Well, it’s been a while. It’s been a fun last month and a half here in Vienna. There’s so much to write about. I hope I can capture most of it in this post. Next week I’ll be leaving my dorm here for good and starting a month or so of travel with friends and family (looking forward to it, Mom and Dad!).
First Visitors
As my first visitors, Uncle Tom and Aunt Suzy were a bit of the “guinea pigs” when it came to my general tour of Vienna. As I’ll explain later in this post, I had another round of visitors later in the month, and these experiences have helped me better fine-tune what is worth everyone’s time here in Vienna and how much time things take to do. So my apologies for the general lack of planning on my part for that! But I guess it’s best to have a trial by error than anything else. Hopefully, that means by the time my final visitors arrive, I’ll have the most epic tour circuit imaginable lined up. 20 miles a day or bust!
Just kidding. I’ll make sure to keep it at 15 miles a day.
Anyway, I can’t thank Uncle Tom and Aunt Suzy enough for all the generosity and fun we had in Vienna. I really appreciate the opportunity to see the cultural experiences of Vienna through the opera and a musical performance in the Musikverein. There is something so classically Viennese (and Austrian) about the epic musical expression of opera. The Wiener Staatsoper (the Vienna Opera House) is truly a palace to the art of opera. It’s a spectacular late 19th-century building constructed during the same time as the rest of the Ringstrasse. Despite being heavily bombed during WW2, the Austrians chose it as one of the first major reconstruction projects because of their love for the opera and its importance to Vienna. It looks almost untouched from the scars of war today, save for the replacement of some stones and the more modern amenities on the upper floors (including air-conditioning!).
The opera we watched was Don Pasquale. I honestly don’t know much about opera, but I found it to be genuinely entertaining and a feat of musical and physical ability. To be able to sing that loudly for minutes on end is incredible! We also went to a concert at the Musikverein- the main music hall here in Vienna. It’s a beautiful venue, if a bit weird. It’s not the typical concert hall one would expect and instead is laid out almost like a school gym. The floor seats are removable to allow large balls to take place during the ball season, and it feels much more intimate than the massive size of the Staatsoper. Here are some fun photos of us together touring around Vienna. Thanks for keeping up with me!
Trip to Bratislava
Biking to Bratislava was on the list of bike rides I wanted to do while in Vienna. Before coming to Vienna, I spent time researching different routes and bike rides to do when I arrived. Most of these rides I never actually did (or did and decided that I didn’t like them). It was more of a way to waste time and daydream before my arrival. But of those rides, one of the main ones I had planned to do was a trip to Bratislava. At this point, I had still not been to Slovakia, despite Bratislava being only about an hour away by train. Finally, on a hot day at the end of May, I saw that the wind direction was right and decided to full-send it to Bratislava. The city is almost exactly 45 miles away from Vienna by bike (so double that round trip). It sits directly on the Danube River bike trail too, which made it an easy path to follow. That is, of course, assuming that the Danube Trail is easy to follow. As usual, the Austrians amaze me with how awful some of their bike trails can be. The Danube bike path is the most important bike path in Austria and by far the most traveled. It’s essentially the equivalent of the Lake Front Trail and the Fox River Trail combined. Yet despite its importance, some sections are seriously lacking. There was one section in particular that was just awful. It was about a half-mile-long bridge with a bike path/ sidewalk running along the side. The path was one-way and only wide enough for one person riding or walking. I’d be ok with it if it was a short section. But it was HALF A MILE LONG. And you had to keep your eyes ahead to not run into the high railings no more than a few inches away from the handlebars (and I was on a narrow road bike, too!). Just crazy. You’d think that the Austrians, with their amazing road and rail infrastructure, would be able to put more money into their bike trails.
I didn’t spend much time in Bratislava (admittedly only about half an hour), but from my quick impressions, I really liked what I saw. It’s definitely a small city, but it felt like a liveable one at that. It had a great newly redeveloped riverfront and broad parks. Its old town seemed quaint, and the castle looming over it was super cool too. They also have a modern-looking new residential and business district just south of the old town.
Prague and Stag Parties
Prague was a totally last-minute trip decision. It’s not exactly close to Vienna, at over five hours away by train. The Czech Republic hasn’t really invested much in its rail infrastructure. By no means is it bad, but it doesn’t have any high-speed line that cuts through the country or connects Prague to Brno (the second-biggest city). That’s also the main reason why I never ended up getting to Berlin during my time here in Vienna. I really wanted to make it to Berlin, but the train ride was too long. A direct train route to Berlin would travel from Vienna north to Brno, northwest to Prague, and then to Berlin via Dresden. This route makes a ton of sense, considering the number of large cities it would connect, but the Czech government has shown little movement on this front. This means that the quickest way to Berlin from Vienna is back through Germany and then completely around Czechia, resulting in a trip of well over 8 hours.
