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| Page Views: 1,821 Last Visit to Vienna: September, 2001 | Vienna Page - my gate to Western Europe by matcrazy1 - last update: Jan 9, 2003 |
MY LOOOOOOONGEST STORY ON VT - part 1 Oh, my God I was so many times in Vienna (maybe 10 or more) and have almost no pics. But I still love this city.
HERE IS MY LOOOOOOONGEST STORY ON VT (so take a cup of tea before reading):
It was the first city I visited on the other (western) side of Iron Curtain when I was 11. I remember this as an unforgettable and wonderful dream of freedom and prosperity which stayed with me for many years after that. Thank you Vienna for that!
I was with my parents and my 19 yo brother on this trip from Cracow (Poland) to Istanbul (Turkey) via former Soviet Union (now Ukraine), former Czechoslovakia, Austria, former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
This day early on the morning I was in charming but very, very poor and dangerous that time Lvov (Ukraine). In the evening the same day I saw something quite different, I saw PARADISE - Vienna city. For me, as an 11 year old boy, it was like a fantastic dream.
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I remember the awful border crossing between two worlds (Czechoslovakia and Austria)in Bratislava. There were rude, lazy Czechoslovakian custom officers, fully armed soldiers, dogs, cameras everywhere, to get out of a car was strictly forbidden (it was a problem because we were waiting a few hours and I wanted to go to toilet). I remember FEAR, Czechoslovakian police checkpoint a few kilometres before the border, anti-tank barriers to the horizon, watch-towers with soldiers with guns in their hands - like in the concentration camp. I wanted to take a photo but my father forbade me, said "I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a prison". After a few hours of waiting and detailed control of passports, car and luggage we were given the green light. But it isn't finished yet, about 50 m after the checkpoint we were stopped again in front of a very big iron barrier - the soldier, after calling somewhere pressed the green key and the barrier slowly started to open.
My first thought was - is it finished or not yet? I saw the first Austrian sign, then a heavily lit checkpoint with nobody out. My father smiled and stopped a car. What happened? In a few moments a cute Austrian customs officer went out, said "guten tag' with a smile, looked at our 4 passports and at us (next frightened family, maybe he thought) and said "wilkommen in Osterreich, gute reise". We stopped and waited for control but he waved us out. Impossible! Where is the control? I wanted to have a stamp in my passport that I really was in Austria.
We stopped at the park to change a few dollars into shillings (remember - in that time average monthly salary in Poland was about 10-15 US dollars). I went to toilet - extremely clean, heavy lit up, I started to pis(s) in urinal but my urine didn't flow , what could I do, when I walked away I heard the water flushing the urinal - oh my God, they have camera even in normal toilet on the border crossing checkpoint!
The next impressions were much more unforgettable for me: not bumpy and perfectly sign posted roads, new and always clean cars, many cars, sport cars, even cabriolets (it was fun with the cars of that time) and so much light in Vienna, so many colours, smiling people! I didn't know it! I thought I'm in a PARADISE!!! Since that time I wondered many times why was I born on the bad side of the Iron Curtain? Who created this awful barrier? Why??? |
The next day my parents wanted to be alone celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary . We stayed at the camp in Breitenfurterstrasse (South Vienna). They gave my brother (19yr old) $3 (yes: three), our passports and allowed us to visit Vienna without them.
"Remember, be back before 9pm, be extremely careful" they said. We were very happy about it, very excited. We bought 2 bus tickets (almost $1.50 and went to the center.
Unfortunatelly I was too young for my brother. He wanted to drink beer in a bar, smoke a Marlboro cigarette (stricly forbidden by our parents), listen to the music and meet sb (I think pretty girl), I dreamed of going to the amusement park near Danube River. Fortunately we had extra 20 dollars from our grandmother.
