Venice: The city of water... and fog

Ali arrived last Friday so I left work early to meet her at the airport. For my birthday she gave me a really cool Moleskine book for Venice with maps, and lots of room for notes. It ended up coming in really handy to keep everything together and help us get back to a cheap pizza place we found by the Rialto, which I will definitely visit when I go back in May.
When she arrived we took all her stuff back to my room, then went and got a schnitzel from the "Schnitzel Haus" across the street. While we ate schnitzel and watched an episode of Extras we packed our big look-at-me-I'm-a-tourist backpacks and then set out to see the city.

The Vienna transit system is an honour system, enforced with random checks. However, these checks are almost entirely (if not only) on the subway system and night buses. Therefore, you can take unlimited trams and buses without much fear of being caught. So, we took a tram into the city center.

We had about 2 hours to kill, so I showed Ali the major sights as we took the scenic route to the train station. Since late January there has been a large ice rink in front of the Rathaus (city hall) which also winds along the paths throughout the park. As the Viennese winter is like early fall in Canada the rink is laid on top of a mat of refrigeration tubes to keep it frozen. This comes in really handy because it has been very very nice here, having "snowed" only TWICE since Christmas, with never enough to completely cover the grass before melting away. Sorry Canadians, had to rub it in...
We got on the night train to Venice around 8:30pm and settled into our bunks for our 12 hour trip.
We arrived in Venice at 8:00 Saturday morning to find the city waking up to a light dusting of fog, which we assumed would lift as the day went on...
The ferry to the island of Lido (where our hostel was) was an hour long but it toured down the grand canal, under the Rialto bridge, and past St.Marks square, making it more of a treat than a trip.
Our Hostel "Livia Oliva" was a small B&B on the island of Lido, and was actually a nice woman's house with 3 extra rooms and a small dining room for guests. We dropped our heavy bags off in our room (we were upgraded to the ensuite room!), grabbed our keys, and headed back to Venice across the lagoon using the direct boat which was much faster and closer to the B&B.

Venice is a city like no other, it maintains it's charm in spite of the tourist trade, because it has no other practical options. Gondolas anchored to wooden piles are cheaper and easier to run than the few small boats anchored to fancy docks, so they stay.
The city felt like a movie set or a Disneyland attraction because it was so drastically different. A city without cars, trucks, buses, bikes, skateboards, or mopeds, in places all you could hear were people talking in a smattering of the world's languages underscored by the continuous lapping of waves and trickling of water.
We wandered around the small alleyways on the main island of San Marco until we came upon the Piazza San Marco. The highlights of the Piazza are the ornate Basilica di San Marco and the Campanile (bell tower). The Campanile has been there in one form or another since the 9th century, but this one was finished in 1912 after the previous one collapsed in 1902.
The Piazza San Marco is probably most famous for the huge flock of pigeons which infest the square and mob the tourists and children who voluntarily cover themselves in bird food as if to say "Hey Ma, look at me! I'm covered in disease!". This woman was selling the packages of food for 1€, and had lots of friends to keep her company.
We decided to avoid bird flu and instead chased the pigeons. It was tempting not to kick them, a they get so close to you. They were like little smelly footballs with legs. Smelly? Yes. Even on a cool day, a large overfed flock of greasy dirty pigeons have an overwhelming aroma of... greasy dirty pigeon.The symbol of Venice is the lion. This is because the Venetians stole the remains of St.Mark the Apostle and smuggled him out of Alexandria, Egypt in the 9th century to place him in their basilica, and St.Mark's symbol is the winged lion. Apparently back in the day some Venetian s would keep live lions in their gardens as a symbol of status. The thought of walking through the twisting alleyways of Medieval Venice at night with only a torch to light the way surrounded by the roars of lions is terrifying. This lion, on display in the Piazzetta San Marco was apparently stolen from the Turks at some point in the past.
The basilica was very ornate, made from a rainbow of marbles, mosaics, and gold. The photo below is of the main entrance, as photos weren't allowed inside. The interior was amazing, with domed ceilings completely covered in golden mosaics in all different styles dating from the 11th-16th centuries.
After touring the basilica we wandered around Venice, stopping to take photos here and there.
We turned a corner and came upon the Rialto bridge. The bridge has three sets of stairs, with the two narrower side staircases separated from the large central one by a line of store booths selling souvenirs. The stone bridge is over 400 years old, meaning the small arched booths now selling tacky souvenirs have seen dozens of generations of owners work their entire lives beneath them. The bridge was completed 5 years before Shakespeare wrote the Merchant of Venice, that's some good engineering.
The View down the Grand Canal. To the left you can see the large ferry-buses which allow you to get throughout the city fairly easily.
A photo of me sporting my only Venetian souvenir; a wool scarf to keep warm in the chilly
That night we went to a Vivaldi concert in a former church. Before the concert we waited around outside the church and Ali helped me discover the wonder of a 15 second shutter. My camera is so much better than I ever thought, so many cool options I'm only really discovering now.
With 30 more minutes to kill and a bathroom to find we headed back to the Grand Canal, taking photos with a 15 second exposure as we went.
The concert was very good, an ensemble called Interpreti Veneziani with 4 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 double bass, and a harpsichord. They played Vivaldi's 4 Seasons and some other pieces. They all looked like they were having a lot of fun, except for one guy who was very serious and hardcore, having memorized the entire show. However, his solos (every violinist was 1st violin for 1 season) were amazing. Their encore performance was the best of all. They all put down their bows and plucked out a song on the strings of their instruments.

