A Wiener Christmas (Holiday Break Part 1)
- Alexa Nickandros
- Jan 9, 2019
- 6 min read
Happy New Year to everybody! Winslow here, finally back and settling in from a long and tiring tour of European capital cities. If I’m not mistaken, this is my longest trip yet, clocking in at 18 days. That’s a lot of time to squeeze in a lot of activities and perhaps life-changing and awe-inspiring moments, right? The fact is, on each bus following a visit the three of us would ask ourselves, “what did we even do these past few days?!”
City touring is a whole heck of a lot of being towed around in a backpack, as one in the crowd, noting anything that makes this particular city different from the last. What makes the experience valuable, however, is noting how the city is different for us than for anyone else.
We flew into Budapest, stop number one.
We had heard that Budapest was particularly beautiful, with unique architecture and a wonderful view on either side of the Danube. We found ourselves dropped in the middle of a bustling city with huge modern buildings lining commercial streets. It was foggy, rainy, cold, and the sun set before 4PM. Overall, the three of us had an unsettling feeling. I think maybe the young one’s complaining is rubbing off on me… yet she did offer a good explanation for why we felt the way we did: the city layout.
Budapest is not laid out the way most European cities are, which is like this, according to Reddit:
It is actually two cities, Buda, and Pest, each on their respective sides of the Danube. A lot of Budapest was destroyed in war, therefore much of it is rebuilt and relatively new. There is no gothic cathedral to draw your attention or center the city around, nor a main train station, nor a centralized park, nor common squares to gather in. The iconic Parliament building, the symbol of Budapest and landmark of Hungary, was only completed in 1904. Buda Castle isn’t even a castle, but an area on top of Buda hill that includes the national library and museum. Budapest is also well known for great nightlife, but as I’m not exactly a party animal, that is left unseen. We felt a bit betrayed by the city (and the weather). Its unfamiliarity made it difficult to see it as more than just any city. However, by our last day we felt that all it needed was just some deeper exploration.
While the young one and the boyfriend were out at the thermal baths, I was doing something I never expected to do: learning French! I’m usually not too keen on making new friends, but Chien Orange and I have a lot in common.
He is the travel companion to another one of those so-called “hosts”. He barely speaks any English, but between him and the host I learned about other stories like ours, those of travel companions, and some licks of French in between. It’s a very rare occasion when I have such intimate discussions with anyone besides the young one nowadays. This interaction was a great source of inspiration for me. I have come to notice that staying with these “hosts” makes for a very unique experience, especially in a city setting. Usually I don’t interact with them, so I didn’t notice until now.
The thermal bath Széchenyi. The second one not pictured was called Gellért. I would find it a little odd to be swimming in 32 degree weather, but whatever.
The Chain Bridge. The first of eight bridges connecting Buda and Pest, built in 1849. Notice how difficult it was to see across the river that day!
St. Stephen's Cathedral, flanked by Christmas market boutiques. Here is where one can gaze upon the 1000-year-old mummified hand of Saint Stephen.
Fisherman's Bastion up on Buda Hill plus the view from there. I came out just once that day in the rain. Notice the ginormous Parliament building across the river, really the only remarkable part of the horizon.
Szimpla Kert is one of a number of ruin pubs in Budapest. It's considered THE ruin pub. They're where the night-life happens, or on the weekends at Szimpla, farmer's brunch. Exploring it gave us the impression that Budapest really does have much more to offer than we'd seen during our three-day stay.
Our second stop on the city tour was Vienna.
It is difficult for us to separate the city of Vienna from Christmas because for one thing, we were there for Christmas, and second, Christmas was just everywhere. In Budapest we just stumbled upon markets; they made themselves a part of the streets, squeezing in a few boutiques where they could. In Vienna, however, they took over! We frequented one of them, the main one, at Rathausplatz, home of city hall.
This is where the young one and the boyfriend went ice skating on Christmas, accumulated suitcase clutter in the form of souvenir mugs from their punch and hot wine, struggled through insanely dense crowds, and laughed at all the signs saying “weiner” (which means “Viennese”). We were all surprised that nothing at all was translated into English! Usually me and the boyfriend are lost with all the French, so it was enjoyable for all three of us to be lost together.
Despite the plethora of markets, buskers playing solemn holiday music in the streets, and horse-drawn carriages, it didn’t feel like Christmas magic to any of us. This is when we came to the realization that it’s impossible for it to feel like Christmas in a place you’ve never felt Christmas before. We gave it our best shot.
The couple's Christmas Eve setup.
We went to the world-renowned opera-house Staatsoper to see “The Nutcracker” on Christmas day. This is also my unphotographability at it's finest.
The young one has a tendency to do things like this; she asked me after a full and happy day, “what would have made today merrier?” I told her that her Christmas present to herself should be to stop thinking about all those “what ifs”, to enjoy moments as they happen and to quit trying to control things. Maybe that just seems like such second-nature to me since I’m physically incapable of controlling anything. Young one, just because you didn’t see and experience every single thing in the city, doesn’t mean you missed out!
Really the only thing we didn’t get to do was go to the cemeteries outside of town to visit Beethoven and Mozart.
Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Emperor and Empress of the Habsburg Empire, just a metro ride away from their downtown winter residence.
In an attempt to get our traditional photo with a bird's-eye view of the city, we climbed the 343 steps up the South tower of the Cathedral. Well, I was carried actually. It was disappointing to be in an enclosed area up there in the sky. We would have liked to see the view from an outdoor area where the sun could show my complexion in the photos...
Vienna, Austria is the place of invention of the torte, as well as the snowglobe.
Following the Danube still, our third capital city was Bratislava.
Even though it’s the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava is small and just enough to take in in one day. It felt like an escape from the cities actually. The markets were all being packed away (we were pretty marketed out anyway) but Christmas music still played in shops and cafes.
I hadn’t been on a free walking tour before, so in Bratislava it was a very pleasant first! I am a very curious bear when it comes to history (I get it from the tall one) and it’s always something I feel is missing when the young one and I travel. Bratislava has a very interesting history, and actually it has only been its own country for 25 years. I am going to make sure the young one and I do more of these tours!
On our tour, with the Opera in the background.
The lower part of this cool building burned up a few weeks ago when a guy at the market making potato pancakes had some sort of accident. It's all good since the building is that of an insurance company.
You haven't really been to Bratislava if you didn't touch this man's head, even though his existence has no significance whatsoever.
From Bratislava Castle, which you can see at the top of the hill, looking over the city, from almost anywhere.
Pretty sure we drove past this windmill forest from Budapest to Vienna. From this vantage point you can see the lines between Slovakia, Austria, and Czech.
The young one has this mentality that there is a right and wrong way to travel. I disagree with that, yet I do believe that traveling takes practice. For instance, there is a balance between spending too much money and not enough. Or between looking down at your map and looking up. This is what I observe anyway. What especially takes practice is what I mentioned before, about making the city different for you than for anyone else. The young one will see see see and do do do and not be content. She needs to work on having her "thing" that she does in every city she goes to.
For the New Year we left the banks of the Danube. I will get around to telling you all about that soon enough. For now, think about how you handle or would handle city travel and get back to us if you can.
Until soon enough,
Winslow
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