections of the "Do-Re-Mi" song was sung.  They had dug up all the flowers so it looked quite different from the movie. 

Our next stops were both related to Mozart.  We went to one of Mozart's apartments and then to his birthplace.  This trip is turning into quite the musical tour. 

  
Left: Mozart's apartment from 1773 to 1780.  Right: Mozart's birthplace and house from from 1747 to 1773.

Both places held a museum, but we decided not to go as we went to the larger one in Wien.  Most of Mozart's apartment was destroyed by a bomb in WWII and when that section was reconstructed, it became an office.  Later the International Mozarteum Foundation purchased it and reconstructed the building to what it would have looked like when Mozart lived there. 

There were tons of people in front of Mozart's birthplace.  You knew you were approaching it before you even got there.  There was a huge crowd gathered right in front, taking pictures.  Of course we had to join them!  Like Mozart's apartment, his birthplace has been under renovations too.

Mozart's birthplace was right in the heart of Salzburg's Getreidegasse, a shopping street that is decorated with iron signs for shops, with its narrow street and houses standing tall above you. 


Left: The windy street of Getreidegaase; Right: Elaborate sign for a McDonalds!

We wandered around the town a bit, making our way up to the castle overlooking Salzburg.  We saw the Horse Pond which appears in the Sound of Music, but I don't remember where exactly.  I'll have to watch the movie again!  (Yay procrastination!)

 
The Horse Pond

Next to it, is the Rock Riding School or the Festival House where the von Trapp family sang Edelweiss (the linked version is from when they sang it earlier in the movie, not at the festival) before escaping the country.  We couldn't go inside, but just walked past the outside. 

We went to look at the Cathedral, but as with the rest of Europe, it was under construction.  They had also put up a plastic covering to protect the statue that was right outside of it.   We didn't go in.

 

En route to the Hohensalzburg Fortress, we can across two interesting site: a giant chess game and a huge golden ball with a fake person standing on top of it.  There was a huge crowd surround the chess board and I'm guessing people probably spend hours here, watching and / or playing chess.  There were a number of smaller boards set up as well.  The fake person standing on the ball looked SO real at first.  I didn't know it wasn't a real person until I realized it never moved! 


Looks real doesn't it? 

Finally, we made it to the base of the fortress and we took the funicular up.   From the top we could see most of Salzburg before us. 

The fortress is Europe's biggest fortification, built in 1077!  We were able to tour the fortress, explore a marionette museum and another museum about the fortress' history.  By the end of it, I was exhausted! 

Before heading back to our hostel, we had one final stop: a bakery to taste the Mozarttorte.  Mozart has a chocolate named after him and consequently a cake made from the flavours of the chocolate.  It is made from marzipan, surrounded by dark and light layer of nougat creme and coated with chocolate. 

After all that eating, we headed back to our hostel for a night of watching, you guessed it, yes, the Sound of Music!

10.21.08 Invading Wien Day I

With the end of my first block courses, I was cramming 7 weeks worth of marketing material in my head while frantically trying to write a paper about business and politics in Europe.  I had planned a trip to Vienna and Prague the day after my exam with my flight leaving early in the morning from Amsterdam.  Only problem is, there was no train early enough for me to make my flight.  The solution?  Take the last train out of Maastricht and sleep in the airport.

And that's what we did.  Apparently Schiphol is a decent airport to sleep in, but only after you've gone through security.  Unfortunately for us, when we arrived at the airport we still had another 4/5 hours before check in opened.  We slept on the train and then groggily wandered the airport at 2 in the morning.  The arrivals area looks just like a mall with many brand name shops.  Too bad it was the middle of the night or else it would have been a much better wait.  Eventually we found a room that, I'm guessing, is used for taking passport photos and was slightly secluded from the rest of the check in area.  We passed the time by playing cards, eating, telling stupid stories and finally, sleeping.  I couldn't stay awake anymore and I fell asleep while my friend watched our stuff.  Surprisingly it was a pretty good sleep - I must have been exhausted!

We flew to Wien with Sky Europe.  The gate that the flight left from was in a completely different area of the terminal.  I guess it was built just for the low cost carriers because there really wasn't anything beyond the bare necessities. 

