Travel: Czech/Vienna Trip 2012! (Post 2 of 2)

[elusivek]

Day 6

CK / Vienna


The breakfast at Pension Lobo was probably the second best of all the hotels/hostels/pensions we stayed at during this trip. Not only was the food good, but even the plates are all color-coordinated! I ate quite a lot of bread as the rock salt bread they served was damn good...

One of the reasons why we stayed at Pension Lobo was because of the optional shuttle service to Vienna. So, we hopped onto the MPV, and off we went to Vienna! It was a 3-hour trip, and I was really excited to go visit Vienna again after so long. A bummer that my cousin stood up on me (attending her boyfriend's boss' daughter's wedding, for his possible job advancement, is more important than meeting up with a cousin who only shows up in Europe once every 5-to-10 years), I found that out that morning, so I was already plotting what to do and where to go with the extra time I got.

This trip proved to give us a happy surprise as well. The MPV dropped us at the Wien Westbahnhof... exactly on the same street as our next hostel... Do Step Inn. We already felt a difference between Vienna and Prague... and well... that was the ground! Prague still had uneven cobblestones... Vienna already had proper roads! If you're just walking you wouldn't notice the difference, but we each were lugging a huge luggage with us!

At Do Step Inn, we were offered a free glass of complimentary red wine. Yummy, thanks! We were a bit early but the room was ready already so they let us in the room earlier, despite check-in time being 2pm (it was 12pm when we reached there)

First order of business: I remembered Vienna being crazy expensive on transport. So we got a 2-day pass. Luckily that really was 48-hour pass, so that time covered for our whole stay in Vienna! With this mighty go-on-all-transports ticket on us... the first place to go is... St Stephansdome.

Before that, a quick lunch, which gave us a heart attack. Is Vienna really that expensive!? We almost did not wish to eat there... way too expensive! Or were we spoiled by Czech's relatively cheaper price tags?

Anyway, we continue on to St Stephansdome. Boring for me. Been there, seen that. Friends were tempted to visit the crypt, but as I've been into the crypt before, I said I'll skip, but friends skipped that with me. oh ho... Instead we went into the paid area and took lots of photos.

But the colors were not from stained glass windows... they just put colored transparent paper over the windows to create this effect...

Apparently just around the corner behind St Stephansdome was the Mozarthaus museum. I highly doubt a 10euro admission fee is worth it, but my music friend wanted to see that, so off we went. What a big spender. I now dislike him. Never really liked the frivolous type anyway. hm... shame on you, Mozart.

We left and went back out to the Stephansdome square... there was some fair going on...a Steffl-Kirtag? We bought ourselves some sausages, Peach Cheesecake, Cherry Chocolate Cake, and an Austrian drink the Almdudler and sat at one of those tables. I took that time to make all the required phonecalls to all my uncles in Austria. Man, that was a tough job... "Ich bin in Wien! Wie geht's! Ich bin sehr gut! Es ist sehr schoen! Das reise ist toll!" and when one of my uncles in Vienna asked me to go visit him at his home, "Entschuldigung, aber ich hat keine zeit," all that in broken German supplemented with English. The old couple sitting opposite of me looked at me as if I were a stupid dunderhead. Ooops.

Having some free time by now (as it was time when the shops are closing... still broad daylight!) we decided to hunt for the actual location of the Musikverein. Walked for a bit, found it picked up our tickets for the next day, and continued our roaming around.

Somehow our walking led us back to the Stephanplatz area... on the way there we found the Sacher Hotel, kept that in mind for reference, and decided it was time to hunt for dinner. It was really tough looking for a place that still served dinner... and this time, surprise surprise, we did not find anything good. So... we had to resort to fast food. But we didn't want to go to McDonald's either! So what could we do? Local fast food! Nordsee! Where the food was YUCK!

With our hunger dealt with, it got dark, we were tired, it turned cold, so we headed back to the hostel...

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Day 7

Vienna

What a beautiful morning! We had a simple breakfast of bread that we bought the day before, and for me a box of buttermilk. I have a love-hate relationship with buttermilk. I make faces as I drink it (one would think I don't like the taste, which, really, I don't), but I like to drink the thing... just for the thrill of that sour-y yucky taste. Weird of me.

