I left Lublin at around 8 in the morning and took the regional train to the outskirts of Warsaw. It was quite beautiful seeing Eastern Poland with a fresh coat of snow. After a short wait in Warsaw, I hopped on a EuroCity train which took me directly to Vienna. There was actually very little worth mentioning on this train. I played some classic Legend of Zelda and watched some episodes of Seinfeld. I snacked on some sandwiches and Christmas goodies that Uncle Dominik prepared for me before I left. A Eurocity train costs a little bit more than the regional trains but the label ensures a certain level of quality, comfort, and efficiency despite each country offering different carriages. For example, the Austrian EC coaches offer climate control and power outlets in each cabin while the Polish and Czech trains don't but offer ashtrays instead.
I arrived in Vienna around 8 at night but still had to take the Viennese subway system to get to my friend Susi's apartment.
Susi and I met in Vienna when I did a study abroad program there during my freshman year of college. She lived on the same floor of the student-home where I was placed and we spent many hours chatting in the communal kitchen (when she wasn't studying for her tests). This year she moved out of the student-home to share an apartment with her brother and her best friend. Her brother was still spending the holidays with her family in western Austria so I was able to use his room. Along with the relief from the full day rail journey, I was treated to a decently quick internet connection. Susi and her roommate had also spent the day traveling, so we caught up with life over a bottle of wine before hitting the hay.
The next day we all went shopping on Mariahilferstrasse. The girls had to make some Christmas exchanges and replace a hair-straightener that they had mysteriously blown-up. They caught the subway back home but I decided to take a walk through the city center. It was a very strange sensation. This is the first time in my conscious life that I have ever really gone back to a foreign city after having visited it earlier. The city felt just as vibrant and full of life as it had the last time I was there. I must admit I really do love that city. The main avenues in the center were full of little huts that were taking a break after Christmas. These had been used for the Christmas markets but the city made the great idea to keep them around for New Years as well. I stopped by one of the permanent street vendors in Schwedenplatz to pick up a Käsekrainer, my favorite Viennese treat. These are hot dogs that are stuffed with a cheese and then kept on a hot-grill. The buns is also kept warm but isn't slit like american hot-dogs. Instead the bun has one tip cut off and is then impaled on a steaming-rod. Mustard and ketchup are squirted in before the sausage is jimmied in.
I really do love those things. Later that night I met up with Mark and Eva. Eva is an Austrian girl who lived on the same floor as Susi and I. Mark is a UW student who was in the same program as I was.
Though he lived on a different floor, he spent much of his time with Eva and I in our kitchen. During our first stay in Austria, he and Eva became a bit of a thing. She actually visited Mark and I over the summer in Seattle, so Mark decided to come over and visit here as well. They had just come over that morning from the town near Salzburg where Eva and her family live. We spent a lot of time chatting and catching up on life. It was fantastically refreshing to have old friends to chat with. I really haven't found anyone my age in Poland who I've really with so it was great just to have someone to talk to about life, the universe and everything. We also watched Avatar that night. Second time with that film...so good.
I actually wasn't as "productive" as I could have been during these days in Vienna but I didn't feel too bad about that. It was quite exhausting at school before the vacation as Mike, the Australian I had previously been staying with, was just beginning to get back into the class rotation after his run-in with the inept Polish immigration bureaucracy. I was quite busy in Lublin and since I felt so at home in Vienna it was a wonderful chance to just sit back and relax and catch up on a lot of sleep.
Things really go going on New Years Eve though:
Mark, Eva, and I met up in the late afternoon and explored the city center. We made an important stop however at the subway station near the University. There I made a little pilgrimage to the pizza shop there, which still holds the title of making my favorite pizza crust in the world. From there we explored the inner city, which was jam-packed full of Viennese, other Austrians, and tourists from around the world. The entire district was one giant street fair. Every little street and alley had a different sound system blaring different kinds of music. There was pop, rock, traditional Austrian, polka, waltz and even a disco area.
Everywhere we went there were different shops offering traditional Austrian holiday goodies, lots of little souvenirs, and hot foods and drinks. I enjoyed a hot cup of Christmas punch. Also traditional is to pick up little tokens of good luck. At some of the stall you would see various knick-knacks of chimney-sweeps, clovers, mushrooms and pigs. I picked up a plush pig hat that I wore periodically for the rest of the night. I intend on making it a part of many New Year's celebrations to come.
