When Will You Realize Vienna (and Prague) Waits For You?

Praha

There are several ways to tour Europe. Some choose the early to bed and early to rise philosophy, cramming all available sunlit hours with tours, sights, and museums Others choose to view cities through aimless wandering, stumbling across landmarks when they their paths, inevitably getting lost in back streets, and taking pictures when and if the mood strikes. I fall into the first category; a successful day to me starts at 7am and ends shortly after dinner, when it’s time to check email, journal, read, and go to bed.

We got to Prague, Czech Republic, early afternoon on 4 April. A Cali-surfer guy checking into the hostel at the same time as us told us President Obama was to give a speech at the castle the next morning. The gates were to open at 7am, and he was set to go on at 10. With this new priority item added to our morning’s agenda, we set off to find the castle! We spent the afternoon, map in hand, exploring the city.

We left our hostel shortly after 7am the next morning to go hear Obama. We got to the castle before 8am, and we already had to wait in line for over an hour to get through security. We initially pushed our way towards the sage, but we realized quickly that we wouldn’t be able to see a dag-blasted thing, so we opted for front-row spots at one of the big screens. Obama’s speech for the crowd of 20,000+ was impeccable, calling for disarmament of nuclear weapons. How many Americans can say they’ve heard the current president give a speech live? How many Americans can say they’ve heard the current president give a speech live in Europe?? I’ll remember this for the rest of my life.

We took a “Communist tour” (fitting in with our category of touring) that afternoon. Our guide couldn’t have been much older than us, and he remembers living under Communism. Jobs that dealt with tourism were highly coveted for one reason: tips in foreign currency. When our guide asked his mother why one of their neighbors could afford to drive a Mercedes, she explained that it was because this neighbor was a waiter.

Old Town square had an Easter Market spread across the plaza, so we took advantage of the fair food for dinner. Roasted chicken and pork with peppers and onions. Potato pancakes. Crepes. Yum.

The next day (up to 6 April now), we tried the second category of tourism. We met some backpackers in the hostel, and we decided to ramble around the city together the next day. Plan A was to take a push scooter tour of the city. That fell through: the tour was full. Plan B was to take a normal walking tour: the guide was soft-spoken and boring. Plan C was to aimlessly wander, stumbling across landmarks when they crossed our path, inevitably getting lost in back streets, and taking pictures when and if the mood struck. I gave it a shot. I tried something out of the norm for me, but I didn’t like it. I met fun people and enjoyed an afternoon lounging in a park, but I don’t feel satisfied with how and how much I saw of Prague.

Despite my neglectful day of touring, I loved Prague. It’s a gorgeous spot on the map, ornate and elegant. It’s easy to see how people fall in love with the city so easily.

Vienna

I love Vienna. If I absolutely had to rate my top 3 cities of my 2009 Euro-Trip, it would be 1) Amsterdam, 2) Vienna, and 3) Paris. The city is famous for its music and musicians, Mozart and Beethoven to name a few. If you look at a map, large sections of green indicate the numerous parks spread across the city. In fact, a trend in our 6-day stint in Vienna was visiting my favorite park, Staadt Park. I expressed great regret in spending a day merely sitting in a park in Prague; I know this sound hypocritical when I admit that I in fact spent 4 full mornings or afternoons sitting in a park, but the difference is that we had time to do and still had time to see what there is to see in Vienna.

We got to Vienna on Tuesday 7 April and left Easter Sunday. We spent one afternoon on a walking tour, exploring the blocks that make up the Hopsburg Castle. We spent one morning shopping for warm-weather clothes. We explored the vineyard country for several hours. Vienna is known for its music and musicians (Mozart and Beethoven, to name a few), and men dressed in period clothes clutter the streets trying to sell concert tickets to tourists; we did not give in to the pressure. We were, however, cultural and went to the opera one night; the main opera house in Vienna sells standing room tickets for 3€ and 4€, so it wasn’t exactly a splurge. We saw L'elisir D'Amore and didn’t know exactly what happened until I looked it up on Wikipedia back at the hostel. The BEST thing about Vienna really is all the parks. If you look at a map, green squares take up a good portion of the city center. Anna and I found a favorite park, Staadt Park, and we spent hours and hours there. We picked new benches every morning/afternoon, but we would bring our iPods and our journals and our benches and just enjoy being outdoors.

I’m not cutting my blog on Vienna short intentionally. Our main activity really was to enjoy the city by relaxing Viennese style.

Blogs on Rome, Sicily, and Bavaria to come.