Zagreb, take two! (Part 2)

After an amazing day at Plitvice, we went to bed early so we could get up for our 9am free walking tour. Most cities in Europe require a tour guide license in order to give official tours, but in many Eastern European cities you can find an underground network of free walking tour guides that work for tips only. I took one of these tours in Budapest, and it was probably the best tour I’d ever been on. I asked our tour guide (I’ll call him Steve, what he does is technically illegal) about the process to get your official guide license, and he said it costs almost 300 Euros. The free walking tour setup is great, the guide works on tips only and usually has much more interesting tidbits about local life and history. They also don’t feel obligated to lecture for hours about the history of a building’s architecture while you awkwardly shuffle your feet and wish you were moving on to the next thing.

Graffiti in Zagreb

I’m the only one who is willing to cross while the little red man says no.

Steve is an excellent photographer after years of tourist photography experience.

Ladies in Zagreb

We ended up walking for almost 3 hours, and the time actually flew by. There’s not a ton of things to see in Zagreb (like Vienna or something) but certainly enough for a day walk.

Cathedral in Zagreb

Folk dancers outside Zagreb Cathedral

We also came across some kind of folk dance celebration outside the Cathedral. We were in the city on Fireman’s Day, so there were a lot of events happening. We saw a marching band in the main square, along with the city’s firefighting regiments and police forces.

Folk dancers outside Zagreb Cathedral

I loved the service dogs.

Service Dogs in Zagreb Fireman’s Day

My favorite part of our walking tour was the planets installation. I hadn’t noticed them last time we were in the city, there’s no signage and they like to keep it as a hidden gem of sorts for the locals to enjoy. The sun is installed in the center of the city, and each planet is placed a proportionate distance away. Pluto was still a planet when the installation was built, so somewhere in a Zagreb suburb there’s a tiny Pluto!

Planets installation in Zagreb

We found Earth!!

We found the Sun!

After the long walk, we found a nice cafe for some much needed caffeine and postcard writing.

Writing postcards in Zagreb

Zagreb is a great little city. The central park is small, but serves as a green gathering place, especially on such a beautiful day. Horse carriages were everywhere, offering quaint scenic rides to tourists and locals.

Horses in the central park

Ban Jelačić Square

We had a great trip, I’m glad I got to see the city again in better weather, even though I missed the Christmas tent with the delicious cheese sausages… It was worth paying tourist prices for a little sunshine!

Zagreb, take two! (Part 1)

Chihiro’s friend Kayla has been teaching English in Hungary this year, and another friend came from Chicago to visit so we all went to Zagreb to hang out together. Rebecca, Chihiro and I took the overnight bus and stayed in the House Hostel, where Kent and I stayed last Christmas. It is the greatest hostel on the planet. I love that place. The people who work at the desk are so kind and hospitable, and speak excellent English. We arrived at 6am, and they let us put our luggage in the storage room, eat breakfast and nap on the couches even though we weren’t booked to check in until 2pm that afternoon! If you ever go to Zagreb, definitely stay in this hostel. They have a few private rooms, but the dorm we stayed in was only 12 Euros per bed and was extremely clean and enjoyable.

Chihiro shared a bunk with an adorable Japanese girl named Saiko who was traveling Europe solo; she’s a jewelry designer in Japan and wanted to see the jewelry of different cultures and attend jewelry conventions in Europe for inspiration. We met an American named John who works for an oil company in Equatorial Guinea one month on, one month off, and he was in Zagreb on his way to Paris and back to Texas.  We also met a cyclist named Asa, he graduated Harvard with a degree in English literature and decided to use the prize money he won in an essay contest to bike around Europe for 8 months. I’ve always met the most interesting and friendly people in that hostel, last time we met a British banker and an Australian economics student who were so fun to spend time with.

I visited Plitvice Lakes for a second time on this trip, and it was totally worth paying summer tourist prices to do the same thing again. Those lakes are incredible!! I could go for a third time and be happy with the investment. The water is so clear and beautifully blue, and the sound of the falls is calming after life in the city for so long. The neighborhood I live in, Otes, is fairly close to rural farms and is at the edge of Sarajevo, but I spend enough time on the trams and busses to forget about that.

At the Veliki Slap (big waterfall)

Me, Rebecca, Chihiro, Kate and Kayla at the Veliki Slap

I was slightly obsessed with taking pictures of the fish…

Beautiful waterfalls

Gavanovac Jezero

When I visited last winter the bus and boat were not running, so this time I was able to enjoy more of the scenery.