Anyway, my group of friends here discovered that we could get extremely cheap train tickets to Prague using our student discounts (that’s a theme for this whole study abroad experience). The ticket to Prague was around 25 euros, while the one back was only 16 euros! The train ride was long, but a very comfortable ride through the Czech countryside. It reminded me a lot of southwestern Wisconsin. If you’re familiar with the Driftless Area, the Czech countryside looks very similar. There are no epic mountains, but the landscape is still sublimely beautiful, with rolling hills and small villages. Since everything about the trip was planned last-minute (literally five days before) we had found basically one of the last good Airbnbs imaginable. To our surprise, the place we stayed at was amazing. For a solid price, we got to stay right near the center of the city and in a beautiful 19th-century apartment building with tall ceilings and massive windows.
We spent the next few days touring around Prague’s Old City and enjoying the sites and sounds of the city. Prague definitely suffers from an over-tourism problem, though. The main central square (whose name I’m not even going to attempt to spell because it’s too hard) was always mobbed with people. The road leading to the Charles Bridge, the most popular site of the city, was completely inundated with tourists during the day and sometimes impassible. I think it’s telling that Prague actually gets slightly more visitors than Vienna does (or around the same amount) despite being 2/3 the size of Vienna. It definitely feels like the city is overwhelmed sometimes. With that said, it’s still not nearly as bad as Amsterdam (I wouldn’t recommend anyone go there- avoid it like the plague). Prague still maintains much of its charm if you just move a few streets off the tourist area. My friends and I had no problem leaving the crowds behind and seeing less-touristy areas of the city literally only a few streets away from the Charles Bridge.
The biggest nuisance of all from our time in Prague was the Stag parties. Prague is a popular destination for British "Stag" parties. Stag parties are the British equivalent of a bachelor party and involve multiple nights of debauchery. The man getting married dresses up in a ridiculous costume (like a pig or a baby- we saw both), and then his friends parade him around the city while absolutely trashed. For some reason, Prague is an extremely popular place for Stag Parties and for drunken British tourists. I have to say, that for me personally, drunken British tourists are the worst type of tourist imaginable. With that said, it was rather funny watching a group of British Stag party guys attempt to get their dead electric scooters across the Charle Bridge late at night. With the motor dead, they struggled to scoot the things across the cobblestone bridge while my friends and I watched. Not one of them seemed to realize that the motor was dead.
Anyway, here are a bunch of pretty photos of Prague!
Visitors #2
The following weekend after my trip to Prague I was visited by some friends from the Illini Cycling Club. One of them, Joey, is currently doing his graduate studies in Innsbruck. I plan on staying with him in July before I travel to Italy. The other friend, Ryan, was visiting Giulia, a mutual friend of ours (also on the cycling team) who currently lives in Munich (and who I visited early in the year at the end of February). We definitely did a bit of a whirlwind tour of the city in a few days. They had limited time and wanted to see everything they could as fast as possible, even tiring me out by the end! But as my second visitors, I really started to fine-tune what was important and what most people liked to see. I think they thoroughly enjoyed the city (or at least I hope they did!).
Alps I
I’ve always maintained that the United States is the most beautiful country in the world. Of course, there’s no way I’d ever be able to fully quantify that belief. It’s simply hard to beat the utter raw beauty of the United States. It really is something that needs to be seen to be believed. I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve been able to experience many of the most beautiful places in our vast country (Thanks Mom and Dad!). With that said a big part of the beauty of the US comes from the fact that it is so big. Practically every biome imaginable lies within our country, many of which are nearly untouched by the mark of mankind.
Austria is very different. Its nature is more cultivated, less wild, but also much more easily accessible. But despite this, it still maintains some of the most scenic areas in Europe and the world. For a country only 1/117 the size of the United States, Austria packs incredible scenery within its small borders. It’s the readily accessible ease of its nature that encouraged me and some of my friends here to embark on a five-day hiking trip in the Alps. Austria’s National rail service, ÖBB runs direct trains into the Alps either mid or late in the week and then sends those direct trains back to Vienna on Sunday night. That way people from the city can access the Alps directly and return in time for the work week on Monday. It was one of these offers that we took advantage of. We traveled the 3.5 hours by train from Vienna to the town of Liezen in the eastern Austrian Alps for only around 20 Euros (with a student discount). Liezen itself isn’t that pretty. It’s touristy (with locals that is) and is the regional shopping center. There are a bunch of big box chain stores and huge parking lots. But it does have a killer viewpoint over its old town (which I’ll show later). We ended up booking an Airbnb in the nearby hamlet (I mean it’s literally just a row of houses) of Pürgschachen near the town of Ardning at the base of the Bosruck mountain. Despite being closer to Liezen, we actually spent most of our time in and around the town of Admont, further to the east. Admonts sits on the gateway to the Nationalpark Gesäuse, an absolutely spectacular range of mountains with an epic canyon carved through it by the River Enn (the longest river entirely in Austria and not to be confused with the river Inn- the one that goes through Innsbruck).
