City Snapshots: Ljubljana

And so we reached our final stop, Ljubljana. Ljubljana is about as foreign as Europe can get (barring perhaps the Baltic and Balkan countries) for a Singaporean; my friend, enquiring after my travel progress on Facebook, innocently asked, “Have you reached that Ljanaljub place yet?” I myself had no idea how to pronounce the city’s name until just before setting off on this trip – to clarify, it’s ‘Leeyoo-blee-ya-na’.

What a lovely city it is though, tongue-twisting Slovene regardless. The city’s compact Old Town, dominated by the heights of the Castle and its hill, curls along the banks of the scenic Ljubljanica river. Elegant stone bridges cross it, crowded with photo-taking daytrippers and locals heading for their favourite haunt nearby. The streets are a warren of cobblestone paths; short, quaint buildings peer at the passers-by through wide-open windows. The spires of churches painted in bright colours break the skyline. Cafés are in abundance, and in the glorious weather look supremely enticing. Honestly, the café/restaurant/pub culture along the river and surrounding streets is probably reason enough to visit. All in all, it was a very fruitful day we spent in the city – after the obligatory sightseeing, the highlight was of course tea by the river, and catching the Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich in a pub after that – and a satisfying end to our trip.

The Philharmonic building with the Castle in the background

The Ljubljanica

The Ljubljanica in the other direction, looking up to the surprisingly-coloured Franciscan Church of the Annunciation

Alfresco drinking and eating by the river

Somewhere by the river again – Novi trg, I think

A typical side street, this one near the City Hall (the building with the spire)

The grad, or castle

And to end… a view of the city, with the Julian Alps behind (they look like the background in a painting, don’t they!)

City Snapshots: Zagreb

Zagreb. I honestly had no image in my mind prior to visiting the city, apart from some vague impression that it would be run-down and slightly dangerous – I think it was the association with the Balkans playing up there. Needless to say, after our one day in the city I realised I had completely misrepresented the place, even if only to myself.

Zagreb falls neatly into the Lower and Upper Towns – Donji Grad and Gornji Grad or Medveščak in Croatian. The Lower Town is the more modern half of the city, complete with crowded streets and squares, green spaces filled with sun-soakers and couples making out (not joking!), and the constant coming and going of distinctive bright blue trams. The population was overwhelmingly young, and most people were easily yet fashionably dressed. I think that really gave the place the buzz of a forward-looking, dynamic capital.

Ilica, the main (shopping) street in the Lower Town

Trg bana Jelačića, Zagreb’s main city square, named after an important figure in Croatia’s history, Josip Jelačić, who fought for independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Zrinjevac, the last of a series of three leafy squares leading from the train station to the city centre

Tomislav trg and the main train station (Glavni Kolodvor) behind

Zagreb’s main tourist attractions lie on the hills of the Upper Town. More specifically, the nucleus of the Upper Town consists of what used to be two separate settlements, Kaptol and Gradec.

Kaptol is the cathedral district, and is hence dominated by the imposing presence of Zagreb Cathedral.

The Cathedral

The quiet main street of Kaptol

Part of Dolac, the city’s daily fresh produce market

And leaving Kaptol behind…

Kaptol and Gradec used to be separated by the Medveščak creek, but this was covered over in 1898. Now it has become the lovely Tkalčićeva street, the centre of Zagreb’s café culture. It was great how this street wasn’t a tourist trap but a magnet for locals having a drink while sitting out in the sun and people-watching.

Tkalčićeva

Gradec, the oldest of Zagreb’s original settlements, is very quietly atmospheric. My favourite part of the city.

Looking back down while on the way up into Gradec

The Kamenita vrata, originally one of Gradec’s stone gates but now converted into a sort of shrine where locals offer thanks and prayers (just out of view on the left are a few rows of pews!)

View of the Gornji Grad

Most original museum I’ve seen in a long time – mundane objects are the displays, but are accompanied by true stories of breakups and endings that are variously funny and moving

And to end off… the satisfying sight of St Mark’s Church 

City Snapshots: Budapest

I had heard so many good things about Budapest before going there, and so I did wonder if it could live up to the expectation. But after going there, I’ve joined the chorus of people who can’t stop saying how great it is.

Budapest was most definitely my favourite city out of the five we visited on this trip. Quite simply, it had everything: amazing architecture, a gorgeous riverfront, a historic settlement on a hill, its bustling modern counterpart on the other side of the river, elegant public spaces, great food (and cheap!), buzzing nightlife, the comforting sprawl of a chaotic, bustling city together with the quiet charm of a self-contained town… it managed to feel both elevated out of the ordinary and extremely real at the same time. How not to love it?

