In Part 1, we had a handful of days in Vienna with Carly. But she had to leave and we had to press on and enjoy dreary old wonderful Vienna (and more) without her.
On the day she left, the three of us who remained took a tour of the underground catacombs under St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is Vienna's big, central church. The tour started off shaky, as we weren't sure whether we'd see dead bones or not because we were looking at some burial sites of former priests and the like.
Suddenly there appeared a hole in the floor of one room which was quite literally filled with bones. Mostly arms and legs, with skulls neatly placed on top. Very cool. The next room was lined around the walls, and still another was full of haphazard skeletal remains.
My bride-to-be was in heaven. I ignored this possible red-flag.
No photos allowed though, so I can't share any.
We stuck around the city center until dusk, hoping to get a nice glimpse of things under the lights, and we were both very glad that we did.
The next day we were off to Bratislava, Slovakia on a day-trip. We took a fairly early bus (only about an hour) across the border and we had a plan to see their main castle before taking a walking tour at about 2:30 in the afternoon.
The city was pleasant - not overwhelmingly beautiful but certainly not dull or boring. The (fairly new) castle looked best in twilight, as you'll see below. We mostly just strolled through squares and past churches, and upon reaching the top of the hill where the castle sits, we were able to see the communist history, as the entire slate of suburbs to the south are virtually identical. It's an eerie feeling. I, of course, failed to take a photo of this because I'm an idiot.
We ate some traditionally Slovak food, although I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what it was, aside from tasty and filling. The walking tour was cool, although it focused largely on the alcohol-culture of Bratislava, which isn't my forte, but there were certainly educational slants and our tour-guide was a very nice young lass. We saw the "famous" blue cathedral, which is just what it sounds like, and by the time the sun went down, we were ready to head back to Vienna.
What a place to go back to.
We had one more "task" to take care of before Christmas actually happened. On Christmas Eve we met up with one of Jenna's friends and her husband, who happened to live in Germany (different than the other ones from Thanksgiving) but were in Vienna for Christmas and we needed to spend a little time with them. They were delightful.
The four of us wandered the main Christmas markets on a beautifully sunny day and then we headed to the Prater. The Prater is a big old park that supposedly bustles in the summer but is open all winter, and it features Scooby-Doo-like carnival atmosphere year-round - especially when it's mostly empty. The attractions feature weird giant plastic monsters, 40-foot-tall clown faces, fun-houses, and all sorts of things that you'd never see at Six Flags because they're old-fashioned.
The Prater is the greatest.
It also has a giant observation wheel from an old World's Fair, which you can rent out and dine inside of, which is a very cool idea. The cars hold 20+ people. We rode it, and the wind would regularly swing the whole room, causing fits of nervous laughter from everyone.
On the day she left, the three of us who remained took a tour of the underground catacombs under St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is Vienna's big, central church. The tour started off shaky, as we weren't sure whether we'd see dead bones or not because we were looking at some burial sites of former priests and the like.
Suddenly there appeared a hole in the floor of one room which was quite literally filled with bones. Mostly arms and legs, with skulls neatly placed on top. Very cool. The next room was lined around the walls, and still another was full of haphazard skeletal remains.
My bride-to-be was in heaven. I ignored this possible red-flag.
No photos allowed though, so I can't share any.
We stuck around the city center until dusk, hoping to get a nice glimpse of things under the lights, and we were both very glad that we did.
The next day we were off to Bratislava, Slovakia on a day-trip. We took a fairly early bus (only about an hour) across the border and we had a plan to see their main castle before taking a walking tour at about 2:30 in the afternoon.
The city was pleasant - not overwhelmingly beautiful but certainly not dull or boring. The (fairly new) castle looked best in twilight, as you'll see below. We mostly just strolled through squares and past churches, and upon reaching the top of the hill where the castle sits, we were able to see the communist history, as the entire slate of suburbs to the south are virtually identical. It's an eerie feeling. I, of course, failed to take a photo of this because I'm an idiot.
We ate some traditionally Slovak food, although I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what it was, aside from tasty and filling. The walking tour was cool, although it focused largely on the alcohol-culture of Bratislava, which isn't my forte, but there were certainly educational slants and our tour-guide was a very nice young lass. We saw the "famous" blue cathedral, which is just what it sounds like, and by the time the sun went down, we were ready to head back to Vienna.
What a place to go back to.
We had one more "task" to take care of before Christmas actually happened. On Christmas Eve we met up with one of Jenna's friends and her husband, who happened to live in Germany (different than the other ones from Thanksgiving) but were in Vienna for Christmas and we needed to spend a little time with them. They were delightful.
The four of us wandered the main Christmas markets on a beautifully sunny day and then we headed to the Prater. The Prater is a big old park that supposedly bustles in the summer but is open all winter, and it features Scooby-Doo-like carnival atmosphere year-round - especially when it's mostly empty. The attractions feature weird giant plastic monsters, 40-foot-tall clown faces, fun-houses, and all sorts of things that you'd never see at Six Flags because they're old-fashioned.
The Prater is the greatest.
It also has a giant observation wheel from an old World's Fair, which you can rent out and dine inside of, which is a very cool idea. The cars hold 20+ people. We rode it, and the wind would regularly swing the whole room, causing fits of nervous laughter from everyone.
Prater from above. Note the giant clown left of the base of the tall green thing
As the afternoon sun started to get low - sunsets are early in wintry Vienna - we decided to part ways, as we needed to be at Norbert's sister's house around 6 for Christmas festivities. They do things totally differently in Austria: People buy their trees on the 24th and have someone take the kids out of the house. When the kids are gone, the tree gets decorated fully and gifts get placed under the tree (by a witch whose name I can't remember right now, f'real) and then when the kids return, everything's ready. Or the kids have to stay upstairs and a bell rings when it's time for them to run down and see the gifts. Real candles get put on the tree too, which is fine because the tree was alive until that morning and hasn't horribly dried out and caused fire scares yet.
It's quite an event.
It ended with us eating several plates of everything, too.
Christmas is different around the world, I guess, and this was our first taste in Vienna - apparently they don't really do much on the 25th, which we would find out. And you'll find out in part 3 of the Christmas diaries.
Oh, and here's just a random photo from Vienna.
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