Sbohem Prague... Hallo Vienna

Thursday morning, our final full day in Prague, was rainy and a little chilly. Keegan and I got on board one of the street trams to ride it to the other side of the city where the Veletrzni Palace is located. This building is a modern rectangular structure that houses Prague's modern art collection. It is a full five stories tall and houses a massive collection. 

We started on the top floor and worked our way downwards. The first two floors we saw represented primarily Czech artists. By the time we had reached the third floor, we were getting pretty tired. We decided we would skip to the 2nd floor and end with that one. This floor housed works from some of the world's most famous artists.  The museum was great but by that time I was definitely pretty tired.

Keegan checking out some art

I didn't keep good enough notes on this but some famous artist...

I had spotted a good looking Belgium restaurant on one of my runs and so we decided we would make our way there. The food was really good (we both went with different mussels) but the beer selection was even better. I was excited to see a couple of my favorites from when I had been to Belgium two years ago.  After we finished our lunch, we began to make our way towards something we had been waiting the entire time in Prague to try…

One of my favorite beers from Belgium, Kwak.

Everywhere you go in Prague there are signs for something called a Thai massage. You see these advertisements in hotels, on the streets, and on the many storefronts that offer them. They are fluorescent green and advertise very cheap prices. Keegan and I were a little skeptical about what this might mean so we did some internet research on it. We found out that it is simply a business that was imported by a group of Czech businessmen who liked this type of massage when they were in Thailand. Over the last couple of years, the business has exploded in Prague and they are now huge.

A Thai massage differs from a normal massage because they require participation on your part. The method incorporates some extreme yoga techniques that are assisted by the massage therapist. I was a little intimidated by this whole thing but still had to give it a try. It only cost about $30 for a full hour so it was hard to refuse. I went in and was handed a pair of crocks and a couple of towels and given a room.

I got undressed and laid down. I was soon joined by a small Thai women who proceeded to beat me up for the next hour. It felt pretty good but some of the stuff  is very strange. Basically, she will alternate pulling my body in all different directions with traditional massage techniques. They only bad part was the assault on my shoulders because, as many of you know, I had a pretty serious shoulder surgery. There was a total language barrier so it was hard to communicate that she had to leave it alone. I think I scared her half to death when I recoiled in pain when she grabbed it so I think she soon learned.

After we finished, Keegan and I met up refreshed and better men for the experience. We decided we would participate in another quintessentially Prague experience, a trip to McDonalds. Now hold on before you all start judging here, this is not the McDonalds that you know. First off, they are pretty nice places and not all that cheap. More importantly though, they have one of the best cafes in town. The café portion is always separate from the restaurant and they are very hip coffee shops. Their pastry case looks absolutely amazing and their coffee drinks are delicious. Compared to other cafes, the prices are quite reasonable. I had a piece of apple pie and a hot chocolate for about $4.50. Everything is served on real plates and in real glasses with real silverware. I have to say, I hope these make it to the US soon.

One of our meals at McCafe

Night came before we knew it and we headed out to find some entertainment. It was Thursday night so we hoped that things may be picking up a bit. First we went to a very traditional Austrian restaurant for food and then headed out in town. We ended up finding an English bar in the main square with some really good live music. It was a lot of fun though the guitarist stopped playing way to quickly after we got there. He was playing some great American songs with a bit of a British accent. I was thus thoroughly surprised when he finished and it turned out that he was Czech.

Keegan at dinner

We went back to the hotel at a reasonable time because we knew that we had to be on our way the next morning. As soon as we woke up, we loaded up our bags and got on the metro for the ride to the train station. This would be our first time to use our Eurorail pass and so we wanted to be there nice and early to make sure we knew what we were doing. Luckily we got to our train in plenty of time and found  that our seats were two good window ones in a very crowded car. We spent some of our time napping and eventually woke up and went to the dining car for lunch.

Even though it was noon, the train had special happy hour pricing going on. This meant that everything on the menu was half off. I was able to get my lunch, which was a good pasta dish, a coke, and a piece of apple strudel all for about $15. I had expected it to be a lot more pricey so I was pretty happy with that. It was my first time eating on a train and I was really impressed. It is cool to sit there with the scenery flying by the giant windows and eat a nice lunch. The kitchen was right there and you could see the chefs cooking everything up fresh in a challenging space.

Four and one half hours later we got off the train in Vienna. A cab took us to our hotel, the Hilton Vienna City Center. I have to say, we hit the jackpot on this one. We had bid for it on Priceline, hoping for a a four star somewhere in the city center, and we ended up with this five star gem. We got it for $120 a night – the going rate on their website for the same nights was about $250. The inside was really nice and the staff was great. Everyone spoke flawless English and they were very helpful. When they found out they didn't have any rooms left with two beds, they upgraded us to the executive floor. Our room was on the 12^th story and had a great view over the city.

Cathedral in the main square of Vienna

The location of the hotel was just on one edge of the old town. Keegan and I made our way into the city to explore. We came across a ton of nice stores and historical sights. It felt a lot cleaner than Prague and a lot more imposing and imperial in the Washington DC sense of the word; there were huge marble buildings everywhere and impressive displays of wealth and power. We stopped off at a brick-oven pizza place for dinner. Afterwards, we made our way to one of the world famous Vienna cafes to check-in with our families on the internet.