Plitvice Lakes pathway December 2012

Plitvice Lakes pathway April 2013

The bus takes you to the highest point of the park, and you wind your way down through the lakes and falls for about an hour and a half before coming to a dock on one of the lakes. There’s a little boat with bench seats facing out to enjoy the scenery from that takes you across the largest lake, and there’s another hour or two of hiking until you reach the end of the trail. There’s a few different trail options, but we did the 4-6 trail that included the bus and boat rides so we got the most of our 80 kuna entry fee.

Just hanging around… LOLZ

Blue Blue Blue

Plitvice Lakes cliff

Scenic viewpoint

Chihiro and Kate

The bus ride from Zagreb is about 2.5 hours by bus, and luckily because it’s the summer there were a lot of busses running. We were able to spend about 6 hours at the park, it was a beautiful, refreshing day.

Carmen in Mostar

After our incredible trip to Vienna, we had to work for a living playing Carmen for a run-out performance in Mostar. The orchestra and singers traveled to Mostar, the fifth-largest city in Bosnia and principal city of Herzegovina about two and a half hours southwest of Sarajevo.

Mostar is famous for the Stari Most, or “old bridge.” During the war, Mostar was the scene of an incredible amount of violence for such a small place. In November of 1991, the Croatian Democratic Union declared a Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, and the city was divided with the Croatians in the west and the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the east, along with the Bosniaks who had lived in the west and were driven from their homes by the Croats. The bridge became the center of the conflict, and was subsequently destroyed during that fighting and later when the Yugoslav People’s Army attacked in 1992. Many important historical buildings were destroyed, and the Serbian orthodox churches in particular were targeted after the Yugoslav Army (essentially Serbian army) was expelled. The history of this small area of the world is so complicated, and it is always amazing how recently such terrible things were happening.

Mostar Reconstruction Mural

View from the Stari Most

Mostar Bridge Divers

The bridge was finally reconstructed and the two sides of the river joined in 2004. Less than ten years ago, the bridge did not exist in its current form and I’m sure the area had lost all of its lucrative summer tourists. Now all kinds of craftspeople and trinket sellers line the streets of the old town on both sides, and the cafes and restaurants advertise the beautiful terraces on the river with delicious local dishes.

MostarCat… lots of cats, not as many dogs as Sarajevo

Flobens petting Mattia petting the cat

Arvida and Admir

Japrak for lunch

Restaurant Babylon

Our performance of Carmen was in the smaller national theater in Mostar, it was very modern compared to our theater in Sarajevo. I think it had been reconstructed or just built after the war, but I don’t know for sure. The performance was sponsored by BH Mobile, one of the largest cell phone providers in the country. I’m glad corporate sponsorship is universal, I think it’s really helped with all the budget cuts we’ve been experiencing. I apparently forgot to take a picture of the theater itself, but here’s me and Rebecca on the bridge:

Rebecca and I on the Stari Most

The singers were not the usual NPS soloists, we had a mezzo from Serbia playing Carmen and the tenor was from elsewhere as well. I take our singers for granted; they may not be perfect but they have such good musical sense. Aida (our main soprano that I’m slightly obsessed with, her voice is amazing) never fails to impress me with her professional demeanor and perfect ear, and the other main soloists we have are excellent musicians. These new singers were less rhythmically accurate and had issues with transitions that hadn’t been a problem in previous productions.

There were a number of schoolchildren in the audience, so I think it was put on with educational intent. The show was a bit rough as we only had one run-through and a short rehearsal, but we made it through and the audience seemed very pleased with the result given the applause at the end!

Last Day in Vienna.

On Alice’s recommendation, we decided to spend our last day visiting the Schönbrunn Palace and gardens. We had this great idea that we could ride the city bikes for 4 miles when it was 80 degrees and sunny… that was not true. We ended up taking the U-bahn to Schönbrunn, and it was totally worth the 4 Euros.

Schönbrunn U-bahn Station

Schönbrunn Horses

Schönbrunn Schloß

Schönbrunn Schloß

Schönbrunn Schloß Gartens

Schönbrunn Schloß Gartens

Schönbrunn Schloß Gartens

The palace entry fee was too much for us, but we were able to see the outside and walk through the amazing gardens. Rebecca loves taking flower pictures, so we spent a good hour or two strolling the garden paths and enjoying the beautiful weather.

In line for Stehplatz!

