Stranger in a Strange Land: An Eastern and Western European Weekend...

The months of May and June are filled with a variety of religious holidays here in Germany. Most of the holidays fall on a Monday, Thursday, or Friday, thus resulting in quite a few long weekends throughout the month. Brian and I typically take full advantage of the long weekends here... It's when we've done the majority of our city tours (i.e. Paris, Prague, Venice, Amsterdam, etc.). And this past weekend was no exception! :) Being that we had a four day weekend, we thought it would be fun to see a little bit of Western Europe along with some Eastern Europe. So, off we went, with our friends Maciej and Kinga, to check out the sights in Vienna, Austria (Western Europe) and Bratislava, Slovakia (Eastern Europe). What a wonderful weekend we had! Admittedly, it was quite an undertaking with trying to explore two separate cities in a weekend... But, we didn't let that intimidate us! Instead, we managed to cram in as much sightseeing as we could possibly handle into two and a half days! :) It was quite a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was definitely worth it!

Vienna was a beautiful city with some gorgeous architecture! I could have wandered through the city all day just looking at all of the beautiful buildings! :) Vienna is filled with culture... Between the Opera House, the Spanish Riding School, the National Library, the many art galleries and museums... I could have stayed there for a week just taking in all of the cultural attractions! :) Unfortunately, we only had a day and a half to work with, so we basically just scratched the surface of the city... But, what we did see, definitely whet my appetite and I can see us going back to visit again someday. :)

Bratislava was next on our list... It was quite interesting to see, especially considering we had just come from Vienna! There was such a stark contrast between Bratislava and Vienna. It was possible to see the Eastern European influences right away. Within minutes of crossing the border between Austria and Slovakia, you could see the difference. The streets weren't quite as clean, there were no clear signs to inform us of what type of vignette we needed to drive through the country, and the buildings were all reminiscent of the communist era... They stood stark against the skyline, looking like big, gray, dismal-looking boxes. It was a different feeling when we first drove into the country. To be quite honest, I was a little hesitant about staying there... My first thought was that we could just walk through the city quickly and then head back to Vienna and try to find a room for the night. :) But, thankfully we didn't do that. Instead we found our hotel (which was very nice, but located in quite a shady area! When we drove up to it, all that I could think of was the movie "Hostel"... Creepy!) and set out to explore the city. Once we started exploring, we quickly realized that it was one of those "hidden gems" of a city. There were some beautiful old buildings, the people were friendly, everything was much cheaper (gotta love Eastern Europe!), the food was delicious, and it had such a laid back atmosphere. The only downfall was that the Slovakian language is extremely difficult to understand! Our knowledge of German definitely did not help in this city! :) The language is similar to that of Polish or Czech, which meant that we had no idea what the majority of the signs said, which made things rather interesting! :) Thankfully, our friends Maciej and Kinga speak Polish, which meant that they were our translators while in the city! :) Either way, Bratislava is definitely a must-see city! Not only is it fun to explore, but it's pretty fascinating to see the differences between the Eastern European and Western European cultures.

So, without further ado... Here's a peek into our Eastern and Western European weekend... Enjoy! :)

A side view of the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera)...

I loved how there was such a mix of old and new style buildings throughout the city!

Domkirche St. Stephen (St. Stephen's Cathedral)...

This church was founded in the 12th century, destroyed in the 1258 fire that went through Vienna, replaced by a Gothic building in the 14th century, suffered under the Turkish siege of 1683, and was bombed (along with the rest of the city) by the Germans and the Soviets during World War II. However, it was restored and reopened in 1948, and has since remained standing! :) The steeple, which is 450 feet tall, is a symbol of Vienna. It also consists of a great deal of history... Mozart's "pauper's funeral" was held in it in 1791, and Napolean posted his farewell edict on the doors of the cathedral in 1805.

Inside the cathedral... The lighting was gorgeous. At first glance, we felt as if we had walked into another version of La Sagrada Familia (the cathedral in Barcelona)... But, we quickly realized that the colorful lighting wasn't coming from the windows... Instead, there were spotlights aimed at the ceiling to create this lighting effect. Once we noticed that, the cathedral lost some of its appeal. :) It was still pretty to see nonetheless! :)

We climbed the 343 steps up to the South Tower of the cathedral to get to this view of Vienna... It was so worth the hike! :)

Some cool looking sculptures in the Inner Stadt...

Statues, such as this one, can be found throughout the city...

The Theseus Temple located in the Volksgarten...

The Volksgarten is known for their rose display... They literally have hundreds of different species of roses there! It was so beautiful! :) I literally had to sit down so that I could "stop and smell the roses"! :)

The Volksgarten with all of its roses...

I think this is my favorite part of Vienna! :)

The Austrian Parliament Building...

The Wien Rathaus...

The Burgtheater...

We got a little twisted around while walking through the city, so we took a break to find where we were on the map... Here's Maciej and Kinga trying to figure out where to go! :)

The Austrian National Library which is housed in the Hofburg Palace complex...

