A Day Fit For an Imperial Princess...aka ME!

One small wing of the castle

Day #1 in Vienna, Day #5 traveling

My night in Budapest I spent two hours chatting with a brother and sister from the UK and a guy from Australia.  Turned out, the Australian was arriving in Vienna the same day as me and so we made plans to meet back up at the hostel and do some sightseeing together.  So my first day in Vienna was great because I had someone to talk to the whole time!

We started walking towards the center of the city because that’s where the Hapsburg castle is located.  And I really wanted to see the library and imperial apartments.  The complex is HUGE!  We actually stumbled upon it by accident, but there are a million buildings (like 400 rooms in 18 different wings).  There were some cool parts, like a butterfly house and some not so cool parts like a paper museum.  After walking around the building a bit, we found the main location of the Austrian National Library, handily named something like Bibliotek. 

Inside the library 

Ceiling inside the national library

So many books!!

The library did not disappoint.  It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited.  I really can’t imagine sitting in there and reading a book, which is okay because some of the books are from the 14^th century and can’t really be read normally.  The Austrians are undergoing a project to digitize all of the books, which sounds like an incredibly difficult task because I’m sure we just saw a fraction of the national library.  There was also a guy with a video camera taking shots of the library and a woman reading one of the books with white gloves on, I figured he was doing a documentary or something.

City Hall

We found the ticket office to the Imperial Apartments on the opposite side of the castle.  However, there was only one English tour for the day and for three dollars extra, I prefer to listen to a real person talk vs. an audio guide.  So we bought tickets and went on our merry way for the next two hours of sightseeing (and lunch!).  Lunch was going to be at a popular schnitzel restaurant that our hostel recommended, but it was rather full and we didn’t want to wait around.  So we found a different restaurant and I ate pizza for my first real meal in Austria.

Austrian Congress

After lunch, we wandered around a little bit more and saw the Austrian Congress, a rather large, imposing building that looks across the road to the castle.  Next to Congress is a picturesque gothic-style cathedral.  Except, it’s not a cathedral at all but city hall! 

Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures during the tour of the Hapsburg apartments, but I have to admit it was kind of strange.  Everything was very similar to other castles and palaces I have visited, except that this one was filled with modern conveniences.  For example, Empress Elizabeth had a bath with indoor plumbing including hot water.  She was the first one in the castle to have her own flushable toilet also.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Inside the cathedral

Elizabeth was an interesting character, she loved Emperor Franz Joseph, but didn’t want him to be an emperor.  She longed for a normal life and thus shirked many of the duties of an empress.  For a late 19^th and early 20^th century woman, Elizabeth was incredibly well-traveled.  She went as far as London and Greece.  She was also incredibly in shape.  Every day, she did a workout program to keep her slender 5’8” and 105 pounds figure.  Her apartments have the workout equipment she used to use.  Her hair was the second most important feature of her beauty.  Elizabeth was incredibly proud of her ankle length, thick, brown hair.  It took 2-3 hours EVERY DAY for her hairdresser to put it up.  To make use of that time, Elizabeth learned different languages including Greek and Hungarian.

Mozart's house in Vienna

The Hapsburg empire was demolished after WWI.  The remaining royal family was exiled and they now live around the world including the U.S., Germany, and Australia.  The castle grounds always belonged to the state, so the Hapsburgs were forced to forfeit those holdings; however, if they acknowledged the legitimacy of the new government, they were allowed to keep their royal fortunes.  So I imagine that the ones who no longer live in Austria live quite comfortably.

When we were done in the apartments, we walked towards the international market.  I was expecting a hustling and bustling marketplace, but this was pretty disappointing (perhaps because of all the wind and rain).  The food there was very overpriced, so we decided to go elsewhere.

Old meets new in Vienna's City Center

Before dinner, we walked around the city center and saw St. Stephen’s Cathedral.  It was strange opening hours, but I was still able to sneak a peak of the alter and was pretty impressed.  After St. Stephen’s we walked to wear Mozart lived when he moved to Vienna.  Unfortunately, I won’t have time to go to Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace, so I wanted to get a little bit of music history into my trip. 

Opera House

After dinner, we headed towards the Opera House.  For four euro, we got to stand in the back of the theater and watch a modern Cinderella opera.  I went mostly to see the building, so I was pleasantly surprised when the opera was actually good.  At times, it was a bit strange and very non-traditional for opera.  It was a very well-done performance though, probably because it was the 30^thish time it was performed!

One of the halls of the Opera House

Around 11 pm, I arrived back in the hostel (13 hours after leaving) and crashed and burned.  Tomorrow I have a less busy day because I saw almost everything I wanted to see today.  I also don’t want to be exhausted when I get to Paris because I’ll be hanging out with some Parisian friends I made in Washington D.C. this summer!

The Opera House Ceiling