First Excursion away From London: Wien

My first trip away from the big trip was to Vienna with Hayley. We both had a blast and spend the whole weekend exploring the city. I really had no idea what to expect when I arrived in Austria, and basically all my knowledge about Austria I learned in high school, and pertained to the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia, Franz Ferdinand and WWI, and the Habsburgs... oh yeah and they speak German (I don't know any german...it was very difficult to communicate needless to say).
 

Vienna is a very beautiful city, especially the palaces and gardens of the old royal families that lived there. One of the first stops on our journey was to Belvedere Palace.  It is a beautiful royal estate, built as a summer house for the Prince Eugene of Savoy (Hapsburg line). We walked around the outer grounds first. Here is what we saw...

Behind the Palace
















The Entrance to Lower Belvedere (back side of the palace).

Lower Belvedere again.

A close-up of the back entrance to the palace. 

This is the left side of the palace.

 The view of the gardens which over look Vienna. In the distance to the left is Stephansdom, one of the major sites in Vienna. Of course this is something that we made sure to visit.

Another view of the front gardens. This time from inside the galleries of the palace. 

Statues in the fountain in the front garden.

Hayley and I in front of Belvedere.

After walking around the outer grounds of the palace we went inside to see how the other half lives. Belvedere Palace is decorated on the inside with fantastic art works adorning the walls, as well as ornately constructed rooms, and painted frescoes on the ceilings. Photography was not allowed inside, but I was able to sneak a picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps...

 Following Belvedere Palace, we began our tour around the rest of Vienna. We walked down through the gardens behind the palace into the downtown area of Vienna. Vienna is not a huge city, so it is walkable, but it will wear you out after a full day of sightseeing. Our goal was to head down towards the Stephansdom, but we passed two beautiful fountains, one of which was dedicated to WWII.

After snapping a few pictures of the fountains (the WWII memorial is on the left), we finally reached the Stephansdom. It is a beautiful building as you can tell, and that is enough to make it stand out, but its sheer height completely dominates the surrounding skyline. It is 137 meters tall (453ft for those of you back in the states) to the top of the steeple. The cathedral is incredibly ornate, and obviously is a major landmark in Vienna, and all of Austria. In fact, it is depicted on the Austrian 10 cent euro coin.

 Unfortunately we did not get a chance to go inside the cathedral, but from what I've heard, there are some pretty spectacular altars inside. One of the other major locations that we visited in Vienna was the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular market. They sold every type of food item here, from raw fish and meets, to octopus (see right), ravioli and pastas, more sauces than you can imagine, falafel, dried fruits, and candy.



It was a blast to walk through the market, and we decided to buy some ravioli for dinner. Unfortunately, it is incredibly difficult to commincate with native Austrians who speak little to no English, when we speak little to no German. Thankfully an English speaking couple kindly offered to translate for us, so were were able to successfully buy dinner. Here is what we were able to cook up...

And here are a few of the Falafel's we bought as well:

Our last visit of note was the Hundertwasserhaus. Hundertwasserhaus is a set of apartments designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an artist and architect who attempted to avoid using straight lines in his designs because he believed that avoiding straight lines would create an environment more like the one that we all see in nature. He was also known for his colorful designes, and for those of you who are aware of the vast color array of my shorts collections, this was something that I appreciated greatly. Hundertwasser also designed other buildings in Austria, Germany, and a few other countries as well.








Here is a picture of the exterior design of one of Hundertwasser's designs:

And here is an example of his avoidance of using straight lines. Although this staircase appears to be constructed normally, but each stair is really uneven.