We returned to the city to stand in line for stehplatz tickets for the Vienna State Opera. Anna Netrebko was singing in La Bohéme that night, we knew it would be a long line and wanted to be there early. We arrived about 40 minutes before the ticket office opened, and we weren’t even close to first in line. We ended up getting tickets 52 and 53, some people had been waiting for hours by the time we arrived.

Wiener Staatsoper Tickets

Lots of people waiting for Stehplatz

The girls next to us brought sandwiches and salads for dinner and were camped out like shoppers on Black Friday. For opera! I can’t imagine this happening in the US. The tickets were only 4 Euros, so it was totally worth the wait. We ended up in the gallery, which was basically front and center with a great view of the stage. The seats in front of us go for hundreds of Euros… we felt like super savvy travelers.

Wiener Staatsoper before La Bohéme from our spots in the gallery

Wiener Staatsoper before La Bohéme

Wiener Staatsoper Fountain

La Bohéme was amazing. The orchestra sounded perfect, and the Vienna horn sound just soared out of the pit and coated us in magical golden rainbows. (Not really, but close enough…) The sound quality of the orchestra was unreal. The singers’ projection was amazing, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be standing next to one of them during an aria. My favorite set was when Mimi goes to find Rodolfo at the tavern. They had the most realistic stage snow I’ve ever seen, it had that thickness and fog that sets in during a nighttime snowfall. It even SOUNDED like snow, everything was muffled. I can’t believe the sets get torn down every night for a new opera the next day.

After standing for three hours (and having walked all day for the last 4 days) we decided to splurge on our first meal out in Vienna. We’d been really good about eating at Alice’s and packing sandwiches to save the little money we had, so it was time for a treat. This Würstelstand was a little ways down the street, and as soon as I saw the Würstel box meal with fries and Käsekreiner (cheese-filled sausage) I was SOLD. It was an incredibly delicious end to an awesome evening.

Würstelstand near the Staatsoper

 

Vienna Day 4.

Cello by bike

On Thursday, we started the day by walking back to the Burggarten to see the Schmetterlinghaus, or Butterfly House. It’s a greenhouse structure with a tropical environment that was originally home to the Imperial butterfly collection. It was a little smaller than I imagined, but it was definitely worth the 4,50 euros to go inside. There were butterflies everywhere, chasing each other and flitting from one end of the greenhouse to the other. The butterflies were not shy about getting near people, apparently they sometimes land on visitors but luckily (or unluckily, if you like butterflies on you) none of them landed on us.

Butterfly House

Chrysalis

Rebecca and I at the Schmetterlinghaus

Schmetterling on the move

The Schmetterlings are not interested in posing for the camera.

Rebecca snapping a snap

After the butterfly house, we went to a Viennese sidewalk cafe for lemon ice cream. On the way we confirmed that adorable fire boys are universal.

Viennese Firemen

The lemon ice cream we had was frozen inside an actual lemon! I’m not always a lemon flavor fan but this was the most delicious lemony thing on the planet. It was kind of a rip off at 4 Euros, but hey… when in Vienna do as the Viennese do and spend lots of money.

Lemon sorbet in a lemon

Viennese girls

We also saw these adorable pugs chilling on the sidewalk near our cafe.

Viennese Pugs

We met up with David, one of the American students Alice introduced us to, and decided we’d rather have (more) ice cream than coffee. We went to the famous Zanoni and Zanoni cafe near Stephansdom, and I had this pear ice cream thing with hazelnut liqueur or something… I don’t really know what it was but I ate the whole thing because it was incredibly delicious. Rebecca had poppy seed ice cream that was surprisingly good, and apparently what Zanoni’s is famous for.

Ice cream devil sorcery

I tried to join the local wifi network but encountered a hilarious problem:

Can’t touch this

Through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, we bought tickets to see the Wiener Symphoniker rather than the Wiener Philharmoniker… The Philharmonic had performed on Wednesday night and left the country immediately afterwards to go on tour, and we bought tickets on Thursday morning for what we thought was a Philharmonic concert. Regardless, it was an amazing concert in the beautiful Musikverein hall. We bought stehplatz (standing room) tickets for about 6 euros, which was a great deal for what we were about to see. We stood in back leaning on a railing with all the other (mostly Japanese) tourists, we used my scarf to mark our place when we arrived at 7 before the 7:30pm concert.

Before the concert

At the Musikverein

Becca looking fab in Alice’s dress at the Musikverein

This statue is writing down all the fashion faux pas of the tourists at Musikverein… judgement day is upon us.

