Aug 6-7 Bratislava, Vienna

DAY 1

MORNING - BRATISLAVA

I arrived on the night of Aug 5 and only caught a glimpse of Bratislava from the train station to the apartment of Marta, Caroline's great aunt, who graciously let me stay at her place. Her place is among a bunch of housing complexes that are probably from the Communist era or at least part of its legacy. So that was basically all I saw.

OLD TOWN

The old town had a slightly different vibe to it. It felt more quaint with the medieval buildings, the cafes lining the square, and fun statues. 

As we wandered around and occasionally ending up where we started (due to poor cellphone service and general nature of wandering), we decided to enter a pastry shop, as recommended by Caroline's mom.

PASTELERIA

Kremes - custard base, topped with whipped cream, then a thin layer of puff pastry, and finished with a chocolate top. great variety of textures, with the sturdiness of the custard, softness of the cream, bite of the pastry and chocolate

BRATISLAVA CASTLE

There were also nice lawns and pretty gardens. They were rather enjoyable since it wasn't too hot (high in the eighties), but it was pretty windy at times.

Since the castle is on top of a hill, there are also nice views of the city. We could see some small homes, large gray buildings, and new constructions going up.

HRADNA HVIEZDA

We had lunch at one of the castle restaurants. I just went with some chicken noodle soup. The broth was flavorful and the noodles were thin and smooth. The sweet carrots balanced the salty broth well.

AFTERNOON - VIENNA

CITY CEMETERY

Home to the graves of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Strauss, Schoenberg. Interesting to see the variety of tombstones.

Beethoven, simple but grand

Strauss, very ornate

Schoenberg, minimalist

As we traveled through the city (mostly via tram), we passed by SO MANY palaces, many established by the Hapsburgs, who ruled Austria for over 600 years. What astounded me was how monumental architecture was present in many parts of the city, not just the typical one.

One of many monumental buildings

NASCHMARKT

A very long street filled with shops and restaurants. The spice shops had pretty large inventories, with several types of curry powders, nuts, and teas. Several of the cheese shops also had these round pastries. There were ones with walnuts or poppy seeds and others with fruit fillings. I settled on sour cherry, which was really farmer's cheese and sour cherry. The filling was well balanced, not too sweet or sour, though it was a bit cold for the cloudy and relatively chilly day. The crust wasn't particularly flaky or anything - mainly there for structure.

The pastry worked up our appetite, so we headed to dinner.

CAFE CENTRAL

With a classy interior and live piano music in the evening, as well as a rich history, this place is a popular spot. While waited in line, there were numerous 19th-century-esque horse drawn carriages passing by.

While waited for our food, the pianist improvised on melodies, such as a Brahms lullaby and Hungarian dance. At some point in the evening, he also performed some Strauss waltzes, which were more recognizable to the general ear.

• Wiener Schnitzel served with parsley potatoes, cranberry sauce, lemon wedge - very crispy on outside (breadcrumbed) and very tender on the inside. Not that I had too many, but this was the best schnitzel I've had. My only critique is that it was perhaps a little too crispy on the outside, such that it was reminiscent of fast food chicken nuggets.
• Tafelspitz - boiled beef in broth with gnocchi, spinach, carrot strips, horseradish with shaved apples. Broth was great - in addition to typical celery, carrots, and onion, there was probably some barley which reminded me of my childhood soups. Beef was tender, mostly lean with a gelatinous strip. Horseradish apples were pretty strong (on their own) and tasted more horseradish than apples.
• Himbeer Mohn Torte - poppy seed cake, yogurt cream, raspberry gelee. yogurt cream on its own relatively flavorless and raspberry gelee was pretty acidic, but they balanced each other out and cake was harmonious as a whole. the poppy seed cake tasted less like poppy and more like chocolate when eaten together with the other elements of the cake, which was cool.

Pastry case

The cake we selected

I was surprised that tips are compulsory in Austria, considering this is Austria. But it is still less than the US - 5 to 15 percent.

We passed by more monuments and landmarks are our way back to Bratislava.

St. Stephen's Cathedral - for some reason there's a lit up yellow ladder to the top

It was cold.

DAY 2

SCHOBRUNN PALACE

We walked around the palace grounds and the surrounding gardens.

And went then spent some time in the maze area. There were typical mazes as well as play areas, There were bells that you could jump on to make sound, as well as a confusing set of mirrors, both of which Clara and I had encountered in the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Being 3x heavier makes it 3x harder to climb poles than I remembered

ILONA STURBEL

Opened by Hungarian immigrants, known for their goulash

Pork goulash with dumplings (Schweinsgulasch)

Beef goulash with tarhonya (Rindsgulasch) - warm and comforting. could taste carrots, celery, onion, cinnamon. probably bay leaf too. tarhonya were like couscous (essentially tiny pasta balls), some of which was made of rye

Pancakes "Ilona" - filled with cheese and apricot jam, topped with chocolate. not as sweet as I anticipated. jam is mostly acidic, balanced out by creamy cheese and chocolate. chocolate tastes like it has chestnuts mixed in? definitely more than just chocolate flavor. pancakes resembled crepes (unleavened) except thicker, like what I had at home. very enjoyable to watch Clara savor this.

BEETHOVEN MUSEUM PASQUALATIHAUS

Where Beethoven lived for a bit. Contains some of the furniture from his Helgenstadt house, information about pieces he wrote here, and his patrons.

Lots about Leonore/Fidelio

HIS music stand

Listening to his music here

HAUS DER MUSIK

Interactive exhibits, info about the lives of Viennese composers, cool quotes about music

My favorite part was where you rolled a virtual dice, which allowed you to compose a four-part waltz. This was an idea that interested Mozart. A close second was seeing how different animals (including babies in the womb) might perceive music. I've decided I don't want to be a carp.

The info and the quotes would have been cool to read if I had a longer attention span. Also the piano that was supposedly in the courtyard available for playing was not there. Which was the main reason I cam here whoops. Overall better suited for a younger audience (due to interactive exhibits) or people who are more likely to learn something new from exhibits like "Physics of Sound" or Beethoven's life.

Looked like blueberries, did not taste like them.

More acidic and tannic.

CAFE PRUCKEL

This is a more low-key and cash-only cafe in comparison to Cafe Central the night before. There was an upright piano, but no one playing it. The place wasn't as bustling and locals were reading newspapers/magazines.

Beef consomme with liver dumplings (leberknodel suppe) - liver mixed into bread ball along with some herbs. texture is like Trentino canderli or matzo balls

Zucchini strudel - reminds me of kugel (slightly custardy). more like a cake of eggs, flour, and zucchini

Veal escalope (Kalbswiener) - I was expecting something like saltimbocca because that was the result I got when I searched on Google, but I should have known better. Basically fried veal, outside is flour coating rather than breadcrumbs

Kaiserschmarnn - pieces of pancake are dense but spongey and have pieces or raisins. prune sauce was great, though not the prune flavor I typically have. Still it was sweet and sour and delicious

Milchramstrudel - by far my favorite food here. again spongey/custard-like cake that has texture of a steamed cake. sauce is also custard-based, infused with orange and fresh ginger - SO GOOD! reminded me of "Malaysian cakes" at dim sum restaurants

After dinner, we struck up a conversation with a conductor. I asked him what score he had in front of him. When he responded Beethoven 5, all three of us automatically nodded in approval - classical musicians communicating at its finest.

That's it for now!