It took us quite a while to decide where to go for our
honeymoon. We typically like to alternate trips between “vacation” (e.g., lying
on a beach somewhere) and travel (exploring a new country and culture), after
which we usually need a vacation. We had gone to our beloved Hawai’i in
November after the election to wind down from the roller coaster of running for
office, so travel was next up. We debated for a while about going back to SE
Asia (and stopping in China to see a friend), going to Argentina (which would
have been a 5th continent for both of us) or Australia, or even deviating from
our vacation-travel schedule and going to somewhere like Tahiti. We wanted to
take advantage of the fact that we would be on the East coast, and Matt had
never been to Europe and always talked about wanting to see Austria, so we
ultimately decided on Austria. I had always wanted to go to Croatia, so we
combined the two. We initially thought about adding in Capri somewhere, but
quickly realized that with only 2 weeks it wouldn’t work. We scheduled a flight
to Salzburg, train to Vienna, day trip to Prague, flight to Dubrovnik, and day
trip to Montenegro. We had the option to go to Budapest, but we only had time
for either there or Prague, and since Matt is Czech, it was an easy choice. It
was a great trip, but by the time the wedding was over, I was thinking how nice
it would have been to just sit on a beach. :-)
Since we would be in Philly for about a week prior to
leaving, we had to pack for both trips. Thankfully, the climate would be
similar (it sucks having to pack for multiple trips with multiple climates),
although we couldn’t get detailed forecasts that far out. We assumed that
Salzburg would be a little cooler and then each place would be progressively
warmer. We were wrong! Salzburg ended up being beautifully warm and sunny and
the rest of the trip was a little cooler. In Vienna and Prague it was mostly
rainy and cool, and on an island off of Dubrovnik it was downright cold at
times! As an aside, we’re hugely thankful for friends who brought a suitcase
and a lot of our stuff back to San Francisco after the wedding so we only had
to take one suitcase to Europe. As another aside, I had almost forgotten how
easy it was to pack for Europe! Our last few trips have been to developing
countries in SE Asia, N. Africa, and Southern Africa, so packing was pretty
detailed. It’s been so long since I’d been to Europe (sad face), and packing
was a breeze!
Salzburg, which ended up being my surprisingly favorite city
of the trip, was beautiful. It is a very small city and is easily navigable and
walkable. We stayed just across the bridge from the City Center, only a block
away from the famous Mirabell Gardens where some scenes from The Sound of Music were shot. Interestingly
enough, most Americans who come to Salzburg come to take the Sound of Music
tour and love quoting the movie and singing the songs. What’s funny is that
most Austrians don’t even know the movie!
Our hotel was very nice, and the
breakfast included a tea bar with tons of loose-leaf teas from the local
mountains as well as local and fresh food and breads. Walking around our neighborhood was interesting, and there were lots
of remembrances of the past almost everywhere we looked. In front of some
buildings were small gold plaques in the ground, some having one and some
having many. Each plaque represented a person from that house who was sent to a
Nazi concentration camp and had the person’s name, date of birth, date of
deportation, and the name of the camp. There were about a dozen plaques in front
of a large bank that must have been an apartment building at that time. It was
a sobering reminder of where we were standing. There are really reminders
everywhere, including a memorial at the end of one of the bridges dedicated to
those who were forced to build the bridge.
On our first day in Salzburg we went to the 11th century FortressHohensalzburg, taking the funicular car up the side of the mountain. The
views from the Fortress were incredible, and the rooms were really interesting.
There was also a puppet museum, which, interestingly, isn’t far from the old
torture chamber. In the old chapel, next to the foundation of the original
floor and walls, there was a fascinating video playing that showed what the
Fortress looked like over the course of thousands of years.
After finally coming down to the main square, we wandered
around the shops and open-air market stalls and headed toward Mozart’s birthhouse. There we saw one of his violins as well as other instruments that
he and his sister played. There was also a lot of information about Salzburg,
Ausria, and greater Europe from that era. Of course, we couldn’t leave the area
without getting Mozart Balls from each of the “original” bakeries that make
them and comparing. Mozart Balls, or Mozartkugel, are little pieces of
pistachio marzipan surrounded by nougat and then dipped in a thick layer of
dark chocolate. I preferred the ones at Schatz makes, although the ones at Fürst
weren’t bad! We definitely stockpiled some Mozart Balls for the rest of the
trip and for gifts.
