Two sides of Austria

Okay, so we're very far behind. It doesn't help that after talking to the internet company in Amsterdam it may take four weeks to install. So bear with me while I try to "borrow" some internet for the next four weeks and catch up as much as I possibly can! So... back to the end of Ljubljana...

We left the hostel and bought some more tasty lunch supplies from the markets and made our way to the train station. Our compartment was shared with a guy from Ljubljana who had travelled quite a bit and was really into extreme sports. We had one change during the journey and ended up switching to first class (putting our good old Eurail passes to use), as the second part of the trip was very busy in second class, but first class was empty. I managed to sleep most of the way, despite the pash-happy French couple at the end of our carriage making slurping noises and sucking each other’s faces off. Josh got a bit fed up with it, and asked them to kiss a little quieter, which embarrassed them so much they gave it up.

An old colleague of mine from Wellington - Susanne, who worked for us on an exchange to New Zealand and lived an hour out of Vienna in an area called Traisen, had very kindly offered to have us for a few nights, and she and her sister Sabine picked us up from the train station, and we decided to go the famous open-air markets for a drink. The markets were near closing, and we decided to cook them dinner, and ended up rushing around the markets before they closed trying to put together the pieces for a great vegetarian meal for them. We ended up with a bucket load of olives - and I mean bucket load, as the woman at the market counter went a bit crazy serving them up. Josh and Andrew tried some stuff with incredibly spicy chillies, which had them in tears (and we ended up taking out the chilli to eat the rest and it was still very hot). We found some fresh haloumi, couscous and veges, and drove back to Susanne’s place into the country in the pouring rain. We met their gorgeous new kitten and cat, who provided quite a bit of entertainment for us all.

The dinner turned out to be a bit of a disaster, as the veges took forever on the bbq, and the haloumi turned out to be some strange variety that doesn’t hold it’s shape and melted everywhere (which was such a pity as it was really tasty!). It was safe to say it wasn’t our best work at all. At least the olives were tasty. Susanne’s mother’s partner had a keg in the basement of local beer from the local restaurant, so Josh and Andrew got to try some of that while Sabine made us a delicious traditional Austrian dessert, which is like a fluffy, eggy pancake with fruit on the side. It was very tasty, and put our dinner to shame. It was great to be in a real house again, and it was one of the best sleeps we’d had on the trip so far that night, reviving us for our adventure through Vienna.

We had a lovely slow start to the next day began with delicious fresh breads for breakfast while it poured with rain outside. Deciding to go and see some of Vienna for the day, and then meet Susanne and Sabine there for dinner and a few drinks that night, we were driven to the train station about 20 minutes from their house by Susanne. Boarding a very crowded train that had come from Salzburg, there wasn’t a seat in sight, but we found places to lean for the 40-minute trip.

Emerging from the train station, the sun had arrived in Vienna just as we had. Our first stop was a traditional Viennese coffee house, which was apparently an essential part of a trip to Vienna, but we were warned about the possibility of bad service. Entering the dated original interior, with billiard tables in the corner and a host at the door (who doesn’t seem to do much but sit a bit higher than everyone else), we thought that the place might have been charming had we not been completely ignored. It was such a hot and humid place, bustling with rude, surly waitresses. We finally had three coffees dumped on our table, which were ridiculously expensive for coffee, and left with a slightly bitter taste in our mouths.

We decided to start to walk the ring road that surrounds the centre of Vienna, and first arrived at the cathedral and through the gardens (which lie next to an extremely dirty river with very low water levels and rubbish floating down it). We also wanted to spend some of the first day visiting the Kunsthauswien, which is home to the Hundertwasser collection. We should have taken a tram there, as the walk along the river to the museum turned out to be a decidedly bland route down a dirty river. A quick stop for some iceblocks in the courtyard, then into the museum with limited time, as there was only an hour left before it closed. With an option for two exhibitions, but only enough time to see one, Andy and I visited the permanent collection of Hundertwasser’s work, while Josh chose Jean Tinguely’s machine works.

The collection was very cool, especially his graphic print work, and I hadn’t realised he had such a connection with New Zealand and had visited many times, eventually proposing a redesign of the New Zealand flag in the 1980s. The building itself is also a work of art; its curves and mosaics echoing the nature of his work. Josh will have to fill you in on the exhibition he visited, although after the last time he took so long to do an entry I think it's best we continue so we don't get even more far behind...We were basically kicked out of the building as it closed, and made our way by metro to the city centre. Arriving at Stephensplatz as evening set in, we were hit with hoards of tourists crowding around street performers, the church, and there were far too many people for our liking. Susanne and Sabine were on their way to meet us for dinner, and we tried to find a place for a drink in the hour we had to meet them. It was a bit of a case of fruitless searching, as we were in the completely wrong area for bars, and the ones that were around were horrible themed places. We weren’t getting a great impression of Vienna so far, although we knew we weren’t in the right places. We finally found a tiny local pub that was the best of the lot of them, and had a drink served by the owner who, judging by the photos he had on the wall, had been there for many, many years. As Susanne and Sabine were vegetarians, their meal choices are very limited in meat-filled Austria. We ended up finding an Indian place that smelt pretty good, and settled there for dinner. It was quite a tasty meal, and we left extremely full afterwards. From there the girls showed us Museumsquartier, which is a huge square surrounded by museums, that sets up open-air bars in the summer. The entire square is filled with stylised blocks moulded as seating. We had a drink there before catching a tram to a different area, where rows of bars run under the trains but are still above ground. We had a few drinks there, and listened to their music set change from German hip hop, to rock, but called it quits when it ended up at emo… There was still an hour to drive ahead of us, and we made it back to Traisen at around 3am.

The next morning we were initially intending to take a day trip to Krems – a small university town that Susanne studies in, but we were drawn outside by the sun and drove to the nearby hills with Susanne, Sabine, and their mother. In winter you can ski down the slopes, but in summer the chairlift still operates to transport hikers up to the top. A 20-minute journey on single chairs to the top, surrounded by nothing but forest was a far cry from the tourist-riddled streets of Vienna. After Josh got a turn on the playground, we walked through some wide open fields that must be great for boarding down in winter, and ended up at the mountain café. Taking a seat outside, we had to hide under the umbrellas to shield ourselves from the sun, and took a look at the menu – or rather, had it translated to us.

Austrian food can be quite heavy, and hard to eat on such a hot, sunny day, but we sampled some local dishes. A huge roast meal for Josh (which he managed to get through somehow!), and two equally filling meals of dumplings with mushrooms for me and Andy, which filled me after a few bites, and left the table looking basically identical to when it arrived. It must be great food after a long day on the mountain though – in winter. We then trekked through the steep hills, down past small waterfalls, fallen bridges, and by the end we were exhausted, and a bit muddy. We stopped at a local icrecream shop for some scoops, and ate them in Susanne and Sabine’s old school courtyard before heading back to the house. After all that walking and such a big lunch it was a lazy evening, with a small bbq dinner (with proper haloumi this time!), a bit more trip planning, and then off to bed.