It took 10 minutes for the train to arrive! – Not the one to Vienna, but the metro to the Keleti Palyaudvar. At 6 O’clock in the morning, I couldn’t have expected more though. “This is just like the services in Bangalore!” remarked Snag. There were so many trains already waiting, and I was not sure which one to take. I gave my bag to Snag and went to ask the ticket examiner. “How can you make a woman carry bags?” she asked indignantly. We got onto the train with five minutes to spare. And then, there was a fight for the window seat. “Look around you!” she said, “Everyone has given the window seat to the lady! Don’t fight like a child!” I rested my case.
Finding the hotel took too much of time. I wondered whether Lonely Planet had got the directions wrong. It was only until later that I saw that the main entrance of the Westbahnhof had been closed for repair. After checking in, we headed to the Schloss Schonbrunn.The U-Bahn in Vienna was impressive, because it ran over the city. Everybody seemed to be heading to the Schloss. The Chinese tourists who were absent in Budapest were there in Vienna. The place actually seemed to be full of Asians, especially Indians. Here in Budapest, we seem to be the only ones.
The palace was as beautiful as I had read about. A long yellow façade stretched out far in front of us. Behind it stretched the wonderfully colorful garden as far as the eye could fathom. We took a short tour of the palace. It was all about Franz Joseph, Elizabeth and Maria Theresa. Snag was disappointed. “Why are they only telling sad stories?”She mused, “All they were talking about was how Franz Joseph was a workaholic, and how his wife never liked the marriage, how her kids died and how Maria Theresa’s daughters were all married off for political advantages! Why can’t they say something nicer?”
The garden was beautifully laid out. On the far side, above the hill, rose up the beautiful Gloriette pavilion. At the hill’s base gushed the beautiful Neptune fountain. A zigzag path led from its base up to the pavilion. The distance from the palace to the fountain was laid out with what seemed like a green mosaic decorated with flowers. It was a slightly strenuous climb up the hill for me, but I managed it. And at the top, I was rewarded (well, not really, since I had to pay for it) with Apfelstrudel in vanilla sauce and whipped cream.
We decided to climb down through the foliage. Snag was excited to spot crows. “You don’t see them in cold places!” she remarked. True in fact, since I do not remember seeing them in Europe. But in Vienna, they seemed to be everywhere. She was also excited by the sheep. “Look at them, they are black sheep”, I pointed out, “probably they have been taken out of Farmville. “Oh! You mean someone had abandoned them?” she quipped. In addition to these, there were the squirrels, which everyone seemed to be running after to get a photo of, and those numerous ducks swimming around everywhere.
Snag seemed to have liked the place just like the palace in Budapest. “I should have a place like this,” she exclaimed, “I should have a lot of maids to do everything, people should come and give me gifts of gold and other jewels, I should spend the whole day just dressing up! I think God definitely made a mistake. I should have been a queen.” I guess he certainly did.
Snag decided to take the 6:00 PM train back to Budapest rather than stay overnight. She was unsure what to buy from Vienna. I pointed to the miniatures of the palace and Empress Elizabeth, but she was not impressed. I took an umbrella. “I don’t need one,” she said, but something about it seemed to attract her to it. She picked up one to go along with the miniature porcelain set she’d already taken. “Since you are travelling back today itself, you can carry the umbrellas with you back to Budapest,” I said. After much cajoling, she agreed. As we headed towards the U-Bahn, she stopped, seemingly involuntarily at a guy selling spray painting. After another ten minutes, we bought one each. It was already 5:30 PM. We had to run to get her on to the train.
The rest of the evening, I spent walking and accidentally discovering some of the most beautiful buildings in Vienna. I walked down the beautiful Mariahilfenstrasse – something Gabor had recommended yesterday. Cars whizzed past, honking at each other. I had to keep walking as the Saturday evening shoppers were busily moving around. After almost an hour, I was at the end of the street. On my left opened the entrance to the museum quarter. At almost 7:00 in the evening, it was hardly a time to visit museums, but I stepped in. The place was full of evening revelers, especially young kids on skateboards. And even at that time, there was one exhibition which was open – the Japanese Media Exhibition. I stepped in and wandered around. After about a quarter an hour trying to figure out what was the purpose of the numerous black robotic contraptions on display, I stepped out. In front of me stretched Maria Theresa Platz.
Two huge buildings, museums of their own, flanked the square. In the middle of the square, rose up the statue of Maria Theresa on her throne. It was one of the largest statues of a monarch I had ever witnessed and it towered above everyone who walked underneath. Across the square was the gate to the Hofburg Palace. I decided to leave the exploration of the palace to the next day, but the presence of so many policemen and the faint notes of music egged me forward.
It was a carnival out there. There were so many tents full of people that for a moment I thought it was Oktoberfest. The lady at the kiosk informed me that it was the Harvest Festival in Austria. It seemed too good to be true. I stayed put, and soon enough the performances began. For an hour, we were treated to folk dances from all over Europe – Austria, Germany, England, France, Spain and everywhere else. It was followed by a mini orchestra. Strangely, in the city where Mozart excelled, they played pop music. But then, people didn’t seem to care. They just continued dancing.
By 9:00, it was time to head back to the guest house. In the distance, I could faintly see the tower of the Rathaus rising up. I walked towards it, knowing too well that there would be a metro station next to it. Turning a corner, I was surprised to be face to face with the long façade of the Austrian Parliament. Next to it stood the gardens of the Rathaus. A circus was playing in the lawns, and from behind it, rose up the majestic town hall. I stood there for long, imbibing in the beauty of the building. Heading back to the hotel, I noticed that the sides of the town hall were not so imposing as its front side. In fact, the walls on the side were black – as if it were a prison.
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