Vienna & Bratislava

It's not exactly Tuesday, but at least I'm getting this post up before I leave for the next week.

Spencer and I left for Vienna Thursday afternoon and flew into Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia, which is only 40 miles east of Vienna. It is apparently pretty a popular thing to do because outside of the airport, everybody was getting on buses that said 'Wien' on the side. We got on one and made our way into the city. After some navigating of the metro system and the German language, we finally got to our hostel around 10pm. Were STARVING so we walked around a bit and found a great place to have a pizza.

The next day we hit the ground running. We spent the morning in the city center enjoying the beautiful weather and GORGEOUS city. We saw the Austrian Parliament building, Vienna city hall, Burg Theatre, Hofburg Palace, the stables of the Spanish Riding School, Stephansdom Cathedral and the Vienna Opera House.



The pictures above are of the Austrian Parliament building and a beautiful park and Hofburg Palace in the background.

It was a jam-packed morning but we didn't even notice. We went back to our hostel to relax for a bit and get in touch with Spencer's friend Michael, who goes to school in Vienna. We finally got ahold of him and met in back downtown that evening. We met some of his friends from school and a couple of them walked around the city with us and told us a little about all of the things we had seen that day. It was so nice to have tour guides with us to tell us about everything!

We all grabbed a beer and sat outside and just chatted, which was very nice. It was finally beginning to feel like a true laid-back vacation. After drinks Spencer and I got some dinner and went back to our hostel, we were pretty worn out from our long day.

Saturday was a pretty busy day as well. The morning started off pretty slow and relaxed but we managed to fit a lot in. That morning we planned on going to Belvedere Palace, just outside the city. We had made it all the way there and realized we had to leave to go meet Michael at his flat all the way on the other side of the city. Poor planning on our part. :( So we went back to the metro and headed all the way across town. Michael met us at the station and took us to his flat. It was interesting to see where somebody our age lives in a different country. We left his place and walked down to the Danube River for awhile, which was very beautiful. There were lots of Austrians outside enjoying themselves and the nice weather.

After the river Michael left and Spencer and I headed to Schonbrunn Palace. It was of course beautiful, but HUGE as well. It was painted an amazing color that made it stand out from any other palace or castle I had seen. We explored the massive gardens all around the palace and took lots of pictures. We went around to the back of the palace and were in awe of the rest of the complex. There were lots more gardens, fountains and huge hill behind the palace with another massive building. We climbed to the top so we could get some great photos of the palace and the city behind it and boy was it worth it!

The top picture is me in from of Schonbrunn Palace and the one below is of the view from the top of the hill. The back of the palace with Vienna in the background.

After the palace we headed back to Belvedere to see what we had missed earlier that day. I'm very glad we decided to go back because the palace and the gardens were beautiful. We sat and relaxed here for awhile before walking around and taking lots more pictures of the grounds. I was so tired at this point so we got some dinner and returned home and went to bed! I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Sunday we decided to go to a museum that Michael recommended for us, the Albertina Museum. We were defiantly glad he did because it was an amazing museum. We got to see an Andy Worhal exhibit featuring his Cars series, which he was working on to commemorate the centennial of the automobile. The permanent showcase of the museum held works by Rembrandt, Monet, Renoir & Picasso. I was so in awe by all of the famous artwork that I got a chance to see! I'm so glad we chose to go to Albertina!

After the museum we were planning on doing some shopping but since it was Sunday, everything was closed. We definitely didn't anticipate this because at home, things are rarely closed on Sundays anymore. So instead of shopping we just window shopped and walked around the area near our hostel. Before we knew it we had made our way back into the center of Vienna. We stopped at a park outside the University to enjoy the weather once again. Around 7 we went back to Michael's flat to hang out there for the night, since we were leaving the next morning. We just hung out at his place for the night. He and Spencer caught up on what they had missed since high school and it was nice to finally meet one of Spencer's friends. After hanging out for awhile Spencer and I said goodbye to Michael and headed back to eat dinner at pack up our bags.

Monday morning we checked out of our hostel just in time and got some last minute shopping in before catching the train back to Bratislava. Our flight back to Scotland didn't leave until that night so we planned on spending the day in Bratislava seeing the castle. It was just over an hour train ride and it was very interesting to see the scenery change as we left Austria and neared Slovakia. Our train dropped us off just outside of town, which was definitely not where we thought we were going to be. Navigating and making our way to the castle was interesting to say the least, but once we figured out what bus to take it wasn't too bad.

We got to the old town which is the main tourist area and completely different than the rest of the city. The old town Bratislava was quaint and clean with parks and shops and the rest of Bratislava was well, not so quaint! We walked around the old town for a bit and then headed up to the castle. It was under heavy construction so we couldn't go inside but it was still very beautiful. The view of the city from the top were full of huge apartment complexes and big boxy buildings, so different from the beauty of Vienna, only 40 miles away. After the castle we wandered around the old town some more. It started to rain so we decided to shop a little bit in the shopping complex just across the river.

The top picture is of the Bratislava castle and the one below is of the streets of old town Bratislava.

By then it was time to make our way back to the train station to change buses and then finally on to the airport. It was such an amazing weekend and I am so lucky to have been able to experience two completely different cities in just a few short days. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be in Slovakia, but I still loved every minute of it!

The past few days since I have been back have been very busy. I have been working on a final essay and preparing for a big trip that I leave for tomorrow! eek This past week was the last week of class and finals don't start until May 18th, perfect for international students who want to travel. So tomorrow morning Spencer and I leave for Ireland, stopping in Belfast first and then onto Dublin for 3 days. Katie is meeting us in Dublin on Sunday. Then Tuesday we will all leave for Rome. I'm very excited for this big trip, two places that I have wanted to go my whole life, but so different from each other. I'll have a very big post when I get back, probably more than one. Until then... cheers everyone!