SkyeuropeThe tiny plane we flew on. 

For some reason (I didn't completely understand what they were saying) we weren't able to board for awhile, almost half an hour late.  Then we didn't take off for another hour.  It may have been the weather, but I was too busy sleeping to really notice.  I did notice after we took off how much turbulence affects a smaller plane.  The first half of the flight I was busy clutching the seat out of fear.   That was not fun, but eventually the flight settled down and I went back to sleep.  We finally made it to Wien and we made our way to our hostel. 

Our first stop was to visit the famous Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral).  By this time I've seen so many churches, they're starting to lose their appeal.  The churches were starting to blur together.  The outside was under restoration, but I think its been like that for ages.  Inside it looks more or less like any other church.  Outside though, the area was surrounded by people trying to entice tourists to attend this concert or that opera or other "cultural" activities tourists want to do while in Vienna.  Some of these people were dressed up in period costumes as well.  Of everywhere I've traveled to so far, this has been the most touristy of them all. 

After exploring the church, we headed to the Mozarthaus Vienna where Mozart lived from 1784 until 1787.  This apartment (on the first floor) is the only one that still exists today.  He lived at this particular house for the longest period of time. 

Mozarthaus Vienna 
The house from the outside

The museum displays information about Mozart's life and some of his most important works.  It also shows what Mozart's apartment most likely looked like when he lived there.   We were supplied with an audio guide that explained what we were looking at as we wandered and played some of the music they were describing.  I remember getting quite excited seeing a room dedicated to his Requiem.  I had written my extended essay for IB in high school based on this composition among others.  That was pretty cool.

Originally, we were going to meet up with my high school friend who is doing her exchange in Vienna, but due to some unfortunate circumstances we couldn't meet up until later in the week.  She was planning on taking us to try the famous Sacher Torte cake and then to see La Traviata at the Wien State Opera.  Instead, we headed to the opera house and searched for the line for the cheap tickets.  We stumbled across it and before we knew it, we were locked inside.  We didn't have any food on us and the wait was looking to be a long one.  The opera didn't start until 7:30 and we got in line around 5pm. 

Wien State Opera Line
The line up for tickets 

Finally we got our tickets and made our way into the theatre.  We ended up getting tickets for 4 euros, standing room on the ground floor.  They had crammed so many people in there it was ridiculous.  There was barely enough room to stand.  Looking back, I think it would have been better to get the standing room tickets that look at the stage from above.  There didn't seem to be that many people there. 

The theatre was really pretty.  It looked almost like a museum. 

Wien State Opera House
The entryway

La Traviata final bow
The final bow

Despite studying it a while back, I only vaguely remembered the story.  Thankfully, they had translators where you can select the language and it will translate the libretto into the language of your choice.  It was a bit difficult reading and watching at the same time, but I got the general understanding of the story.  This was the first time I've ever seen an opera live.  I've been to tons and tons of other musical events and ballets, but never an opera.  I've never really had much of an appreciation for opera, but seeing La Traviata live was really amazing.  And so ended my first day in Wien.

 

To see more pictures, click here.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Did You Know?

Did you know that Euros are different from the various countries?  A number of different countries produce the Euro coins and bills.  For the longest time I never noticed.  There are 19 countries that produce coins: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City.

Currently in my wallet, I have coins from Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as coins from Ireland, Spain and France.  Each denomination has its own designs too.  Check out what I have: 

Resized1 

The picture didn’t turn out all that great.  You can’t see all the details of the coins, but you get the general idea.  There are websites out there dedicated to the different types of coins produced.  People collect the various ones too.  I’m going to start collecting some of the smaller denomination of coins =)  Lets see how many countries I will get.

 

Check out more information and pictures here (European Central Bank Site) and here (collection site).

Thursday, October 16, 2008

My New Obsession

Everyone knows about Nutella right?  That hazelnut spread that is part of of a “nutritious” breakfast?  Well this stuff is even better!  They’re called Knoppers and its like Nutella but in cookie form.  Its a combination of wafer, chocolate, hazelnut and nougat cream filling <3  Not too sweet, but sweet in enough~

Snapshot_20081013

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Skype

Skype is a must have while on exchange. Their rates are so much more affordable compared to cell phone providers - especially when it came to calling Canada. I purchased the 3 months unlimited subscription calling into Canada for about 8 euros.