Two hours we were walking Mariahilfestrasse, Konigstrasse and other streets and admired everything - colorful commercials, window shopping, cars, people and their clothes. We visited a few shops with cameras (my brother's hobby). Then my brother went into every bar and always said "it's hopelessly expensive". I said of my dream (the amusement park) but he said "Never, you can go to the amusement park in Cracow not in Vienna" and we started to quarrel. Finally (as always) we've done what my brother wanted. We visited tens of bars looking for the cheaper with good music and good friends,and we found one, but the barman said I'm too young to sit down here. My brother explained and was OK. I was drinking delicious orange juices and reviewing car newspapers (fascinating, not available in my country this time), my brother drank beer and was talking with two Austrian boys of his age. He was so fascinated with his new friends (he knew the German language) and I was so fascinated with my cars that 9pm passed. The barman (young looking boy) gave me all car newspapers - it was really great for me! My brother said that he wants to go to the disco tomorrow with his new friends and others and suddenly looked at his watch - oh, my god it's 9.15 pm. He exchanged addresses with the Austrian boys, said good bye, paid the bill and we went out! Where is our bus? Oh my God, we spent almost all our money, there is only 7 Shillings, how to come back? The ticket is bought at the entry to the bus - it's impossible to go without paying a ticket, on foot it's 1.5 to 2 hours. What could we do? WHAT WILL THE PARENTS SAY? I have never seen my brother so nervous!
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We came back to the bar and told the barman about our big problem. He looked at the map, found our camp and said: "sit down and wait 5 minutes." He gave us juice and rang somewhere. After few minutes another boy came in, said he is brother of the barman and it'll be pleasure for him to drive his car to our camp now. Oh, you were great at that moment, my friend! And he took us to his car - this was car was my dream car for many years, Toyota Celica, I thought he must be very rich and happy to drive such a fantastic car. We said thank you to him many times.
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It was past 10pm when we arrived. What to say to our parents? My brother said we must say that it was big accident and we stayed 1 hour in a traffic jam. We saw our tent and noticed everybody was out, the tent was closed! What happenned? There was a small piece of paper on the tent "Dear children! We are in the restaurant 100m left from the entry to the camp. Romek (name of my brother) put Maciej (my name) to bed and come to us to talk about your impressions on Vienna".
What a happy day! My brother immediately went to the restaurant and told our parents that we came back at 9pm, I didn't want to sleep and he had to stay with me.
That was my first independent (almost) travel experience. |
MY CONCLUSIONS 1. For all people: never, never persecute other nationalites because of its contry poor economy; try to help him like these boys in Vienna helped me that time; it was probably almost nothing for them but great for me!
2. For parents: watch your children in foreign countries (even if they seems to be adult and know languages), if they go without you give them theirs passports, maps, your address, enough money (OK - how much $$$ is enough?), and the most important buy him cell phone!
3. For politicians: never build walls between countries, blocks and nationalities. Making decisions broad your time perspective: don't think 2-3 years in advance, think 50 years in advance.
The best thing in my life is the Iron Curtain collapse -I'm here thanks this collapse, I can travel thanks this, I can enjoy my life thanks this, I regained hope thanks it!
THANK YOU ALL THE PEOPLE WHO HELPED TOO COLLAPSE THE IRON CURTAIN ACROSS THE MIDDLE EUROPE!!!
At the end I repeat once more: VIENNA CITIZENS ARE GREAT!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
THANK YOU ROSE (roze hill from Christchurch in New Zealand) for your great corrections of my poor English in the above text.
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| Pros: | "Very friendly people, architecture, nightlife (music), food" | | Cons: | "Parking a car in downtown maybe difficult/expensive sometimes" | | In A Nutshell: | "My lovely gate to Western Europe" |
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 Comments for matcrazy1 about Vienna | | | | |
yumyum Thu Feb 22, 2007 19:41 UTC
Thank you for sharing your childhood memories! I was very impressed by it. | victorwkf Sun Sep 10, 2006 15:15 UTC
Hi Matt, you really do have lots of memories about vienna! Im thinking of visiting this wonderful city next year and hopefully it will come true :) | Mariajoy Wed Aug 3, 2005 16:16 UTC
What a wonderful story Mat, I will remember it when I visit this lovely city. | JLBG Sun Jun 26, 2005 07:02 UTC
I will have to comeback to make a pilgrinage at Matt's gate...! |
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