One of the notable parts of Salzburg are the beautiful
bridges that cross the Salzach River. We walked across a couple of them, and
one is dotted with hundreds of “love locks,” or small padlocks with initials.
Of course, we bought ourselves a love lock, put our initials and wedding date
on it, and locked our memory to the bridge with the others. We each kept a key.
My key replaced my half of the “love knot” that I bought for each of us at
Kyoto’s Kiyomizu, or “Love,” temple, which was in my wallet when it was stolen
on my bus home from work.
There are several beautiful areas in close proximity to
Salzburg. One afternoon we went to Berchtesgaden, which is most
infamously known for Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, which, unfortunately, didn’t open
for the season until a few days after we left. Berchtesgaden is a beautiful
mountain village and also has a working, 500-year-old salt mine—the
Saltzbergwerk. We toured the mine, which included “slides” down various levels
of the mine. It was a little Disneyfied for me, but interesting nonetheless.
We also took a tour to the lakes region of the area where we
took a boat ride along Lake Wolfgang and wandered around the village of St.Wolfgang. It was a very pretty area and reminded me a bit of Lake Tahoe.
Except among the Alps. :-)
Back in Salzburg, we went to the Augustinian Beer Garden,
a 17th century monastery brewery with beer being brewed the same way today as
it was in 1621. The building itself is beautiful, with sunlit staircases and
large, high-ceiling, dark wood rooms. And the beer garden in the back is
massive, with about 1500 seats. On two levels there are also food stalls to get
snacks and sandwiches and pastries. We just got a pretzel (not as good as those
in Philly, by the way) and a beer. To get your Augustiner Märzen, you grab a
small or large stein from a shelf, rinse it in a large, circular fountain, and
have someone from the monastery fill your stein from an oak barrel. There are
also beer warmers, which are filled with warm water so that people can warm
their beers to an appropriate temperature. Of course, I’m not much of a beer
drinker, but I did manage to drink about half of my stein. I was much happier
at the 17th century restaurant across the street where we had more traditional
Austrian food and a Radler.
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Speaking of food, we ate a lot of it! I love to eat
traditional and local food wherever I travel, and since I rarely eat so heavy
(or even much meat), the Austrian food was a quite a shock to my system.
Although it was really good! Throughout the entire trip in Austria (and Prague)
we ate tons of tasty pork products and goulash and dumplings. And, of course,
strudels and Sacher tortes.
We had several really great meals of traditional Austrian
food and beer while in Vienna. I’ve never drunk so much beer with every meal!
But when it’s cheaper than water, I go with the flow. We also went to the
famous Sacher Hotel to have a Sacher Torte and tea. The original recipe for the
Sacher Torte is a state secret, but I’m working on replicating it at home for a
“Bachar(ach)” Torte.
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From Salzburg we took the train to Vienna. Matt and I both
love train travel, and I’m really looking forward to the day when the U.S.
invests in high-speed rail in the same way that other countries around the
world do. But I digress. Our hotel in Vienna was in the 2nd district, just
across the Danube Canal from the Old City. It was a beautiful 400-year-old
hotel with lots of dark wood and traditional Viennese furniture to resemble a
past era.
We spent most of our time in Vienna at the touristy areas.
We spend half a day at Schönbrunn Palace, which I enjoyed more than I
thought I would. I’m guessing it was because it was an audio tour and we had to
go with the flow through 40 rooms—no extra waiting. :-) Schönbrunn is the
former imperial palace where many in the Hapsburg dynasty lived. The palace has
very beautiful and ornate rooms (including the room where Mozart played for
Empress Maria Theresa), and in some of the rooms used for entertaining they had
Mozart’s music playing. You could almost see the Hapsburgs and their guests
dancing on the ornate floors to the music. The gardens are equally elaborate
and beautiful. I can easily imagine the royal family in the 17th and 18th
centuries strolling around their grounds with umbrellas to shelter them from
the sun (unlike us, who strolled with our umbrellas to keep us dry).