After the concert we headed back to catch the ferry to Lido. When we transferred ferries near the Piazza San Marco, I got this cool photo of the Bridge of Sighs (using a 15 sec exposure). The motor boat which passed through the photo is nothing but a ghost ship with wake.
The fog in the lagoon was so thick that we couldn't see anything other than the lights of the ferry reflecting off the thick white mist hovering over the aquamarine water, until the lights of Lido suddenly appeared out of the mist when we were meters from the dock.

The next morning we slept in longer than we intended because the bed was far too comfortable. When we woke up breakfast had been laid out in the small dining room and the other guests, a young couple from France (or Switzerland?) were already eating. This place was so nice, and such a great deal that my mom and I will definitely stay there when we visit in May, its already booked.

The day before we had hoped that the light fog would lift so that Sunday would be warmer and better for photos. Instead, the fog was much thicker. You couldn't see Venice across the Lagoon, but you could hear all the church bells tolling eerily in the distance.
We got off at the Piazza San Marco and went to the base of the tower to get audio tours. However, it was closed on Sundays, so we took a photo of the gate.
The Doge's Palace is directly beside the Basilica (which was formally the Doge's chapel).
We toured the Doge's Palace, the bridge of Sighs, and the dungeons. The Palace was very impressive with huge ornate old rooms, but like many historical buildings there is little original furniture so the palace looked fairly empty, and was chillingly cold. If it wasn't for all the velvet robes and wigs the Doge, his family, and the other politicians surely wore the palace would have been a pretty uncomfortable place in the winter.

One last foggy view of Piazza San Marco.
Inside the city the fog was much lighter, but we had run out of time to take a gondola ride.After some stressful running around we got tickets for the bus to the airport, which we had to wait for anyways, and traveled the 65 minutes to Treviso, a city on the mainland with a small airport serviced mainly by Ryanair and Sky Europe, Europe's largest low-cost airlines. From Treviso we flew two hours to Girona, Spain then took a bus to the beautiful city of Barcelona.

Our two days in Venice were an amazing, but very expensive experience. I can't wait to visit again in May with my mom, but my wallet sure can.

Visitor from Home, Venice, and Barcelona

For the past 10 days my fiend Allison Hess from Brockville has been visiting me. We took a long weekend trip to Venice and Barcelona then spent the remainder of the time here in Vienna. I'm just about to upload the photos, but I'll do the post in three parts so that it'll be finished before May.

