my viennese weekend

we had a long weekend this week, which means instead of the normal fri-sun, we were given thursday off as well so that we would have the opportunity to do some traveling. let me remind you that the week before i was in paris... so while others were headed to rome, dublin, or munich, i sat in vienna on wed deciding where to head off to on my next weekend adventure. i had a list of possibilities from ljubljana and maribor slovenia, budapest hungary, or a trip around western austria visiting salzburg and innsbruck. i sat for the better part of two days deciding and going as far as a click away from a friday night hostel stay in salzburg or budapest, but it soon dawned on me that i havent yet been able to truly explore vienna...i asked myself if i really wanted to leave this beautiful city and have to try to remember it amongst a collage of other cities as well, im studying here for 12 and a half weeks and i did not want to be leaving without knowing what the city has to offer. so once it hit me that i should save some cash and view the uncharted territories the viennese. i have already told u about my day hikes through the wine valley, so i wanted to let you in on the rest of my weekend.

i woke up on fri morning and decided that i have not really seen the sights close to where i live, there is a huge park, Prater, about a 5 min walk from the house i am currently living in, and when i say huge, i mean a 5 and a half mile walk from one end to the other and back. it includes a theme park and an olympic sized stadium along with numerous other activites such as a golf course and tennis clubs...there is even a small train that goes through that you can take rides on throughout the park. after about an hour of walking through the park, i hoped on the metro over to the arsenal where the heeresgeschichtliches museum (military history museum in english) is located.

for only 3.30, it was one of the better museums i have been in beside paris... but it dates back about 600 years of austrian military history and ends with ww2. the best aspect of the museum was the ww1 wing, they had the car (the one in the pic) that archduke franz ferdinand and his wife were in when they were assassinated in sarejevo. you could see the damage to the car from the granade that was thrown at it earlier in an unsuccessful assassination attempt as well. in addition, the museum had the uniform he was wearing along with the blood stains on his jacket and pants along with the couch he dies on.

afterwards i decided to walk back home cutting through belvedere gardens where i took this picture of bamboo. one thing that i noticed today was the amount of people out just walking through the parks, i have always known that the parks were a large part of european culture, but vienna seems to take that to another level. people of all ages were out enjoying the green landscape only meters away from the surrounding buildings. they make it out to be there oasis and there was something relaxing about walking through tree lined paths as you were able to block out the noise from the busy streets and only hear the birds or the others around you. it has quickly become one of my favorite things to do while visiting a city, you tend to forget that you are tired from travel or walking around for 5 or 6 hours and u can take a few deep breathes and for a moment you forget about everything and are able to take it all in.


on sat, i went to schonbrunn palace and for one price i was able to visit the palace, carriage museum, palm house (green house), wusten house (an indoor desert) and the zoo. it was a great way to spend the day, the palace was amazing and it was the perfect length. in most places it seems like they drag it out and u get to the point where u cant wait until the end, but here once the end came u wanted to keep going. also, they had audio guides for free that didnt talk and talk on and on about each room, it said what u needed to know and went on. fyi, schonbrunn was the summer residence of the imperial family dating back to the late 1600s. the surrounding area was nice toand as big as the palace is, the gardens were that much larger. the zoo was also fun too, i felt like a little kid, not to mention i was surrounded by them esp at the lions den. and i still havent gotten over how funny penguins are, they are just so awkward .

today, sunday, it was raining so i decided on another museum, i went to the natural history museum, again only 3 euros or so (i love being a student for discounts) it was a good way to get out of the house and kill a day as well, i wanted to go to the kunsthistorisches museum, right across the platz in the museum quarter, but i was tired and decided to save it for another weekend, i have to make sure i get there, its considered one of the top museums in europe.

all in all, im glad i was able to stay, it gives me the chance to save money and to spread out my traveling as well. and now i have given myself the opportunity to further gain an appreciation for my 12 week home.