A Short Trip to Graz

This past weekend I took a short train to Graz, Austria with my Austrian girl friend Monika. She wanted to take me somewhere in Austria, so we decided to go to the second biggest city. Graz is a very historical city, in 1128 the Slovene castle was founded. It was the first time in historical records the city was called "Graz". Through the ages it was ruled by the Habsburg family (who ruled the Austrian Empire). The city was the residence of their Austrian lineage. They lived in the Schossesberg castle on top of the highest point in Graz. This prompted in the 16th century Renaissance inspired architecture from Italy (due to the fact it is very close to the Italian border). Some of the Renaissance architecture remains, much of the Old Town remain in tact, but much of Graz was bombed by the allies in World War 2.

Monika and I began our trip Friday afternoon arriving at about 5pm in Graz. The train ride there was beautiful. Our train traveled through a very hilly section of Austria. It reminded me of Northern Vermont mountains and that region in general. There were still fall colors remaining on trees which made it a spectacular view. During the ride I thought about my year of school in Vermont since the environment gave me flashbacks of the time I had there.

Once we arrived in Graz Monika and I found our hotel and went to Old Town Graz for dinner. For dinner we went to a traditional Austrian Restaurant. I had a version of Schnzeil (fried meat) that had a variety of different meats inside of it along with potato mixed salad. It was very good, it had its own distinct taste from Vienese schnzeil which made it memorable. After dinner Monika and I walked around Old Town and lost our way to the hotel. After about 30 minutes of wandering we found our way and headed back to the hotel. What made being lost annoying was that temperature outside was under 30 degrees. Her and I were freezing! Luckily we found our way back!

Graz is known for being picturesque. The Mur river is flowing through the center of the city. With fall colors and the old buildings along with the artsy post modern buildings it made it a treat to walk through. When Monika and I ventured through the town on Saturday we enjoyed the scenery. She first took me up to Schlossberg castle on the large hill in the center of the city. It is known for having a clock on the center of the building dating back to around the 11th century. Along the way up the hill her and I saw a 50,000 person bunker built into the hill during World War 2. It was quite a massive structure! I've never seen such a large underground bunker. Once we were on top of the large hill where the castle is we had a great view of the city of Graz. It was a beautiful day with barely any clouds in the sky. We ventured around the top of the hill and descended down the hill on a huge stair case. It felt like I went down around 500 or so stairs before I got to the bottom. At the bottom we were outside of a very famous historical site. It was the site where Hitler came into Graz in 1938 after Germany annexed Austria. He promised the people of Graz with 1000 years of prosperity. When it in reality, 8 years later much of the city was destroyed by allied air raids.

After we finished Schlossberg castle we went to the modern contemporary art museum called Kunsthaus. Graz in 2003 was formally awarded with the title European Capital of the Culture due to the large art movement in the city. This was exemplified in the Kunsthaus. The building itself reminded of a very futuristic glass enveloped space ship. Inside it contained a very modern art exhibit. Most of the art had to do with moving pictures as well as changing pictures. It was quite a different experience than any other art museum I've ever been to. We spent about 2 hours in the museum and before we knew it was time to head back to the station to head back to Vienna!

The trip to Graz was a very fun trip. I'm glad I got to go with Monika. She served as great tour guide and spoke German. Due to this we didn't have any awkward moments. Usually when I travel there is always a few instances where the language barrier results in an awkward moment. However, in this case it didn't happen! I definitely am going to miss her when I travel to Germany the first week of December. Overall it was a great short getaway from Vienna. Both of us had a good time!

This Thursday I am off to Istanbul Turkey for 4 days. It should definitely be interesting! It is somewhere I've always wanted to go. I will definitely will highlight my trip there, so look for the blog next Monday or so!

A day trip to Bratislava Slovakia

Last Saturday my group of Americans accompanied by our Austrian Professor went an hour train ride across the Austrian border to Bratislava Slovakia. It was one of our group excursions planned by our study abroad program; IGE. It may have been a quick trip but it definitely was cool to see yet another Eastern European country.