Also many of my friends traveling to other countries had Skype so it was a good way to keep in touch with them too. I found that the regular students used Skype a lot more instead of MSN Messenger. Instead of asking for my MSN, they asked for Skype.

So download it! Purchase some credit - its the best thing ever.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A Canadian Thanksgiving – Dutch Style

This past weekend I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner with a chicken instead of a Turkey.  People don’t eat Turkey here and it can’t be found in the grocery store.  I was making dinner with some help from a couple others.  There were 6 people eating dinner: 2 from Taiwan, 2 from Poland, another from Turkey and me!

One of my friends had a roommate with a largish toaster oven and I was able to roast a chicken.  I’ve never roasted a chicken and I was super scared.  In the end it turned out pretty good.  It was slightly burnt on the top and the stuffing was falling out, but the chicken turned out pretty tasty.  Definitely proud of myself =)  We also made orange glazed carrots, candied yams, corn, stuffing, gravy and some veggies and dip.  The only true disaster were the orange glazed carrots, but the girls from Taiwan really liked it. 

Turkey Roasting ^^

The full menu

Apple Tart (no pie)

It was really good meal and I’ve already finished my leftovers.  All my dinner guests have never had Thanksgiving dinner before (not that this was a true Thanksgiving dinner).  They knew of the concept of Thanksgiving, but didn’t know what it meant.  So it was pretty cool.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Truly a Dutch Evening

Last Tuesday I was invited to a Dutch dinner at a local’s house.  They have taken an interest in Asian culture and has helped a lot of the exchange students from Asia get settled.  Also, they introduce the students to a bit of Dutch culture.  We met when I joined the group to Tongeren.  I was invited along with one of my friends for a Dutch dinner.

We had pea soup (split pea maybe?) and apple pancakes for dessert.  This is apparently a very traditional Dutch dinner.  If you know you will be having pea soup, then you definitely will know that pancakes will be for dessert. 

Pea soup

Served with sausage and bread

I’m not sure I liked the pea soup.  It has an interesting texture.  I definitely got full though.  The Dutch typically eat this in the fall and winter when it it super cold out, but on this day, the sun was shining and it was warm. 

The pancake with apple bits

Dessert was pretty much a pancake with some apple bits that made it sweeter.  Instead of maple syrup, they have an apple type syrup (called Apple Stroop) to go with it.  Its a bit like jam in taste, but less clumpy.  Its not as runny as maple syrup either.  Maybe around the consistency of marmalade and is spreadable (with a bit of effort).  Its too sweet for me, but I might bring back some for you guys to taste.  This kind of spread is very Dutch.

After dinner, I headed to an AIESEC event at UM.  They were having a Dutch night where they were going to play some Dutch games.  They had invited a couple of trainees that were currently in the city (mostly working for BMW) from Poland, Germany and Finland (although originally from Latvia).  The AIESEC meeting was pretty similar to home =)  Organized chaos pretty much.  We played a couple Dutch games and I got to try some traditional Dutch snacks. 

One game we played was an eating game.  Pieces of a cake were strung through some string and held above participant’s heads.  Each person had to finish a piece of cake.  The person that finishes first wins.  It was pretty funny watching people trying to get at the cake above their heads.  Oh – no hands =)

  

Racing to see who finishes first!

I tried a bunch of snacks they had available.  There was a “meatball” that was crispy on the inside.  I say “meatball” because it is (supposedly) made from meat, but inside was all mushy – not what I was expecting at all!  They crispy part was yum though.  Marshmallows, gingerbread cookies and Stroopwafels were other things I tried.  They had licorice as well, but that was a definite no for me.  The gingerbread cookies (called pepernoten) are associated with the Sinterklaas holiday that takes place in early December.  One girl told me that they celebrate both Sinterklaas and Christmas – lots of festivities (holiday decorations are starting to pop up in supermarkets and stores)!  The Stroopwafels are thin waffles that are filled with a type of syrup.  It was really gooey and sweet.  I could barely finish mine.  The Dutch called marshmallows “spekkies” but they just taste like marshmallows – just a bit more decorated.