First thing first, dinner with a friend I met in Bhutan 😊. He took me to a popular restaurant in Vienna. The schnitzel was soooo good. I had never had such delicious and succulent schnitzel before. The sauce that came with it was perfect. I think it was a mixture of some berries. I don’t remember. The salad was so fresh! I can feel the saliva rushing out to my mouth as I write this. 😀 Yeah, I know, I could have just said ‘mouth-watering’ but wouldn’t it be better to describe how your saliva reacts? Ok. I will stop here. It does make me sound like a dog drooling. By the way, it seemed everyone’s native tongue was Deutsch in the restaurant. Ok. I will really stop talking about mouth and tongue now. 😜 When I looked around, almost all of them were locals. Almost. Because I wasn’t a local. 😊 My friend told me this restaurant was so popular and busy that he had to book it in advance. It was packed that day. The waiters were very quick in taking orders too. Very impressed.
Lovely food with lovely wine and kind people.
What more could I ask for?
After my first bite of the schnitzel, I put my knife and fork down and took my camera out to take a photo which is this one. It was so good! My friend was happy to see that I enjoyed it so much. Excuse my own shadow. You see, I don’t like to edit my photos 😛
After dinner, my friend toured me around in the city centre. It was so beautiful at night.
Vienna at night
Speaking of Austria, a lot of people confuse it with Australia, I don’t understand why. The two countries speak different languages and they are so far apart and the pronunciation of these two words are quite different too. In fact, in my blog about my trip in Ephesus, Turkey, I mentioned the free walking tour guide I met in Izmir (he took his guests from his free walking tour to Ephesus on the same day as I went there) mistook an Austrian girl that I met at the train station in Selçuk as an Australian. He kept hassling the girl and saying bad things about Australia until she felt so uncomfortable that she left. Why did he do that? He whispered to me after the girl left, ‘I don’t like those Turkish who emigrated to other countries.’ I have no idea why he didn’t like them but I definitely don’t like the way he treated my newly met travel companion. He was supposed to be a tour guide and his guests were supposedly from everywhere in the world…
Anyway, let’s come back to Austria in 2012.
My other friend who is a musician / artist recommended me a few places in Austria. As a musician, she had been to Austria a few times.
Two of the places my friend suggested me to visit were Schoenbrunn Palace and Belvedere Palace. They are kind of close to each other so I decided to visit both palaces within one day. To do so, I needed to be at one of the palaces at the time when it opens and I did.
So, there I was, early in the morning without too many tourists.
The garden
I like this little path.
The palace again
The other corner of the palace
The view from the palace
Here’s the view of the palace.
The top of the trees looked so flat. 😊 The gardener did a really good job.
These ones look like the candle holder in Beauty and the Beast or the trees in Lord of the Rings. They move at night and when there’s nobody around…
Fountain at the palace. Fountains served as an air conditioner in the past.
Ah! The Easter market near the palace.
Look at these beautifully decorated Easter eggs! I should have bought them. Nah, considering I was travelling with a backpack and would be travelling to other countries after Austria, I stopped myself from buying anything. But if I go there again in Easter, I’ll buy one of these. Oh, actually, I may be able to find them online… Online shopping has become an essential part of our lives these days.
Here comes the second palace I went to, Belvedere Palace!
Another beautiful garden
Let’s take a look at the palace from this angle.
There must be a reason I went there but I forgot. Maybe I went there to buy the museum pass? Visiting museums or national galleries is always on my to-do list when I travel especially in Europe. So, maybe I went there to buy a pass which I could use in different museums in Austria?
Klimt’s pieces were exhibited here. I went to that exhibition. Some of his paintings were very erotic. The Kiss was good. I didn’t understand the meaning of the painting. Fortunately, there was a guide at the museum who explained everything for us.
This is so interesting. The city preserves the ancient construction (I believe it’s ‘ancient’) under the modern footpath.
Albertina. A must-go place.
A street corner
Some parts were under construction but the public could still get in.
Be careful! Oh, it’s not real.
Easter was coming so the purple cloth was hung up.
The body of Christ was covered by the purple cloth.
How did he do it? This is probably the easiest way to earn money. He was just sitting there for the whole day. Nobody could recognize him. I am sure there was a seat there but even my camera could not catch it. Where was it?
I like visiting churches especially in Europe.
This is so beautiful!
They were making chocolate. This chocolate shop was always very busy. Tourists can visit their ‘chocolate factory’. I think I bought some chocolate or a cake there. Gosh! I’m drooling again!
At night, I went to a concert. Did they play Mozart? I think they did!
Vienna was nice but Salzburg was even better.
I stayed in a retreat house on a mountain in Salzburg. I have always loved mountains. It reminded me of the Sound of Music!!!
I could have just taken a taxi but I chose to walk uphill instead. I like to imagine what it’d be like to live up on a mountain like this one. I am sure all these people have cars. They can’t walk up and down every day. It’d be too much for anyone.
Oh, look at the colour of the leaves! It’s so beautiful.
View from the mountain.
Salzburg
Door bells. ‘Maria!’ 😀
Church carved out of rocks
A visit to a church
Beautiful!
This is I think in the basement of the church… I don’t remember.
Oh, my goodness! This is gorgeous!
Another beautiful church
I really need someone to tell me which churches I visited in Austria. Or maybe I should go there again.
You can see how the buildings were carved out of the rock.
A cemetery. I love visiting cemeteries. They look so peaceful. These people have all rested in peace.
Mozart. I went to Bonn to visit Beethoven in 2002 and now I was here to visit Mozart. Salute to these masters.
Apparently, everyday is Christmas. Looks like the dog was doing some big business. LOL! Look at the tail. It looked a bit unnatural.
Beautiful carving
Albert Einstein
It seems all the trees were trimmed in the same manner.
I walked up a hill and found this church.
The church was closed but I could hear the monks chanting. I loved it so much that I sat outside and listened to them chant. It was so peaceful. It had some healing effects. Then my memories started to rush in – good and bad, sad and happy ones…
My phone vibrated.
I got a text message.
My friend in the UK announced that his first baby was born. Both the mother and the baby were fine.
I put down my phone.
Amen.
I don’t remember how long I had stayed outside of that church for. When I turned around, the sun was setting. While I still wanted to continue to indulge myself in the spiritual world, I had to leave for the real world otherwise I wouldn’t be able to find a place to eat in town.
The sun was setting.
As I walked down the hill, I saw Jesus on the cross and the three women beside him, crying.
Kapuziner Kirche. You can see Jesus on the cross and the three women on the right.
I walked down these stairs.
The reality was I really couldn’t find any place to eat so I bought some bread or something in the street for my dinner.
I went to the chapel in the retreat house before I went to sleep.
There was nothing in my room so I went to a common room to look for a kettle. I just needed some hot water. I met a German lady there who lent me her own kettle to make tea. We started having a chat. She told me she wasn’t in the retreat group so she was allowed to talk. Like me, she just wanted to stay in a quiet place while she was travelling there. I’d see her again the next morning.
I went back to my room and had a peaceful night. Sweet dreams until the next morning when…
27 – 30 March 2012
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