The day began when we left from Vienna in the morning and took a quick hour train ride over to Bratislava. Once we arrived we decided we'd walk to the highest point in the city where we visited Bratislava Castle. This castle was built around the 10th century and over its lifetime experienced several renovations, fires, and expansions. We were told that Bratislava castle was burnt down during WW2 and wasn't rebuilt until the 1950's by the communist government. Inside the castle we went through a small museum where we saw a variety of very old artifacts. These artifacts ranged from old coins dating back from Roman times to primitive Medevil weapons along with gold and jewels from the previous monarchy dating back 500 years.

Once we left the castle we ventured through Old Town Bratislava. There we saw their Opera building as well as the central church. Some parts of Old Town Bratislava resembled architecture found in Vienna. Although, Bratislava is much more ran down than Vienna. After walking through Old Town we grabbed a quick snack and walked  to a modern/contemporary art museum with our professor. We walked through the museum for an hour and a half looking at a variety of different expressionist, abstract, post modern, and an assortment of different styles. Many of these paintings were created in the past 100 years. Much of the themes embedded in the paintings we saw were visible due to our knowledge of modern history. Our professor helped us decode many of the paintings meanings.The art museum was quite interesting, I always like looking at art because it helps give a thematic message through colors and images of our world.


A bit after we finished at the art museum we walked toward the direction of their new shopping mall. Along the way we saw a large Slovakian Nationalistic protest. We walked by it and stayed for a few minutes. During that time we listened to nationalistic slogans as well as songs in Slovakian. It was quite interesting to see such a scene, but, as I've seen all over Europe. Europeans love to protest!

After a short walk we arrived at their large modern shopping mall. It looked a lot like Tyler Mall in Riverside but much nicer since it is newer. Inside it is outlined with glass everywhere resembling an American shopping mall. It felt like I was right at home when I entered. There were a lot of the same stores like H&M, Nike, Adidas, etc along with Slovakian stores. The group I was with went into several shops and we eventually ended up by the river walk right outside the mall. This river walk is right on the Danube River with two large modern bridges in either direction outlined by the skyline. It was quite a picturesque location, I really liked it.

Eventually it was time to head back to Old Town Bratislava and meet up with everyone for dinner. We walked back into Old Town and went to a traditional Slovakian restaurant. For dinner I ordered grilled honey chicken topped with bacon accompanied by a side of potatoes as well as a side of vegetables. It was extraordinarily good. I loved it! The dinner itself was worth the trip to Slovakia!

When we finished dinner we walked through Old Town once again and we stopped at a chocolate store/cafe. My professor told us to go there and order hot chocolate because he told us it was amazing. He was right on! The hot chocolate I ordered was literally chocolate from a chocolate fountain. It melted in your mouth and tasted superb. I don't think I've ever had such good hot chocolate. It definitely was worth the stop! After we drank our hot chocolate we had to get back to the train station to catch our one hour train back to Vienna.

Overall, Bratislava was an exceptional day trip. While Bratislava may seem a bit run down it is beginning to look very modernized. Along with its food and culture, I think Bratislava is on a great path to fully modernize. I'm really glad we were able to make the trip over there for the weekend.

Next weekend I am off to the Austrian city of Graz, then I am off to Istanbul, Turkey for 5 days. Should be an exciting period! Until next time, Auf Wiedersohen.

A Short Weekend in Prague

Last weekend we woke up on a early Saturday morning and took a five hour train to the city Prague in the Czech Republic! After a sleep filled five hour ride we arrive in the main train station in Prague. We walked quite a ways under a major free way up to the east side of town and found our hostel.