After settling down at our place the first night, we got up bright and early the following morning to attempt to summit Bosruck, the mountain directly above Ardning. We ended up getting up a bit before five in the morning, for fear of afternoon storms forecasted to hit the mountains. In fact, the weather forecast showed a rainout practically every day, but we only ran into rain on our last full day, and only for about an hour or so.
I won’t exactly go into all the details of this hike, but to say the least, we were not entirely prepared. For starters, I had no map of the hiking trails of the area since the nearby visitor center was in the town of Admont and opened later in the day (and therefore was impossible to get to if we wanted to get started early). We had a general idea of where the hike would take us based on a screenshot and also my usual “we can do this” attitude toward the unknown. Moreover, one of my friends, Peter, had forgotten to bring a water bottle on the hiking trip. Yes, he forgot the most important thing to bring on a hiking trip. I had brought two bottles of water on the trip and thus shared them with him (although annoyed since I had planned on using both for myself).
To preface, I think I frequently get an idea in my head and continually strive towards it, especially when it comes to anything like hiking, biking, running, etc. I guess that sometimes leads to the classic “Summit Fever” where the strive to reach the summit leads to significantly more work than I (or others) had signed up for. With that said, most of the time it’s worth it, if not for the utter satisfaction of doing something epic. This was most certainly one of those cases.
In the end, I don’t think I or any of my friends anticipated the total hike to be around 14 miles with 4,000 ft of elevation gain. But that’s probably what happens when you don’t have a good map. But, man was it awesome! And trust me- it’s not just me saying that too. As my friend Anna said later “I don’t think I’d do that again anytime soon, but it was incredibly awesome all the same!” Is this hike the hardest I’ve ever done? No. But I think it’s probably up there on the list. There may have been a time in Arizona (Sedona) when similar mistakes were made that was worst (and that was way hotter too). Anyway, here are a bunch of awesome photos of us on top of an epic mountain!
The next day we slept in and took the bus to the town of Admont to check out the visitor center (get a map!) and see the library of the local monastery. The Admont Monastery is a fascinating collection of classical and late-baroque architecture. The library is absolutely stunning, if a bit expensive for its entrance fee. The monastery also has a bizarre collection of badly taxidermized animals- if you’re into that.
Afterward, we boarded a bus to make it to the Noth Klamm River area, near the town of Gams bei Hieflau. I knew that the bus could take us all the way to the village of Mooslandl via a spectacular drive through the national park, and naively thought there might be a semi-easy way to go over the hill to the neighboring town and the super cool looking river. This was, of course, wrong. So we ended up instead spending some time walking up a nearby hill from the town of Mooslandl and enjoying the views from a meadow above a farmer's field. Probably one of the funniest things about the tiny town of Mooslandl was that there was essentially nothing open of value on a Friday afternoon. We discovered that a gas station was open, and assumed that they’d have some snacks inside to grab before the bus ride back to Admont. Upon entering, we discovered that this “convenience store” was more so a bar serving a few snacks. They had a bar up front and four classic convenience store refrigerators (you know the type). Except only one of them actually had drinks and a few snacks, the other three were brimming with beer. Here are a bunch of photos from the meadow of Mooslandl- with the mountains of the National Park in the background.
The next day, thoroughly exhausted from all the hiking, we decided to take it easy and explore around Admont. We ate breakfast together along the Esslingbach River and walked around the valleys around Admont. We also decided to climb one of the smaller hills near Admont and get a spectacular view of the town and the surrounding mountains. Along the way, we stopped at the coziest small-town bakery imaginable, the bakery Schmid in the commune of Hall just north of Admont. It was run by the nicest family who lived above the bakery. They had two little kids playing out in the front garden with their Grandmother while their Mom helped to run the bakery and their Dad ran the delivery truck service into Admont and surrounding towns. After enjoying some of their baked goods, we ascended the Dorfelstein hill next to the village Church and ate lunch on a bench next to the cross on top. It was a wonderfully peaceful experience.