Overall, I had a great time in Vienna. It was a blast to visit another city other than just London, and to see how another culture lives. There were some major differences that I noticed in my time in Vienna. Obviously, it was self-evident that a different language was spoken there, but there are social customs that are completely different. For example, if you are eating dinner out, it is perfectly acceptable for street vendors to walk into the restaurant with flowers and attempt to stir up business, mid-dinner. Children are also thrust into positions, due to poverty to attempt to solicit money from dinner-goers, and will curse you if you ignore or refuse them money. Things like that just are not common place in the United States, and even London for that matter. Street names are also the most frustrating things in Vienna, especially trying to read them on maps. The names are so long, and have incredibly identical-seeming endings. This may not seem like such an issue, but with names that are so long, most street names are abbreviated, which creates a situation where getting lost is very probable. Despite these two culture differences, Vienna was a great time, and I loved every minute being there. There will be more posts to come albeit, they may be out of order.

London Pride

A large part of the British culture is making the trek out to the local Pub to grab a pint. Many of the best beers that are served at the pubs are made at local breweries, and usually the breweries only serve a selection of pubs close by to where the beer is produced. Although we are long past the days where beer is carried to local pubs by horse and buggy, the tradition of having select breweries serve nearby pubs is still alive. One of the best locally brewed beers, according to Londoners is London Pride brewed by Fullers (who also claim that the best place to drink beer is in London; this is mainly because freshly brewed beers is brought to the pubs, and then served fresh for  a few days before it is quickly turned over to another fresh batch of beer). A little over a week ago I was able to go on a tour of the Fuller's Brewery. For the most part the tour was fairly uneventful. The tour consisted of a Fuller's employee and beer aficionado explaining the process of making beer and walking us around to the various machines that ground the hops, add the barley, and tend to the brewing beer. We were also given the opportunity to taste some of the other beers that are brewed at Fullers. In my opinion, the London Pride beer was the best beer, but some of the other beers that we tasted include ESB, Discovery Blonde Beer, and Gales Seafares Ale, among others. Here is the beer server, and serving station where were tested them...







And here is the full lineup of their beer selection:

And here are pictures of the various beers that we were able to test...

 

 

Fuller's beer is a local favorite among Londoners, and is also shipped to the U.S., so if you ever get a chance to try some London Pride, it is definitely worth a try. I will post pictures from the tour that I went on soon...I just have not had a chance to upload them to my computer yet... so long from London... for now.

ps: just in case you were wondering, the beer samples only were small sips of beer, no need to worry

Just a Few Really Old Rocks... Maybe You Have Heard of Them?

So what if it was build sometime between 2400 and 2200 BC, requiring three stages of construction? Who cares that we don't know how the ancient peoples built it? Why should I have gone to see something that we don't fully understand the purpose of it? What am I going to get out of it, other than being able to say that I've been to Stonehenge? Well aside from the fact that it is so old, the construction so complex, and its meaning still a mystery, which in my opinion are all reasons to go see the ancient stone monument, it is one of the coolest things that I have EVER seen! The only thing that I can really compare it to is the Colosseum in Rome, which was incredible. 

Stonehenge now is different that what it was 15 or 20 years ago. Now it is roped off, and you must walk around the stones in a circle, and you can not get closer than 5 ft away from the stones. This is due to vandalism over the years. There is also a highway that drives right past where Stonehenge is, that is probably 300 yards away, and that definitely takes away from the atmosphere of Stonehenge because it is an instant reminder of the modern world that we live in, and it distracted me from appreciating the magnificent feat... 

A view from the back of Stonehenge

This is the headstone for Stonehenge

A view down the center of Stonehenge with the headstone in the background

A closeup of the previous picture

A view from the side into the center of the stone circle

This is the vest view of Stonehenge. Notice, the three hendges in the center, and the joint rock on the left near stone. Instances of their technical genius

There are many theories for who and why Stonehenge was built. One reasonable theory for the builders of Stonehenge are the Druids, but  recent archaeological finds have dated the Druid's well past the construction time frame. Other theories, although they are not given substantial credence scientifically, are Aliens and Merlin, King Arthur's friend and wizard. The two most accepted reasons for why Stonehenge was built was for religious purposes, or as a calendar, although it is very difficult to prove either of these theories. There have been discoveries of burials at and around Stonehenge with lends proof to the theory that Stonehenge was built for religious reasons. One can never really know the true purpose of Stonehenge, but it is definitely something worth seeing!