Once we were situated in our hostel we walked to one of the main city centers in Prague called "Old Town Square." On our way there we went through the very touristy shopping district (like always in any European city) and eventually found ourselves in a square with a variety of different street food vendors, music, and street performances going on. Immediately the smell of the amazing food from the stands grabbed my attention. I decided to go to a stand where they baked a delicious ham on an open wood flame and had a special side dish in with potatoes, sourcrout, and ham mixed all together. It definitely was a very delicious meal, although, my friend and I were unaware of the way in which they charged us for the meal. They weighed the food and charged us per 100 grams. In the end, we were charged with an almost 20 dollar lunch. But, it had to be easily in the top 10 best meals I've had in Europe so far!

From "Old Town Square" we walked down one of the main streets through a variety of different alley ways and found ourselves right next to the Prague Opera building. It is beautifully decorated and has a multitude of different gold panels and statues embroidering the building. From there, we crossed the Vltava river to the other side of town during dusk. It was quite a beautiful scene with shades of purple and red reflecting off the river and the hills surrounding the city.

After we crossed the river my friends stopped at a stand and bought a waffle with ice cream and maple syrup. I was disappointed I did not get this desert, it looked very good! From there we walked up the river until we got to another large bridge crossing the Vltava. This bridge was  erected in the 13th century by  King Charles IV and has survived numerous attacks through the years and has not ever collapsed in its history. It is a walking only bridge, and at the time we walked on it, was swarms of people! Along the bridge we saw various artists, street performers, and music playing.

On our way over the bridge we decided we were going to look for a place to go out for drinks and dinner. We decided on going to a place called the Communist Pub. It was once a bar used by the communists that once ruled the Czech Republic. During dinner I had a decent sausage dish and a very sweet beer. It had to be one of the sweetest I've ever drank. We stayed at the pub for a few hours and walked back the hostel to regroup on the next place we wanted to go to that night. We decided on going to a local bar near our hostel. Ever bar you go to in Prague is very cheap. Drinks range from 1 to 5 Euro when you do the conversion of their money into the Euro. Prague has to be the cheapest place to drink so far in my journey throughout Europe.

The next day we woke up in mid morning and decided to head to Prague castle and its large cathedral. On our way we stopped at "Old Town Square" once again for food, however, this time I went to another stand and bought a cabob on a stick with chicken, onions, and peppers with a bun. It was very very good! From there, we crossed the river and had to walk up a large hill to get up the sites we wanted to see for the day. One we reached the top we saw the old palace in Prague. We arrived when the changing of the guard was occurring. About 20 or so soldiers marched down the main street to the palace and did a celebratory march and anthem during the change. It was interesting to see this event because I've never witnessed a changing of the guard before anywhere else in the world!

Our group passed the palace and eventually made it to the front of the Prague Gothic Cathedral. This cathedral is much like the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. It has a ribbed ceiling with a high vaulted feeling within the church. It has a very long nave in the church as well. It was just a massive structure! Outside, it had large gothic murals as well as flying buttresses holding the structure up. It was quite amazing to see!

After we looked at the cathedral we walked through a small vineyard at the top of the largest hill in the city and overlooked the entire city of Prague. It was a very good view of the city. We saw everything for miles which was awesome. Once we finished overlooking the city we decided to hit up a place to eat right across the street from the Prague Opera building. I ordered a delicious serving of duck, potatoes, and sourcrout for lunch along with an original Budweiser beer (the American version of this copied it hundreds of years ago and sucks in comparison.). Just as we finished lunch it was about time to head back to the train station to head back to Vienna.

Overall, Prague was an awesome city to visit. Only being there for 48 hours wasn't enough time to see all the museums and sights. But, we were able to see Prague and get a good feeling for the city which is all that matters to me!

The last three major trips I have for my Europe term are a weekend in Krakow, Poland, 5 days in Istanbul Turkey, and the Christmas Markets in Nuremberg Germany to round off the trip! I am happy I have a few weeks off traveling during the weekends. I will now have a few weekends to enjoy the Vienna night life as well as venture the city more!

Budapest!