I’ll stop talking now. Hopefully my pictures managed to capture a bit of how great it was… but to find out how it really feels like, you’ll have to go visit yourself!

St Stephen’s Basilica (Szent István-bazilika), dedicated to Hungary’s first king (c. 975-1038), whose mummified fist remains on display in a chapel

The Basilica’s interior – reminded me of St Peter’s in the Vatican

A gentle sunset by Szabadság híd (Liberty Bridge)

The Dohány Street Synagogue, centre of Jewish religious life in Budapest

The synagogue’s interior

Inside the Great Market Hall (Nagycsarnok)

A side street by the Opera, off chi-chi World Heritage Site Andrássy Avenue

The Hungarian Parliament Building (Országház), by far the most ornate Parliament building I have ever seen

Not quite sure if this is the chamber for the Lower or Upper House (the latter no longer exists), but the interior is just… seriously?!

The Széchenyi Baths, a legacy from the Ottomans. Great, great fun

Crossing the Lánchíd, or Chain Bridge, the most famous of Budapest’s bridges

Buda Castle

Fisherman’s Bastion (Halászbástya) and the Mátyás (Matthias) Church behind

A view of Pest from Castle Hill: The Danube, Chain Bridge and St Stephen’s

View of Parliament (the grander side obviously faces the river!) from Fisherman’s Bastion

Fisherman’s Bastion and the Mátyás Church again, at night

Parliament by night. Sublime

The imposing Citadella on Gellért Hill

The view from the top of Gellért Hill was worth the climb up. The Danube coursing through the city… I could have looked at this for hours

And one last view of Budapest.

City Snapshots: Bratislava

Vienna and Bratislava, 64 kilometres apart, are apparently among the two closest capitals in the world. So although Bratislava wasn’t originally on my friend’s itinerary I insisted on going there – it was a case of “we’re so close to it, we might as well”. And I’m glad we did.

Our first impression of the city was not too great, to be honest. We got off the train from Vienna at Petržalka station, which is at the edge of the sprawling housing project of the same name. As we barrelled through the suburb on a not-so-modern bus, there was little we saw that seemed to mark the city as a tourist destination: just spruced-up Soviet-era housing blocks.

Even after reaching the city centre and checking into our hostel, which was halfway up the hill to the Castle, we were still slightly dubious. My friend’s Slovak friend had apparently told him, “If you’re worried about the world ending in 2012, go to Slovakia; it’s 25 years behind everywhere else.” Judging from the (admittedly) little we had seen so far, we were quite inclined to believe that. Everything felt faded, somehow, especially with the grey weather. It didn’t help either that the city felt rather deserted – perhaps because it was a Monday?

The Castle, which is wholly a reconstruction. The bemusing thing was even though the grounds were open, the Castle was not – in fact, we could look through some of the windows into rooms that were completely empty i.e. not yet refurbished!

View from the Castle over the Danube, the UFO-like Nový Most bridge, and Petržalka

But things began looking up as we headed into the Old Town. The Old Town is very small, and you can cross it in around 5 minutes if you walk quickly. But it has its own charm, which the faded feeling actually contributes to. Pastel-coloured buildings lean close to one another, some visibly aged, and lead into wide café-lined streets or spacious squares marked by fountains or bordered by trees. It seemed a slow, relaxed place, conducive for meditative drinks in a café: I’d recommend Schokocafe Maximilian by the main square for a cup of hot chocolate, while Shtoor, along Panská, is a old-school yet mod place to have a sandwich and some coffee. Anyway, yes, a city in which to nurse a cup of tea and muse about, say, time, or age. (Perhaps that’s why the city seemed popular with daytrippers of the more elderly variety…) In fact in a way the centre, particularly its quieter areas, seemed timeless, suspended in time.

Grassalkovich Palace, the residence of the Slovak president

Looking up to the Castle from the Old Town

The very pleasant Michalská and Michael’s Gate with its distinctive tower

Mirbach Palace on the left. I’m not sure how my camera managed to suddenly create this film/sepia effect – though it’s not exactly how the scene looked like, it’s exactly how it felt like. Do you get what I mean by the timeless feeling?

Hlavné námestie, or the main square, surrounded by the town hall complex

The Slovak National Theatre in Hviezdoslavovo námestie

The courtyard of the Primate’s Palace

St Martin’s Church – the steeple is apparently topped by a gold replica of the Hungarian crown

The main square at night

That about sums Bratislava up for me. I don’t suppose I could have stayed there for more than a day actively sightseeing, but it would have been nice to spend a couple of days in its many cafés just soaking up the mood of the city, how it can be both 25 years behind yet at the same time, timeless.

