If I tell you how we get from Prague to Austria, you wouldn't believe your ears (or perhaps your eyes since you're reading it). It's common for travellers to take the train to Austria from Prague since it's cheap and flexible - you board on any train time you want to; unlike taking a flight where you have to board the flight time you purchase.
Since my brother (who is studying in London and whom we all depend to arrange our holiday) has never been to Prague nor Austria, he just purchased train tickets at the train station in Prague ... which is what anyone else would do, including me. What turned out was quite a hell of an experience.
You would think that once you purchase your train tickets, you would be secured of a seat, even though there wasn't a seat number on the ticket (since you're flexible to board any train time you want). Upon stepping onto the train, we were shocked to find that there were so many other people sitting on their luggages along the aisle!! Turns out that it was a first come first serve basis to get your train seats (which makes sense) and the train company oversold their tickets. To add onto that, since the time was flexible, everyone thought the same as us - to board the earliest train to get to Austria in the day time to spend more time there.
Sitting along the aisle. Trying to look on the happy side of things - at least we got to board the train!
Along the aisle. Where mum is touching is the sliding door to a room of 6 seats on the train
So it was a horror finding out that we had to stand (or sit on our bags) along the aisle throughout the 4 hour journey! That's close to a flight journey from Perth to Malaysia! It's okay for us young adults, but for my parents?? Oh no.... And no one would give up their seats for them (which also made sense - who wants to stand for 4 hours??) A local who spoke English (and managed to get a seat) told us that there will be people leaving the train along the journey too since there were many stops and not all passengers wanted to go to Austria. But the next train stop from the one we boarded was about 1.5 hours away so poor mum and dad had to stand for so long. Well at least there was a vast view of sunflowers to brighten up our day! Tee hee hee.
What we saw along the journey
Looking at the safety point of view, I think it was very dangerous having an overpacked train travelling for 4 to 6 hours cross-country. What if something happens and there are so many people and luggages blocking the exit path? I guess I just have to thank God that we are not sitting on top of the train like in India! That would be an overwhelming experience! Not sure in a good or bad way though. It's quite cool to sit on top of the train because I've never done that before! :P By the time we got a room for all 6 of us, I think it was already half way through our journey and everyone was so tired.
After all of us got our seats....
On the train, we found out that we could pay an extra sum of money to board the first class train (we got the Economy seats) where we would have proper comfy seats that were reserved for us. Aih, the person at the counter in Prague didn't ask if we wanted that because she wasn't even fluent in English to start with. Anyway, side track a little, I was shocked and disgusted to enter the toilet in the train! I didn't know that you're actually pooing and urinating on the tracks!! The toilet bowl has a lever where after you finish your business, all of you have to do is to step on the lever and the cover inside the toilet bowl will give way, allowing you to mark your territory as the train goes along. Eeeww. So it's the rule not to enter the toilets when the train stops because they don't want a pile of shit sitting on the tracks right in front of a train station platform. LOL.
Anyway, by the time we arrived Austria, we were very much glad that we left Prague because of language problems. Hehe. Austria is a place famous for its picturesque sceneries. Remember that the Sound of Music was filmed there too?
Our first day in Austria was pretty much a relaxing trip and we visited Hundertwasser Village, a small town popular for its unique and colourful apartment blocks designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser in the 1980s. Apparently, the each of the apartments are not identical; with uneven floors, ceramic pillars, mosaic tiles, curved passageways and balconies jutting out at odd places.
Vienna is the capital of classical music. One who visits Vienna should not leave without reading or listening to any music from Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Mozart. In Stadpark, you can see many statues of the famous musicians/composers.
In the city, there were many people dressed up in their fancy costumes, some wearing wigs resembling Mozart, selling ticket to watch an orchestra. One particular guy was such a good salesman, slashing prices tremendously (Who wouldn't? There were 6 of us in the family!) that we decided to purchase tickets to watch one show. Obviously, there aren't as grand as those Philharmonic Orchestra, but everyone said that it was worth the amount of money they spent, especially since my parents and Chin Fei hasn't watched one before.
Having our compliment drinks during intermission
Other places we stopped by in Vienna were The Staatsoper, Vienna’s opera house, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, the Austrian National Library (during tour also must visit the library, huh? Haha) and the Spanish riding school, Spanische Hofreithschule.
The Staatsoper
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
Brothers fighting outside the library. :P
Spanische Hofreithschule
When we were in Vienna, we also had tea in Cafe Sacher Wien, a typical Viennese coffee house, famous for its cakes. The chocolate cake was so rich with chocolate that it took 2 of us to gulp it down.
Up next, the beautiful and majestic Schonbrunn Palace!
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