After enjoying the crowd for a while longer, I bid a momentary farewell to Mark and Eva. I trammed it back to Susi's apartment where we had a lovely dinner with one of her friends who was joining us for the evening. We left around 9 and boogied over to the Student-home where we all used to live. We sat around, had some beer, and talked about life. Several friends and acquaintances stopped by as well. At around 1130, we packed things up and hopped on the subway for a few stops till we got to Prater where we waited for the New Year.
Prater is a giant park on the outskirts of Vienna. Generations ago, it was a private park and hunting ground for the Hapsburg royalty. about 150 some years ago they turned the park public. It is now one of the most favorite parks for Viennese and visiting tourists alike. It is home to the Riesenrad (Giant's Wheel) which is essentially a twin to the London Eye. It also has a small amusement park, a planetarium, a football stadium, and hundreds of acres of parks and paths. We only got a few yards into the crowd and really had no idea how large the crowd was either...but we knew it was big. There was a growing electric in the group that became more and more pronounced as the seconds ticked down. At midnight cheering broke out, fireworks went off and champagne was had all around. Speakers all around the city started playing some waltz music and everyone danced a little bit. It was generally a fantastic sensation being there as a part of that crowd.
The group of us headed back down to central Vienna. Unfortunately, our little group got split up a bit. The plan was originally for Mark, Eva, and I to drop some stuff off at the student home, before going to the center to dance for a few hours. Susi and her friend decided to go straight there. As bad luck would have it though, Susi's cell phone had died somewhere along the way. Not sure where in the crowd of thousands, they would be, the three of us decided to stay at the hostel. It was actually quite another fantastic opportunity to sit and talk and reflect on life. I headed home around 2 or 3 or so and then spent another few hours talking with my friends and family over the internet. I didn't wake up that day until quite late and essentially spent most of the day recovering. Though I did have a lovely dinner with Mark and Eva back at the student-home. The next day was my last in Vienna. It was Mark's last too. We said our goodbyes and went our ways.
The next day was actually quite uneventful. Susi and I parted ways and I went to the train station to buy my ticket. Normally I would have gone to the Suedbahnhof to catch my train but this was actually being completely overhauled. Instead, the routed the trains to several of the smaller surrounding stations. I found mine in Vienna-Meidling. I initially got there too early to catch a train so I spent two or three hours sitting in the McCafe reading. Have I mentioned how fantastic the McDonalds restaurants are over here? The coffee is actually pretty damn tasty too. My train left Vienna at about 1 o'clock. It was smooth sailing all the way to Katowice which I reached around 530.
Katowice is the local ugly, smelly, industrial town that everybody hates...it's the Tacoma of southern Poland. The train station is a worn-down attempt at Soviet brutalism. Would fit right in next the J. Edgar Hoover building in DC or next to Kane Hall at UW. Forty years of neglect hasn't helped it either. It is cold, smelly, and has a lot of questionable restaurants and vendors along with a healthy handful of bums. Lucky them...and lucky me as it turns out. The trip from Vienna had incidently snowed the entire way. When I got to Katowice (which is only an hour away from Bielsko), the ground was snowy but looked manageable. I bought my ticket to Bielsko and then went to the platform to wait. People slowly trickled onto the platform as the supposed destination time neared. And then people slowly trickled off again as the departure time came and went without any sign of the train. Worried about what was going on, I went to the Information booth but the staff didn't speak English or German so I still had no idea what was going on with my train. I saw in the corner a guy who I thought I had seen also waiting for my train. I talked to him in very broken Polish and he replied in very broken English that the train was cancelled and that we would have to catch the next train at 9 o'clock. What should have been only an hour wait ended up being about 4...in the allegedly nastiest place in Southern Poland. Joy joy joy. Apart from giving a few coins to a bum who had a remarkable command of english and spanish for a bum, I was left in peace waiting for the train. When the time came, my new travelling companion signaled to me and we quickly hopped on to finally make our ways back home. I made it home about 10 and was never so glad to be back.
Well that is all there is to really say about my vacation. The last three weeks have been mainly filled with lazing around and reading a bit, with some computer thrown in there. I feel like I sometimes sound a bit like the Arrested Development announcer when I mention what I might blog about next, but I'm fairly confident that you can expect something about skiing in Poland within the next period of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment