Here’s the long overdue blog entry for my trip to Vienna, Prague and Paris!
To be honest, I had lots of doubts about traveling with just Adam but since he initiated the idea, I really couldn’t find any reason to turn him down. Although I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have suggested such a trip together in the first place, not because there’s anything wrong with him but I just know that it will be a bad idea and there will be lots of clashes or awkward situations. But well, against all odds, it happened anyway so we toured Vienna and Prague together before I headed over to Paris on my own while he went to London.
Right from the start, everyone was telling me Vienna was boring and that there weren’t much things to do other than visit museums and watch classical concerts. I thought Vienna wasn’t that bad actually and I didn’t actually finish doing everything that was written on my list. I did the customary Schonbrunn Palace and City Center walk (although it was really just walk to each important building, take 2 photos and then move on). Other than that, I went up on my Riesenrad in Prater’s Amusement Park and visited the really nice Hundertwasser neighbourhood. I really like the way he combines elements of nature into the houses, although I must say his very quirky and cartoonish designs are a little beyond me. The museum is even worse as it showcase all his cartoonish sketches and drawings which are really difficult to make any sensible interpretations. On a side note, I visited the HR Ginger (creator of the aliens in the Alien movies) exhibition which was held there and there were really lots of freaky exhibits. Museum Quartier was exceptionally boring and I only visited a Space exhibition there and that’s about it as everything else seems to be closed or under renovation. Adam knew a lot about the city and the buildings so I managed to learn a little something about them while walking through the city centre with him. Some salesperson wanted to sell us tickets to a classical concert and I was prepared not to go but he kept lowering the price and extremely-interested Adam kept asking me to go, so yeah I attended this classical concert which was quite nice but it affirms the fact that I cannot appreciate such things.
Prague reminds me of Singapore in many ways and I guess that’s why I like it a lot. And of course, there’s the astronomical clock that really appeals to me. Charles Bridge is nice as well although I think its slightly over-rated. The things in Prague are really cheap as well but with limited Czech Krones with my me, I still have to scrimp and save abit. We realized it was Museum Night (when many museums are free and open until late at night) and we joined in the queues for some of the museums as well. Although I must admit I was rather annoyed when Adam insisted no going for some more museums even though it was getting cold and the rain was getting heavier by the minute. We walked through the rain to my museums and my bag and water-proof jacket was starting tog et abit drenched. And in the end, there were long queues at the museums so we had to give up and go back to the hostel =X I was really pissed the next day when he intentionally/unintentionally asked some sensitive questions but oh well, after a brief period of strained moments, things got better after a while but I guess we both realized that we weren’t that synchronized for this trip together.
After he left for his bus to London the next night, I had a bit of time to myself so I went back to the city centre and Charles Bridge to waste the time away. And I think its much better when I visit places at a slower pace cause I tend to see and notice and think about more things generally. With Adam, its always like rushing from place to place, not to mention he walks at twice my speed and I always have to speed up my pace. Its moments like this that I prefer traveling by myself haha.
After a somewhat long bus trip, I arrived in Paris, which wasn’t exactly as nice as I thought (although I heard enough warnings from others prior to my trip). The city was quite grey and just not very romantic or nice. But being by myself, it means I have more freedom and flexibility, and that was a nice break from Vienna and Prague. I took my time to settle into the hostel and planned my itinery before heading over to Arc de la Defense, which was a nice CBD looking area with really modern buildings, quite different from the rest of Paris and most of Europe that I visited and I kinda liked it there. I chanced upon some random ceremony at the Arc de Tromphe and stuck around to watch some generals and VIPs just to waste some time so I could go up to see Paris nightlights at night. Went to recce the Eiffel Tower area as well but I only went up the 2nd night. I wanted to climb all the way up to the top but I couldn’t find the ticket desk at the 2nd level of the tower and I bumped into Natalie and her dad as well, so I decided not to go up and just stick around the 2nd level, where the view was awesome enough. I guess the part about the romantic Paris was just about the Eiffel Tower itself, cause the view was super nice and they really light up the tower nicely (with hourly light shows) to enhance the atmosphere. I did the lourve as well and it was a really enormous museum! I walked until my feet wanted to drop off and I didn’t even examine most of the exhibits closely. And I skipped the top level as well cause I really didn’t want to see anymore paintings after Italy. Mono Lisa wasn’t that impressive but I suspect it may be just because I didn’t know how to appreciate this kind of stuff.
That kinda concludes my last trip for SEP, although I must admit this entry was hastily and “distractedly” done cause I’m too lazy to go through everything properly and I’m quite kinda trying to get used to things back here in Singapore haha. I will try to do a proper entry next time to conclude on my SEP but that’s about it for now.