This day's itinerary is a strange one (for Asians) too. We went to the Zentralfriedhof, the Central Cemetery. I'm still pretty impressed that a cemetery would need a directory, but... yeah. Later when my Dad found out that I actually went to the cemetery, he said I could've gone and visited some I don't know... great-grand-mom's or aunt or whoever's grave.

The one sole reason we went to the cemetery... the music masters graves! Beethovan, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss Sr & Jr, these guys were all grouped together... While we were in there a there was a funeral procession going on so we stopped our cackling and removed our hats and sunglasses when they passed by us...

With that over and done with, we headed to the Hofburg. It was then that we noticed something: every single building we went to see... half of it is under renovation, WTF. The Sisi Museum. Again I skipped as I've been there already, and again my friends skipped... so instead, we went to buy Sisi accessories. I got a pair of the Sisi Star earrings, so lovely! And so expensive!

I don't remember how we left, but somehow, going through those buildings and gardens, we ended up near the MuseumsQuartier and after a game of rock, paper, and scissors, we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum where they were doing a Klimt special (but really, the reason we went there was just because of the game of rock paper scissors). Took us ages to get out of there, there was just too much to see in this museum...

Next on our list... Beethovan's apartment at Pasqualatihaus! So we hopped onto the metro and went to the University station, grabbed a cheap-ish takeout lunch at those student cafes... and went on our way.

The Beethovan apartment was a lot nicer than the Mozarthaus, as the Mozarthaus felt too commercialized. Beethovan's piano was beautiful, the apartment was rather nice too!

After this, we returned to the Stephansdome area and started our honest work: SHOPPING. Got some tea at Hass & Hass, got earrings from Forever21, I got very little souvenir as... Austria isn't so much a "holiday destination" for me, it's HOME COUNTRY. My friends though, bought a couple boxes of the Mozart chocolate (yuck).

Made our way to the Musikverein, but on the way we stopped at the Sacher Hotel for some cake. When in Austria, you have to drink a cup of Melange even if you are not a coffee drinker, and at the Sacher Hotel, you should have a piece of Sacher Torte.

I enjoy ordering a Sacher cake but when I eat it I keep thinking that my own family secret recipe Midnight Cake tastes better. Cocky of me, huh. We stayed until it was almost time to show up at the Musikverein, checking with them the opening hours of the Sacher souvenir shop before we left.

The Musikverein. Golden Hall. I wasn't sure why my friend wanted to go there so much. Apparently, in the manga/anime Nodame Cantabile, the characters somehow have to perform in there.

At first, I wasn't impressed. It was just a hall with golden walls. Then, I don't know if it was because of the setting sun or they had some lighting effects, the hall shone in gold! That was just for a minute or so, and I missed the chance to shoot that.

And the show. hm... the program as follows:

Mozart's Konzert für Violine und Orchester G - Dur, KV 216

Wolfgang Rihm's "Lichtes Spiel"

Mozert's Diverento B - Dur. KV 137

Konzert für Violine und Orchester A - Dur, KV 219

Not pieces I'm familiar with, so I thought it a little boring... haha, sorry. That, and the hall was stuffy, oh so stuffy!

With the show over, we went back to the Sacher Hotel and I got 2 Sacher Tortes, and we headed back to the hostel. I don't think we stopped for dinner this night, neither did we get take out. I suppose, we really just went back to the hostel and slept.

This was our last night in Vienna...

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Day 8

VIE / Brno


It'was a late-ish morning, and we made our way to the Praterstern to catch a Student Agency bus to a Czech city called Brno. For breakfast, I felt like having a Krapfen! It was delicious, if a tad too sweet.

The bus arrived, and we said goodbye to this overpriced city. As the bus drove over the bridge, I recognized the magnificent church (or a castle?) that I took a picture of in 2005, after getting off the boat trip on the Danube with my mom. For nostalgic sake (on my part), here it is!

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And this ignited my wish to go on a boat trip! But we were leaving Vienna already, so no going on a boat trip on the Danube *sniff sniff*

I was originally quite worried with Brno as I couldn't find much information on transportation within Brno. I had thought it would take us a long time to reach the Pension we booked, but all my fears were unfounded. The pension we booked, Penzion Dvorakova, was just a 5 minute walk from the bus terminal near Hotelu Grand Brno. In fact, ALL my transportation fears were unfounded, as the pension is just, the furthest, 15 minutes away from anywhere else.