Happy Birthday to Me

As most of you know, today is my 22nd birthday. Last week my mom sent me photos to put up here today, so here they are.

First, we go way way back to 1987; my first birthday.
Then, we jump ahead 10 (?) years to my mad-scientist Halloween costume.
It may have been a long time since these photos were taken, but some things never change. I'm still a huge nerd who likes to open presents, but gets easily distracted by small things, like delicious wrapping paper.

As today is Sunday, we went out for my birthday last night instead. Cora, José, Szilvia, Nikola, the 4 Colombians, and I went to a Japanese restaurant for supper. The place was very hectic, and even though we had a reservation we were shuffled all around the restaurant waiting for our table to become free, but it was ok because the Colombians were late anyways, shocking... The food was really good, except for José's Japanese beer which was apparently sour and numbed his mouth, and Szilvia fell in love with a little Japanese baby eating lychee fruits. As fairly inexperienced Japanese food connoisseurs we all got Bento boxes, my favourite.

When we finally arrived at our favourite Irish pub, Charlie P's we were over and hour and a half late for our reservations, but the bartender cleared out or corner for us. Over the next few hours a bunch of people showed up. Every time someone new would arrive they would be very 'discretely' pulled aside to sign my card. Everyone had pooled their money (and stray hairs) to buy me some chocolate and give me the "Joe Steele Hairy Italian Fun Fund". The money is to pay for me to do something fun in Venice next weekend (I'm thinking gondola ride), and the hair is for me to glue onto my chest so I can blend in and look more Italian.

This morning I was woken by the sun with only a mild hangover (thank you McDonalds). The first thing I did was open Megan's gift which has been sitting beside my bed for the past week since it arrived. It contained chocolate, candy, sparklers, and a bottle of craft glue, which really confused me, until I opened the last part, a kit to make a cardboard dancing robot. I have to say Megan knows me pretty well.

At 11 I went out for a birthday brunch with Cora, Raphael, Arianna, and Johnny at a cool restaurant around the corner that we walk by every day on our way to the U-bahn. The food was very Austrian, with potato salad, schnitzel, and cold cuts instead of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon, but it was really good and filling.

My mom just phoned to fill me in on the details of the huge birthday feast she's preparing for me back home. After hearing what they're eating I might pass up the instant rice and canned soup that I was planning to make and go across the street and splurge on a €1.80 kebab.

Tonight I'm going to the opera with Cora and Arianna. Arianna is an opera singer so it will be cool to get her perspective on everything. The opera tonight is actually two 1 act operas, Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci. Should be fun.

The next week will be pretty crazy as I get ready for my trip to Venice and Barcelona, which we have been talking about so long that it feels like it's never actually going to happen. I will be sure to take loads of photos, and if I find any decent photos from last night I'll throw them up here later.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Sorry that your birthday wish isn't as cool as mom's was, but I really haven't been anywhere cool since being back. I probably could have gotten the King from Ghana to hold up a happy birthday sign, but I only thought of it the next day...

Wish I could be home, not only for your birthday, but also for my birthday dinner mom's planning for Sunday. To those of you in Canada who will be at my birthday dinner, have fun, I'm jealous.

Here in Vienna I'll be going out with friends and coworkers (who are also friends) on Saturday for dinner and then to our favourite Irish Pub. Then, the morning of my birthday some of us are going out to brunch at a restaurant where they have "Geburtstagkinder Essen Frei!" (birthday children eat free) painted on their window. Apparently the word "Geburtstagkinder" applies to everyone, not just children. So, free food! What more could I ask for?

My friend Ali from home comes in 9 days, can't wait for our adventure to start.

First some work, then the month of parties

I've been putting off writing this blog as I was waiting to get photos from people, but who knows when that will happen, so might as well start now before I forget everything.

