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...
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...
penned in the diary of memories by Alvin at
10:04 PM
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