Brno is really a funny place. I read somewhere that it's the second largest city in the Czech Republic, and while it is said that tourism exists in this city, we didn't come across any tourists...

We hunted for food at Freedom Square, thank god things got cheap again in Czech. Although we ended up having Italian food instead of Czech food... but... at that time, we shouldn't be choosers! Then we walked up the slope and reached the Cabbage market, and we went viral over the cherries and strawberries.

The strawberries and cherries were so cheap, we couldn't really believe it. These are very expensive in Macau, so... it was just mind-numbing. We managed to buy some of each with no common language, except for hand-signs, and it was fun!

We were looking for the Capuchin Crypt, but somehow ended up at the St Peter & St Paul church. It was nice and impressive. Going down again, we found the Capuchin Crypt, I got very curious with a quote in there by St. Francis of Assisi, or at least, I think that is St Francis of Assisi... That's my high school's patron saint :)

The mummies are very well preserved, and it was quite spooky too, but by then, we've seen tombs, concentration camps, chapel of bones... dead unmoving mummies aren't going to scare us!

By then we've pretty much visited the original 4 target destinations we had before coming to Brno (that was quick!). We came to a point where we would hop into any church we passed by (just to say we went in!) and that is how we stumbled into the St. Mary Magdalene church, St Michala Church, St. Jakubs Church, St Thomas Church...

We even went to Tesco... (we were that desperate) and decided to change our next day ticket to Prague to an earlier ticket. Got that done, did some shopping, and grabbed some dinner at Varna's. We spent a good 15 minutes looking at this pole wondering why smoke was coming out of it, and then went back to the pension.

Penzion Dvorakova, I forgot to say, is not only very centrally located, but has got its own style too. We got a cozy mini apartment (OK the beds were a bit on the narrow side) but it was all so quaint, minimalistic, cute, and breakfast was all prepared in the fridge, they would hang the breads at the door handle at 7 in the morning. I thought that a pretty interesting gimmick!

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Day 9

Brno / Prague



We originally held an early afternoon ticket back to Prague, but had changed to an earlier morning ticket as... there was just nothing else for us to do in Brno.

Three hours later, we reached Prague Florenc. The bus would not go to Dejvicka, so we had to lug the luggage back to Royal Road Residence. Yes, we stayed there again. This time, they gave us a humongous apartment that had a pool table, OMG!!

After freshening up, my friends conceded to do something that I wanted to do. Boat Trip on the Vltava river!!

They served a free drink and you can choose a Popsicle stick or a ginger cookie. We went for Popsicle stick. The Sailor guy that did all the talking was quite a looker. That was actually quite a good ride. So we learnt that "Ducks" in Czech are called "dinner" (and yes, I've had ducks in a couple of meals in Prague and the ducks there taste pretty good!). He also told us a humorous story about having a shark warning sign in the river..

He also then commented off-handedly on a restaurant that we passed by, Cafe Marnice, that it meant Mortuary House Cafe.Of course, we couldn't NOT go to this place. Comments on Tripadvisor seem to give a very low rating of this place, but we thought it rather nice.

When we just arrived, yes, we were asked rather haughtily, "just drink, or food?" but after we were seated, we were served pretty well. I'll concede the young handsome guy waiter lacked a little on the manners side, but he wasn't rude... I guess he was just stressed with the busy tables. The big fat guy that served us the food was courteous, and then he came back to ask us how the food was. We said "delicious" and he said "that's good to hear, thank you!" Maybe we got lucky, but, honestly, we liked it!

Also, another small gimmick they had is they guarantee having a 26C temperatures even in the outdoors... When it's sunshine, they draw up the shades and let the sun shine, when it's cloudy or raining they let down the tent cover and turn on the outdoor heaters! I think we experienced both summer and winter in that one meal. Lovely food... the horseradish mustard was delicious!

We then left, and got ourselves another Trdelnik to share (we just don't seem to stop with food, do we?), and crossed the Charles Bridge yet again, and went back to the Boat Trip entrance. Our ticket lets us visit the Charles Bridge museum as well, so in we went. Checked out the exhibits, very nice, and left.

I didn't have a chance to say this, but I noticed there are a lot of small chapels scattered around the small streets in the city center. They seemed to have some kind of concert everyday. I would have loved to go to one of those concerts, especially those doing Pachelbel's Canon in D, but alas time just wasn't on my side...