The Vienna Symphony played Arthur Honegger‘s Symphony No. 3 “Symphony Liturgique” and the Bruckner Mass No. 3 in f minor (apparently there was a theme on the number 3 and liturgical pieces that night…). I hadn’t heard either piece before, and I ended up liking the Honegger much more than I expected to. I’m probably biased because there were some awesome horn parts and I was listening to a Vienna horn section live for the first time in my life. The Bruckner mass was beautiful; the alto and baritone soloists weren’t what I was expecting, the timbre of their voices weren’t as rich and full as the soprano and bass. I’ve gotten spoiled with the singers at the Narodno Pozorište, we have excellent soloists.

Vienna horns!

Vienna Symphony and Chorus

Wiener Symphoniker and Choir at Musikverein

No photos allowed… as the Japanese guys walk around clicking away on their Canons.

 

For more pictures of our trip, here are the full albums on Flickr:
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjF3EaE4 – Vienna 4 part 2
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEToSDU – Vienna 4
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjERnDCp – Vienna 3 part 2
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEQrsp5 – Vienna 3
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEPh77z – Vienna 2 part 2
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjENYumG – Vienna 1 part 2
http://flic.kr/s/aHsjEQ8gaj – Vienna 1+2

 

 

Vienna, continued (day 3).

I had all these great intentions of blogging every night so I could keep track of all the amazing things I did in Vienna… but time flies when you’re having fun. We got back early this morning so after sleeping the day away and celebrating Chihiro’s birthday with Japanese food, I finally have a moment.

On Wednesday, we toured the Wiener Staatsoper and it was probably the coolest thing we saw during the trip. Not to insult the rest of the Ring or the Hapsburg family’s other (very expensive) displays… but the Staatsoper takes the cake.

Waiting for the Wiener Staatsoper Tour to start!

We weren’t sure if we would get standing room on Friday, so we decided to spend the 3,50 Euros on a guided tour of the opera house. (It’s a bummer I turn 26 soon, there’s great discounts everywhere in Western Europe if you have a student ID and are under 26.) The Staatsoper was mostly destroyed during WWII, but one intermission room and a few small parts of the building are original. They reopened the opera house in 1955 with a performance of Fidelio conducted by Karl Böhm. He and Herbert von Karajan are very important figures to the Staatsoper; the plaza outside the opera house is named for von Karajan, and we saw busts of each conductor.

Karl Böhm

Herbert von Karajan

The tour was definitely, definitely worth the 3,50 euros. We saw so much that we may not have otherwise seen during the opera on Friday night. The tour guide was very knowledgeable, and her English was impeccable. We were allowed to see the Imperial intermission room (which is always closed during performances), where Franz Josef would have enjoyed his pauza with champagne. It is apparently available for rent during opera performances, it costs 500 euros for one intermission. 500 euros just to sit in the empty room for 20 minutes with no food or drinks provided. If I were a rich businessman, I would pay for it because it is such a beautiful thing to see.

Imperial Intermission Room

Wiener Staatsoper

Detail from the lobby

The bottom open space is where we had standing room on Friday… not bad for 4 euros!

Backstage

The city of Wien does a great job of labeling things.

A bust of Mahler and his compact traveling piano… many a composition came to life on this instrument. (Glare unavoidable, pretty sure that’s on purpose.)

Inside the only original intermission room

After touring the opera house, we walked towards Stephansdom and found a little shop called Vienna World. It carries every trinket and knickknack you could possible imagine with instruments on it. Lindsey found a bassoon keychain and phone charm for Chihiro, which is apparently a rare find. I bought a French horn pencil (obviously) and a cute little journal with Dvořàk’s signature on the cover.

We walked towards the Burggarten, another Hapsburg family creation. We passed Goethegasse on the way there:

Goethe hanging out in all his glory.

The Austrians are so organized.

The Burggarten was one of my favorites. It was modeled after English gardens, and has been open to the public since 1919. Since it was such a beautiful day, people were sitting on blankets and enjoying the weather with their friends, kids or dogs.

Sunny day in the Burggarten.

Dogs are very much integrated into Austrian society, as long as owners pick up after them and muzzle them on the trains they can basically go anywhere a person can. I wish America was more like that, I would love to be able to bring Rudy into a shops and cafés!

“Are we sausages to you?” Pick up your dog poo or it’s a 36 euro fine.

By the Burggarten pond.

Relaxing in the Burggarten

Further down the ring, we saw the Austrian National Library.

