Trip: Austria - Day 1 & 2: Flight & Vienna
Sunday, 24 November 2024 22:46![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekugh... my memory is slipping since it's been some time ago, so I HAVE to do this now or never!
(and I find out now that Flickr cut off my uploads, but luckily I've put these to-be-uploaded photos in a separate phone album, so it's an easy fix to reupload it all)
Day 0 & 1
So we booked a very convenient flight that departed right from Macau (yay!). The flight was Macau > Taipei > layover 1.5hrs > Taipei > Vienna.
Our flight from Macau got a bit delayed, so we were a little worried in Taipei. I went to talk to the gate agent that we wanted to check if our bags got checked through, and they gladly obliged to check. So the entire Taipei > Vienna flight got delayed too LOL. Sorry!
My friend's side of the window bay (3 seats, she was on aisle) turned out empty, so I swapped and sat over the window side. Because the middle seat was empty and we had space for small random crap in the middle. It was a comfortable flight going over there.
So this was the beautiful scene before landing!
And once we landed, it was the REALITY haha.
It was 7:00am when we landed. Immigration was smooth because... EU Passports! (yes, there was a queue for non-EU passports). We first went to the hotel to drop off our bags. So first we went on our way to the Palmenhaus and walked past this tree that was... growing crows... LOL. Here I received a phonecall from a certain government department about a piece of "assignment" I did for my Boss earlier. It was compiling some business listings, which included restaurants. This government department also works on restaurant licenses. So they called me saying "You've prepared the full list, thank you, but you didn't supply a copy of the restaurant licenses." I was a bit miffed and replied tartly, "you are the department of licenses, and you are asking me for a copy of the licenses you issue for us?" And the guy meekly says ok, he will check it himself, and hangs up. WTF.
We were happy with an Austrian or Viennese breakfast. But, we would soon found out, this is just the beginning LOL (read: we got tired of this kind of breakfast pretty soon)
Palmenhaus looked nicer on the website though. There was a Butterfly House next to it (I forget the German name but it involves one of those difficult-to-pronounce German words). Friend didn't want to go into a room with flying bugs (the butterflies) so we left.
After breakfast, we walked past the Albertina and decided to get in for a visit. Chagall was on. It was weird-ish.
Also was another exhibit with an assortment of different pieces.
But the most impressive turned out to be this Robert Longo, and I was mesmerized by this piece. This looks like just flinging paint on a wall? It's charcoal. CHARCOAL!
I think we then walked along the road down to Cafe Central (photo is not Cafe Central).
We figured it was early enough, so we made our way to the Wasserhaus place.
The 4th floor had some really, really, really weird exhibit (so weird I'm not even posting anything).
When we were done, it was like 5pm-ish, the time I hate when in Germany and Austria. Things start closing by then. We decided to go to the other Wasserhaus village thingamajig.
Apparently, the toilet here is apparently one of a tourist spot, but since it was a paid to go LOL we didn't go haha.
Time to look for dinner, and after some internet searching for great schnitzel, and we found a candidate.
Salmzat (????) I guess sounded yiddish? Not sure. But this was their menu. The waitstaff knew for a fact we don't speak German, and just dropped this menu to us. I couldn't even use Google Translate on this darned menu LOL. But we ordered the Schnitzel, and I must say it was impeccable. Good choice!
Day 2
We went for breakfast, and during breakfast I had to make my zoom call with my Mandarin teacher for my mid-term exam. I had this poncho on, knitted by my mom some 30 years ago or so. Someone in the restaurant came up to me to say it's a very nice piece. Kudos to mom!
We went back to nearby the Wasserhaus museum for the Museum of Art Fakes (because this museum is closed on Mondays). It was rather interesting to see the methods to identify art fakes.
So it was earlier in the morning, so we went back just across the street for more photos (and less people!)
It was... incredibly dirty inside this phone booth.
After the last few photos, we went to our next destination... which I don't exactly remember where.
This.... is this St Stephan? Not sure. I think we just walked past it.
National Library, I think.
Lunch was at the Sacher Hotel. This schnitzle was not as good as the previous one we had (night before).
By late afternoon-ish we wanted to go to the Prater, but on the way there, we noticed there was some sort of fair going on.
Apparently, there was something like an Oktoberfest (but the name wasn't Oktoberfest) and we had a huuuuuuggggeee Nutella Pretzel.
Then we finally went to the Prater.
We were looking around and saw a ride that looked pretty "kindergarten-ish" LOL. so we decided to go on it. We were sorely defeated by this kindergarten ride LOL LOL LOL we were all just OMG! wheeee!!!! aaarrrggghghh!! LOL
After that, we dared not go on any other rides LOL
I don't understand how they can let these monstrous dolls to just... sit out in public... there were a couple others more gruesome creatures here. But then, as the signage behind says, Hallo Wien, so I guess this is the scary stuff corner.
We got 2-person set meal, it's this huge pork knuckel. We had to pack up the leftovers... and had the leftovers for breakfast.
Goodbye Prater!