Wiener Neustadt Civitas Nova
As most of you already know I work in the city of Wiener Neustadt in the light industry park known as Civitas Nova. Last December I began bringing my camera in the hope of getting some cool winter photos. The one below shows a platform of the Wiener Neustadt train station where we switch trains every morning to board the smaller regional train that takes us the 3 minutes to Civitas Nova. The train to the left is a double-decker "Weasel" train that I love but normally never get to take. The train to the right is an old model regional train; the new ones are more streamlined and flashy than the space shuttle.
ÖBB (Österreichische Bundesbahnen) is the Austrian equivalent of Via Canada. Above the locomotive you can see a part of the pole connecting the train to the electrical wires over the tracks. These wires crisscross all of Europe. Trans-continental travel with zero emissions, gotta love it.
From the ghetto Civitas Nova platform we walk through a field to work. The field used was once covered with factories that produced engines, parts, and whole fighter planes during WWII. At one point Wiener Neustadt had the original Daimler factory and was the largest producer of fighter planes in Austria. All of these factories were either bombed, burnt, or abandoned after the war and subsequently torn down. The only sign which remains is the solid reinforced concrete bomb shelter sticking out of the ground. The tunnel leading to the underground shelter is now filled in with gravel, making me wonder what's still down there. Was it hurriedly filled in to hide secrets or left open for decades, looted, and only filled in when it became a drug den for teenagers?
Directly across from the bomb shelter is our building. There you can see Cora and Stefan walking ahead through the "snow". That is the most snow I've seen yet, and you can still see the dirt through it. Also, ever since I've returned I haven't seen a single flake of snow. The average daily temperatures are around 10 degrees!
From our building (but not my office) you can see the Schneeberg (Snow Mountain); it is the most easterly Alp with a summit above 2000m. I took the photo below from the train platform while waiting for the train home last week after work.
BOKU Ball
The few weeks between new Years and Shrove Tuesday (Carnival) are the ball season here in Austria, with apparently over 300 different balls in Vienna alone. On Thursday January 17th Cora and I went to the BOKU Ball. BOKU (Universität für Bodenkultur, The University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences) hosts a ball every year in a wing of the Hofburg palace. The unique twist of this ball is that many people come dressed in traditional clothing, as you can see by FJ's lederhosen and Cora's borrowed dirndl.
Before going to the party we went to an IAESTE Vienna member's apartment to meet up with his friends, and then we all went together. At the party I managed to cut myself while trying to open a beer bottle with a rolled up paper bag (it did work at first, but the more we used it the more ripped and damp the bag got, until it failed catastrophically, resulting in me bleeding all over). Thankfully I got it cleaned up before it stained my shirt, but I looked very classy arriving at the palace with a big red sore on the side of my hand...

The main dance floor was in one of the large ballrooms with soaring ceilings covered in gold leaf, murals, marble, and crystal. There was an orchestra playing waltzes, polkas, tangos, and other traditional songs. I didn't stay here long because it was very crowded and I didn't know any of the dances.
In some of the other rooms there were bands playing other types of music. This room was retro music. I think they need a few more chandeliers.
We ended up spending most of our time in the discothèque in the basement (which is where they play modern dance music, not Disco). Also, as it was a Thursday, we left fairly early (~1:30am) so that we could actually get to work the next morning. It was fun for my first ball, but little did I know it was only a warm-up for the Bonbon Ball on the following Friday.

Aleksandra's Party
The day after the ball one of my coworkers who lives in Wiener Neustadt had a housewarming party which she had been promising since she moved in November. It was a lot of fun, and it really showed us what we're missing out on by living in Vienna, space! Her apartment, which she shares with her Austrian boyfriend, is huge, and her rent is only a few Euros more than what I pay for my jail cell of a room. We were having so much fun that we lost track of time, only realising at 11:10 that the last train back to Vienna was leaving in 20min. We said our goodbyes, grabbed our coats and ran through the narrow medieval streets of Wiener Neustadt to the train station, just catching the train on time. The 7 of us crammed into a 6 person compartment and had a great ride back to Vienna.

