My do they love their statuary here. Vienna is chock-a-block with statues. They’re on buildings, in buildings, on the street, all over any garden, and just generally everywhere. Some of them are quite interesting, telling fun tales of Hercules slaying this or that monster, or an innocent fish, or his children. Some are weirdly entertaining (see the child attempting to drown another) and most are just sort of… there. A gentle backdrop. Like colour, only in 3d, and not in colour. Anyway, that is not a particularly inspiring description of a thing with which I’m sure everyone is already familiar, so I’ll move on. I’m breaking this post up a little, because it’s gotten big. Read it in chunks interspersed with kittens, movie trailers, and facebook to appease your internet-ravaged attention span

The Journal Entry:

After an inspired house party in what I can only assume is a standard Vienna student house, covered with art and weirdnesses and words, I spent a few days wandering around the old city, looking at old things, of which Vienna is generously supplied. The old, skinny red trams proved a perfect sightseeing vehicle, and I criss-crossed the city I don’t know how many times. The square containing the library, museums, town hall, and parliament (and possibly palace?) is of course magnificent, especially at night with the hall gleaming over everything, but I think the most enjoyable part of Vienna is the ease with which you can duck off a super-commerical throughfare and find a narrow, winding alley. Lovely.

The History Lesson:

When I felt I’d surfed my couch long enough, and after my ride fell through, I bought a cheap train ticket and took a succession of slowpoke regional trains across the country to Salzburg. It took a couple of hours longer than the speedy version, but my time is clearly not worth the 20 euro upgrade. Besides, Austria is beautiful, especially the farming areas just outside of Vienna, and the hills in the west, where I now find myself. Salzburg was a last-minute choice, because it seemed a shame to leave Austria so quickly, perhaps never to return. And it was a good choice. A small city on the edge of the Alps, it’s many large hills provide perfect semi-urban hiking. Views of the city and the mountains all around, but tranquil feeling among the trees. To spice things up a little, all of the hills have been heavily fortified over time, with the largest containing one of the best preserved fortresses in Europe, the middle bits of which are over a century old.

But there’s more! The other two major hills (all of which have been heavily quarried since before anyone started keeping track) also have fortresses worth seeing, and the walls which wound around all of them are mostly intact, and beautiful. Interspersed with various sizes of watchtower, the walls are sometimes ivy covered, sometimes moss covered, sometimes barely coming over the ground and sometimes falling 40 meters away just over the parapets. I’ve walked for many miles through the red leaves along these ancient stones, and it is very satisfying. I also understand why no-one bothered to invade. It would have been a hell of a thing to get onto any of these clifftop plateaus, and Salzburg (salt-city) was obviously well stocked with dried things in case of a seige.

So that’s the story so far. Off to a very entertaining-sounding traditional-Austrian vs modern rap battle tonight.