We initially planned to go Bratislava today, but put it off to tomorrow because we simply did not check out the buses and trains. I guess it’s more accurate to say that we may just be more interested in Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn is the imperial palace in Austria, said to be modeled after the Versailles in France for the Queen wished for similar residence. And they have very extravagant lifestyle as well. Based on hearsay, there is a zoo (the family keeps exotic animals for pets), labyrinth garden, a desert climate greenhouse, top of the hill coffee place etc. Sounds way cool, and curious to know what it is like.
We got the map location for the palace, and attempted to walk there. And the funny thing is, it is this attempt that we experienced for the 3rd time the hospitality of Austrians. This time round, it nearly shocked us.
At a traffic junction not far from our hostel, on our way to Schonbrunn, we met a smartly dressed man. He offered his help for we looked totally unlike locals, fortunately. We told him our intent to visit Schonbrunn, and ask him for directions. He advised us to take the tram, that some people (or most) take it for free. And the conductor seldom checks. Not used to such a system, we decided against testing our luck on a foreign transport system and take up the hardly enjoyable activity of walking there. Perhaps it was pity on us, or just out of pure kindness, or both, he actually offered to CHAUFFEUR us there!!! It’s just so fairy tale like, we simply can’t believe it. He said there’s just enough space in his vehicle for the 4 of us, and he’s passing by Schonbrunn as well. I think this special kindness of Austrians amazes me more than any monument or majestic architecture in Austria. We hardly had enough courteous conscience to even ask for his name, but I remembered his car plate number 77884. Whoever you may be, we sincerely thank you for your help, and that you gave us the best impression of Austrians.
Schonbrunn looks like a super big mansion, yellow and rectangular. It’s front courtyard is flanked by walls and within lies 2 fountains. It’s winter time, so all the fountains are frozen solid. In the middle of the courtyard, another Christmas market was set up. We hardly had time for that, and were more interested in the gardens than imperial interiors of the palace. And we started off our exploration with the rose archway. However, it’s just a barren structure of creepers in the cold winter; I don’t blame them for not blooming in the temperatures of -5 degC. We came to a pond next, water still flowing apparently with the help of warmers and inhabited with ducks that fly. Yes, it is here that we finally see ducks fly, unless those that appear on our dinner plates.
Beyond this pond is some garden, all barren and brown that makes us uninterested at all. Next comes a gigantic fountain, the biggest inhabited fountain be have seen in Austria up till now and its inhabitants consist of ducks, mandarin and brown, with pigeons for neighbours. And we seriously had a lot of fun trying to stealthily catch the ducks on the pretext of having them for dinner (just joking). We didn’t try to enter the desert greenhouse, it requires an admission fee which we supposed would not be something we are interested in. Passing it by, we walked along the zoo. And how do we know it’s the zoo? The first presence of deers. Yes, we saw deers through the fence. Not to mention they were cohabitating with rhinoceros. Checking out the entrance to the zoo, I realised that they had piranhas as well, with destinated days for feeding shows as well! That could be the highlight of our trip here, but alas! We are there on the wrong day.
Should you look at the entire garden and compound of the palace, you can actually realize how extravagant the imperial family is. I don’t think I’m wrong to say the entire compound area actually can rival the compound of Home Team Academy back home. The surface area of the various places, coupled with the amount of resources needed to keep and maintain them, could be used to bring thousands begging in the streets out of the poverty circle, even at the very least feed them. I wonder, truly, if that represents the spending power of royal families around the world. And how royal can they be, if they can’t even solve the plague inflicted upon every single nation in the world, poverty?
The first outlawed thing done on this trip happened after Schonbrunn. After hearing Mr Nice Guy 77884 (I don’t know what else to call him, hehe), we’ve decided to take the Underground to Stadt Park. The experience is very unfamiliar, for we are all used to the ticket gates of Singapore’s MRT and London’s Tube. However, here in Vienna, their Underground is marked by railings and a simple card slot machine on one of the railings. People walked in and out without seeming to pay for anything. And to act as if we know the system, we walked through those gates as well trying to hold our anticipation. Nothing happened, no alarm or conductor to stop us. I guess they assumed we have the Vienna Tourist Card or whatever you call it, which allows 72 hours of unlimited travel on local transport. Seems like we’ve chanced upon a deal, a cheapskate one no doubt.
Stadt Park is nothing grand and impressive, I’m afraid. Maybe London’s Hyde Park formed an expectation unknowingly, but we weren’t anymore entertained here and anywhere else. Perhaps the only touristy thing we ever saw is the golden statue of Johann Strauss, which I think most tourists will take pictures of. After that, we tried walking to the mosaic museum that the hostel reception introduced us to. However, we ended up walking to an art museum after some 1 hour of walking. Wrong direction and mistaken location, I believe. The only lucky thing is that our location is so close to Sudbahnhof that we’ve decided to ask about tickets to Bratislava and timetable for trains to Prague. That’s about the most efficient thing we’ve done since our visit to Schonbrunn.
The train to Bratislava is 14e, but with Vorteilcard that we bought for the use of moving between cities, we can get some 15% discount. That brings to 12e. Subsequent checks that the bus station proves that buses are longer and more expensive than trains. Beyond that, we are effectively exhausted and hungry enough to think of going back to Radatz for lunch. So being cheapos again, we took the free (?) Underground to Radatz and of course, the people recognized us I guess. We can’t speak German and ended up pointing and using sign language but still had a great meal of meat, cheap too.
Activity after dinner was visiting the Museum Quartier again. This time round, we went in instead but ghianpng as we are, the free museums are the ones that took our eye. We ended up with the contemporary arts which is my favourite. Had a lot of fun with their interactive arts, of which I took a video of a sand-screen performance. The contemporary arts museum do warrant a visit, if you’re bored like us =)
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