Odyssey to Europe

Essay 13: The Sleepy, Peaceful Vienna

The train served breakfast at around 8:00, so I woke up early to eat my breakfast, with the countryside zooming by. Within around 30 minutes after finishing my food, the train pulled into the Vienna train station. Viennas main language is German, which I could never understand. Therefore, it took us some time to be able to get to the subway and walk to our hotel. About ten to twenty minutes later, we were standing in front of the Hotel Museum, our most expensive hotel, behind the Villa. Our room was not ready yet, so the two of us took a stroll around the hotel, and sat down in the Lobby. When chatting with our receptionist, we found out that he was also from Irvine, and has several friends there. He was also extremely friendly, and pointed us towards several notable spots on the map. Finally, our room was ready. It was extremely spacious, with several plush twin beds, numerous tables, and a fast internet. After dropping our bags and settling in, my dad and I headed back out into Vienna to look at several museums. Vienna seems to be a very sleepy and clean city. The subway and trams are all very orderly, and can get you around very efficiently. Everywhere, the streets are free of litter, and also free of bad smells. The police dont keep an eye out for crooks, because there are none, according to our receptionist. Everything here seems to be from the 19 th century, with old fashioned buildings, and small, quaint streets. The two of us took the subway to our first museum, the Freud museum. Freud was an extremely influential and famous psychoanalyst, a subject that I know nothing about. So, my dad had to fill me in about Freud and psychoanalysis in general. Freud was a psychoanalyst that invented a way to analyze people through their dreams. Because their dreams are completely true, and are pure in that sense, he could make an accurate interpretation of their troubles and how to solve them.

Several chairs (left), and a seat that Freud used to psychoanalyze patients (right). The museum was quite small, with several rooms containing his books, the furniture, and his study. Besides that, there was not a lot to be shown, as his complete library was not open to the public. However, the subject of psychoanalysis was extremely interesting, and gave me a lot of food for thought. When we were leaving the hotel, the receptionist handed us two tickets to a Haus de Musik, some museum in Vienna. As he had given them to us free of charge, we said Why not? and headed towards the Haus de Musik. As soon as we arrived at the front of the Museum, we immediately headed through the twin doors, and plunged into the tour. The Haus was separated into three floors. The first floor dealt with the Philharmonic orchestra, the second explored the wonders of sound, and the third was an extremely detailed documentary about several famous composers of music. At the first floor, I sat down and put the headphones around my ears, and listened to some recordings about the Philharmonic orchestra. Once I had done that, I tried my hand at musical dice, and managed to create a relatively lively and cheerful waltz by throwing two die at the table. The first floor had the least stuff, so we finished the walk relatively quickly. However, before we went up to the second level, the two of us sat down in a room that was showing the orchestra performing several pieces. The second floor contained various headphones, and instruments, educating you on the frequencies, pitches, and volume of different sounds. It was all housed in a completely dark tunnel, lit up by several LEDs. There were so many things to try, there was no way I could sample them all, so I tested several instruments and went to several stations, and then continued. Once we reached the end of the tunnels, we continued up the stairs, to the third floor.

Some toys to play with on the second floor :P You can tell that the makers of the Haus spent the most time on the museum. Several notable composers, like Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, and Strauss have a room decorated with furniture and artifacts from their time period. The floor also offers a free audio guide that provides a wealth of information on the composers life and music. The two of us slowly walked through the decorative rooms, admiring the time and care spent into these models. At the end, there was a small exhibit, where you can conduct your own orchestra. At first, it was quite hard to control, but I kind of got the hang of it on the second piece. So, with our brains full of knowledge, we exited the museum.

The decorated rooms of the third floor. On the way back, we stopped at a pizzeria, and bought a pizza, and spaghetti. Surprisingly, the man gave us the drink for free, saying it was a gift. How nice of him! :D This shows the hospitality of the Austrian/Viennese people, and how nice of a city Vienna is. Once we returned to the hotel, my dad and I rested in the beds, ate our food, and then fell asleep. Day 2 This morning, the two of us quickly woke up, and wolfed down our breakfast, then got ready to leave the hotel for the day. Our first destination on the day: the central cemetery of Vienna. The central cemetery is just a translation of Zentral Friedhoff, the cemeterys actual name. Once our tram reached the cemetery entrance, we quickly got off and walked into the resting place of thousands of souls.

The Zentral Friedhoff

The reason we were going to the cemetery is because many famous composers are buried there, such as Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and Schubert. At a first glance, the cemetery seems much nicer than the Pere Lachaise, because it is much less crowded with tombstones, and has much more greenery. In Pere Lachaise, everywhere you look, there are tombstones, crowding out all the plants and trees, and invading every corner of space. However, in the Zentral Friedhoff, the grave markers and coffins are more spaced out, making the cemetery feel much roomier and spacious than its French counterpart. Also, the central cemetery has much more greenery and plants, wreathing the stones in vibrant, green grasses, and vividly colored flowers. The plants make the cemetery seem less gloomy, happier and more peaceful. Finally, after some confusion, we located the area where all the famous musicians were buried, so we slowly towards it, admiring the greenery along the way. When we finally got to the area, the two of us waited until the tour groups looking at the gravestones left, and then toured the area by ourselves. The dead composers are arranged in a semicircle, with Mozarts tomb placed at the center. Most of them are gilded with gold, colored in either black and white marble, and are adorned with their name. Mozarts tomb actually has a small statue, and is covered with massive amounts of flowers. The other composers have flowers upon their tombs also, but it is obvious that Mozart is the most loved amongst the visitors to the cemetery.

The final resting place of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Strauss. When we had amply toured the tombs and seen all of the gravestones of the famous composers, we walked around the cemetery some more, watching the beautiful scenery. One would expect a cemetery to be a gloomy and dark place, but the Zentral Friedhoff was the exact opposite of that stereotype. We rested in the cemetery under the shade, and headed back to our hotel, where we waited the hours until the musical concert that we were attending started.