slovakia-austria trip day 2

the next day, we decided to wake up early and set off for the city centre of vienna, where a number of tourist attractions were located in close proximity within each other. taking the U-bahn (i.e. MRT), we made our way up. similar to slovakia, the tram and tube system also operates on a system heavily based on trust, as evidenced by the absence of gates for the tube system.

art and science history museum

hofburg palace

while we were walking around the hofburg palace, we noticed a bunch of policemen and policewomen gathering at one corner of the palace.

looks like prep for parade

then they started to march.

"linke, linke, linke rechte linke"

and form up.

their PS (guy w/ blue sash) is one mother tall guy

and alot of tua-zhong people came. and they blocked the view of the military band on the left.

austrian mini-parade

there were wreaths and candles brought out to be placed in front of some monument, so i guess it was to commemorate the someone's/some group's death, possibly their comrades who have fallen in their line of duty. anyway, throughout the parade, there were regular strong gusts of wind that blew through the area, which stirred up the autumn leaves. with the military band playing sombre music in the background, and the autumn leaves floating around the sky, the scene resembled one of them drama emo clips you see in war movies. and being there live, the atmosphere was, in a strange way, rather emotional.

then we proceeded to walk around town somemore, and take random photos.

state opera house

some chocolate shop

angkat bolah

my camera then decided to die on me. but some other notable buildings we saw included the secession building and karls church. one place which we visited, which was to me the highlight of the trip to vienna, was naschmarkt. it essentially is one super long stretch of pasar malam like shops selling mainly foodstuffs (ranging from vegetables and fruits, to cheese and olives, to kebabs and pork knuckles and pastries) and to a certain extent clothes as well. i got a huge kebab sandwich while justin got this huge chunk of pork knuckle. ah bliss.

we decided to walk back to the hostel to grab our luggage and catch the 1622 train for salzburg. at around maybe 300m away from the hostel, i looked at my watch. it was 1430, which means we could make it in time for the 1444 train. whilst discussing whether we should rush for the train, we unconsciously and noticably increased our pace. that was when we decided we should run for train, and we did. it felt like the sequel to our train journey from bratislava to vienna. similarly, 5 minutes after we got on the train it started to move off.

we reached salzburg in the evening, and headed for our hostel. though it was a 6-bed dorm, we were the only occupants in the room (save for an overnight guest who arrived after we slept and left before we woke up). dem shiok.

our super deluxe double room