Saturday in Vienna November 27th 1999

The same text appears in the diary as well.

An Economics college made a trip to Vienna, and Mrs. Gombos arranged places for our culture course also.

Wake up at five, meeting in Martos lobby at half past. From Martos four of us were going: Rebecca, Philip, Janne and me. Not yet fully awake I wore summer shoes. It was a very cold day. The bus left after six, and the trip went fast, snoozing. There were some Swedish girls sitting in front of me. I tried to listed what they talk, but couldn't understand a single sentence, just some words. At the border when everyone revealed her passport, it turned out they were Norwegian.

At the border of Hungary and Austria there was a several kilometer queue of trucks. Luckily we were not going by truck. They didn't even check the passports.

In Vienna we got off the bus at the Opera House, and walked along the local Váci utca to Stephensdom. Having a coffee on the way there was a shock to the wallet. The cappuccino costed twice as much as an expensive one in Budapest. The church was quite ascetic, I prefer the Mátyás church on the Castle Mountain, and the equivalent one in Cracow.

Next we headed towards the Belvedere palace. Somehow I became the guide though nobody had a proper map. Surprisingly we found the way there. Only once I made a 180° error and had to ask for the way. I understood just enough of the answer, but not a bit more. No-one else of us admitted knowing any German.

There were paintings in Belvedere. I forgot my ISIC-card in Budapest and had to pay the full price. So did Philip.

Then we saw the Hofburg castle from outside, and Rebecca and Janne visited a Dalí museum. Me and Philip couldn't afford it, and they didn't take credit card payments under 300 shillings. We walked around a couple of blocks and had coffee in a small bakery. While we waited for the others in front of the museum, we met Hunter who was in Vienna on his own. He recommended the Christmas Market => we went there.

Coca Cola sponsored and played American Christmas music. That sucked. The market itself was ok. They sold punch and crap and all the trees were decorated with a zillion lanterns.

The return to Budapest began with a traffic jam. It took almost an hour to get out of the city. The Norwegians had had punch in overdose, and were singing loudly all the time, especially one of them. At the border all passports were collected and we waited for them over an hour. We were at home at half past ten.

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