We decided to rest for a tiny bit in the apartment and so went back. We went to open the windows to let some fresh air in when one of the girls told us to "LOOK!"

The rainbow was out!

It was a really pretty sight. Imagine, seeing the rainbow over the Prague Old Town skyline...

After resting some, we decided to go out again!

This time, at the Old Town Square, we saw this cute grandpa playing a saxophone. Vladimir Pinta is his name, and although I'm not a big jazz or saxophone fan... I got his CD. These days, I listen to his CD while on my way to work :D

We went again to hunt for food. We finally decided to go to the Restaurant Staromacek. How we got there was a little funny, as there was a host/bouncer/usher guy that was in front of a restaurant door and gave us a flyer. We looked, were not interested and left. At the next restaurant door, we looked again, as the restaurant atmosphere looked really attractive... and this same host/bouncer/usher guy came running towards us and said "Wait!" and he gave us another flyer for this second restaurant. And so we entered.

Upon sitting in there, the staff recommended us having honey wine. As I'm writing this, I made a search and I think it's actually mead? It was really strong, but it was oh-so tastey. And the way they prepared the wine was so funky too! They flambe-ed the glass of wine before serving it!

Anyway, we placed our order - again the food was wonderful - and asked for dessert. As it was one of the girl's birthday, we asked quietly if they can arrange for a small candle. The staff said no, so we though, awe bummer, but life goes on, doesn't it, so we ordered away.

To our surprise, the cake came with a candle! Apparently the guy just wasn't sure what we were asking (in English) and must have asked his colleagues what we wanted. Although that candle he gave us was far from small...

But we did not sing. We just quietly wished her all the best and we quietly finished the cake and the other desserts we ordered. They had a coffin cake. Czech Republic as a country seems to be rather big on death, coffins, cemeteries and mortuary houses...

It was pretty late already (by my standards) and it got dark already. We slowly made our way back to the apartment, but stopped to have a last look at the Astronomical Clock, by night.

Back in the apartment, we were unwilling to go sleep. Instead, we began another game of pool/snooker (whatever). By the end I guess we were all tired and we started to miss every shot. It was funny the way we all cheated.

But we will always need to sleep, so sleep we did go!

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Day 10

PRG/LON/HKG/HOME



Our last last last morning in this beautiful place.

We started the day again with a game of pool/snooker.

We packed our stuff and headed down for breakfast. To be reminded that our room rate does not include breakfast. ohwell, so we paid for it as we didn't want to go out and hunt for food.

But we still had to go out and hunt for something as... we still had postcards to send! Well, not me, as I had sent everything off already, but the girls had to send them... so we went stamps hunting.

We eventually found a guy selling these Mucha and Mozart stamps. I remembered I bought some Mucha postcards, so I got the stamps too. Only, when we got back to the apartment, I had packed my stuff so well that I couldn't find the postcards... so I couldn't send them off... oh WTF...

Anyway, we checked out, and made our way to the metro (cobblestone roads...). Again, we took the Student Agency bus to the airport.

At the airport, we had yet another pleasant surprise. As it was the Queen's Diamond Jubilee... all BA passengers on the flight to London... get to celebrate... so after checking in, we were led to a buffet area! Cackles cackles! The scones were so yummy! The sandwich was good! I loved the scones! Did I mention the scones were excellent? We also got champagne, and I tried a bit of everything.

The flight to London was uneventful, but our transfer at Heathrow was another exciting story to tell. We only had 90 minutes to transfer, and we ran to the transfer hall, got on the bus, changed terminals, wizzed through security checks, and ran down to Harrods to do our final FINAL shopping. I got myself some Harrods Earl Grey Tea and the Queen's Blend tea, some trinkets, and a Harrods Westie tote bag :D

We were running out of time and had to rush to our gate - with exactly 2 minutes to spare. We were almost the last in the line. But we made it!

I think that it was because of the champagne I had, and also of all that excitement and running around Heathrow, that I managed to fall asleep right after dinner, and wake up when my friend pushed me to say "Breakfast is being served!" I was disoriented, and well... that was a first. 

The rest of the trip back was uneventful, I had absolutely no jetlag (yay!) and was back at work the next day.


This was an amazing trip. We had some small arguments, yes, but we still managed to accomplish all that traveling... I had a grand time!