Week 12 (Part 2): Vienna

Vienna is known for its music and it horses. On arrival Matt's dad suggested we visit Mozart's house. Ally's dad suggested we visit Arnold Schwarzenegger house. #dadlove. On our first day we had a few hours to have a look around the city before some major games of football (Man Utd vs Liverpool, then El Classico). On our way into the city we passed a pizza van and decided to share (SHARE) a slice - we asked for one, paid a couple of euro and left with a quarter of a 20 inch pizza.............

Vienna's city centre is quite small, allowing us to wander and visit many of the best sites in a single day. We saw St Stephen's Cathedral surrounded by horse drawn carts. We saw the Spanish Riding School's beautiful white horses and the home of the Vienna Boys' Choir. Mozart was everywhere, their pride and joy, and yes we did visit his house. Statues were elaborate on many buildings and sometimes quite amusing - like the fight two pairs seem to be having below - and on Ally's dad's birthday we stumbled upon a statue that was modeled after him.

Inside St Stephan's Cathedral

Outside St Stephan's Cathedral

Mozart's House!

Horses of the Spanish Riding School

Check out the dude with the tridant

Home of the Vienna Boys Choir

There are many museums surrounding parks with lots of benches and each museum building is equally impressive. As Easter is approaching we found a couple of Easter markets selling the most beautiful decorated eggs, as well as gingerbread, fluffy toy chickens and other hand made gifts.

But the icing on Vienna's pretty cake for us was a concert inside a room Mozart had (apparently) played in. On our last day we were convinced by a young man to attend a concert after he got the price down by assuring us that we were on our honeymoon ;) that night we dressed up (as much as you can when you're living out of a backpack) and arrived in a velvet seated small room with a little stage at the front ready for some music and dancing. As amusing as the set up was with it's tiny stage and relatively small audience, we sat through a show of wonderful musicians - 5 strings, 1 flute and a pianist - who played many of Mozart's and Strauss' classics. They were joined for some songs by an opera singer, and a pair of dancers who performed ballet pieces appropriate of Mozart's era. Everyone performed in 'traditional dress' which added to the atmosphere. All doubts were wrongly considered and the performance was wonderful. So pleased to have experienced the music of Vienna :)

Eurovision! If only we were here then!

Week 12 (Part 1): Budapest

My house in Budapest...
At the end of our 7+ hour train ride we found ourselves in an old three-star Budapest hotel with a bizarre porter to carry our bags. We treated ourselves to a discounted three-course meal in the hotel restaurant which did not disappoint (this meal was so good quite a few people have heard about it already).

Entree: Hungarian goulash soup (A) and pumpkin and apple soup with cottage cheese and pepita dumplings (M) & a bread basket.

Main: Mushroom and duck risotto with generous shaved parmesan (A) and Hungarian paprika chicken with gnocchi (M)

Dessert: Tiramisu and white chocolate truffle mousse with mint and wafers & espresso

Add in a glass of red and an enormous glass of local beer,

Add jazz music, dimmed lighting (& menus with booklamps), red-gold themed room and happy Hungarian waiters.

All for $60 AUD?

Ahhh, we like Budapest.

As well as top notch food we had the best weather so far: sunshine and 15 degrees. We began our exploration by visiting the enormous park beside the Citadella (statue below) that offers wonderful views of the city, right above Gellert Baths (not this time). The greenery on a sunny day was so refreshing from the city life we've been having. A top our hill we marveled at how many people Europe stuffs into its cities. So many buildings were squished into the city space and then piled on top of each other. We now really understand how wonderful the space across Australia is, and how great it is that even in our cities we leave a few spaces to breathe! Give Budapest some credit though - check out the hills on the edge of the city.

Citadella

No room to move

Budapest is split in half by the river. On one side is Buda, the other side is Pest (figures, right?). Above you're looking at views over Pest, while we were standing in Buda. We crossed the river and visited the Central/Great Market Hall. Inside were stands selling every kind of sausage, spices galore (Budapest is famous for paprika, here you could buy it in bunches of dried peppers, bags of spices or in pots shaped like Hungarian women), plump fruit, cheese and baked goods. On the level above were rows of souvenir stores (most selling the same things), with wooden toys, chess boards, lace work and more. Aside from the bleeding leg incident where a kind young man stopped out of his way to give Matt disinfectant and band-aids (!), the market atmosphere sent us back into the sun grinning.

The Central Market Place

Back across to Buda we headed for Castle Hill to visit the Castle. Oh my. It was like stepping into Fairyland. We walked past the impressively-roofed church, through turrets and walls with archways and decorations. We climbed Fairyland Palace (my name, not theirs) and enjoyed the views in all directions. It was so beautiful!!!!

This guys' house in Budapest ;)

We then walked around the rest of Castle Hill to the actual Castle/Palace. Matt tried his hand at archery, we listened to some teen girls sing very good baroque, and walked past buildings that hold the crown jewels.

Day 2 gave us just as much sunshine. After recovering from Matt's worst latte in Europe, we wandered by The Great Synagogue (second largest in the world) and saw the star of David in each window and crevice! Then after finding a coffee actually drinkable, St Stephen's Basilica, the impressive catholic church. Inside our jaws dropped at the gold detail and incredibly ornate pink marble that decorates every inch of the building. The pictures below don't begin to show how beautiful it was - one of our favourite churches we've seen.

We walked along Váci utca (main street) from the city centre to the city park. Here, after walking through the impressive entry, we discovered another castle, now a museum. It's quite mis-matched with three main buildings that don't quite go together, but that makes it even more special. Surrounded by an empty moat, the castle was amusingily decorated with many statues (can you spot the Holy Rake of Antinoch below?). Surrounding the castle was a big green park with lots of lovely pups being walked and trees making perfect spots to sit and read your book. A little further on was a large pond/small lake with many ducks happily swimming where we sat to eat our lunch. We found some buildings around the edge including the sunshine factory (what else could it be?) and a small amusement park. We lapped up the sunshine and enjoyed the outdoors :)

We loved Prague for its inner city beauty. Every street and building was decorated. We loved Budapest for its parks and castles. The city wasn't as impressive, but in each corner there were beautiful parks containing buildings to make you stop for hours. We call it a tie ;)