We had lunch at the lovely Gulaschmuseum, which isn’t a
museum at all, but has dozens of goulashes on the menu. We also meandered
around the Hofburg Palace area, seeing one of its museums and the horse
stables. From there we went to the 12th century Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s
Church), whose spire dominates the skyline. Inside, there was special lighting
to make the beautiful and colorful stained glass reflect on the entire room. I
don’t think it’s any secret that I have a lot of disgust with and very little
respect for the Catholic Church as an entity, but that certainly doesn’t take
anything away from the physical beauty of some of the oldest churches. And the
bells sound magical, except, of course, when they start ringing near our room
at 7:30 a.m. and don’t stop. Apparently, Stephansdom was saved during WWII only
because a Captain disregarded orders to fire shells on it and leave it in ashes
when German forces were retreating.
We spent some time in Judenplatz, which was the place where
Jews began to settle around 1150. After the pogrom in 1421, it became a Jewish
ghetto. On the square there is a large memorial that lists all of the
concentration camps where Jews were sent. Just off the square there is a small
museum with an archeological site of the first synagogue, which was burned in
1421 with many of the residents. From there, we walked to the main Jewish
Museum, which is in a different area of the city. It had some interesting
permanent exhibits, and we saw an interesting special exhibit on Jewish humor
throughout the ages. I personally thought that the Jewish Museum in Cape Town
was much better.
One of the highlights for me was a visit to Kapuzinerkirche
(The Capuchin Church), which houses the imperial crypt with five centuries of
Hapsburgs. The caskets were beautifully ornate and elaborate, and some of the
most recent caskets were from within the last few years. The caskets included
those of Maria Theresa and Francix Stephen, the parents of Marie Antoinette; Emperor
Maximilian of Mexico; and Marie Louise, Napoleon's wife. Their son was also
buried here, but his body was moved to Paris by Hitler. The highlight, of
course, were the caskets of Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth.
We also want to the Pratter and rode on the famous Ferris
wheel. The views of the city were beautiful. The Pratter was interesting—most
of the rides there were American with American names and American themes such
as the Wild West.
From Vienna, we went to Prague just for a day. I had been to
Prague quite a few years ago and didn’t really have a desire to return, but
Matt is Czech, so he really wanted to go. Prague is unarguably a beautiful city
with amazing architecture, but it’s also overly crowded with throngs of
tourists—so much so that it’s difficult to even walk. It also has a very
post-Communist vibe, in my opinion. My impression from my first trip there,
during which we didn’t stay in the city and we had local, day-to-day
experiences, was that the people are very cold and distrustful. It wasn’t a
good vibe. On this trip, we just saw the top tourist spots, so it was a totally
different feel. But it was still crowded. It was raining off and on, and with
not only so many people, but so many people with umbrellas, it was difficult to
take it all in. If you’ve ever tried navigating your way across the Charles
Bridge on a good day, just imagine trying to do it with umbrellas! I did get my
goulash and dumplings before we left, though!
We kept a pretty fast pace on the trip and I was definitely
ready for some down time. And I was ready for some warmer weather! Vienna was
mostly cold, rainy, and windy, and I really realized then that San Francisco is
about the coldest climate I could handle anymore. In fact, a few years ago I
was on a short list for a job at the UN in Vienna. As wonderful an opportunity
that may have been, at that cold moment I was thankful I wasn’t living there. As
a tourist, I was also disappointed that everything was closed on Sunday. I mean
EVERYTHING. I’m sure as a resident I would find it quaint and old-school and
something that should be valued, but as a tourist with limited time, I just
found it inconvenient.
I had studied in France as an undergraduate and used it as a
base to travel the region. For some reason, Vienna didn’t really call out to me
like other European cities have, particularly Paris. In Paris, I feel at home.
There’s still a lot to see in Vienna, but I don’t have the same feeling as I do
in Paris. In fact, I left with the feeling that Europe is a much better place
to live than visit.
From Vienna we flew down to Dubrovnik. What a difference! It
was beautiful and sunny and warm, well, warmer than it was in Vienna anyway.
