My Second (and Last) Day is Vienna

Today I got up earlier than expected (I was going to get up at 9am, actually got up at 8:30 because of people making noise), had a really nice shower, and went to breakfast. This time I took pictures though they didn’t have the cake or the weird smelling fruit this time so you won’t get to see those.

Part of my breakfast

Some of the breakfast options.

Some of the breakfast options.

 After breakfast, I took an hour to pack and go over my travel plans for the evening, and then I checked out of the hotel. From there, I headed back in the direction of Am Hof. Since today was Sunday, I was determined to seek out all of the Jewish centers in Vienna (or at least all of the ones I knew about).

My first stop was in Judenplatz, a small plaza that contained the holocaust memorial and one of the two Jewish museums in the city. I walked around the plaza for a little bit, snapping pictures and reading the information on the memorial, before I went into the museum. Inside, I had a very difficult time attempting to get a ticket since neither of the main desk attendants seemed to know English at all (which was slightly surprising considering how much English I later found in the museum itself) though eventually it all worked out, and I was even able to secure myself the cheaper student pass.

Judenplatz

The Jewish museum in Judenplatz 

Most of the museum was painted white and was very bare. In every room, all of the things displayed were medium to small sized (like ancient Jewish coins, pieces of pages from old Torahs, etc…) so this didn’t help alleviate the bareness problem. However, the small exhibits were beautiful to look at (I didn’t even know there were ancient Jewish coins in existence!) so I focused on them to ignore the fact that I was the only one there and felt a little creeped out.

After looking at all of their artifacts, I then went through a really eerie hall (it would have fit perfectly into a future dystopia movie) to get to the ruins of the old synagogue. Although this room also started out feeling really creepy (the combination of two different automated information giving voices leaking in from separate rooms with the room with the ruins having black walls was not a smart choice), I quickly began to enjoy looking around it as I began to recognize certain features. I found the bimah, the women’s section (which was reeeeeally small), and the main alter/speaking area. The temple wasn’t very large (I’ve seen larger cafeterias) or well decorated (only the walls and parts of the floor remained), but I really enjoyed seeing it.

Eventually, to combat the fact that I was in a room painted black alone, I started to sing Jewish prayers and songs to keep me relaxed. Apparently, I must really have tried to fill the silence because I eventually turned around to find the female desk attendant looking at me. She encouraged me to finish the song I was on (Eli Eli if you must know), corrected my pronunciation of certain Hebrew words, and then we chatted about whether or not I knew Hebrew, if I was Jewish, and my connection with Vienna (though “chatted” is a loose word considering she spoke no English and I had to figure out her questions based on cognates and body language). Soon after that conversation, I felt it was time to go and I headed out.

From there, I headed towards the old Jewish quarter which was located on Seitenstteagasse and turned out to be right around the corner from my hotel. There wasn’t much there, but I did find the synagogue and some Jewish shops, but nothing was open for entry.

Old Jewish Quarter 

The best store ever in existence.

The synagogue

Mezuzah on the synagogue

After that, I crossed the Danube to get to the new Jewish quarter on Karmilitergasse/platz. I was able to find it, though my first sight was of a huge church, so my exploration began with trepidation. However, I was able to find signs of Jewish activity in the area (some kosher stores, a Jewish cultural center, and two men with kippahs in a car arguing) though, again, nothing was open for entry.

In the new Jewish quarter 

In the new Jewish quarter

Crossing the Danube

I then crossed back over the river and decided to go to the other Jewish museum in Vienna. Since my ticket was valid for both and the first museum had been only okay, I thought it would be worth it to just check it out.

And it was PHENOMINAL. First off, they had a really interesting visitor interaction area. In it there was a booth where they would record you (if you wanted to) answering a question about either your reasons for coming or something to do with Judaism or the museum and then there were a ton of areas where you could write down your answers to other questions while looking at other people’s answers or old Jewish artifacts.

Secondly, the museum was having a special exhibition on Judaism in Hollywood, which ended up blowing my mind. It covered two floors, and it contained an incredible collection of movie memorabilia from the time of silent films to the present. I saw props used by Groucho Marx, the diaries used in the original Anne Frank movie, pictures and letters from the premiere of Schindler’s List in Vienna, lots of old movie posters and cameras, a piece of the red carpet used at the academy awards, a chair from Rick’s Café from Casablanca, the baseball bat used by the Bear Jew in Inglorious Bastards (to all of my Tarantino fan friends. Yes, it really was THAT bat. For real.), and three academy awards (one for Annie Hall, one for Rocky, and I can’t remember what the last was for and the guide is packed in my bag. Sorry!). And there was more! Everywhere there were screens hanging for movies to play on and interesting facts and objects where on every wall. It was amazing!

