Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Vienna- short and sweet

If Vienna was a boring city for the party girls of Budapest, i was there for too short a time to figure that out. The incentive to stay back in Budapest for one more day was high, with my host being a self confessed party expert, and with approaching weekend, but in the end i decided the day would be better spent in Vienna, boring or not. It turned out to be a good decision.

 Shonali, my host, was a friend of Jyotsna, who introduced us over email. She is a double masters and a Phd, dealing with important problems like environment, and living in a nice apartment close to the center which i had only hoped most of my other hosts would have. She was also working, so i left the luggage at station for the day. I spent the day walking almost non stop, in the city center, not before i had covered the famous Schonbrunn palace out side of it, and it certainly was one of the most beautiful city center in Europe that i had seen, and certainly being worthy of a unesco world heritage site.

Apart from being the capital of Austro-Hungarian empire, and one of the most livable cities of the modern world,  Vienna was also widely regarded as the capital of music, with great masters like Mozart, Brahms, Stauss etc working here in its hey days. It is also a host city for many international organizations like UNESCO and OPEC, and one of the largest centers for exhibitions and conferences. it also has the most efficient and well connected tram system that i had seen.

It is also endowed with beautiful operas and other museums in the city center, which were mostly rebuilt after the world war 2. Unfortunately, i didn't have time to enjoy the performances here, as i had to join Shonali and her cousin Mandakini, a yoga and pranayam teacher in Vienna, for an early dinner. The performances i left for Prague, where i was heading the next day. That turned out to be a good decision too.






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