Our hotel was on the side of a cliff, so the street level was floor 7 and the
elevator descended to get to room levels. At the bottom there was a bar in a cave
that was discovered when they built the hotel. The bar opened up to a platform
along the sea. Since it was our honeymoon, the hotel had put a giant white bow
on our door and left us champagne and a personal note—such a nice touch!
We took the cable car up to the top of the Srd Hill, with
great views of the walled old city with its orange roof tops and church
steeples and the Adriatic. Also there is the Imperial fortress, which was used
during the homeland war in the 1990s. The Homeland War Museum was an incredibly
moving experience. The museum is in the fortress and is the place where
Croatian defenders ended the war and where the Croatian flag (rather than the
Serbian flag) continues to fly since the war ended only 20 years ago. Since the
war was so relatively recent, there is modern-day news footage. One room in the
museum showed clips of news footage over the course of the war and how locals
were impacted with the shelling and its aftermath. I couldn’t imagine living in
such horror. With my work in the area of human trafficking, I’m familiar with
the Serbs’ use of rape as a weapon of war against the Bosnians and Croats, but
to see the faces of the people impacted by the war is something else.
After taking the cable car back down we entered the walls
into the old city. It reminded me a little bit of Marrakech or Fes with its old
medina, but much more navigable (no twisty, maze-like streets). It was quite
beautiful with lots of opportunities for great shots. We went to a Bosnian
restaurant for lunch, which was really good! But I was most excited about the
local Adriatic squid, which I think I had for almost every meal after that. We
also ate a lot of gelato! I’ve never been to Italy, but I can’t imagine there
bring more gelato places than I’ve seen in Austria and Croatia!
We enjoyed our gelato at the Onofrio fountain, a cistern for
the city built in 1311. It was pretty amazing to sit in a spot where millions
have sat for so many hundreds of years. We then climbed up to the top of the
wall to walk the wall around the city. The views were incredible. At one point
I stood and watched what seemed like hundreds of birds flying around a church
when its bells started ringing. It was as if the birds were keeping time with
each ring and it was so enchanting. Around another corner we saw a man pulling
in his laundry, which was hanging on long ropes that crisscrossed a courtyard.
The wall was also tiring! There were lots of hills and steps going around,
which definitely worked off my gelato. We also bought some local treats from some
women on the wall, a fig and honey roll and candied orange peel.
There were a few things that I would have liked to see but
they were closed by the time we got to them. One of the Franciscan monasteries
housed one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe. There was also an exhibit of war
photography that closed early.
We also spent a day on the island of Lopud, which was a
sleepy town since we were just shy of the “on” season. Unfortunately, the day
we were there it was a bit cold and rainy, but it did dry up enough to walk
around a bit. We were told that there was a great beach just a short walk to
the other side of the island. That short walk was a 40-minute trek uphill and
then down steep steps through some forest. Because of the weather, everything
was shut down and deserted!
We took a day trip through Montenegro next door the next
day. We began in Kotor, which was a very traditional and quaint old city. After
some meandering and shopping we started an ascent up a mountain through 26
hairpin switchbacks to the highlands. On a couple of occasions a very large bus
was coming down the mountain and they had to back up curvy roads until there
was room for us to pass. The drive was beautiful and the views of Kotor Bay
were awesome. When we got up to the highlands the temperature had cooled and we
got to try locally made prosciutto and sheep’s cheese, as well as some local
honey wine. I really wanted to bring some home, but they only sold it by the
liter, which would definitely put me over my weight limit for my luggage.
On our way back we stopped in Budva, a high-end, casino-like
area on the beach. It was quite a sight to see an ancient walled city with
modern, high-end luxury shops. After a drink at the beach bar, we were back on
the road to cross the border.
One thing that surprised us was the cost of everything. I
had assumed that because Croatia wasn’t yet on the euro it would be more
affordable than the rest of Europe. But the prices were crazy expensive—like
San Francisco expensive or even more. And because Dubrovnik is such a touristy
area (the local population is only 60,000), they nickel and dime everywhere.
Restaurants have a table setting charge or a cover charge for bread, for
example.
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