This past weekend my Mom and I caught a train to Budapest, Hungary for a 3 day weekend last Friday. Going to Hungary has been a priority this Euro trip since some of my family roots originate there.   What makes it special is that I am 25% Hungarian and my family is only third generation Hungarians back in US. It also was a special trip since my Mom was able to go along!

After a three hour train ride from Vienna we arrive to Budapest. It was late when we arrived but we were able to navigate our way through the subway system and arrive at our destination in Octagon Square near the city center on the Pest side of Budapest. (note: Budapest is literally a combination of two city names. One side is called Buda while the other is called Pest. The Danube divides the two cities.) We were able to check into our apartment with ease. To our surprise, the owner of the apartment agreed to give us a tour of Budapest the next day. Once plans were made my Mom and I walked over to Jokai park near the Octagon to find a place to eat.

We searched through the various restaurants and decided to go to a place called "Karma". It is a progressive restaurant based on a variety of different western and eastern themes. Their food is based off a mixture of European, Hungarian, and the far east. I decided to get a Hungarian dish which was grilled catfish with bacon, potatoes, greens, and spice. It was sensational tasting and spicy. My Mom decided to get a green soup with jalapeno peppers with a special Hungarian bread. She liked her dish as well due to the spice in the food. After dinner we walked back to our place and hit the sack since we had a busy day planned for Saturday!

On Saturday morning we woke up and met our apartment owner Monica for our tour of Budapest. First we started our tour going to a famous cafe in a large modern book store. The cafe itself was dated back to the 1800's and was painted in neoclassical style. It was one of the coolest cafe's I've been in Europe so far due to the masterful artwork on the ceiling. Once we finished our drinks we went over to St. Stephans Basilica to visit one of the most beautiful churches I've ever been in. It was built in the late 1800's and was not completed until just before the first World War. It's architecture style was neoclassical with a large dome over the center nave of the church. It felt like I was in church completely based off ancient Roman architecture. Another striking image was the main altar of the church. It stood out due to its size and large gold plating. Just above it were gold painted fresco's which made it completely awe-striking.

Once we left the church Monica took us to the biggest indoor market in Eastern Europe. It was a large building with three floors of street shops encompassing a variety of street vendors ranging from cloths, jewelry, food, and street food. We did a little gift shopping for friends and family back home. After shopping for about an hour Monica tells us there is a great restaurant right besides the Gellert Baths. (our next destination and activity for the day) We thanked Monica for the short morning tour of Budapest and headed over the Danube to the Buda side of the city to get to baths.

While I cannot remember the place we ate at for lunch, it was adjacent to the Gellert Baths. It was a traditional Hungarian restaurant, and of course, my Mom and I both had Hungarian food once again. I first started out with meat pancakes. It is a light pancake filled with beef and sauce. It was amazing, it definitely is a  MUST GET while in Hungary. For lunch I had pork chops smothered with spices, greens, potatoes, and seasonings. This lunch was quite exceptional, but the best is yet to come!

Before coming to Budapest my Mom and I both agreed we must go to a famous Roman styled bath house there. We ended up going to the oldest and most famous Gellert Baths. When we arrived we had to go through a maze of changing rooms and other rooms to find the baths. It took us a good hour and a half to finally figure out how to navigate the place. The first bath we entered was a warm 36*C pool. It was very crowded and was not near a sauna so we decided to go to the outdoor pool since a sauna was adjacent to the outside pool. After about 2 hours in the pool we went into the sauna before we had to brave the cold to get back into the changing rooms. (Let me remind you, it was probably 45*F outside and raining.) Overall, I wish Gellert Baths were warmer. My Mom and I should have done more prior research to figure out that the other numerous bath houses across Budapest all had varying temperatures for their pools. Depending on who you are, if you like hotter pools try and check out the other bath houses in Budapest before making a decision on which on you want to go to.

