Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Florence, Naples.... 17 days, overnight trains, Ryan-air, Germanwings, kaputt buses & trains, drunken sailors, the Opera, Sound of Music tour, Mozart's Balls, Pizza, pasta, gelato galore, sauerkraut, poisonous dumplings, Montepulciano wine tour, Pisa, Michelangelo, Uffizi, Botticelli, museums, palaces, Klimt, Pompeii, garbage in Naples, dancing, discos, beaches, gondolas, heat, sweat, tan, laughter, tears, friendship....goodbyes....the end of an era.
The journey begins... our trip from Valverde del Camino to Vienna... and of course our final experience and frustrations with the Spanish public transportation!
Valverde: Monday 31st May 2010, 21:45.
As mentioned in my previous blog, some of our closest, and dearest friends came to wave us off at the bus stop in our wee town. A little concerned that the one and only overnight bus to Madrid wouldn't show up was in the backs of all our minds. However, it did and we were quite relieved and impressed! Tears were shed and final embraces exchanged; these were the faces that had been a part of our daily lives in Valverde and were soon to become friends 'a la distancia'... although for me this wasn't out of the ordinary: my life summed up into one word is exactly that situation: TRANSIENT. However this doesn't make me alien and exempt from emotion...my heart SANK when we drove out of the town and began our 10 hour journey to the countries capital. As we sat quietly, reflecting on our year it dawned on me that we had really been blessed and that we would miss our friends in the small countryside town. So we sat on that bus, starring into the distance, watching as we travelled further into the hills of La Sierra and further away from what had been our life for 8 months. Tears were slowly building in our eyes. I looked up at the stars in the beautiful clear night sky and thanked God for bringing these people into my life and felt comforted as I remembered that He is unchanging- constant, absolute, eternal- and my sadness left me and was replaced by peace. I smiled as I was reminded that this chapter may be over but God has a plan for me, for Kate and for Christen and my spirits lifted.
(Psalm 139)
I think we all fell into a light sleep as the bus cruised down the freeway at a slow but steady speed. At 5am I woke up to feel the coach swerve and jerk. My (by then) deep sleep left me immediately and I sat up wondering what had happened; it wasn't long before I realized that the driver was falling asleep at the wheel. I began fake coughing loudly. Kate and Christen were sleeping alongside me and I wondered whether I should wake them to tell them but before I could the bus suddenly let off a banging noise and the driver (now awake) began cursing in Spanish and pulled over in the middle of the freeway. We came to a complete stop and trucks began to hurtle past us, rocking our coach in the process. Everybody woke up, confused why the engine had shut off and I found it amusing to watch their expressions as our situation suddenly became clear to them: We were without fuel in the middle of the freeway at 5am, still 2 hours from Madrid. Wonderful. And so the adventure began. A replacement bus eventually arrived (spanish time-i.e 2 hours later) causing many people to miss flights and connections. We however were not in
a hurry- our flight was not until midday.
Vienna
On arrival in Vienna (after two flights with a connection in Germany) we lugged our bags over to the 'DO STEP INN' youth hostel (excellent hostel btw!), showered and hit a local pub to enjoy the delights of the Austrian cuisine: Oh yes- Sauerkraut, potatoes and meat...lots of meat. And so began my week of stomach pains. My body, having spent a year eating Mediterranean style: fresh, light and healthy, had quite the shock when I began trying to shovel heaps of meat and potatoes into it and left me feeling bloated, heavy and tire
d after each meal! Austria is a beautiful and fascinating country but the food was not for me. Infact, a day later I went down with food poisoning. I would love to make up some extravagant story as to what the culprit was...but it was a simple dumpling with undercooked red meat inside that left me chucking up for 12 hours the next day. Nice. And here is me in the process of poisoning my body (unbeknown to me at the time!)...
On a positive note, we visited the Leopold museum in Vienna's Museum Quarter and I found myself quickly becoming enticed by the work of Gustav Klimt and even Schiele whose work I would never display in my house (As mentioned in a previous blog, I tend to go for the pretty, colourful, happy images) but was captivating and I did buy some postcards! I also invested in an oversized poster of "Der Kuss" (The Kiss) that I then had to lug around trains, planes and rucksacks for 2 weeks but it was worth the bother! Here are some examples of these two famous Austrian's work:
The Opera.
One cannot visit Vienna without a trip to the Opera whether or not one appreciates or enjoys the experience it is without doubt imperative. Now, we assumed we would have quite the formal and 'pijo' experience at an opera- how we were wrong!