That's it for now, it's a bit late now... I had a super early day today... I ran a 13km! I need to slowly up the distance for the half marathon in January!
(and I find out now that Flickr cut off my uploads, but luckily I've put these to-be-uploaded photos in a separate phone album, so it's an easy fix to reupload it all)
Day 0 & 1
So we booked a very convenient flight that departed right from Macau (yay!). The flight was Macau > Taipei > layover 1.5hrs > Taipei > Vienna.
Our flight from Macau got a bit delayed, so we were a little worried in Taipei. I went to talk to the gate agent that we wanted to check if our bags got checked through, and they gladly obliged to check. So the entire Taipei > Vienna flight got delayed too LOL. Sorry!
My friend's side of the window bay (3 seats, she was on aisle) turned out empty, so I swapped and sat over the window side. Because the middle seat was empty and we had space for small random crap in the middle. It was a comfortable flight going over there.
So this was the beautiful scene before landing!
And once we landed, it was the REALITY haha.
It was 7:00am when we landed. Immigration was smooth because... EU Passports! (yes, there was a queue for non-EU passports). We first went to the hotel to drop off our bags. So first we went on our way to the Palmenhaus and walked past this tree that was... growing crows... LOL. Here I received a phonecall from a certain government department about a piece of "assignment" I did for my Boss earlier. It was compiling some business listings, which included restaurants. This government department also works on restaurant licenses. So they called me saying "You've prepared the full list, thank you, but you didn't supply a copy of the restaurant licenses." I was a bit miffed and replied tartly, "you are the department of licenses, and you are asking me for a copy of the licenses you issue for us?" And the guy meekly says ok, he will check it himself, and hangs up. WTF.
We were happy with an Austrian or Viennese breakfast. But, we would soon found out, this is just the beginning LOL (read: we got tired of this kind of breakfast pretty soon)
Palmenhaus looked nicer on the website though. There was a Butterfly House next to it (I forget the German name but it involves one of those difficult-to-pronounce German words). Friend didn't want to go into a room with flying bugs (the butterflies) so we left.
After breakfast, we walked past the Albertina and decided to get in for a visit. Chagall was on. It was weird-ish.
Also was another exhibit with an assortment of different pieces.
But the most impressive turned out to be this Robert Longo, and I was mesmerized by this piece. This looks like just flinging paint on a wall? It's charcoal. CHARCOAL!
I think we then walked along the road down to Cafe Central (photo is not Cafe Central).
We figured it was early enough, so we made our way to the Wasserhaus place.
The 4th floor had some really, really, really weird exhibit (so weird I'm not even posting anything).
When we were done, it was like 5pm-ish, the time I hate when in Germany and Austria. Things start closing by then. We decided to go to the other Wasserhaus village thingamajig.
Apparently, the toilet here is apparently one of a tourist spot, but since it was a paid to go LOL we didn't go haha.
Time to look for dinner, and after some internet searching for great schnitzel, and we found a candidate.
Salmzat (????) I guess sounded yiddish? Not sure. But this was their menu. The waitstaff knew for a fact we don't speak German, and just dropped this menu to us. I couldn't even use Google Translate on this darned menu LOL. But we ordered the Schnitzel, and I must say it was impeccable. Good choice!
Day 2
We went for breakfast, and during breakfast I had to make my zoom call with my Mandarin teacher for my mid-term exam. I had this poncho on, knitted by my mom some 30 years ago or so. Someone in the restaurant came up to me to say it's a very nice piece. Kudos to mom!
We went back to nearby the Wasserhaus museum for the Museum of Art Fakes (because this museum is closed on Mondays). It was rather interesting to see the methods to identify art fakes.
So it was earlier in the morning, so we went back just across the street for more photos (and less people!)
It was... incredibly dirty inside this phone booth.
After the last few photos, we went to our next destination... which I don't exactly remember where.
This.... is this St Stephan? Not sure. I think we just walked past it.
National Library, I think.
Lunch was at the Sacher Hotel. This schnitzle was not as good as the previous one we had (night before).
By late afternoon-ish we wanted to go to the Prater, but on the way there, we noticed there was some sort of fair going on.
Apparently, there was something like an Oktoberfest (but the name wasn't Oktoberfest) and we had a huuuuuuggggeee Nutella Pretzel.
Then we finally went to the Prater.
We were looking around and saw a ride that looked pretty "kindergarten-ish" LOL. so we decided to go on it. We were sorely defeated by this kindergarten ride LOL LOL LOL we were all just OMG! wheeee!!!! aaarrrggghghh!! LOL
After that, we dared not go on any other rides LOL
I don't understand how they can let these monstrous dolls to just... sit out in public... there were a couple others more gruesome creatures here. But then, as the signage behind says, Hallo Wien, so I guess this is the scary stuff corner.
We got 2-person set meal, it's this huge pork knuckel. We had to pack up the leftovers... and had the leftovers for breakfast.
Goodbye Prater!
That's it for now, it's a bit late now... I had a super early day today... I ran a 13km! I need to slowly up the distance for the half marathon in January!
