Day 67: Vienna, Austria - Last Day in Vienna

This is an art museum.

Art day, good thing because it rained again. Man, remember when I didn't see a single drop of moisture the first 40 days of this trip? I guess that's what happens in the Middle East. The first stop today was the Albertina Museum, a mostly impressionist museum, with smatterings of cubism. It was, truthfully, not the most impressive place I've seen. Compared to the Belvedere and the Leopold, it paled.

What better way to uplift my spirits than to eat a bunch of cake? I found a place called Demel which had about 50 different cakes and pastries lit up in the store window. I chose a particularly delectable looking one, only to discover that it was essentially the same as a kremna rezina (from Bled, Slovenia). No matter, it was still delicious.

Luckily, the second museum of the day was the Knuthistor, aka the big art museum in Vienna. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but, when seeking art, head to former capitols of empires. Containing a lot of the collection of the art-obsessed Hapsburgs, the Knuthistor has to be on the list of best art museums in the world. The building itself is worth the price of admission.

Bam!

Now this is what an art museum should look like.

The museum had a healthy collection of classical art and sculpture, i.e. Greek and Roman stuff, but I had seen enough of that recently. What I was interested in was the second floor, home to Renaissance, Baroque, and Dutch expressionism. The Knuthistor did not disappoint. The Renaissance section alone had an entire room dedicated to Titian, and another dedicated to Raphael. In addition, around the corner was a Caravaggio room with, not only his work, but that of his pupils as well.

For dinner, my parents took me to what must have been the fanciest Chinese restaurant I've seen, anywhere. There was an outside garden and an inner courtyard. The price of the food matched the surroundings, but it was a great meal nonetheless. I was happy to have some Chinese food after two months of not having a big Chinese meal.

Day 66: Vienna, Austria - Sup, North Korea?

Vienna's parliament.

In a rather fortuitous coincidence, I just happened to be in Vienna at the same time as Flowers for Kim Il-Sung, a North Korean art exhibit that was only on display for one week, and only in Vienna. More fortuitous was that I went on the free day. The exhibit was primarily composed of paintings that glorified North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, and Kim Jung-Il. My favorite painting titles were, "We are the happiest children in the world,"and the ironically titled, "Our leader cares greatly about our nutrition," in which Kim Jung-Il is portrayed lifting the lid of a cooking pot and peering into its contents. 

Next on the daily agenda was the Shonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Hapsburg family (why their summer and winter palaces are about 2 kilometers away from each other I'll never know). It was, as expected, over the top. The sheer size of the grounds was staggering (probably bigger than the Topkapi Palace), and each room in the palace had some sort of theme. One was the "Chinese lacquer" room, composed entirely of black Chinese lacquer pieces on the walls. I forget the names of the other rooms, but I'll just call them the "marble column" room, "bigger than the rest" room, and the "make poor people feel even poorer" room. 

Shonbrunn Palace, and some of the gardens. 

From the front.

Palace gardens.

Touring the palace made me feel bad about the upcoming 350 square foot studio I will soon be residing in for the next year. To make myself feel better, I decided to sit down for a cup of overpriced coffee at Cafe Sprel. I'm pretty sure the purpose of Vienna is to make me recognize how little money I will ever have in my life. 

Day 65: Vienna, Austria - Lots of Museums

Hapsburgs' winter palace.

Alright, time to see some new things in Vienna. But first, a nice lunch with my mom and some of her co-workers. Apparently they're enchanted by my good looks and read this blog religiously in hopes that I'll post a picture of myself instead of tourist sights. No luck this time.

Vienna was raining, so it was fortuitous that I planned to see a couple of museums that day. Museums Quarter is a chunk of Vienna that's been completely dedicated to museums. There's four large museums in it, and a heep of exhibitions, galleries, etc. My targets were the Leopold Museum, and the MOMUC, which is some German acronym that means modern art museum. 

Bad picture of Museums Quarter.

The Leopold Museum was great. It's almost entirely dedicated to Austrian artists, particularly Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. In fact, the first floor was practically the Egon Schiele museum, while the second floor was the Gustav Klimt museum. The third floor was for artists who weren't important enough to be on the first two floors. 

I'm not a huge fan of modern art, so the MOMUC wasn't that appealing. I only went because the ticket was cheap if I packaged it together with the Leopold Museum. There was a lot of science/art integration, and the expected random drops of paint that somehow constitute a $3 million piece of art. This room, however, was pretty cool.

Fun with mirrors!

Then it rained. A lot. I decided to do what seemingly all Viennese do in the rain, or proably in any weather for that matter, have a very expensive cup of coffee. Don't get me wrong, the coffee is very good, but for $4 Euros a cup, no wonder Viennese stay so long at cafes. I felt that if I didn't I wasn't getting my money's worth.