Outside the doors of the Vienna State Opera House were many men trying to sell discounted tickets for seats for that nights performance. These tickets ranged from 40-150 euros depending on the proximity to the stage. As we were on tight student or general travelling budgets, we decided to check out the 'standing seats' option (which I found quite a confusing concept as surely there is no seat if one has to stand?) So we joined what seemed to be a line forming outside the building. It was 4pm in the afternoon, a little chilly and we weren't really sure what we were doing. After 15 minutes of people watching we gathered that we were in the right place- not only were there a few tourists like ourselves in the line but many locals standing by themselves looking alert and as if they knew what they were doing (unlike us). This gave me confidence that 1. We were waiting in a random line in the chilly wind for a reason. And 2. We were not likely going to get ripped off.
After 'un ratito' the line (that had remained stationary) started to move quickly inside the building. It was at this point that I realized this wasn't a polite, wait your turn, get in line kind of queuing system; this was an every man for himself, stand your ground, elbows out and all kind of line. As we entered the building, desperately trying to keep our positions in the queue, the doors suddenly closed behind us boxing the 60 people or so that had shuffled in like sheep into a room. The locals began to pull out fold down chairs from their bags, made themselves comfy and opened up the daily newspaper. It dawned on us that we were about to be in this room for quite some time. So we made ourselves comfy, or as comfy as we could on the marble floor, and began to look through our photos from the trip so far.
THE SAILOR.
It wasn't long before we attracted some unwanted attention from an old, bearded, rather chubby man wearing a sailor hat. He began talking to us animatedly and pointing at the camera and then us. Despite not understanding a word of his Russian we understood that he wanted to take a photo of us. Not wanting to offend we gave him our camera and posed for a photo. However he couldn't seem to work out how to use the digital camera- a simple click of the top button would have been quite fine but even after pointing and demonstrating he still seemed confused by the piece of 21st Century technology. We were about to give up when he suddenly plonked himself in between Kate and myself and demanded that Christen took a photo of us! He was quite a character and seemed to find everything hilarious. By this time other people in the queue were starting to watch us and one Austrian woman was becoming increasingly impatient with the noise and drama that the Russian was making so we quickly put the camera away and tried to ignore him. This was quite impossible considering we were unable to move from our position in the line and he was making himself at home only inches away from us; opening his rucksack and pulling out all sorts of random items. After offering us shots of Schnapps, crackers, coffee, yoghurt and some undeciphable items, he looked confused and offended when we sternly replied "NIET" and finally became subdued, leaving us in peace. This is when we began our conversation with an old spanish man sat across from us on his chair. Christen and I sat for half an hour listening, completely mesmerized by his perfect Castillian and Asturian accent, as he explained the whole process of queuing for the stand up tickets and gave us advice on how to obtain the best 'non=seats' seats in the theatre! For 3 euros we were able to buy a ticket for the Opera! Incredible! So the old, but very wise man, became our master and we followed him like ducklings as doors began to open, people began to run up flights of stairs, through corridors, around corners, stopping at the top of every stairwell until we were given permission to continue up up up to the highest row. For such an old man he was quite sprightly; infact we girls found ourselves panting by the time we reached our 'non-seats seats' in the theatre. The idea is that the process works on a first-come-first-serve basis and once you find your 'spot' on the bar that pans across the final row in the theatre you simply tie a scarf around it which 'marks your territory'.
And so we acquired a fantastic position on the back row thanks to an old wise spaniard. :-)
The Opera itself (Eugene Onegin, by Tchaikovsky) was sung in Russian and consisted of a young girl falling in love with a slightly older man who rejects her. Later in his life he meets her and finds that she is married and wealthy. She has moved up the social ladder and is respected and admired for her beauty and status. Due to her now respectable position in society, the man declares his love for her, only to be rejected by her this time. Girl power ! Although opera is not my 'cuppa tea', I must say I totally enjoyed the story line and my slightly feminist 'power to the women' side came out passionately!
Another stop on the Vienna trip was at the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Horse Riding School). Christen explained that the horses are very unique and agile creatures; the white stallions or Lipizzaner stallions were beautiful and despite having to run off to vomit every half hour like clockwork (this all happened on my food poisoning day!), I really enjoyed watching them practice.
We also took a day trip to Schönbrunn Palace: One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.
