Back to class
I returned from another great travel week on Sunday, and once again, I had barely enough time to rest before the work rained down on me. On top of keeping up blogs for two classes and getting all my homework done, I had to deal with class scheduling woes in the wee hours this morning while attempting to wash my clothes in broken machines. I’ve also just accepted a position as a student blogger at the U of O and I’m now dealing with very unfun employment paperwork, made doubly unfun by the fact that I don’t have access to a lot of financial information I need while abroad. I think this week, with all its stresses, is a preview to the stresses I’ll be experiencing when I go back to Oregon for my next school term. I’d better get used to it.
I can barely remember as far back as the day we left for the second travel week–Nov. 8–but I’ll try to recall as much as I can.
Lynn’s and my first stop was Budapest, which proved to be a lot like I pictured it to be: a slightly more Eastern version of Prague. In fact, it was even geographically similar: a river, the Danube, ran through the center and on one side, on a hill, was a castle and the old town (Buda) and on the other side was the sleeker, newer town (Pest) with a Jewish quarter. The difference in the Jewish quarter: there were more small synagogues scattered over the district in Prague, and here, the focal point is one synagogue in particular, which happens to be the largest one in Europe. We inadvertently signed up for a tour, but were glad we did when we learned the Gestapo set up a communication station right in the pews of the synagogue, as if in an effort to crush the spirit of the Jews as much as possible. Monuments like these are just impressive, gilded empty shells unless one knows the incredible and terrible history behind them.
We wandered around the streets of Pest for a little while before we crossed the Danube via the Chain Bridge to get to Old Town. We took a tram up the hill to the castle, which reminded me of riding up the Shadowbrook tram after an atmospheric dinner, and we were slightly disappointed upon arrival: the castle wasn’t really set up to display rooms as they were in royalty’s heyday. Instead, each segment of the castle was a different modern art museum or renovated concert hall or something else that involved completely gutting all the rooms to give the building another purpose. We thought it was odd, but we saw some beautiful streets ahead of us, so we walked away from the castle to explore the rest of the old town.
After grabbing a coffee around 4, it was already getting dark by the time we ran into St. Matthias Church, classic gothic but for its Eastern tile-patterned roof. Even more impressive was the nearby Fisherman’s Bastion, a balustrade that somewhat resembled a sandcastle and began to light up just as we arrived. Not only was the structure magnificent in the evening glow, but so was the view of Pest from up high on the bastion, especially as other structures–the bridge, parliament, huge hotels along the water’s edge–began to light up too.
The next morning, we had some time before our train ride to Vienna, so we popped into the enormous St. Stephen’s Basilica and heard music playing. Then we headed to Keleti Station and briefly wondered if we were in the right place, as it looked dilapidated and even abandoned in parts.
But soon enough, we were on our train — and in no time we’d arrived at Wombats Hostel in Vienna, where a few friends joined us from Zurich. (Or was it London? Rome? All of our CIMBA friends were scattered across the continent!)
We spent our couple of days here doing some low-key sightseeing and shopping. The first morning, Lynn and I took a tram around the Ringstrasse, where we glimpsed the Hofburg Palace, the Rathaus (City Hall) and what is, I’m sure, a beautiful rose garden in summer. My favorite stop was Stephansdom, a huge Gothic cathedral with an intricate tiled roof. Cafe Sacher, an elegant coffeehouse known for its chocolate torte, was a close second favorite. Least favorite stop? H&M, about which there is nothing uniquely Viennese — but my companions insisted.
The next day it was raining, and we were a cohort divided: A few of the girls were engrossed in the “Twilight” series and wanted nothing more than to hole up with their books at the nearest Starbucks. I refused to spend precious travel days doing something I could do any time in Santa Cruz, Eugene or any other American city. So Stacie and I grabbed a tram out of the city to Schönbrunn Palace, once home to the Habsburg rulers and to Marie Antoinette before she married the king of France. Despite the rain, we happily wandered through the beautiful grounds. My favorite part of the palace was Gloriette, a sort of annex at the back of the estate that boasted views of the whole city.
The next day — another gloomy one — we seized the only opportunity we might ever have to visit Bratislava, Slovakia, just one hour away from Vienna by train. The whole day feels like a blur, but I remember trekking up to the city’s castle walls to get a good view of the Danube, meandering through the Old Town and exploring the grounds around the palace. The whole place was eerily quiet, seemingly devoid of either tourists or locals.
Then it was on to Prague, which I wrote about a bit here. It was the only city I had traveled to before, and I thought I’d be bored to see the same sights a second time. Not so: It was my favorite part of the whole trip.