Greenwich (Across the Pond)

About a week ago, I took a bus tour to Greenwich, England. It is a quaint English town just up the Thames River, the river that flows through London. It was about one week into my stay in London, and we drove through downtown London, past BIG Ben, the House of Parliament, and down the central streets of Westminster. This was the first time that I had seen Big Ben and the House of Parliament. I know you must be asking what I had been doing in London for a whole week without having seen these national landmarks, but there was a lot to get set up, before I could go exploring. After a short bus ride to Greenwich, we were let off the bus and looked across the river at one of the Queen's state houses. 

There are a few main attractions in Greenwich that made this an exciting Visit. The first is that there is a national observatory from the 18th Century. The reason for the observatory's construction in this town is because it lies directly on the Prime Meridian. The prime meridian is so special because it is there that each new day and year begins.  Naturally, I had to get a picture of myself standing in two hemispheres...

Here are my roommates, Brad and Blake, and I standing the at the Prime Meridian.

After seeing the Prime Meridian, we went inside to check out the observatory. This is the Royal observatory of London, commissioned by Charles II, with astronomers such as John Flamsteed as notable astronomers who have done their research there. At the time of its construction, and to this day, it houses the largest refracting telescope in the U.K.

 

In addition to the observatory, part of the astronomical research that was done at the Royal Observatory was discovering how to build an accurate time keeper that would be effective on ships. At the time, pendulum watches and clocks were used exclusively, which are very accurate, but on ships they do not work as well. This is because on the rocking of the ships back and forth throws off the pendulum, and thus the watch is off, and captains will have difficulty charting their positions without accurate time, unless they have access to a sextant. Eventually, it was discovered how to properly build a watch for sea captains to travel with, that would keep accurate time. After this was done, the observatory built a metal pole, with a red ball that would ascend to the top of the pole at 1pm everyday so that ship captains could accurately set their watches before sailing down the Thames River to the Atlantic Ocean.

Greenwich also is the proud owner of the self proclaimed, oldest shop in the world...

 

Greenwich was a lot of fun, but it has not been the best trip that I have been on. I think that distinction belongs to Stonehenge...

Food

The scariest part of growing up isn't having responsibility or having to get a job. Its not long hours spend in the library...or the pub depending on what country you are in. Its having to cook your own meal every night when you are tired after a long day. Its rather intimidating to be honest, but after a week or so of having this responsibility i'm getting better at that. Here are some of the foods that i have cooked thus far.

This first meal is sauteed chicken on a pan with honey lemon pepper sauce, sauteed peppers and onions and pasta with tomato sauce. Yes my mom would be proud.










Here is the chicken being cooked more...
















The final masterpiece!

This was the first meal that I cooked in London.










And here is the second meal that I cooked! Teriyaki stir fry.

And the Finished product! It was good. I was impressed with myself.












And here is one of the things that Hayley cooked.

Beef stroganoff! It was amazing.

And here is the complete meal. Hayley has also cooked delicacies such as porcupine meatballs and Chicken Parmesan. So for all of you who were worried that I wouldn't be eating well... well I have surprised myself.








Stay tuned for my upcoming blog posts on Stonehenge and Salisbury, Greenwich, the Westminister section of town, and Henry IV parts I and II at the globe theater.

My First Week

So I've already been in London for one week and everything I've done is starting to blur together. I reckon I should start documenting everything online now...here goes nothing.

We landed in London on August 31st and we quickly ushered into coaches (apparently all buses in London are coaches) and driven to our hotel. The hotel we stayed in was off one of the major streets in London, Oxford St. We spent much of the first day just going around and checking out the city we would be living in for the next 3 and a half months.

We ended up spending a few days in the hotel, but my roommates and I were out looking for a flat on the second day. Here are some pictures of where we are living...

 Here is our spacious living room with leather couches...

Here is our fully furnished kitchen...

And here is the man cave.












There will be more updates on my first week to come...