After the bath house my Mom and I had to walk on the side of the Danube quite a ways before we made it to a subway station to get back across the river. However, on the walk we were able to see the famous Budapest Castle on our side as well as look across the river and see Budapest's Parliament building. Once we made it back to the subway we rode back to Octagon. Once we had a few hours to rest in the apartment we went back over to Jokai square to another great restaurant. (this restaurant was next to Karma, but I cannot recall its name)

This time my Mom and I had to have Hungary's famous Chicken Paparikas meal. Basically, it is a chicken dipped and surrounded by paparikas sauce and accompanied by a large dumpling on the side. It was one of the best meals I've had in Europe. Everyone who goes to Hungary needs to get this meal, it is completely worth it! Once dinner was over we retired back to the apartment and went to bed after a long day touring Budapest.

The next day we slept in very late and packed our stuff up. We left around noon walking in a rain storm back to the train station. It was quite a walk since we made a few wrong turns here and there and had to back track a few times to get back on track. For lunch we stopped on the way to the rain station at another traditional Hungarian restaurant. This time around I had goose leg, greens, sourcrout, and potatoes. Once again it was a great meal, especially the goose leg. Once we finished lunch we were able to find the right street down to the train station. After walking for nearly two and a half hours for the day we caught our train back to Vienna with plenty of time spare.

Overall Hungary was a great experience! Even though we had problems converting their currency and dealing with crummy weather it was definitely a successful trip. The food was amazing as well as the city. Everyone I encountered knew English and was very nice. Throughout the entire trip I felt like I was put in the mid 1990's due to the backwardness of the current city. However, you can see everywhere the city is making strides to modernize. I definitely want to go back to Hungary someday. Everyone who is in central Europe needs to make the trip over there. You won't be disappointed!

I am off to Prague this weekend so expect another fun filled blog next week!

Touring around Vienna with my Mom

This past week has been super exciting. My Mom was on her way to Vienna on the last leg of her Euro trip before heading back to the US. We spent five good days together and enjoyed every minute of it enjoying sights, food, and new places.

Last Wednesday night my Mom arrived into Vienna! I picked her up at the train station and took her to her hotel near my dorm. That night, we went out to one of the best Japanese Restaurants in Vienna called Japanisch.(Which is considered Vienna's best Japanese restaurant) We both ordered Bento boxes of a different variety. I ordered fried teriyaki chicken and she had chicken curry. Along with the meat we had sushi, soup, vegetables, salad, and rice. It was an awesome meal. During dinner it was fun to reconnect with my Mom in person and discuss our various travels throughout Europe over the past month. Seeing a family member half way through my Europe study abroad semester was relieving since I was starting to miss my family.

The very next day I agreed to show my Mom around Vienna. Our trip encompassed various sights I thought she’d find interesting throughout the city. I first took her to St. Stephans cathedral in the center of the city. I wanted to show her some a gothic style church so she can compare it to the Renaissance inspired churches she saws in Italy.  After I showed my Mom the church I took her to the famous Café Central near the center of the city. It is known for being one of the most famous cafes in all of central Europe and the world. I ordered a hazelnut based hot chocolate while we ordered a Viennese an espresso with apricot brandy. Both drinks were superb! Along with our drinks we ordered lunch as well. I ordered veal while she ordered vegetable lasagna. Like the drinks, both were very good!

After lunch I took my Mom past the central palace and passed the Parliament building to the Ringstrasse (where the older city walls used to be). At the Ringstrasse we passed the magnificent city hall as well as Uni Wien (University of Vienna) where I attend school. Then we took the subway outside the old city into the suburbs where Schonbron palace and its vast gardens are located. Schonbronn palace is the old ruling family’s (Habsburg) summer palace. It is based on the design of Versailles in France but on a smaller scale.

We ventured into the gardens and saw a variety of different large fountains and statues. There were many intricate flower designs as well as lined trees changing into their autumn colors. It was a relaxing experience since we were able to sit in the lower garden and upper garden overlooking the entire city of Vienna. The view is quite extravagant because the entire city is viewable from the point we were at. The many large church steeples were the tallest buildings in the city in contrast to the many skyscrapers that line our cities.