Austrian National Library

It was an enormous building, next to the anthropological museum (that Alice was very excited to tell us about, as a social anthropology major) and across from Heldenplatz and the Volksgarten. The number of public gardens in Vienna is astounding. Along the ring there were at least 5 from what I recall.

The girls in Heldenplatz.

Volksgarten

I got thrown in jail (not really).

Becca looking lovely as always.

We then walked across the Ring to the Museumsplatz, a plaza with the National Art Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Leopold Museum all facing a beautiful interior garden.

The girls in front of the national art museum.

Becca was trying to imitate these awkward people next to us who were violating the bushes in an attempt at sexy pictures. Fail.

Fountain at the Kunsthalle

I think this is for kids, so clearly I wanted a picture with the elephant at the Natural History museum.

Europa

America and Australia

Another view of the Kunsthalle

A lovely Mozart statue and garden at the Burggarten

There’s Wolfie himself.

Vienna is my absolute favorite European city so far. I love the shady streets, bike paths, outdoor cafés and laid-back mood coupled with the efficiency and organization of the Germans. The clean, sleek trains are on time, the (FREE) bike stations almost always worked (one exception), the bike path system never stopped amazing me, the streets were immaculate, the city was easy to navigate with clearly marked sights laid out perfectly on the Ringstraße. I loved every moment of it. More to come (day 4 and 5) tomorrow!

 

Unser erste Tag in Wien. (Vienna Day 1!)

Since we had over a week free with the ballet premiere cancellation, we decided to head up to Vienna. It’s about a thirteen hour bus ride from Sarajevo, and the price was reasonable considering how far we went. Our friend Alice lives in Vienna, so we’re able to stay in her living room on her (extremely comfortable) couches. She lives just outside the Ringstraße, so it’s very easy to get to the city center on foot.

On our first full day in the city, we were still a little dazed and confused from the long bus ride the day before. We left Sarajevo at 8am and arrived in Vienna at 9pm, we had to go through at least three border controls and had more than one cigarette/bathroom stop. When you’re traveling by bus through a border control, they have everyone get off the bus, stand outside to have their passports stamped while the bus actually crosses the border, and then you walk across the border and board the bus again. We had to cross through Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, and then there was no border control into Austria since Slovenia is part of the EU, so there was a lot of unloading and loading all 50 of us.

We went grocery shopping in the morning (since we’re staying in one of the most expensive cities ever, we’re doing as much home cooking as possible!) and I found some DELICIOUS gluten free bread. It’s edible without toasting it, which for the gluten free among us is a seriously amazing find. I also got Liptauer spread and “Wellness” ham, so I felt quite healthy.

Stadtparkplan Wien

We spent the day walking around the area of the ring nearest Alice’s apartment. We explored the Stadtpark, and there were statues of all sorts of famous Viennese residents. Our favorite was Johann Strauss, of course. He’s very golden and majestic.

Johann Strauss in Stadtpark Wien

Blumen in Stadtpark Wien

Blumen in Stadtpark Wien

Bruckner in Stadtpark Wien

Bridge over the canal near Radetskyplatz

Franz Josef I

Biking like champions on Vienna’s amazing bike paths

Vienna has an amazing system called CityBike, with stations all over the city. You can rent a bike for an hour for FREE. We had to sign up with the service and pay a one Euro registration fee, and then with the same credit card we can hire a bike for an hour at a time for no charge, and then the second hour is 1 Euro. You don’t have to bring the bike back to the same station, so we get bikes near Alice’s apartment and can ride wherever. There are lots of stations along the ring, and in other parts of Wien. The bike paths in Vienna are extensive, and extremely well marked and easy to follow. Pedestrians are used to bikers, there are a lot of local people who use bikes as their main mode of transportation. Between the U-Bahn (underground metro), S-Bahn (streetcar metro) and the bike paths, I don’t understand how anyone could need a car here!

CityBike Wien

Hofburg Theater

Rathaus (City Hall)

Blumen bei Votivkirsche

Sassafras at the Rathauspark

Rebecca is really dedicated to getting the perfect shot.

Lunch in the Rathauspark

String trio statue near the Votivkirsche

Each part of the Ringstraße has a name, I liked the Schubertring section a lot.

We didn’t ask.

This was near a memorial to celebrate the friendship between Austria and Russia after WWII.

It was really cool to see all these buildings in real life after taking my Fin-de-siècle Vienna class at UNLV last spring. We spent a whole class with an architecture professor talking about the different buildings along the Ringstraße.