Tour of Austria-Hungary Empire

Disclaimer: The union of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary back in the 19th century created a united land that spawned a big part of Central Europe. I have not, in this short month, travelled even a fraction of that. I just thought it is a cool name and was not meant to be misleading in any way.

I first landed in Vienna on... I think the 7th December. I can't remember the exact date, but I knew I stayed back after term ended to finish up that bloody report. Had a complicated room arrangement and then went to Zhengjie's place for a night in London. Anyway the reason for me being in Wien is that my uncle is here for a post-doc position, and I am here to see him, have a holiday and save some rent.

Vienna at first reminded me of Lyon. I think continental Europe has similar architecture. It is peaceful, and I could not understand anything just like in Lyon. Before I could begin to explore the city, I tracked the progress of "The Great, Greater and the Greatest" (ie the 3 greats) on Facebook. They happened to be travelling in the region and I met up with them for a day to tour the Schonbrunn palace. It was the first major tourist attraction I went. Other than all the fun and talking the most memorable part was the cold. It was really very cold with temperature around -10 degrees. As it was a Sunday, which has a special significance in Austria. After labouring very hard to locate the restaurant "The Great" was interested, it was closed, just like all the other shops. Luck for us, there was a Vietnamese restaurant open for business nearby. It was such a relief to be indoors. We went in and "Greater" used his Cantonese to help us order food. It was very hilarious in that moment as we were trying to find out exactly what we were getting. It was a super long lunch. When we were done with the main course, we ordered dessert, and then another round of dessert by the "The Greatest". We well achieved our purpose of defrosting and filling our stomach before we left.

Oh well that was a nice day. But for quite a number of days I followed my uncle to Technische Universitat Wien to study. My first few days were embroiled in the bitter struggle to finish the Math Computer Assignment. After that it was the math example sheet, and optics. I was quite alarmed by the amount of things I did not understand in term time. Even now I still have loads of overdue work and a significant chunk of the syllabus to revise. Anyway I became quite familiar of the place after a while. The buildings and facilities are very new, and it is located in the city centre. I got to know one or two persons. I also attended a Masters student's graduate party, and then a Christmas party of the department. It was not easy to talk to anybody as it was firstly very weird and also they speak German. Feuerzangenbowle was the main thing I remembered, as well as a very delicious beef stew.

Another noteworthy thing is the underground system. There are no gantries, so everybody just walk in and out freely. There's a ticketing system but from the look of it much self-discipline is needed. There are people conducting random check though, and I was checked on Christmas day itself. That day I went to the central cemetery Zentralfriedhof. The graves of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Brahms and most importantly Boltzmann are there. It was kind of like making a physicist's pilgrimage to visit Botzmann's resting place. It took me quite while to find but I think it was worth it. Luckily I had my tickets.

Vienna's beauty are undeniable. The city centre is full of palace, church, museum, theatre and other places that are just pleasant to look at. The city layout is awesome and everything just seem to fit with each other. The transition of modern and medieval is smooth, especially with the old fashioned tram and subway going around. It was like a old photo with most of it frozen in time and some parts slowly developing using modern technology. With the Danube flowing through it, it is perfect.

However it is such a pity that the cold spell has to arrive so early. From the first day until the end of 2010 I never saw wien without a significant amount of snow. I love snow as it makes everything look so ever pure and angelic. But the love so often are in contention with the welfare of my ears, hands and feet. So I ended up spending a significant amount of time indoors talking with my uncle and aunt. As a (extended) family tradition, the topics is always on China and the academia. It often extends to human nature. Sometimes I wonder why nobody in my family ever studied social science? We could have potentially write many thesis on contemporary Chinese culture and politics from such talks alone. It was great discussing these issues with them, as it made me more aware of how things are done in China, and its various issues.

And of course there are my two lovely cousins. I don't know many adjectives to describe them but they are just adorable. Lele is very eloquent and curious. He always takes his own time to do things though, and doesn't eat much during meal time. This, coupled with his whys can really drive me "mad". He loves Thomas and makes me watch it with him. The one achievement I have over this holiday is that I can recognize most of the tank engines in the series now, having watched none of it previously. I also read stories to him and he likes me to brush teeth together with him. LOL. Songsong is not yet one year old, and he is as chubby as my brother when he was Songsong's age. He has changed significantly during this month, now always be to stand up. There are so many things to say about kids of his age as they are always curious but can't talk.

Overall it has been a great experience coming to Vienna. Very sad to be leaving now. I shall talk about the Hungary bit next time, as this blog post is already quite long.