Vienna’s café culture is world famous and it lived up to everything I had imagined. On every street there are grand cafes with a tremendous amount of history. They all have well-dressed waiters, a great cup of coffee, and a staggering amount of deserts. Keegan and I chose, Café Mozart for our first night based on the deserts. We each sat down and enjoyed a drink and a pastry. One very different thing than America, be it at coffee shops or restaurants, is that they really don’t care how long you stay. We had spent all the money we were going to spend within the first couple of minutes but they never again put any pressure on you to leave or order. They will never bring the check until you specifically ask for it. We sat there for hours and simply enjoyed the old Austrian atmosphere while reading our books and using the Wi-Fi.

My strudel at Cafe Mozart

We woke up to a brightly shining sun the next morning which was perfect for our walk to the huge open-air market in Vienna. The market was the biggest I had ever seen with stalls stretching for about 2 km. There was everything from antiques to books to food. The food was the highlight and made me very hungry. I was wishing I had a kitchen to cook some of it in and thought about how much my mom would love to get her hands on some of it. Luckily, I found a small restaurant at the market where I could get some breakfast. I had two chocolate and banana crepes with a hot chocolate. 

Can't even begin to show how much there were but here are some cheeses

And here's some olives

My delicious chocolate-banana crepes.

After breakfast, Keegan and I split up again. He went to do some shopping while I went on my museum quest. There are a couple of huge complexes right near the downtown area with multiple museums a part of each. I am fascinated by royal families so I wanted to find one that could give me some information on the Habsburgs (ruling family of Austria). It was really hard to figure out which museum would do that for me so I decided I would get a combo-ticket which let me into a couple. It was a strange combination but it did teach me a lot about the ruling Habsburgs in the time leading up to WWI. 

I began with the strangest of all, a museum on Royal place settings. It was much more interesting than it sounds, though I will admit I would have never gone had it not been included. What was neat was seeing these place settings and hearing the history of who was entertained with them. Many were used for Europe's most famous Kings and one of the coolest was Napoleons'. It was also crazy to hear about the extreme pomp and ceremony that went into every meal.

One of the palaces largest centerpieces

The secret palace napkin-folding technique. Only two people in the world know how to do it and it is only passed down by word of mouth. There is a piece of bread inserted into each side (which you can't really see from here).

The second museum was called the Sisi Museum which came highly recommended. Sisi, formally known as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, was like the Princess Dianna of the later 19th century. Her beauty captivated much of the world including Hollywood. She became world famous because people empathized with her plight, a classic story of a poor young girl who lives the fairy tale dream of marrying a Prince but then falls apart when she can't handle the pressure. Sisi was the wife of King Franz Joseph I but was extremely reserved. She hid from the spotlight and enjoyed traveling to escape the attention in Austria. When her son committed suicide, it really destroyed her and she took to wearing black for the rest of her life. She suffered deep depression and shirked her Royal duties even more.

Palace in the time of Sisi

Adding to the sad story, the King was desperately in love with her his whole life and extremely faithful. In 1898, she was assassinated by an anarchist which broke the King's heart. Those of you who are students of history will know that King Franz Joseph I was the one who went on to lead the Austro-Hungarian Empire into WWI. The last museum was the Royal apartments. This museum passed through many of the private rooms of the royal family. It was pretty neat to see how they lived and imagine that they once were exactly were I was. 

One picture I snuck inside, the actual paintings the King kept on his wall.

When I finished the museums, I walked around the grounds of the Royal Palace. They are immaculate and I will try to illustrate this in some pictures. 

Front of Palace

View from in the garden

Amazing roses

Getting a little artsy...

While I was walking, I heard the sound of music and decided to investigate. What I saw was a giant parade going down a large avenue nearby. There were group after group of men and women dressed in their traditional Austrian clothing (lederhosen and dirndl) that represented communities all across Austria. From what I could understand, they were marching to the Parliament building as a show of the unity across Austria. Because each town has different colors and styles, it was pretty neat to see each group go by.

Finally I made it back to the hotel and met up with Keegan. We headed out to an Irish pub we had found the night before. The pub was a really lively place with many English speakers. We each ordered some food and watched rugby and soccer on TV. We noticed that there were bills from all over the world up on the wall and asked our waitress, Nelly, if we could put one up. She got us a marker so we could write a giant "USNA" across it and then stapled it prominently right in the center. We are hoping some midshipman make it in in the future and chuckle at the legacy we left.

Later in the evening, some amazing live music began so we stayed around to listen to that. Eventually, we thought we would go out to see what else Vienna had to offer on a Saturday night. We had heard of an underground club in an old metro station and we went searching for it. We finally found it and managed to get past the strict door policy. We were very surprised about what we saw when we got inside. It was like no club I had ever seen, it was more like a jazz club. There was a huge black man up on stage and a piano and he was singing a kind of R&B jazz mix. People were loving it though and there was a nice mix of all ages. It was very dark inside and definitely very classy. Keegan and I both danced out on the floor for a good while and Keegan even eventually asked a girl to dance. 

I think that we both love Austria so far and were looking forward to seeing even more of it.