Days 2 and 3

Gruss Gott!


My stop in Austria was only planned as a stopover before Croatia. I didn't plan anything and like Paris, got into the center of the city and just walked. Nothing much happened before I met up with my mom's pilot friend, Dieter. For 7 hours I got the history of Vienna in a very fast paced walking tour. He showed me the most amazing cathedrals - St. Peter's, St. Rupert's (?) and St. Paul or Mark or someone... I have no idea which was which. But I saw some hardcore Baroque, Gothic and OLD churches. The Baroque was pretty on the outside but the second I walked in was hit with this force of shiny gold. GOLD... and painted ceilings and alters and marble pillars and the skeletons of dead saints wearing fancy, old, decaying clothes reclining in a glass box. I was horrified and amazed at the same time, but had to stifle my giggles inside the quiet church.

The first church I stopped at was so impressive on the outside I didn't even bother going into it until later. The exterior was massive and so old the stone was turning black. It was exactly what you think of when imagining a Gothic cathedral (you know, when you do all that Gothic cathedral imagining...). The interior was just as baroque and gaudy as the other church. Every wooden pew was hand carved and every stone pillar had cherubs and saints and God knows what else so efficiently chiseled it was impossible for my mind to completely grasp what I was looking at. Totally amazing though.

Dieter and I climbed to the top of one tower and got a good look of all of Vienna. Plus, we saw the roof up close which is not at all what you'd expect from this very menacing building. The roof was tiled in patterns of colors that resembled some sort of rug pattern. A real juxtaposition and very bizarre. We hit a few more cathedrals and as amazing as they all were, my all time favorite was the oldest one, which I think was called Saint Rupert's. It was so old there were no fancy paintings or gilded pillars. The pews were plain and made of dark wood. White walls and candles and that's about it. To be perfectly honest, it's what I think a church should really look like, peaceful and respectful. We then went BACK to the first church (lots of walking), taking a guided tour through the catacombs. Dukes and cardinals and bishops are buried down there plus the organs of some Empress are have been preserved in alcohol and stuffed in a huge urn.

The most interesting however, were the rooms with piles and piles of bones. This is where victims of the plague were literally thrown. After the tombs ran out of room prisoners were forced to peel the meat of the dead so there would be more room to just pack the bones. Some rooms were just scattered with bones, others had neat and tight piles. It was so horrifying but none of us on the tour could look away. Especially when we were told how the smell was so bad they had to move the cometary to the outskirts of Vienna. Basically, under the beautiful stone pedestrian walkways I had been admiring were hundreds of thousands of skeletons (expect for those reclining above ground in special boxes for our viewing pleasure).

Dieter showed me a lot. We had famous Sacher cake and ridiculously strong coffee, plus Austrian apple strudel at the summer home of the Empress who would be Marie Antoinette's mother and who's organs are lovingly placed underground. I got the 411 on the old Hapsburg Empire and where to get the best weinerschizle. We also went to Vienna's oldest pub, where signatures of the incredibly famous like Beethoven and Mozart cover the walls.

I've been to Europe before but it was here where I really realized just how old everything is. It's amazing how much history there is here, and I love it! Turkish cannon balls are still embedded in building walls that now make up a modern shopping center. Beautiful old buildings are everywhere. Some are preserved in their history, others now have billboards and flashing advertisements. There was way too much to see in two days that I've been here, so I'll just have to come back.
Off to the airport now where I fly to Dubrovnik where I see my friend Thana's home for the first time! Auf wiedersehen...