Decidedly non-volcanic Ash

I thought of the hilarious pun above ages ago, and almost didn't use it after it transpired that my parents had already thought of it. Bang goes my originality, I thought. Nevertheless, I feel I should take the chance offered to me by my great benefactor geology.

Ash came to visit! And this time it wasn't -2 degrees, or snowing, and his flight wasn't even cancelled once! His arrival was mighty timely, for I was still in tourism mode from my Finland trip. I am really glad that he turned up and jolted me out of my routine and back into properly noticing Vienna. I had got into a bit of a rut, travelling only between home and university or occasionally the odd climbing wall or cafe, but this gave me a chance to spend a whole week showing off Vienna to Ash and myself and doing those things I kept 'meaning to do' but never did. Of course, part of my enewed enthusiasm for the city has been created by the spring weather too! My, it is lovely here at the moment, in between the rainstorms.

I hope Ash won't mind (as he posted this on his facebook status I'm guessing not) but I will allow you to browse through the photos of an actual photographer (that is Ash) this time. Simply go here and type the word Vienna in the box. Even with his non monstrous camera Ash captured some impressive shots. While you're there, check out his other work, I think you will agree it is pretty impressive.

When Ash arrived I took him on a proper long walk round the whole city in delicious sunshine. On the way I was shocked at how suddenly spring had crept up on all the parks and things I last remember looking at in about february, making them all green and flowery. This realisation that things had been growing all over the place really surprised me with how little I had visited these places recently. We went up the scaffold in the Karlskirche, as you can see in the pictures. The roof painting was incredible, the wobbling scaffolding (60m high), less so. Worth the entry price though! Ate tasty food at the restaurant with the self proclaimed best falafel in Vienna. Ooh yeah.

Tuesday we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Hofburg museums (arms and armour and ancient musical instruments), both things I had kept meaning to do but never got round to. We only properly managed the Kunst half of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and even then it took several hours... Literally every pre 19th century painter of fame seemed to be there. The amount of talent and the sheer age of most of the stuff was a bit overwhelming. Highlights? Seeing several real Arcimboldos, (6 or so years after we had to constantly analyse the man's work for art lessons) the giant wall covering epics, the odd excellent Titian, seemingly almost everything done and still existing by a Dutch legend called Pieter Bruegel the Elder. All the people in his pictures had their own little expression and impression of a story behind them. Especially cool was 'The Battle Between Carnival and Lent'. Just take some time to look at all the brilliant characters! Also fascinating was an exhibition all about one single picture by Vermeer, and all the inspiration, methods, research, restoration and themes around it. I like the idea of knowing so much about just one picture by an artist.

Wandering around the Hofburg in seemingly endless classical marble halls surrounded by random ancient things, especially on a day when the museum was otherwise deserted, was a surreal experience reminiscent of exploring some kind of mystery computer game setting... The arms and armour collection was crazy. One of the largest in the world, and really what more is there to say than there was a LOT of exquisitely designed armour and weaponry on display. Some exquisitely designed but not actually meant for real use of course, as the ludicrous shield-gauntlet-sword-oil lamp-spike combo in Ash's pictures demostrates (if used it would have doused your arm in hot oil, apart from the many other design flaws). Equally interesting was the collection of old musical instruments. There are a LOT of ways to make noises, my goodness. The free audioguide was especially appreciated for this one, because really what use is looking at an instrument without knowing how it sounds?!

Thursday was spent at the zoo (sealion feeding! pandas! giraffes! you know what happens in zoos) which was pretty darn cool. As the afternoon sun (19 degrees ) began to go down we made it to the gradens arguably Vienna's most famous palace, Schoenbrunn. Stunning, even by Viennese standards. Friday we went to Bratislava. I feel this place gets a bad rap from people, yeah I suppose the biggest part of the city is just ugly tower blocks, but the old town and castle area (where we spent all our time) really is beautiful. Plus can you really complain about a place whre a 500ml 10% beer costs you €1.10? No, I thought not. A few of my photos of Bratislava can be found here.

Saturday the rain came down with a vengeance, but I still managed to give Ash a brief tour of the Naschmarkt and let myself be ritually ripped off by it. Gosh darn it, if only the food they rip you off with wasn't so tasty! The combination of bergkaese and true (in saltwater) pickled gherkins is definitely unbeatable. We also toured the Schatzkammer, I'd been before but you still can't really prepare yourself for that much sheer opulence and age... Sunday we went to the Naturhistorisches Museum, my favourite museum here, at least taken by number of visits (I think I have been 4 times at least). Every time it is fantastic, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The last day and a bit of Ash's stay I had university, but we still managed to meet up in the evening for a semi traditional Siebensternbrauerei visit. Ash (against my advice) went for the chilli beer. He loved it, but seriously people, a warning, when they say chilli beer, they mean it! That beer has serious burn! As usual the food was stupidly filling but also stupidly tasty.

So yeah, there you go. Who knows soon you may find out what's been going on more recently.

Until then!
Der Tom