Spring Break 2013- Europe!: First Day in Vienna (and the end of Frenstat and Brno)!

Part 1: Frenstat and Brno

After the huge hike in Frenstat, Magda and I walked through her hometown. It's kind of like a small town in America... The majority of the jobs are centered around the coal mining industry in the area, so many people live there throughout their entire lives with everything based on the mine...

Here's a picture of the main town square

and the city hall!

After our walk, we came home and had dinner with her family who lives in Frenstat. It was Magda, her mom, sister, brother in-law and their two kids. We had a great meal which was similar to fondue, except you cook your own meat in teh middle of the table... There was chicken and pork and we each had our own little dishes to place on the 2-level burner... Not only was the food great, but the dinner was fun because Magda is the only person in the family that speaks English... We quickly found out some hilarious false cognates- fuct= so in Czech, but it sounds like they're saying fuck, so we all had a good laugh about that... I had a couple of shots of moonshine with Milan (the brother in-law) and also tried two czech beers... Lots of laughs were had, and even though there was a language barrier, with the translations help, we all became fast friends...

In the morning we took two trains then a bus to the capital of Moravia- Brno.

Czech Countryside

In Brno, I was craving a hamburger so I had a McBacon... It was AWESOME... The bacon took up the entire bottom bun, instead of just two measly criss-crossed strips... Then we walked through the town to get our bearings set... During our walk we came across an old crypt... Check this out.... Pretty creepy....

All the walls were lined with boys and skulls....

Being underground with nothing but bones around you is a pretty powerful experience...

We went into a beautiful cathedral afterwards and then to a modern art museum, then climbed the main hill of Brno where the castle is. It was pretty big but nothing too special.... After the castle tour, we went on a labryinth tour. Back in the day before Brno was a huge city, people created basements to store things underground. Over time many of these basements were connected, creating an underground passageway beneath many areas of Brno. We got to take a tour of the main passageway beneath the former main square in the city.... It was pretty cool to think of how many more passageways there are in the city and what kinds of sneaky things occurred down in these tunnels...

After the tour, we were able to catch an earlier bus to Vienna!

Part 2: Vienna

Last night we took a long walk across the city center to orient ourselves with Vienna. Here are a couple pictures of some of the prominent Vienna buildings at night :)

City Hall

We went to a popular place called 1516 Brewery... It was packed both inside and outside and we were lucky to find a table by the street. I had a pilsner brewed at the restaurant and a spicy sausage! Both were fantastic, and even though I'm not a beer guy, it matched well with the sausage.

Parliament Building

City Hall from another angle

This is the Hofburg Museum lit up at night :)

This morning we walked to Hundervassen (spelling?) house. But on the way we ran into this clock... For each hour a new figurine comes out and changes the time, then at noon, all 12 characters get together for awhile....

After that quick photo opp, we got to the crazy ass house.... It was crazy... Just take a look...

All the windows and floors are uneven... It was created by a famous architect and is one of the most popular tourist places here. You're not allowed to go into the building, but we found a coffee shop on the second story that has a crazy not-level floor, like the rest of the apartment complex.

We then went to the famous Albertina Art Museum and saw some Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Chagall, among many other famous artists.... Afterwards we walked over to the Austrian National Library, where Hitler delivered his infamous 1938 address acknowledging that Austria had decided to become a part of the Nazi Empire.

http://gatesofvienna.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/anschluss3.jpg

Take away the cars and imagine 250,000 people cheering wildly... Pretty surreal to vist this place I've seen many times in history books

After checking out the National Library, we went into a different wing of the library that is probably the most beautiful I've ever seen...

(No idea why King Louis was chillin' in the library too)

They had a couple of hidden doorways

There were a couple really cool old globes as well

After the library we went to the Natural History Museum... They had a HUGE collection of animals, reptiles, insects, etc. They also had a mechanical velociraptor that moved around... One of the most awesome things about the museum was how beautiful it was on the inside... Even if it had been empty without any exhibits, it would have been a great place to visit... Check out the pictures below...