Overcoming inertia..

I've never envisioned a holiday so busy b4.. medicamp.. float.. it really takes a lot of energy out of a person.. shall not blog more abt medicamp. it was a letdown in many areas, but also has its ups..

I mean, as someone so aptly put it, it is during medicamp that you actually get to work with so many other people around in your batch.. You get to know them, their working habits, characters, little quirks.. and in the end - you know you want to know them more, or you really wanna stay away from them...

float - rehash of yesteryear.. this year, the cans came back with a vengence.. O_O eek. i dun recall getting our fingers all sliced up by cutting the cans.. PLUS peeling off the crushed recycled cans, then washing then, then cutting them with the garden shears.. Aahhhh.. talk about job hazards.. O_O"""""

back to my itinerary.. lolz.. i haf to finish this for good records, ( and partially to prove a point to Frank.. you reading this Frank? =P lolz.. )

Day 15 - 2nd day in Vienna
After yesterday evening's wonderful performance.. we actually arrived back at our hostel quite late. But no lazy mornings!! =P 'tis being a Sunday, we were off to the Hoffburg Palace, to catch a glimpse of the reknowned Vienna Boys Choir!! =D

A quick train ride and a brisk walk in the chilly morning air later, we arrived at the small cathedral, built into the grounds of the Hoffburg palace. Apparently, the Vienna Boys' Choir only sings to the public on Sundays during church service.. (well, at least for free performance..) There was already a humongous long queue outside the church. Eep. Well, you could buy tickets, and actually enter the church and seat inside, and attend the service - or alternatively, you could be poor like us, and choose standing room, queueing outside while people with tickets were admitted first.

Anyway, after the pple were seated, we progressed into the main lobby outside the church. We were JUST outside the small door leading into the chapel.. ARGH. The Vienna Boys' Choir were seated in the choir loft above, so we couldn't see anything. =( well, if it helps, the choir loft was above the church congregation too, so they could scare see much from their vantage point.. The whole church service was in german.. =D well, we couldn't catch wat they were saying, but guess Catholic customs and rites don't defer too much.. =P The Vienna Boys' Choir was really superb!! =D there was this paricular solo part, which sounded really melodious.. I had to remind myself that the solo part was actually sung by a boy.. woah.


Interior of the Church where the Vienna Boys' Choir sang!! =D

The highlight of the service must have been the end, when the choir actually came down to the front of the congregation, and took a bow.. So we did catch a glimpse of the Vienna Boys' Choir, decked resplendent in their sailor-boy-like uniform.. Aaww.. =P

After the church service, we toured the surrounding palace and museum, including the Sisi museum, where we heard the sad life story of Sisi.. it was indeed quite an educational morning, since the Sisi museum tour lasted almost 2 whole hours.. There we were, walking through the whole building, listening to the audio-guide.. The audio guide was indeed useful.. =P But guess Susan and I took longer than the rest. =P

After the tiring museum tour, we scouted for a lunch place.. =P ended up having kebab again.. Sheesh. kebab is really ubiquitous in Europe.. -_-""" then to Stephenplatz!! The St Stephen Cathedral was really quite another architectural wonder.. My only grouse is that its really hard to take pictures in the dim church interior. -_-"" usage of flash results in poor lighting, cos its really huge; switching off flash results in slower shutter speed, as a result, blurrer pictures, unless u use a tripod stand.. ggrrr...


The beautiful Stephenplatz!!

After Stephenplatz, we decided to head to the Opera house to check out if there were any plays on tonight.. Mebbe we could luck out and get cheaper tics like last nite? =P So we trekked down to the Opera house, where we were sorely disappointed.. apparently, the standing tics had already been snapped up.. Aahhh...


Outside the Vienna Opera house.. =D

As Teresa was enquiring on the tickets, there was this guy who was dressed in those Mozart costume, you know, the white wig and stuff.. and he came up to us to try to sell us tickets to some musical performance. Susan mentioned that we already attended one at the L'orangerie the night before, and that guy enquired the price. Having heard the price, he shook his head, gave one of those irritating, smirks, with the all-knowing look on this face. I was really pissed!!! Refusing to back down, I glared back at him. X_X he was tsk-tsking us at our poor choice of concerts when he heard it was the Schonnbrunn palace orchestra. Wat the heck.. I retorted that it was good enough for us, and that the palace was a much better venue than wherever his concert was offering us. He stared daggers at me, well, i just refused to back down.. Such a pain..