SALZBURG
Taking the train to Salzburg, the next stop on our journey, we were excited to see some of the scenery where Robert Wise's oscar winning 1965 production 'The Sound of Music' was filmed; such as Mondsee Cathedral, Mirabell Gardens, Nonnberg Abbey and the Conservatory where the classic "Sixteen going on Seventeen" featured (which is now kept in the grounds of Hellbrunn Palace). As we drove through the hills of Salzburg on the 'Sound of Music Tour Bus' I sang along merrily to "Do-Re-Mi, "My Favorite Things", "Edelweiss" and of course the opening song: "Sound of Music" because as we drove it became crystal clear why Salzburg was chosen as the film set: The Hills were really ALIVE! Mountain ranges climbing high, hills covering the landscape as far as the eye can see, lakes and rivers, small cute towns and farms. It was breathtaking. I'd never seen so many miles of unspoilt, green land. Our guide for the tour was Gary; an Austrian by birth but a resident of Florida, USA and quite a character! He had a fixed grin on his face and seemed to find his jokes hilarious- well at least somebody did! He certainly added to the whole experience and successfully entertained us on the 4 hour tour and to be honest, I secretly liked his cheesyness! The trip entailed a stop at the Von Trapp Family's house overlooking the lake where the famous scene in the canoe is filmed. We also stopped at Wolfgangsee (home of Mozart's mother and where he gets his name from) and after a half hour drive through the hills listening to the sound track, we arrived at Mondsee; famous for its cathedral where Maria marries the Captain. Gary informed us that this countryfied and pretty town is deserted for 364 days of the year, but today of all days was the annual marathon! So thousands of people were out running in the heat, draining liquids and the town smelt strongly of beer and bananas! (Yes, the Austrians like to rehydrate with beer!) Nevertheless it was a fun stop and a good way to end the tour. The girls and I also walked around Mirabell gardens and reenacted the song "Do-Re-Mi" by the famous fountain and steps.
Here are some photos from our Sound of Music Tour, including me proposing to Kate outside Mondsee Cathedral, eating Mozart's Balls, at the '16 going on 17' gazebo, the lovely ladies at the lake district, Leopold Palace and Mirabell Gardens:
Having seen the mountains from the comfort of the bus, we decided we wanted to climb every mountain and view the city from above....none of us had suitable hiking gear and so we took the Cable Car. I have NEVER been so scared! We were SO high up and all the way to the top, up the steep incline the Austrians in our cable car were crying out "Oh mein Gott! Oh mein Gott!' And yes, I was thinking along similar lines. The worse part was hitting the pile-ons and rocking from side to side screaming and holding on to each other! At the summit a chilly wind meant we dashed out, took some photos, and ran back inside again. The hills are certainly alive and blustery! Here is a video of us heading back to the safety of the ground:
Finally we visited Hellbrunn Palace and its impressive zoo. The palace was a baroque style summer day house built by the Archbishop and Prince of Salzburg in 1613. The 'Schloss' is also famous for its water gardens. Here is a quick overview of the impressive and magical palace: These games were conceived by Markus Sittikus, a man with a keen sense of humour, as a series of practical jokes to be performed on guests. Notable features include stone seats around a stone dining table through which a water conduit sprays water into the seat of the guests when the mechanism is activated. Other features are a mechanical, water-operated and music-playing theatre built in 1750 showing various professions at work, a grotto and a crown being pushed up and down by a jet of water, symbolising the rise and fall of power. At all of these games there is always a spot which is never wet: that where the Archbishop stood or sat, to which there is no water conduit and which is today occupied by the tour guide.
We certainly got a little wet! Sound of Music lovers: The gazebo/ pavillon where Lisel is 16 going on 17 is now in the grounds of Hellbrunn (see photo above). Unfortunately it is closed now because last year a 70 year old lady thought she was 16 again and started re-enacting the song by leaping over the benches, fell and broke her hip. Oops.
So Austria was a great start to our trip, however I think we had had our fill of Sauerkraut and Mozart's Balls by the end of the week and were all eager to get back to Mediterranean land.
Read on in my next blog (The Grand Finale: Part 2) to hear about our fantastic stay in Italy; including a day trip to the wineries of the beautiful rural Tuscan town of Montepulciano. Goodbye Sauerkraut, hello Gelato!
Just for a laugh:
Here is a funny looking guy we met at the zoo:
"Don't upset the camel, he's already got the hump!" hehe
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