Highs and Lows
From the catacombs to the Ferris Wheel
It was an early morning! Thankfully, yesterday was an easy day. I spent nearly the whole day with several other students swimming in the Danube River and it was lovely to cool down and relax for a little while. Today was so much fun, even if it was anything but relaxing.
The catacombs at Stephansdom are accessible only through guided tour which, luckily, we were able to get into quickly right as we arrived. The catacombs are divided into two sections "old" and "new." The photo on the left is, shockingly, from the old part. The old section of the catacombs at Stephansdom was built over 650 years ago in the middle of the 14th century. It contains religious figures associated with Stephansdom including Duke Rudolf IV of Austria, known as Rudolf the Founder because he commissioned the Cathedral. However, it was very recently remodeled and expanded which is why it looks like it's from the mid-20th century. Because it is from the mid-20th century. To this day, religious figures are buried in the old section of the catacombs next to the internal organs of many Habsburg Emperors.
The picture on the right is from the new section of the catacombs. Don't worry though, they're not that new. This section was built in the 18th century and extend beyond the cathedral beneath Stephansplatz. These catacombs felt straight out of a movie. There were very few sarcophagi or coffins like in the old section and, instead, I just saw piles and piles of bones and skulls. A space-saving measure, stacks of skulls and bones produce an eerie feeling and thinking about each skull as an individual was a little terrifying.
This is a mass grave for plague victims. Rather than giving them individual burials, those dying in the plague outbreak of 1738 were thrown in here. Because of this, nearly 11,000 people are buried in the new section of the Stephansdom catacombs. It was very cool to walk through these old tunnels filled with remains from a very historically significant event, but being around that many dead bodies did make me a little bit uncomfortable. Speaking of dead, that's what my legs were after our next stop.
This is the view from the top of the South Tower at Stephansdom. A beautiful reward for a very strenuous journey. The South Tower was built between 1368 and 1433 and serves as a dominant feature of the Viennese skyline. During both the first Siege of Vienna in 1529 and the Turkish siege of 1683, the South Tower at Stephansdom was the main lookout point and command post for the walled city that now makes up the 1st district. To get up there, we had to climb 343 uneven, winding, very claustrophobic stairs. While walking up the stairs, we were all extremely hot and tired. I'm going to be honest, I was starting to wonder if this was going to be worth it. But, when we finally reached the top, I was blown away by the majesty of Vienna. I've been higher up and in bigger cities but, to see such an old city from such an incredible viewpoint was fascinating. I stayed up there for a long time, silently observing the bustling streets from the same position people have looked out from for hundreds of years.
The South Tower once held a massive bell which took 16 people 15 minutes to pull all the way back so it could ring. Since it was so heavy, one of the Cathedral's architects warned in 1878 that the bell should be rung only by swinging its clapper rather than the whole thing as to avoid destroying the structural integrity of the tower. In 1937, during a fire caused by wartime rioting at Stephansplatz, the bell's wooden cradle burned and it crashed to the floor of the Tower. From the shards of the bell, as well as captured Turkish cannon from the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, a new bell was formed and it has hung in the North Tower since 1957.
The North Tower was a lot easier to climb. Mostly because we didn't have to climb it thanks to the elevator. The North Tower was originally meant to be a mirror of the South Tower but the design was too ambitious and construction halted in 1511 when the era of Gothic cathedrals was reaching its end. In 1578, a cap was put on the top of the tower and it officially stands at about half the height of its Southern twin.
After leaving Stephansdom we noticed a nearby Billa, a grocery store chain here in Austria, that looked significantly bigger and nicer than the Billas we are used to. Naturally, wehad to go inside and check it out and it was a beautiful sight to see. This Billa had 4 floors, aisles upon aisles full of fresh produce, fish, meats, snacks from all across Europe, and a full wine bar. After just one trip to what we've dubbed "Fancy Billa," I know this will become a staple for us here and this definitely won't be my last visit. Speaking of places I will definitely be returning to, after feasting on food from the Fancy Billa, I went with a couple other students to the Prater.
The Prater is a massive public park in Vienna which contains an amusement park called Wurstelprater. Wurstelprater is the second oldest amusement park in the world after Dyrehavsbakken in Copenhagen having been open since the Prater as a whole was opened to the public in 1766. Its most recognizable icon is the Wiener Riesenrad, a 212 foot tall Ferris Wheel that has become a symbol of not just the Prater but the city of Vienna as a whole. Built in 1897, the Wiener Risenrad was the tallest extant Ferris Wheel in the world for much of the 20th century. Riding it was, admittedly, expensive, but absolutely worth it for me. I'm a huge nerd about theme parks and getting to experience one this iconic and historic was a highlight of the trip for me.
However, the Wiener Riesenrad is not the only ride I went on today. Part of the reason I love theme parks is because of the attention to detail in ensuring that an environment is perfectly themed. Everything on a themed attraction has to be intentionally designed to fit in the story of the ride. Knowing myself, I had to find the most heavily themed attraction at the Prater and ride it. And boy did I.
This is Blue Planet: Urgewalt der Giganten - Der Jurassic Park. With a title that clunky and a clearly poorly maintained dinosaur animatronic outside, I knew this would be the perfect level of themed and kitschy for me to get the experience I was looking for. The friends who came with me were less enthused and didn't super understand why I was excited to do something I was pretty sure was going to be bad but the campy badness of it was the point for me. I'm so glad I got to do this and I was laughing through this entire experience from the weird German goblin man animatronic yelling at me to the "terrifying" elevator ride past a dinosaur head. I was also completely alone in this entire building meaning I was frequently isolated in rooms definitely built for crowds, making the whole thing feel a lot more personal. While 6 euros sounded like a lot going in, this was 100% worth it and I would do it again.
Once we were done at the Prater, a large group of us met at a karaoke bar where we all heard several Austrians singing English and German songs for a very long time before it was finally our turn to take over the stage. My friend Viv introduced Chappell Roan to Austria (they did not enjoy it), my friends Anna and Amelia sang Sweet Home Alabama (they didn't like that one either), I sang Margaritaville with my friend McKenna (they were slightly more into that), and then we all came together to sing Careless Whisper (they hated this one so much that a woman in the front started filming us and did not ask us if we wanted the recording). Even if our Viennese audience didn't enjoy it, I know I certainly did!