City Snapshots: Vienna

I waited a grand total of one day after finishing my exam, which marked the end of my second year of university, before going off on yet another trip – probably the last for some time, as my bank account is now not too happy and I will be returning to Singapore for the summer holidays pretty soon in any case. Over 10 days, a friend and I stopped by five Central/Eastern/Southern European capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Zagreb and Ljubljana. I went into this not really knowing what to expect (I mean, I didn’t even know how to pronounce ‘Ljubljana’) but came out of it very, very pleasantly surprised and impressed by the distinctive charm each city possessed.

Vienna, or Wien (say ‘Veen’), as the locals call it, was the westernmost of the capitals we visited and hence had the most classical, Continental aura to it. Of course, having been the seat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a devoutly Catholic capital, and with its reputation as a major city for culture, art and innovation, the city has more than its fair share of monumental, graceful buildings and sweeping, tree-lined boulevards.

The very centre of Vienna’s Innere Stadt, or Old Town, is naturally a church: the enormous Stephansdom.

The church (or rather cathedral), at 136 metres at its highest point, is so ridiculously large I couldn’t get a proper full shot of it even when standing at the edge of Stephansplatz, the square surrounding it

A suitably high-ceilinged, ornate interior to match the grandeur of the exterior. I don’t know why, but the windows of the cathedral were covered in large coloured strips of cellophane, hence the rather psychedelic feeling

The distinctive tiles on the cathedral’s roof, along with a view of the city (a long slog up 343 steps to get this view…)

One of the cathedral’s towers. You can tell how high up the fire of 1945 went

After looking at Stephansdom, I was naturally impressed and a little awestruck. But the grandeur and elegance didn’t stop there – more like it was just the beginning, as it radiated out through the old city centre with its grid of chic pedestrianised streets flanked by expensive stores and enticing cafés.

In a shopping street just off Stephansplatz

In Vienna all these beautiful buildings suddenly materialise a distance in front of you at the end of pleasant streets. I must say it totally enhances the effect… they must have been very sly urban planners

The Habsburgs, architects of Vienna’s greatness in both metaphorical and literal senses, built the Hofburg (in the picture above) as their imperial apartments. The Hofburg marks the start of the Ring Road, a series of wide boulevards that wrap round the Innere Stadt in a semicircle. Vienna’s most famous buildings are clustered along the Ring Road, making it a great walk.

Walking through the Hofburg…

The Neue Burg (New Castle), which now houses museums

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Art), which is mirrored across the green space of Maria-Theresien-Platz by the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum)

A sample of the Museum’s ornate interior. This is even before you see the paintings: works from the Flemish, French and Italian Masters, among others

The Secession, an exhibition space for a group of Viennese artists who broke free from the establishment

The Parliament building

The Staatsoper, or State Opera House

The interior of the Opera

It was an experience to watch an opera at the Wiener Staatsoper, if only to soak in the surroundings and to pretend at being cultured. With standing tickets going at only €4, it wouldn’t really have mattered even if the opera was horrible. It wasn’t, but I think opera as an art form is not for me. We watched Arabella, and all I could think of through most of the performance was how long people took to say (or rather sing) things! I suppose the standing didn’t really help – standing for about half an hour to get tickets, then for another hour to enter the opera, then throughout the entire duration of the performance, for three hours.

Vienna is perhaps the original home of Kaffeehauskultur, literally ‘coffeehouse culture’. And really, there is nothing much that can beat sitting in a pretty café in one of Vienna’s old buildings, having a coffee and slice of cake, while pondering life, debating it with others or just watching people go by. I don’t have pictures unfortunately – I was too intent on taking tea to care – but I can thoroughly recommend Demel, Café Hawelka and Café Sacher. The first for its ornate, chi-chi interior, plush chairs and staff dressed in traditional black frocks with white frilly aprons; the second for a much more rustic, wood-panelled space, late opening hours and its excellent house speciality (little blocks of aromatic bread with a jam filling); the last for the certified Original Sacher Torte.

The Sacher Torte at Café Sacher. Okay, so it wasn’t mindblowingly fantastic, but it is the Original Sacher Torte (decided by a judge after a lawsuit, no less!)

Beyond Central Vienna’s attractions and cafés, there are a couple of other attractions that are worth a visit. Schönbrunn Palace was one of the Habsburgs’ imperial residences, and although its exterior is slightly underwhelming especially if you are coming fresh from the Ring Road, the interior is worth a look-see to understand the Habsburgs a bit more. Praterstern, on the other side of town, is a sprawling amusement park that’s free to enter (you only pay for rides).

Schönbrunn

View of the palace from the top of the 60-metre hill behind it

The Gloriette, a picturesque viewing terrace affording good views at the top of the hill

Praterstern

I guess that’s about it for now. Next post, Bratislava!