We spotted a UFO in the skies of Bratislava and decided to head there. The night scene has a different beauty than in the sky. You could see coloured lights in the cities, feel the life and envision how rapidly this young city is going to grow in the next few years. Things will never be the same when they change their currency to EUR on 1 Jan 2009, so I’m glad I was here.

The Bratislava castle could be said to be rather a disappointment. It was a plain big building on top of a hill, with windows shattered, dirt everywhere, no statues, no carvings or intricate decorations on the walls. But that, in itself, just shows the difference. The original castle was destroyed during the war and there were no tours available, showing little effort to cater to tourists like us, save the souvenir shops.

Despite having cracked roads, unfriendly drivers and abandoned buildings, I kind of like this city. Probably because it's rather cheap, and mainly because it is being itself. It has the combined features of a Western European city and the rustic charm of an Eastern European city. The potential for this young city and nation is immense, I believe.

Wien
29-31 Mar

Within less than half an hour by bus from Bratislava city, we passed by the border checkpoint without stopping. No need for passport checks, no need for stops, and we were to experience a totally different culture. Vegetation were immediately neater, houses were clean, well-engineered, beautiful and wealthy-looking. We knew we were in Austria. In another hour, we reached the main city area of Vienna, which looked just like another city in Germany. But having stayed in Germany for almost 3 months, we could tell that the accent was vastly different. We couldn’t stand the way the guy announced “U-eins, zwei…” on the train, or how the people said “danke” in a different way. U and S-bahn were called U and S-bahns. There were the Südbahnhof, Westbahnhof, Hauptbahnhofs and Haltestelle. Doors had to be opened manually, or pressed manually, just like in Germany, except that the train network did not seem as complicated. We saved a great deal by having 4 of us bunking in Chris’ room. It was just right for 4 of us, so luckily Chris wasn’t around.

The next morning we headed to the city centre to visit the Wien Universität, which we immediately fell in love with. How we wished we could be doing our exchange in such a romantic-looking school. In fact, it resembles the old SMU campus, and I thought how nice it would be to be schooling there.

As we walked along the bustling shopping district, we chanced upon an anti-EU protest. They were singing songs, holding banners in their hands, shouting, and smiling at the audience. The policemen on the other hand were relaxing by the side of the road, smoking in a corner, or sleeping in the police cars. I guess protests are so common in Europe that they don’t fuss over it.

Not only was Wien well-known for the schnitzels, which is effectively pork cutlet, it is also well-known for the cafes. Demel’s served intricately baked, petite-sized tortes that looked so heavenly. Spoilt for choice by so many different flavours, I tried Cleopatratorte without knowing what it was, while Xin tried the Maroni Torte, which was made from chestnut. Though it cost 3.60eur for a small slice, the happiness it bestowed upon us was all worth it. I guess, people always feel happy to indulge in such, or merely to look at beautiful things.

In order to catch the famous Viennese Choir Boys, we decided to set off earlier to reach the place by 8am so as to get a seat. When Xinyu asked about the time at the train station, we were still wondering what's so hard with reading an analogue clock. As we stared harder, we felt something was wrong. It was past 9am, when the last I remembered was that it was barely 8am. The times on our watches and on the train station's clocks were different by one hour, and we suddenly came to the realisation that Daylight Saving Time has been switched on! Isn't it fascinating how the day is shifted forward for the summer, and shifted back for the winter? Fortunately, we realised this before something important, like our Swan Lake ballet performance later in the day. The choir was pretty good, but seriously, it's not worth it to pay 29eur to watch them, so I was glad we didn't miss much when we reached. We could still catch a glimpse of the boys, and hear them from the entrance.

I guess Wien has the perfect setting to watch Schwanesee (Swan Lake), especially when it requires a good live orchestra, an audience that appreciates ballet opera and classical music, a good theatre and an experienced cast. I didn’t know much about the story of Swan Lake except that it was a ballet performance, where the girl is liken to a beautiful swan, and fell in love with the prince. Something terrible would then happen along the way. Well, almost right. Anyway it’s not so hard to decipher the story portrayed by an experienced ballet cast, with good music accompanying. We got the 7eur seats, all the way on the stage left, upper floor, which meant that we could only see half the stage due to the walls blocking our view. We had to lean all the way to the front, or stand up to see 3/4 of the stage; for the price, we can’t really complain I guess. I didn’t know Swan Lake was meant to be a tragedy. The girl was in fact a swan by day and girl by night, under a curse by this devil. Unable to lift the curse and thus be with the prince, the girl drowned herself with the devil in the lake. The performance was sooooo beautiful. The lead female dancer was almost perfect, save for her height. She could stand on her toes, stationary, without even trembling one bit. She was not a ballerina; she was a swan. So graceful were her moves she appeared to be floating in the air as she danced. Schön!

Not like we haven't never eaten schnitzel, but we knew we had to eat it in Wien. The wine tavern we initially wanted to go was closed, after a half an hour search for it, so we decided on a biergarten instead.

Compared to Schloß Neuschwanstein, the exterior of Schönbrunn did not look as castle-ish, but was at least palace-ish. The latter was definitely much bigger, and had a huge land area consisting a huge park, zoo, maze, fountain, Gloriette and perhaps more. The interior was grander, featuring more than 4 rooms per royalty, with more elaborate and bigger rooms. We had insight into the life of Kaiserin Elizabeth, or Sissi, who had hair that reached her ankle, spent 2 hours a day doing her hair, lived for her beauty and waistline, and was well-known for her beauty. Maria Theresia did not pale in comparison with her motherly character. As the only female ruler of the rich Austria-Hungary of all time, she was also mother of like 16 children. What struck me most was how the princesses usually had to marry for political reasons and not for love, but fortunately Maria Theresia did for the latter, wore black throughout her widowhood, and even dedicated a room to her husband after his death.