The final day was Sunday, June 11th. Since it was Sunday, there was essentially nothing we could do for hours. So we traveled by bus back to Liezen (where our train departed), ate breakfast, and then sat up on a hilltop for hours staring at the view of the clouds moving over the mountains in the valley. It was a great end to an incredible, but sadly very short, five-day journey into the Alps. Everyone was sad to return to Vienna, especially since the return meant that the hardest days of classes (final exams) were nearing.
Alpine Impressions and final thoughts
I cannot even begin to explain how nice everyone was in the Alps. As I’ve mentioned before, people in Vienna can be mean and sometimes rude. They also constantly have a frown on them (which I’ve begrudgingly adopted), which really dampens spirits. This is, of course, even though Vienna is a beautiful and very liveable city. The Alps, on the other hand, are entirely different. The people are welcoming and have no problem giving you directions or recommendations on what to do. Our Airbnb host, a lovely elderly woman (with two adorable grandchildren) greeted us every morning before we left the house (as did an army of free-roaming chickens). People were overwhelmingly helpful and even generously gave directions and recommendations of where to hike. One older woman who was watering her flowers asked where we were headed and helped give us directions and was also so excited to see foreign tourists in her part of the Alps. That was one thing I particularly enjoyed about this area. We were probably the only English-speaking tourists there. There were plenty of Austrian tourists there, but it seems that the valleys around Liezen and Admont are not as well known by foreign tourists. The lack of tourists probably helps explain why everyone was so welcoming and excited to show us around and recommend places to go. If there was one thing I wish we had, it would be a car. While it’s great that we could get around using the bus system, it severely limited where we could go and how easily we could experience the area. I hope someday I’ll be able to return to Admont and Liezen with a car and truly experience the beautiful nature (Oh- and do a whitewater rafting excursion down the Enn!).
Oh- one last picture from the trip. Spotted this in Liezen!
The final few weeks since the Alpine trip have been super hectic. Finishing class projects and exams has been stressful (as ever), as well as selling off some of the things I bought here- especially my road bike. In the end, after a bit of a frantic search, I sold it off for a good price and recovered the vast majority of the money I spent on it. I’m extremely glad and grateful I bought a bike here. I can’t imagine my time in Europe without it. It allowed me to see so much more of Austria and the countries around it as well. I’m very fortunate to have had those adventures and have met people along the way. Despite how annoying it sometimes was to repair, fit in a small dorm room, or sell in a rather hurried rush, it was 100% worth it. I wouldn’t change a thing about my decision to buy one here. There really is no better way to explore a city and a region than by bike.
Anyway, that's it for this post. The next time I post it'll likely be somewhere in Italy. Crazy to think that there is only about a month left of my time here in Europe! How time flies. Hope you made it through this long post!
Wow great post! So glad you had Uncle Tom and Aunt Suzy join you in Vienna - they said they had such fun! Your trip to Nationalpark Gesäuse looked spectacular - a 14 mile hike with 4,000 ft elevation gain - that is a record! And your photos are just amazing - I too loved that photo above Liezen! Can't believe Mom and I will be there in less than a week - can't wait Love ya.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait too! The time has really flown by. So excited to show you and Mom around!
DeleteHave to agree with your views on the beauty of the Austrian alps. I loved your description of the ascent of the Bosruck - what an epic climb! I still remember hiking in the Salzkammergut/Dachstein which was similarly stunning - and not far from where you were hiking, I gather. You've done an amazing job of using every opportunity for travel and discovery during your time in Austria. Well done!
ReplyDeleteOpps. Should have said, this is Uncle Tom!
DeleteThanks Uncle Tom! Still so thankful for giving me the opportunity to get the full cultural Viennese experience. Austria really is an amazing country.
DeleteWow! Photos and commentary excellent! Loved hearing your perspectives and as always, delivered with wicked good humor. You can have a second career as a travel writer. Miss you and wish I had planned a Nick Lenz tour. Good return on the investment. Love to you and have a blast with the parental units.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Aunt Kathy! Gotta thank years of watching Rick Steves for that!
DeleteBest post yet! Enjoyed hearing about your visitors. Special visit by Tom and Suzy. Set a tough bar for your parents when they come visit. (good work guys) Love seeing all the Illini abroad. Looking forward to hearing about Italy. Take care.
ReplyDeleteHi Uncle John, thank so much! It's great having lots of connections here to Illini- it's definitely come in handy!
DeleteAbsolutely amazing. It is so fun living vicariously through your posts. I love your adventurous spirit and seeing the beauty of the world through your stunning photos. Keep ‘em coming and have fun with your mom and dad!
ReplyDeleteHi Aunt Dori! I'll definitely be keeping it up- I've got a busy next month. So excited to be able to share it with everyone!
ReplyDelete