After being hustled off the scene by an unassuming Teresa, we decided to head to one of the famous heurigens (wine taverns) in Vienna.. =D So we hopped onto one of those cool electric tram lines, that brought us to this really far place, slightly out of the main Vienna city centre.. -_-""" so we wandered along the streets, not really knowing which one we would enter, cos the whole area is reputed to be filled with wine taverns.. =P I suppose that's a beauty of a backpacking travel - you actually get to explore unorthodox tourist attractions.. =P

So we stumbled upon this highly unassuming door, that had a small sign welcoming us to the wine tavern. We all though it was someone's residence!! =P walking in, we had a pleasant surprise! It was a wine taven alright, and it was also a residence! =P Apparently, the house owners hold the tavern in their backyards.. and it was a really picturesque scene - the lush green gardens, replete with garden swings and slide, a sitting area with deck chairs and tables, and lots of pple sitting around, drinking beer and eating their dinners.. =D


Hhmmm.. is this a wine tavern!??!

We must have really stood out from the crowd, cos the owner came hurrying up to welcome us almost immediately. It seems that there were many of such taverns around, which actually more to the local people, who actually knew the area, less to the adventurous tourist, but he was really hospitable.. =P And so we made ourselves comfortable.. =D the rest of the guys ordered wine while we sat down to a truth-or-dare session.. O_O anyway, sampling wine for the 1st time, it was really bitter.. Bleah, ack! Mixed with tonic water.. It tasted really weird.. Ack. Just a quarter cup.. Gabby got really drunk after a while.. lolz.. =D


Homely gardens of the heurigen..

The place didn't really sell staple food for dinner, so we headed back to Vienna city centre to grab some subway sandwiches before turning in early, cos we had an early train out the next morning to Salzburg.. Ack.. =P All in all, it was another interestingly wonderful day.. =D

Been really busy with Medicamp & Float.. Argh.. such a headache.. Never knew there would be so much work involved.. Anywayz, here's the belated update. As a result, I squeezed 2 days into 1.. =P

Sorry for the dearth of photos later in the post. I tink my server is acting up with photobucket.. Will upload them asap... the photos will be up before my next post..

Day 13
Today's our 2nd day in Venice!! =D We decided to head out early to the train station in Venice to book our train sleeper reservations for that very night from Venice to Vienna.. O_O We actually forgot to book it!! Aaiieeee...

So there we were, queueing for the train tics.. Luckily the line wasn't so long.. =P not so bad.. hee.. When we reached the counter, the nice man listened to us in our English and broken Italian.. Then he headed over to the counter and told us that the tickets cost 35euros apiece, and we were like, wat??? Then we realised that he wanted to give us the sleeper trains, i.e. the high-class bed ones.. =P where u lie horizontally.. When we wanted the couchette - the ones where u sit upright, then slide ur seat (which costs only 5 euros.) well, it doesn't take a genius to tell which one we bought.. =P

Anyway, that out of the way, we were heading to Murano today!!! =D quite excited to go Murano.. I have always wanted to come to Venice to see glass making.. =D Yepz, so there we were, on the vaporetti to Murano island (it is quite far from Venice island.. about a half an hour boat ride away?)


Did you know that the Grand Canal has a speed limit??!! Check this out! =D

Yepz, so we land on Murano, and wandered around the glass museum a bit, where they talked about the glasses and stuff.. Quite interesting.. =D Then we found a glass-blowing demonstration workshop! =D The master was really powerful!! =D We sat down, as he pulled this shapeless piece of molten RED hot glass into a ferrari horse statue! =D So impressive.. he did it in less than a minute! Woah. Then he demonstrated how to sculpt a rooster.. =D all in all, an enriching experience! =D Wahaha.. i could have sat there watching them the whole day..


Master glassblower hard at work!! =D

We then wandered around Murano island, doing retail therapy! =P There were so many shops selling glassware.. A pity they weren't clustered together, then it would have been much easier.. =P anyway, so we walked up and down the streets of Murano, buying glassware off the shelves like any souvenir-mad-tourist. -_-""" there was this really nice Murano glass watch!! Well, it was metallic, but there are beautiful murano glass pieces set into the glass cover, which looks, oh-so-gorgeous.. Haha.. couldn't resist buying 1 for my mom.. =D

Anyway, we shopped till we dropped, literally. And we realised that it was getting late to go to Burano!! Ah... We were in a mad frenzy as we rushed our final purchases, and hopped onto the boat to Burano.

Burano - home of the fishing village? Burano is known for its wonderful lace-work! =D We arrived in beautiful Burano & its coloured houses.. =D *nice*


Beautiful coloured houses of Burano!! =D

We rushed through the shops, since we wanted to catch the next boat half an hour later, to reach back Venice, so that we could catch our train to Vienna that night.. It was absolutely crazy. We walked in and out of shops, well, basically, Burano was almost similar to Venice. Only thing was that focused mainly on selling lace. The girls bought lace & shawls, but guess the guys din buy much.. =P


Another beautiful shot of Burano...

Anyway, we headed back to Venice on the vaporetti, where we had a nice leisurely dinner of pasta.. Then off to the train station where we had stored our luggage, and off to Vienna!! =D


Day 14
After another crazy night in the train, we arrived in Vienna to a beautiful morning.. =D Thankfully our hostel, westend city hostel, was pretty west bahnhof, so we deposited our bags there..