Opera Ball
The 31st of January was the Vienna Opera Ball, the highlight of the annual social calendar in Vienna. I obviously didn't go, because it is outrageously expensive, but I thought I'd mention it. They build a set on stage that perfectly mirrors the auditorium, where the floor has been raised to be flush with the stage. This year one of the celebrities there was Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives. She was interviewed for Austrian television, and you can watch it on youtube here. There is also another video which shows more of the ball here. This is worth watching just to see how terrified the debutantes and their dates look, but the ballet tribute to Euro Cup 2008 is also pretty cool. Maybe someday when I have a few thousand Euros burning a hole in my pocket I'll come back for the Opera Ball.

Bonbon Ball
On Friday the 1st of February, the day after the Opera Ball, Cora and I went to the Bonbon ball with two friends Caren and Robert. Cora and I took the subway (feeling slightly out of place) and met them at their apartment where we had some wine and then took a cab to the Konzerthaus where the ball was being held.

The Bonbon ball is run by the chocolate and candy companies in Vienna. So, when we arrived we were given cloth bags to fill with candy throughout the night. All through the hallways there were people handing out samples of chocolate, jelly beans, and other things. Off to a good start!
When we first walked into the main ballroom we caught the end of the debutante entrance, which you can see a bit of below. All the girls in white dresses are the debutantes. I got a video of them all waltzing together, but I'm having trouble with youtube, so you might have to see it later.
The bundles of balloons and Jelly Belly mascots hanging from the ceiling all had vouchers attached to them for large bags of assorted candy, cookies, and chocolate. Every 30 minutes one bundle would drop. We would plan to be there every time, showing up 5 minutes before and waltzing into the centre. Maybe it was the fact that neither Cora or I know how to waltz, or maybe it was because everyone was trying to get to the center to be right under the balloons, but waltzing felt more like bumper cars than some classy dance. I think we were just so bad that we couldn't keep up with the flow. When the balloons finally fell everyone would rush to grab the vouchers, which normally fell off as the balloons fell from the ceiling.
Smart people, like Robert, went for the vouchers; we went for the empty balloons.One important part of the ball is the Miss Bonbon competition. The winner of the competition is placed on this bright pink scale and given her weight in candy. This year she was given Manner cookies, which are very light wafer cookies. I wasn't there when the winner was weighed, but even a toothpick of a girl would need a whole lot of wafer cookies to balance out. Cora and Caren were saying that the only reason they give them their weight in candy is to ensure that they never win again.
Down in the discothèque they were playing a lot of modern or fun retro music, so that's where we spent most of our time.
At one point Cora and Caren, still distraught over not catching a single balloon or inflatable Jelly Belly saw a few added to a light stand as decoration, stole them, and proceeded to corrupt them.
One of the guests of honour at the ball was one of the Kings of Ghana. He opened the Miss Bonbon competition, and signed autographs for 30min during the ball. I figured if I had a chance to meet a King and get his autograph, why not? One funny thing is that he knew very little German, so when I talked to him in English we actually had a little conversation. I told him I was from Canada and had a friend from Ghana, and he asked me what I was doing living in Vienna. One more random thing to add to my list of life experiences.
On the way out of the ball we passed the 'throne' where the king had been a few hours before. So, we took the opportunity to make some classy photos.

Showing the leopard some love.

Faschings Feier
Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, the last day of Carnival before Faschings (Lent) begins. Apparently it is a big thing in Austria, with people dressing up in costumes (even more so than Halloween) and parties (Faschings Feier). At lunch there was a party paid for by ECHEM. It was a normal work party with trays of cold cuts, cheese, vegetables, and juice. This party was missing the cases of sparkling wine which normally accompany parties like this, but instead they had boxes and boxes of Krapfen, the Austrian word for the doughnuts called "Berliners" in German German (Ich bin ein Berliner). They replace the stacks of pancakes synonymous with Shrove Tuesday in North America.