The Jewish Museum 

Groucho Marx Props

Chair from Rick's Cafe in Casablanca 

Oscar for Rocky

Bat used by the Bear Jew in Inglorious Bastards

Mezuzah on the museum

 I then went up to the top floor and looked at their huge collection of Jewish artifacts from almost everywhere. It was the largest collection of menorahs, Shabbat candleholders, and Torah crowns and readers that I have ever seen in one place, let alone in one room. It was very interesting and impressive.

After that, it turned out to be 12:30, so I ended up having a hot dog-ish thing (it was basically a huge sausage/bratwurst placed in a foot long baguette) that I bought from a street vendor. If it had had real ketchup in it and no mustard, it probably would have been a lot better tasting. However, it wasn’t that bad overall.

By the time I was done eating, it was only 1pm, so I decided that I had time to take the underground over to Schloss Schonbrunn, the imperial palace. It was a really smooth, easy and fast trip over, so that was very nice (they basically idiot proofed the trains by creating big signs listing all of one train’s destinations and an arrow point to which side of the track it was on).

When I arrived at the palace (that was a fun sentence to type), I was impressed by the size, but the design was pretty bland and a part of me was thinking, “This is a bit excessive for just one family. No wonder certain people have revolted over the excess of their rulers.” However, I really had come to the palace because they had a hedge maze (I know, I really am a huge Labyrinth fangirl at heart), because seeing the grounds is free (I found another awesome place to jog that people do use as a jogging site!), and because it was one of the top things to see in my guidebook.

Front of palace 

But, even with my seditions thoughts, I was surprised by the view when I got to the back of the palace. From there the grounds sweep away from you to a huge fountain from which a tall hill with another grand building atop it springs forth. It was incredibly grand and impressive (still excessive, but…Woah).

Back of the palace 

Fountain and awesome hill behind palace

Unfortunately, the maze is not open during this time of year, but I had a great time exploring around the fountain and hiking up the hill to see the building (and the view) at the top. When I finally reached the top of the hill, I was delighted to find a large pond with ducks, seagulls, and two swans (one of who was taking a cat nap). I found some American students who were studying in Florence (but were on break now) when I asked them to take my picture at the top of the hill (including a few with dancer poses for an Accademia assignment). They were extremely nice, and, as they walked away, I heard one of the girls say, “I wish I could just whip my leg up like that and do those poses.” After weeks of watching the other dancers do some incredible feats of flexibility, this was a nice reminder of my own abilities.

On a side note, I also discovered that all of the squirrels in the park have awesome mohawk fur. Just needed to put that out there.

Awesome squirrel 

Eventually, I headed back down the hill and back into inner Vienna. Unfortunately, I got back at around 3:30 so I had a lot of time left to fill until dinner. I ended up just wandering around Stephansdom watching people and the street performers (one of which was an impromptu dance performance where the girl whipped out some amazing leaps and turns and the guys break danced).

The street performers 

I then went and grabbed some spicy chicken with noodles at a take-out Japanese restaurant. This turned out to be extremely tasty; the noodles and the chicken were really good and the sweet but really spicy sauce on top of it made it perfect. I basically ended up eating almost all of it. I then went back to the place I had gelato at least night, but instead I got profiterole (which I discovered in Venice and is now one of my favorite desserts) which also tasted wonderful. It was a fantastic dinner overall.

My amazing dinner

The place I got gelato and dessert at

After that, I got my bag from the hotel and took the metro over to the station where I could take a train to the airport. I ended up getting lost and confused a bit in that station, but two nice women helped figure out which train I wanted and I boarded it successfully.

The Vienna airport also went smoothly, though I got there so early that I had to both wait for the check in people to learn what gate the flight would be at and for the flight at my gate before my flight to depart so that I could go through security (security was based at the gate of your flight, how neat is that?).

Flying is also currently going smoothly (yes, I am writing this on the flight). I’m sitting next to two nice Londoners of about my age who have been chatting with me about movies, our travels, and our annoyance at this flight (a lot of the people first to arrive had to check their bags and will get them back at baggage claim, but the later people just get it at the arrival gate). They also gave me a roll with fruit in it, which was very tasty.

So, to conclude with some general statements, Vienna is a very beautiful place where modernity and classical/imperial looks blend constantly, and everywhere you go it smells like horse (because of all of the carriages) though I've never minded that smell. I had a lovely time there.

Auf wiedersehen!