We headed back to the train station, where we took the u-bahn to Naschmarket! =D A key attraction of Vienna! =D Naschmarket was a bustling hive of activity. It reminded me so much of the fruit & flower market back in Nice. There were so many interesting stalls, selling tea leaves, selling fruits & vegetables, even a winery of sorts! =D the small beer barrels were laid out in the open, and you could pour out directly like in those Bordeux vineyard cellars.. =D So we had breakfast at this eatery, where we had half spring chicken.. Yum! =D

Apparently, the naschmarket stretches on for a couple of streets, and at the end, there's even a flea market selling all kinds of oddities! =D so we spent the morning trawling the stalls, and looking at curios, trying to figure out if any were good buys.. =P of course, we ended up not buying anything, but it was a nice experience.

That afternoon, we were pretty lost on what to do. Either we could visit museums & palaces and be cultured, or visit Prater, a giant amusement park in Vienna.. I guess we were all pretty tired of museums, so we decided to head to Prater. Prater was pretty impressive - it spanned such a large area, there were more than 50 rides.. plus, the ferris wheel was really impressive.. =p though, it was a real pity that the rides were qite exorbitantly-priced. =(( mebbe if it adopted a Disneyland approach, where u pay a lum sum to have unlimited rides, then mebbe it would fare better? =P


Giant ferris wheel @ Prater!

A little disappointed, we decided to head to Schronbrunn Palace to see the place & its beautiful gardens.. =D the palace grounds were HUGE. the gardens were beautiful, and there was even this open air area where it seemed as if you could hold a rock-concert in it or smth.. =p anyway, we were kinda reluctant to pay the entrance fee to enter the palace, so we were hanging around the ticket office, planning our next move..

So Susan happens to pick up a brochure, which advertises a orchestra concert for that night! =D and the girls go, "Oh, the THING to do in Vienna is to listen to a concert!" and of course, the concert price was also very nice.. -_-""" anyway, this nice man notices up, and comes up to us. He's really shrewd and observant - he guessed we were student backpackers, and offered us a discounted price of 30euros for the Schonnbrunn Palace Orchestra concert tath evening..

Hhmmm...

Hhmmm...

I bet Susan wanted to kill me while the guys were all contemplating. =p her eyes were like screaming, "Alvin Tng, I will NEVER speak to you again if you say no." Well, wat can i say? The rest is history. Yepz, so we paid 30euros each for the concert that night.. O_O"""" the girls were jubilant.. And Susan wanted to go back to the hostel to bathe, change and doll-up for the concert tonight.. o_O I was non-plussed. I thought I looked pretty presentable in my long sleeves and jeans.. o_O

Anyway, the girls had their way, and we headed back to the hostel for a quick shower. Alas, due to time constraints, not all of us could bathe in time. It was almost hilarious to see Susan going, "Do I look better in the white top, or the red blouse?" After the top, came the pants. =P then the accessories. -_-"" she was matching her pink or white murano glass pendant then she bought in Florence, with her top.. =P Sheesh..

After a long time, we were all dressed up and raring to go.. =D Dinner @ Subway was a hurried affair, as we raced to head back to Schonbrunn Palace for the concert. The concert that evening was held at L'Orangerie inside the palace grounds. Needless to say, we were at a loss for directions, and we split up to find the place. Finally catching hold of a waiter, he pointed us in the correct direction - and that's when i made a major boo-boo. =P In my haste and anxiousness not to be late, I immediately turned around and hollered across the courtyard to the Chris and the rest in the opposite direction, to come over. O_O MY GOODNESS. The waiter looked as if he could have killed me.. =P Thankfully there wasn't anybody else.. Sheesh!

Anyway, we settled into our seats - free seating - at the C class of the L'Orangerie. Nice place.. =D the chandeliers were magnificent.. =D The orchestra was excellent too =D playing a mix of pieces from Mozart and Strauss. In addition to the orchestra pieces, there were singing and ballet parts too!! =D it was wonderful to hear the male & female leads' voices accompanying the orchestral music.. And how intricately the ballet moves were incorporated into the performance.. It was truly, a night of brilliant music. Simply marvellous.


Me @ L' Orangerie for the concert!!

Nearing the end of the concert, we got a taste of culture shock - well, at least for the Europeans. =P A few of us starting shouting "encore!", much to the chagrin of most of the audience. My goodness! It was so malu-ating to have almost the whole audience in the hall staring at us.. O_O apparently, they don't have the culture of shouting encores in Europe.. -_-"""" Anyway, the orchestra did perform a few encore pieces, which were equally wonderful.. You know, as the old Chinese saying goes, ting1 chu1 ear3 you2, describing such melodius muzak.. =D

Anyway, we scampered out of the concert hall after it ended, since we felt so paiseh for all the "encore" faux pas. But all in all, it had been a most enriching and wonderful evening!! Our 30euros was well-spent! =D Lost in muscial rhapsody...