Friday, August 30, 2013

Euro Trip Day 9: Vienna

The trip was over.. for me. Haha.. Honestly, I was not to eager to go to Vienna as I did not know any interesting places of attraction there. To me Vienna is a place of classical music and it will be only fun to visit if I am going to watch cool concerts etc. The day did not go as smooth as planned. When we arrived at the tram stop, the whole line broke down! Sigh.. We never took any bus in Zurich and had no idea to go to any train station via bus. It was not helpful to get a racist officer who spoke to us in God-knows-what language but spoke English to the locals. I ran back to the hotel and thank God the receptionist was able to give me clear instructions.

We reached the train station 2 minutes before the train's departure. It was a mad rush and again thank God for an elderly couple who was running ahead of us. That gave us a few more seconds to get on the train. Actually we could just wait for the next train to the airport which would be in another 10 minutes time. However, we were all just too anxious and did not want to take the risk of missing our flight. One hell of a morning. And my mum was sulking with all the running -_-.. OMG! It was not as if I wanted the tram to break down lor!! Unexpected things happened and we gotta think of alternative. No point sulking and blaming ourselves for not leaving hotel earlier bla bla bla.

Everything was a mad rush in Zurich airport. We were planning to use up our Swiss Franc coins as we would not be using anymore of it. Everything was expensive in the airport and I also did not want to buy useless things. In the end, I bought a mini water bottle for 9.90 CHF. That was already on 50% off. Gosh..

The flight using FlyNiki was enjoyable. I did not expect it to be a full flight service so it was great to get food and drink. Unfortunately, it was another case of bad customer service from the Europeans. English is not the airstewardess' first language so her pronounciation was also rather bad. She asked "Ham or Cheese?" which I misheard as "Ham and Cheese". So I was like "Huh? Are you asking or what?". Anyway, the bitch should know that there is a think called ham and cheese so she should pronounce her OR much better if people were to catch her the first time right.

At Vienna airport, it was another nightmare of carrying luggages. Sigh.. We had to take the CAT (City Airport Train) and they only have one directional elevators i.e upwards. As we were going downwards to the train tunnel, we had to carry the luggages down the steps. I know that carrying up will be more tiring and perhaps that is why they only have the elevators for going up. But still, WHY CAN'T THEY JUST BUILD BIDIRECTIONAL ELEVATORS!!

The journey on foot to the hotel was a repeat nightmare of what happened to me in Paris. My dad relied on his memory and we ended up walking a looong way to reach the hotel. The hotel had nice lounge but the room was meh :'( The toilet was so small too.

After resting, we went for lunch. My dad die die wanted to find the Chinese restaurant that he went 2 years ago. The restaurant looked grand but the food was rather terrible. We chose 3 different dishes but they all tasted the same: soya sauce taste!! Bleah.. I noticed that just across our hotel is a strip club with a giant poster of a naked woman facing the main street. Wow.. An eye opener for me as this kind of thing does not exist in Asia. Haha..

It was almost 2pm and my dad suggested to go to Schonbrunn Palace and the following day would be reserved for shopping. What a horror to shop for 1 whole day!! I was not in the mood of taking photos plus I felt tired after all the carrying of luggages so I managed to convince him to go shopping first now and reserve the following day for places to take photos.

We just spent the whole afternoon at Stephansplatz. It was a giant place full of boutiques. My view of Vienna was changed. The shopkeepers spoke good English and they were very friendly. This would definitely be a good shopping place for me the next time I go Europe. Hehe.. I bought the Swatch watch which I had been aiming from Paris. Lol.. After that it was crazy shopping time for my mum and sister.
A random Catholic statue at Stephansplatz
Unfortunately, Stephansdom was still being renovated so it was not a nice sight to see. Yep.. thus it was a day with almost no photo wor..
Still undergoing preservation, surrounded by tall building, and against the sunset, Stephansdom did not look good in my photo :(
For dinner, my dad decided to let us enjoy Western food. As much as I was tempted to get Wiener Schinitzel (something unique to Vienna), I was finally swayed over to order a mixed grill of beef, chicken, pork, and sausages. It was a terrible choice. Haiz.. For the drink, everything on the menu looked rather uninteresting and the plain water was too expensive. I decided to order something I never tried before: Edelweiss beer. Quite shocked when it arrived in a big jug like those I usually saw in movies. Haha.. Wanted to end the day with another Viennese culinary:  Sachertorte but the restaurant currently had no stock of that. Bleah.. 

Basically it was not an enjoyable for me. Not even that Swatch watch made me happy.

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