D11&12 Christmas Waltz

12/23,24 and the half day of 25; sunny, rainy and then snowy
Vienna

This city was once called the golden apple, and famous for countless musician and their great effort. Vienna is a city with many historical sites, cafes and smiling people. A friend of mine recommend the Christmas market in the front of city hall, was one of the most beautiful markets in Europe, so that we decided to spend the only Christmas time here.

Our hotel was worth to mention, we spent 26E per night so stay in a chic hotel in the southern part of the city, our room was clean, bright and warm. I guess that’s the reason why we had a good first impression in Vienna.

Hofburg

I spent a lot of time in visiting museums in Vienna, mostly the imperial museums and one other modern art museum. Hofburg was the winter and the official palace of the Austro-Hugarian empire family.

The great gate

The contruction of the palace always “wows” me, I’ve seen many palace and catherdrals but the baroco style building and the gorgeous decoration of everything were impressive.

Golden plats and candle

The hofburg consists of 3 major museums, the museum of silver dishes and folks (of course I named this), Sisi museum and the museum of the palace. Most of the museums were not allowed to take photos so that sadly I cannot share the amazing decoration to you.

  Winter palace

Speaking of Sisi, the former imperial Elizabeth. I didn’t know this famous imperial after I came here, the famous movie may be too many years ago. But there were many little girls like this independent, femalism lady. I wrote in my note while I visited the Sisi museum:

Sisi was a selfish, couldn’t handle with pressure and a patient suffered from depression. She’s a stubborn psychic.

Pony and I didn’t appreciate what she’ve done, and we thought her assissination was inevitable. Personally I like her husband, the emperor Franz Joseph, he’s hard-working man and cared about his family. No wonder people in Vienna still like this emperor.

Empire state of mind.

We also visited Schloss Schonbrunn, the summer palace of the royal family. That was also astonishingly breath-taking.

Schloss Schonbrunn

Christmas market in the front of the palace

Following the detailed guide, we visited most of the important rooms of the palace. I found that the decoration of each rooms were distinguishable and the royal family involed in the decoration of the rooms to show their personal taste. There are many rooms with Chinese style, it’s funny to discover how people see Asia in 17 and 18th century. Not too many differences than today, small eyes, many people living together and people could do Kung-Fu.

The garden

I’ve heard little stories about the emperor, for example, he’s good at remembering names and people, even if he met the person for a few seconds. I want that ability in recognize people I met, since I am a winner in forgeting names.

Kunst Haus Wien

The modern museum that I visited was the Kunst Haus Wien, a house built in the theme of combination of nature and human being, and display important works of Hundertwasser. He’s the artist portrayed the dream world that vividly and conveyed his idea toward life to the world.

The main idea of Mr. Hundertwasser was the life in harmony with nature, and he conveyed this idea through his paintings. An important element in his works is spiral, in his explanation, spiral means the beginning and the end of lives. Like the idea of reincarnation in some Asian religions.

Cafe

I got chilled when I seen one of his work in the musuem, called DIE HAUSER HAN GEN UTER PEN WIESEN. The artist had a naive child in his mind.

If we don’t honor out past, we lose future; If we destroy our roots,we cannot grow.

Picture with river Donau

Christmas market

The main Christmas market was in the front of the Rathaus, not the house for rats but the town hall. There was a big big Christmas tree and about 200 vendors in the agora.

People everywhere

We met our classmate JJ and spent time hanging around the market together. I tried the langos, the fried bread even bigger than my face. It was tasty in the first ten bite, but after it became cold, hmm, not that good.

Gathering

And for the Christmas eve, we luckily found a restaurant served Christmas buffet and cost only 15E per person. Me, pony and JJ and his friends from all over the world had a great feast together.

Christmas dinner

It was a little bit sad that we could not be with our family while Christmas, but spend time with new friends and exchange gifts was funny (damn, I wanted that erotic calendar! but got a spongebob lip balm) Christmas is a day for gathering, for family, for friends or for someone you loved or love you.

To be honest, I thought I’ll be okay since we don’t usually celebrate Christmas in Asia, but I was influenced by people surround me and they made me miss my family and friends, especially my kitchen mates. I played million of Christmas songs in the Christma eve, trying to distract myself :P

The next morning, Christmas Day, we visited the famous St Stephan cathedral and there were many people sang Carols of Christmas. It was a perpect moment to say goodbye to Vienna. We went to Prague for the rest of the day.

Like my status in Facebook,

Keep the Christmas joyness to Prague! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!