Day 64: Vienna, Austria - A Cruise Down the Danube

The Danube, it's still not blue.

My mom wanted to show me the Danube via boat, so we drove up the Danube and then floated down it on a little cruise. Strauss was playing in my head, but that river still isn't blue. On further reflection, I don't think big rivers are blue. They're too busy carrying silt, mud, and who knows what else from up river. It wouldn't make sense to have a clear blue big river.

A church overlooking the Danube.

The cruise was nice. My parents and I sat around, catching up. We were all a bit hungry after the cruise so we headed to a local restaurant for beer and ribs. I'm not sure when the Austrians caught onto ribs, but they do them well. Two racks come on a large wooden platter on top of fries, and are accompanied by slaw and two dipping sauces. Interestingly, the ribs were grilled, not barbecued. Regardless, better beer accompanying food would be hard to find.

Day 63: Vienna, Austria - Deja Vu

Vienna, we meet again.

Vienna is the only city on my itinerary that I have visited before. Last time I was here for a little less than two days. A friend of a friend was studying abroad here while I was studying abroad in Rome. We stopped over in Salzburg and then stayed with him in Vienna. It was nice, though admittedly I didn't see very much of the city. Mostly what I remember is eating a lot of sausages. This time would be different, though still probably full of sausages.

I started out by taking the Metro to Stephansplatz, the center of the city and home to a ridiculously large cathedral that I believe is always construction, because it was five years ago and still is. Nevertheless, it's pretty impressive.

St. Stephen's Cathedral, that part that's not under construction.

Ironically my next stop was one of the only sights that I did see last time, the Belvedere Museum. It was surely someone's former super opulent home, and is now a nice art museum. It's not as large as some of the other art museums in Vienna, but has an incredible collection of mainly Austrian art, particularly Gustav Klimt and The Kiss. Somehow it made sense to go back there as my first destination. Plus, I really like that painting.

The Belvedere.

For lunch I had a kaisekrenner, quite possibly one of the world's most perfect foods. It's a sausage stuffed with cheese, stuffed into a roll (literally stuffed, it's not a bun), and generously lubricated with mustard. That's it. I'm pretty sure it's increased in price by at least 200% since last time, but it has not decreased in deliciousness. I don't think Austrians realize how lucky they are to have those things on every street corner. Imagine the satisfaction of eating one of them after a late night. 

After an afternoon beer, I met up with my parents for dinner and managed to capture the following photo from their balcony.

Day 62: Budapest, Hungary / Vienna, Austria - Family Reunion Time!

View from parents' balcony.

Train out of Budapest was scheduled for the afternoon. I figured I would have plenty of time to maybe see a museum in Budapest, have a nice leisurely lunch, and catch the train. Nope, I was lazy and slept in. Museum was out, but the nice leisurely lunch was still on, followed by leisurely coffee.

I guess I'll mention that, save for soup, I haven't had much luck with Hungarian food. I just can't seem to order something that's worth what I pay for it. My solution for the past two days is just to eat fancier, knowing that the food will be better. I can't find good mediocre food, so I'll find good good food. Made sense to me. For lunch I had mangalica, some special breed of Hungarian pig that's supposed to taste better. It did taste a little gamier, but unfortunately it was basically prepared as a schnitzel. Oh well, good preparation for Austria.

Speaking of which, I boarded my train and arrived in Austria in less than three hours, right on time (love Austrian efficiency). My dad was there to greet me, and I met up with my mom back at their apartment. We had dinner, caught up, etc. Ready for some serious relaxing.

Day 61: Budapest, Hungary - Serve the People

Statue from Memento Park.

I started out by climbing Galbert Hill, the "other" hill on the Buda side (read previous post about climbing hills and views). That actually didn't take a very long time. A pamphlet near my feet advertised something called Memento Park. Apparently when the Hungarians kicked out the Communists they couldn't figure out what to do with all the Communist propaganda lying around. Sure they could throw it away, but that seems rather pointless. However, they couldn't just keep them in the city. The solution was to build a park slightly outside the city and move everything there. This has the added positive externality of becoming an overpriced tourist attraction. Perfect!

Victory!

Marx and Engels.

The park itself wasn't too impressive. It was small, and I walked it in about 20 minutes. One particular monument was kind of neat, however. When the Hungarians toppled the Communist regime, their most significant symbolic gesture was to destroy the enormous statue of Stalin. However, it was difficult to destroy because it was, well, enormous. Instead, they sawed Stalin off at the knees and struggled to pull him down. Today, his boots are still standing.

Stalin's boots.

After touring the park, I made my rounds in Memento Park's small exhibit area. It was basically a brief history of Hungary's experience with communism, accompanied by a short movie of secret police training. Not bad, but not spectacular.