The company we used was ‘Student Agency Express’ and as described in our previous account of our trip to Prague, the one way fare was 310 CZK (about € 10.00). This was fantastic value considering that ‘Student Agency Express’ provide their passengers with free tea, coffee or hot chocolate and they hand out headphones so passengers can plug into their music channels on their seat. For the locals there was also free Czech newspaper. The train on the other hand was priced around eight or nine hundred Czech Krona, about € 35.00.
The journey therefore was a very comfortable one. Assigned seating meant that I found myself sitting next to a Romanian girl for my Prague to Brno portion of my journey. She had come to the Czech Republic to study dentistry and had stayed to work in the public health service which although less well paid, nevertheless was giving her plenty of experience. She did however work part-time for a private dentistry practice. It is worth telling this detail because she pointed out that, as a foreigner going to the Czech Republic for cheaper dental treatment, it is worth checking out the public health service before going private as the costs are likely to be 10% cheaper than any private Czech practice. We also discussed life under communism and how stupid the politicians were, the fondness in Romania for long family walks and the change in attitude of the Czech people to English speaking foreigners over the past seventeen years. With so many foreigners in Prague the Czechs are less tolerant of English speaking Westerners than they used to be she said. We did not experience this, it must be said though.
On my journey from Brno to Vienna I sat next to Mitchell, a young student from St Johns in Newfoundland in Canada who was on his first visit to Europe having spent eight weeks on a working holiday in Galway, Ireland before coming over to mainland Europe.
Kevin, my American friend from Boston accompanying me on this two city European tour, had to take the 12.30 p.m. bus to Vienna as the previous Friday afternoon, we bought the last two tickets for the Sunday scheduled trip. Since our accommodation had been booked by myself, I got to go on the 10.30 a.m. departure. Once again we would be staying with Hilton Hotels, this time it would be the Hilton Vienna in Am StadtPark. The bus drops one some distance from the city centre so we caught the Underground train to StadtPark. The dispensing machines offer various fare types and the transport system is pretty easy to follow.
The Hilton was full and we had been given a room at the corner of the building which gave us great views of the StadtPark and city. The reception phoned a few minutes after I had been in the room to ensure the room was to our liking. The beds were smaller than the ones we had in Prague but surprisingly just as comfortable. A third fold up bed was also in the room. What exactly had they in mind I wonder? Anyway by the time I had unpacked and had a cup of tea down in the lobby, Kevin had arrived. Being so tired however we decided to eat in Hilton’s S’Parks Restaurant. I chose a wild mushroom dish from their seasonal mushroom menu while Kevin went for the American beef hamburger with chips. I had an apricot desert while Kevin chose another reliable, vanilla ice cream. This was all washed down with a Pilz beer each, total cost €52.00, not bad really especially as the service was excellent.
Kevin had heard a lot about the Kaiserbrundel Sauna and since it was just a ten minute walk from the hotel across the park we figured it was the perfect place to chill out and pick up a copy of the Vienna Gay Guide and Map. Archduke Ludwig Viktor (1842-1919), known affectionately as “Luziwuzi” among his friends, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef loved men and frequently cross dressed. Luziwuzi, on one of his regular visits to the “Centralbad” indoor swimming pool, later known as the Kaiserbrundel, quite literally “touched off” a public scandal, after getting slapped in the face by an officer who was none too flattered by his advances. His brother banished him to Schloss Klessheim near Salzburg as punishment, where Luziwuzi died in 1919 after a mental breakdown. Kevin was suitably impressed with these handsome baths, now the oldest gay sauna and baths in the world.
We were both ready to hit the sack by the time the baths closed at midnight but as we were changing we got chatting to a local guy who, it turned out, is the European male belly dancing champion. He lives in Vienna but his work, he told us takes him all over Europe and beyond giving public and private performances and teaching. He volunteered to show us some of Vienna’s nightlife, or at least it’s gay pubs so since we were only going to be in Vienna two nights we decided to grab the opportunity, who said the over 40’s have no stamina?
Our first Vienna pub was Felixx and there were a half dozen couples there with a screen playing Duffy’s latest music hit. After a short drink there we moved onto Mango which was surprisingly busy, for a Sunday night. Kevin spotted a sign advertising Apple Strudel and feeling hungry ordered one only to be given a cocktail by the same name, which tasted like the real thing. Our belly dancer guide started to get very friendly with me, shall we say, and so I was glad when Kevin announced that he was ready for bed and we thanked our host and left on foot for the hotel falling into bed finally at 2.00 a.m.
The following day we arose at 10.00 a.m. just in time to avail of breakfast downstairs. The huge buffet meant one could stuff ones face to kill our appetite for lunch, which suited us perfectly as we wanted to set out for our day of swimming by the Danube at the gay area near the SteinBrucke. Last year when I travelled around Europe with Jon we went there also and were awe struck to see the opposite side of the river packed for several kilometres, we reckoned, with nude bodies of all ages and sizes. Of course the gay side of the river had its fair share of nudists and the bushes were crowded with guys cruising for sex but the, so-called straight side of the river was startling for its absence of clothed individuals. We had found our way there, almost by accident, via the Underground and rail system and a long, long walk to the same area Jon and I were last year. We had found our way last year to the spot by catching a bus there incidentally. I highly recommend the swim in the Danube, which is surprisingly clean although I didn’t take in any water just in case there were any unwanted organisms in the water.
We left the banks of the Danube separately as Kevin had booked to go to a classical concert of Strauss’s Waltzes at the Stadtpark and so left around 4.30 p.m.. I, on the other hand, left around 5.30 p.m. and got back to the hotel by around 7.30 p.m. since I was so tired I decided to stay in the room and chill out. Bt sheer chance there was a gay themed German film on RTL television and so I decided to order a room service dinner and settle down to watch it. Half an hour later, I opened my door to see a rather young but utterly gorgeous blond blue eyed lad who had arrived with my room service meal. He was accompanied by a young girl who may have been his instructor or chaperone perhaps to ensure I didn’t make a meal of the young lad himself, who knows? I tucked into my hamburger, chips and lemon tart and washed it down with a lively glass of German wine and laughed my way through the film. No sooner had the film finished than Kevin arrived back with glowing reports about the Strauss concert but I wouldn’t have missed my five minutes with my young Austrian waiter for anything!
We packed our bags on Monday evening and arranged with the hotel to provide us with a packed lunch for our departure at 5.45 a.m. on Tuesday, our departure day. The previous day we had stopped by the bus station to purchase our bus tickets that would take us to Bratislava on Tuesday morning. In the end we were in good time for our bus departure and in an hour and a half we were in Bratislava Airport. The building still looks somewhat communist in its construct and this legacy of communism was reflected in the appallingly poor quality toilet paper, which disintegrated in my hand as I used it. Yuk! My lesbian Czech friend confirmed that this is still prevalent in public buildings. Nevertheless there was a great deal of reconstruction going on, probably because the airport is owned now by Vienna Airport. Finally after we got through our security check it wasn’t long before we caught our Ryanair flight out of Bratislava on a beautiful sunny morning.
Once one of the most conservative gay venues in Europe, Vienna now has numerous big ‘Queer’ events such as The Rainbow Parade at the beginning of July, the Life Ball, one of the biggest HIV and AIDS charity events in Europe, normally early in the year, the Regenbogen Ball for those wishing to waltz the night away and the alternative Rosen Ball for those who want a more up to date affair. For more information check out: vienna.info/gay