Post-arrival days (in Wien)

Two days ago (on Monday) I ran into two Australian girls from the Hostel that I had just met during breakfast.
It was really fine to see them on the city center; I joined them and went to visit the Stadtpark.



What happened there needs to be told: a bird was being beaten by all the others, and it was really injured. So we scared the others away (or at least tried to, because they kept coming). Then we made the Birdie hide under a bush, and here's where the story starts: another bird yet came to bite Birdie, and when it did, I was just there and i grabbed it by the tail (i didn't expect I'd be able to), and then i just holded it like magicians do with their white pidgeons.

 I didn't think that the bad bird would be in shock afterwards, but indeed it was. As I left it on the ground, tried to move but just couldn't walk at all. I had to put it aside so it could relax!

And yesterday I went for a run. I had to wake up at 4:00AM, but I'll tell you why now.
I think I hadn't been to such a long run since my training before World War II... My guess Is I ran about 25 kilometers, and for me that's just more than enough for a day.
The thing is I wanted some pictures of the city without tourists. And I got them, except for a Panorama that simply disappeared from my iPod (it turned crazy).



 And finally, today, I went again for a run, but this time nearer: To Schonbrunnpark (it's about 6km away from the hostel... so I ran 15 today).
I must say I woke up later (well, about 5,30AM) so I could get there as early as possible (the park opens at 6AM). I have really really cool pictures of the park and the gardens, but, again, without tourists.
Schönbrunn (the palace and the garden) were the heart of the high class society whilst the Habsburg had political power.

From Schonbrunn (the palace) I can say quite a few things:


First of all is that they were so rich you can't imagine, and now you'll see why.

The palace has:

• 1400 rooms, which include guest rooms, tea room, piano room, concert room, chapel, another room with a pool table, dining room, lots of bathrooms...

• It hosted the Habsburg monachs from 1800 until the beginning of the XX century.

And about the gardens, well... they are quite big:

• The Great Parterre, which is a building located at the top of the hill (20 families could live there...) and was were they all met to discuss, have teas, etc.

• One of the monachs, who loved to go hunting, wanted to hunt in his own garden (and that's why, behind the Great Parterre, there is still a lot of garden, but without fountains).

• The garden has 32 scupultures (without names) that represent virtues and deities. It features two greenhouses, where the monarch (the same that love to go hunting; he was who designed the garden, and the 'this-and-thats') could plant his roses.

• The oldest zoo in the World.

• We can find huge Roman Ruins, which were designed and supervised (during the construction, so actually there are not old...) by an architect. It has the oldest Zoo in the World; the monarch wanted strange animals on his garden...

And just for the record: Today it's gonna be a long day. I'll visit Wien (Austria), and Budapest (Hungary)

Willkommen in Wien

Wiena will be like the greatest city I visiy on my trip. I'll be staying here for 4 nights, which is more that what I spent in Prague and Brnö altogether.

I have quite a lot of things to visit, like the Stephansplatz, Parlament, Rathaus (City Council), History and Nature Museums, etc.

I have just got here from Brno, and I'm gonna seize my time the most I can...

The city it's too crowded on the center, so much that gets hard to see local citizens there...
It's just soooo full of beautiful old buildings that it gets hard to think you've seen it all...



Another thing from Wien is that all the museums and "Mozart's house" and "Schubert's haus" and so on are really really expensive to visit (full fare would be 9 Euros... If they were alive, I'd pay that, but since they're not...)



Saint Freud Church



Stefansplatz



Natural and History Museum



Things are really expensive here, compared to what they costed in the Czech Republic... if you buy some bread, for instance, with that kind of almond traces, it will cost you here between 5 and 10 times what it had costed you in Prague or Brno...

Surprising too is the great brand of cheap hamburgers you can find on McDonald's... (Sorry, I had to tell you...)
Let's see... in Spain we have normal hamburger, cheese hamburger and chicken hamburger.
Here, you can find those three (the chicken one costs 1,30), but also Veggie Hamburger (for vegetarian people!! 1,50), Chiquen TS (which might mean Tomato Slice, I guess... 1,30), and also double hamburger (normal hamburger with two meat slices: 1.70), and double cheese hamburger (2,00)

I have a woman here complaining I've been using it for too long, so I give you a last picture and... I'll write again soon!

Brnö: The other Praha, but without tourists

Today I got to Brnö.

It was just a quiet city, all built up around the main street, which is a wide passage where the tram comes and goes.
Just like another Praha, but the difference was that there were quite a few tourists.
I should mention, too, that in Brnö was where I saw the Sun for the first time in my trip, which is quite something...

I'm just staying here for one night, and tomorrow at 13:24 I have to catch the train to Wien (Austria)

I would love to paste some pictures I got with my camera, but since here I have no USB port, all I can do is show you some of my panoramas...


I'll write again in Wien! Now I have people waiting for me to leave the computer free, so I will satisfy their wishes...

Greetings!!

Arrival to Prague

First, the plane was with one hour delay.

Second, I was asked if I wished to help the waitresses in case of a medical emergency. You guessed right if you guessed I answered no.



First day here was quite rainy, though I was lucky: Just after the plane landed, and we entered the airport, it started pouring. So I spent a wonderful night at the airport, inside my sleeping bag, listening how the rain fell and listening how the woman on the megaphone said, every 15 minutes "Please take care of your belongings".

First is not a good word to start this third paraghraph: is the third time that first starts...

I bought "one" ticket to the city center, but when I say "one", I actually mean two. Welcome to the Czech Republic, or Where-your-bag-pays-more-than-your-kid Republic. What I mean with that is I had to pay for me AND for my bag.

I visited the city from 8AM until 2PM (when I could check in at the Hostel), and then went back for a walk. It was then when it started raining, and it was then it happend to me the worst thing in the day:

Somebody HAD STOLEN my car. Or at least that's what I thought. Scared, I called Jeffrey, but he said that I shouldn't worry, because the car was perfect at home, between the Lamborghini and my other Aston Martin. Thanks Jeffrey!


Without worries in mind, I went up to the hill, where the Cathedral should be, and I found out that they had vineyards there, in the middle of the tourists zone. Well, that were the first vineyards ever harvested in Czech Republic, so they have quite a lot of history...

And here is a picture token at 23.30 more or less, about the Prague night

Today I'm going to visit the Jew suburb and get some information about the trains and timetables at the station...



I'll write more soon!

First note

  This will be my first note on this blog, since on Tuesday I'm starting my trip and so I need to check the how-to of this website.


  On Tuesday evening, at 21'30 my plane departs to Prague, the first destination (so called city) I'll visit.
I'm on a 56 days trip to the Middle Europe countries. Not all of them, of course, just Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. The reason is I will be working as a volunteer in two organic farms (WWOOF) in Hungary: One is near the Balaton Lake, at the South-West of Hungary, staying there for a month; the other is located at the South-East, and I'm going there just for two weeks.
So, since I had the idea of going there for one month, I thought it'd be better to make the most of it by visiting the neighboring countries; The idea came from the following: as I started looking for planes to Hungary, I realized all of them were really expensive, so I searched in Vienna. Also expensive. What about Prague?
Why Prague?



 Well, I wanted to go to Hungary, but since I had all the summer free, I decided I should visit some cities unknown for me (or at least forgotten), and so keep a better memories of them.


In this blog I'll write some short stories of my everyday life there, trying to keep it up-to-date, and also attaching some pictures that might be worth seeing...