Once we finished our long walk through the gardens we returned to her hotel and went out to dinner at a traditional Vienna beer garden. We both ordered Vienna brewed Ottakringer beer as our drinks. It is a light beer. Along with our beers we I ordered traditional pork chops while my Mom ordered the Viennese specialty cordon blue. Cordon blue is fried pork chop with ham and cheese fried inside of the batter. Dinner was very good, I was glad I was able to take my Mom to a traditional Viennese restaurant before we headed out to Budapest!

The next day we were off to Budapest. That’s a story for another time. To be continued soon….

German class, tours, and some basketball

This past Monday we started German class here in Vienna. Let me tell you, it is very difficult to go 5 days of the week for 3 hours of intensive language learning! Our first week we mainly worked on simple vocabulary and phrases. For example, we learned how to have a short conversation and answer a variety of questions. A few examples are saying how are you, where do you live, where do you come from, what is your name, do you have kids, are you married/in relationship etc.

Here is a little German:

Und wer sind Sie?- What is your name (formal)

Ich HeiBe Matt- I am called Matt

Woher kommst Sie?- Where are you from?

Ich komme aus den USA- I am from the USA.

I can go on and on. There are around 20 to 30 phrases we learned so far and about 150 vocab words. Also, we learned the alphabet as well as counting 1-20. I think by the time the 8 weeks are over I will have learned enough German to hopefully understand 50% of the German I hear on the streets. 

Along with the German I had my other classes which were fun as well. I won't bore you talking about those. 

This past Friday we went to Dickmacs bar in the Schwedenplatz district of the city. It is an American/Irish themed bar with cheap drinks! Mixed drinks were 2.80 euro so we were able to enjoy the night without a large bar tab. Overall, it was a great night with great laughs. We all enjoyed our night out for the week.

Following up Friday night our entire IGE group went on two tours on Saturday. Our first tour was to Klosterneuburg Monastery right outside of Vienna. It is considered one of the oldest monasteries in all of Austria. Although, over the ages different Emperors have added more and more art from a variety of different artistic styles ranging from Gothic to Baroque art. One of the pieces I was most intrigued by was an alter piece from the Middle Ages that dated back to around 1134 AD. It was a gold plated altar that had three main sections each having 20 or so scenes from the Old Testament (before Moses received the commandments), Old Testament once again (from the commandments on), and the center piece of the altar were scenes from the New Testament. 

Along with seeing the church we also went through a museum and the residence of the monastery. The residence was built for the Emperors 3 day stay each year celebrating the feast of a Saint who found the monastery. It was all in baroque style art which is super extravagant and colorful. 

After the monastery we got some lunch and then went the Essel Museum for contemporary art right down the street. It was filled with abstract, realist, and socialist realism  paintings. It was cool having our professors discuss the various pieces of art and their meanings. It was a fun experience but by the time we made it to that museum we were all super exhausted!

Today I went and played basketball at Sports and Fun which is about 35 or so minutes away from my dorm on strassenbahn. I went and did drills for a few hours since no one was there playing. :( This has happened at least 2 times since I've to this place. Even though no one else is playing people tend to watch me do various ball handling drills and are impressed by them. Younger kids who are playing soccer have come over and wanted to play with me. One time I managed to teach them the game of "horse" in broken pieces of German and English. I think they liked the game, although, they lost interest after 10 minutes or so and went back to soccer. I am going to check out a few other places to see if I have better luck in finding other people to play with! Although, it has been fun over the past 2 and a half weeks to be playing basketball 3 times a week. 

This upcoming week my Mom is getting into Vienna on Wednesday! I am super excited to see her. We are planning to go to Budapest, Hungary for the weekend. It should be a fun trip! Until next time, I will hopefully have learned some more German and I will have had a great time in Budapest.