After work a group of us went to another Faschingsfeier hosted by a coworker in Wiener Neustadt named Beate. The cool thing was that Beate and her husband run a 3 screen movie theatre, and that's where she had the party. Since it is closed on Tuesdays we had the whole place to ourselves. We ate, drank, and played Foosball which I only then realized is an English bastardization of the German word for soccer, Fußball. It was lots of fun.


I really need to get back into the swing of writing posts at least once a week, because these monster posts take forever to write. Nothing much planned between now and the 22nd when Ali arrives and we leave for Venice, Italy. Well, except for my birthday, but as it's a Sunday I think we'll just go out for Chinese or Japanese food and finish off the day at an Irish pub. On the subject of my birthday, I received a package from my friend Megan on Monday. There were a few Queen's newspapers which have been fun to read, a gift (which I still haven't opened - now that's self control), and a classic-Megan birthday DVD. The DVD shows a bunch of my friends from Kingston, and even a few from Brockville wishing me a happy birthday. There are also some funny special features. It made my day.

The last month and a half

I figure it's about time I update everyone, seeing as my last post was on the 2nd of December...

The time before Christmas flew by, with most evenings and weekends spent at the Christmas markets or in my German class. One weekend a group of us who work in Wiener Neustadt met up at Szilvia's to make Christmas cookies. They were all split up equally so we could take them home and eat them throughout the next week or two. Mine were half gone before I even left the party...

My last day of work was the 14th, and I flew out on the 16th after saying bye to Jasmina, Andrew, and Predrag who returned home for good over the holidays. My flight from Vienna to Toronto was direct and pretty uneventful. It was the first time I flew over Europe during the day when there weren't many clouds. I saw Amsterdam from the sky, with all it's canals glimmering in the sun, and the snowcapped jagged mountains of Greenland.

As we came to North America a huge snowstorm was in full force, but our plane managed to land pretty smoothly in Toronto; one of the only ones that day as most other flights had been canceled. With the chaos and delays resulting from the snowstorm it took me a long long time to get home from Toronto with a Via train, arriving home around 1:30am, which was 7:30am to me, completing 24.5 hours of sleepless travel.

The next three weeks were spent with family and friends. I had a lot of fun and did far too may things to even include an abbreviated list here. One of the highlights was seeing a Cirque du Soleil show in Montreal with my family. It was absolutely amazing, I recommend that everyone sees a show at least once, it's expensive but worth it. Also, while I was home we got more than a few bad snow storms. The photo below shows the snow being removed from my street with dumptrucks the day I arrived home from the snowless streets of Vienna.
My three weeks of holiday were up before I knew it. My return flight was much longer as I had a 7 hour layover in Paris. Thankfully I found a cheap airport hotel and slept through most of it after an uncomfortable sleepless flight from Montreal.

I started work the next day only to find that my boss Rakesh wasn't yet back from India and no one knew when he'd be back, or how to contact him. He eventually returned a week later.

Since being back things have been fairly uneventful, a few nights out with friends, and a going away party for Paola, one of our former coworkers who also went with us to Serbia who is moving to the Netherlands.

Some things that I'm really looking forward to now are the Bonbon Ball on the 1st, and a trip to Venice and Barcelona at the end of February when my friend Allison visits from home. The ball is a full black bow-tie, waltzing ball like you'd see in a movie, except it's run by the dessert industries in Vienna, so you get a gift bag of sweets and chocolates, and as well there is also modern music in other rooms. I thankfully didn't take my suit home at Christmas like I had planned, so all I need to buy is a decent pair of dress shoes and a black bow-tie. I'm thinking I'll buy one that you have to tie by hand instead of a pre-tied one, it might be hard to master but it'd be a cool skill to have. I'll be sure to bring my camera and take plenty of photos.

Sorry for the almost complete lack of photos with this post but many are sure to follow in these last few months as I try to cram everything in before returning home for good.