The Hofburg Palace used to be the winter palace of the Hapsburg dynasty. This complex now houses the Vienna Boy's Choir, the Imperial Apartments, the Imperial Treasury, the Lippizzaner stables, and the Spanish Riding School. (We actually were able to get into the Spanish Riding School to watch their morning exercises... It was fascinating to see! The horses were so well trained!! But, unfortunately, we don't have any pictures as we weren't allowed to take any! :( )

Since we couldn't get pictures of the actual Lipizzaner stallions practicing, here's a "fill in" picture of two of the many horses we saw trotting around the city! :)

The four of us enjoying a glass of Austrian wine in our apartment after a long day of sightseeing... After relaxing in the apartment for a bit, we headed back out to experience Vienna at night! :)

Vienna at night...

Brian was getting creative, so he had us pose among the statues... :)

The Riesenrad...

This is considered one of the most famous landmarks in Vienna.

This ferris wheel was built in 1897 and is 220 feet tall. It celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1997.

The Riesenrad is located in an amusement park. After working at Cedar Point for three summers, most of you realize that I'm an amusement park junkie! :) So, walking into this amusement park made me quite excited!! Unfortunately, everyone else claimed that they were too tired to ride any rides, so I had no one to go with... Which meant no rides for me. :( The most interesting thing about this park was that you didn't have to purchase a ticket to get into the park, which would also cover riding all of the rides. Instead, entrance into the park was free, and you then paid at the entrance of the rides that you wanted to go on... Pretty cool system! After walking away from that park and not being able to ride any rides, I'm now extremely eager to go to Cedar Point this summer to make up for it! :)

Neue Hofburg...

Standing outside the Neue Hofburg...

Having fun with the statues! :)

I thought this was the cutest statue ever! :)

This was standing in front of the National History Museum, which I definitely would have gone through if we had more time! Yes, I'm kind of a nerd like that... I love learning about history! :)

Posing in front of the Museum of Fine Arts...

Vienna has a fantastic subway system!

Unfortunately for us, we found it AFTER we walked about 20 kilometers around the city the day before! :)

It was extremely hot while we were walking around the city, so we had to stop for some refreshments, of course! :) I loved the little masses they served beer in! :)

Before we left the city, w also had to sample some of Vienna's infamous dessert, which is called Sacher Torte. It's chocolate cake with an apricot marmelade spread between the layers... Quite tasty! :)

After our visit to Vienna was over, we headed into Slovakia...

This is where the differences between Eastern and Western Europe became a little more clear. Our hotel was located in this area, which was quite unnerving to drive through when we first arrived... Notice the big, ugly, Communist style buildings in the background?!

However, once we arrived at our hotel, we realized it wasn't so bad! We stayed at Hotel Esprit, and it was such a great place to stay!! It was very clean, extremely modern, and the staff was super friendly! If you're ever in Bratislava, Slovakia, I highly recommend this place! :)

The restaurant we ate dinner at the first night...

Traditional Slovakian food = delicious! :)

We definitely felt out of sorts when it came to the language... It's such a strange feeling to not be able to understand signs, or anything for that matter! :) It actually helped us to see how much German we actually know now! :)

Walking into town... We had to cross this bridge to get into town. The tall UFO looking building above it, is a very popular landmark in Bratislava. It's actually a restaurant with a remarkable view of the city and surrounding areas...

Crossing the bridge over the Danube River...

A view of the Bratislava Castle from the bridge...

The Primatial Palace in Bratislava...

This palace dates back to the 18th century.

Street car in Bratislava...

Notice the difference between East and West Europe yet? :)

The 1. Slovak Pub...

The biggest pub in town, and it's filled with Slovakian history.

The Palffy Palace...

A window display featuring traditional Slovakian attire...

I loved this hand-carved chair!! Too cute! :)

Can you figure out what the sign says in the background?? :)

I love this picture of Brian!! :)

He's standing outside of a restaurant called "Papparazzi"! :)

It was about 100 degrees as we were sightseeing that day, so as we passed this sign that said they had "take away" drinks, we couldn't pass it up! :) Our options were beer, coffee, or bubbly water... Needless to say, a nice, cold, refreshing beer won out! :)

Cheers! :)

The stairway leading to the Bratislava Castle... Pretty cool!

The Bratislava Castle...

After our day of sightseeing, we headed out for dinner... This was a traditional Slovakian dish that Maciej and Brian ordered... We were amazed at how much food arrived! (And, no worries, Brian and Maciej shared this! :))

The guys getting ready to dig in to their meal fit for a king! :)

After dinner, we did some more sightseeing...

We came across some of Bratislava's many surprises!

This guy here is called Rubberneck... He's literally a statue that sticks out of a hole in the pavement! :)

We also came across this statue called Schoene Naci...

This statue commemorates a man who used to live in Bratislava in the 20th century. He always dressed in top hats and tails and would wander through the city, passing out flowers to women and humming songs! :)