Traveling to Vienna
Related with Traveling to Bratislava, Slovak Republic, posted in previous post, we also went to the city of Vienna, Austria. We went there from Bratislava by using the same bus like we went from Vienna Airport to Bratislava, which was using Slovakline bus. The bus to Vienna started from main bus terminal of Bratislava at Mlynske Nivy with schedule run every hour. The bus cost 7.7 EUR for trip to Vienna. Either to Vienna Airport or Vienna City (Sudtiroler Plazt bus terminal) had the same cost with amount 7.7 EUR. The trip from Mlynske Nivy to Vienna Airport took time approximately one hour while trip to Sudtiroler Plazt, Vienna City, took time one and a half hours. The route from Bratislava to Vienna or otherwise were always via Vienna Airport, therefore there were actually only 30 minutes from Vienna Airport into the City of Vienna. For the information, there were no time different between Bratislava and Vienna. Both time were 5 hours behind Indonesian Time.
After we arrived at Sudtiroler Plazt bus terminal in Vienna City, then we went to CAT station. CAT is stand for City Airport Train, which is a modern underground train just like MRT train in Singapore. The nearest CAT station from Sudtiroler Plazt bus terminal is located only few meters from the bus terminal. In that station, we bought 24 hours CAT ticket for 5.7 EUR. That 24 hours ticket was valid for using CAT to every destination of CAT station at Vienna in whole day. CAT ticketing system was more modern and was easier if we compared it with bus ticketing system in Bratislava. In Bratislava, bus ticketing system did not use touch screen machine but used old button system. As comparation, if we need more time to understand how to buy the ticket in Bratislava bus ticketing system, we just need few seconds to understand how to buy CAT ticket just by reading the information in the touch screen information. Then after got the ticket and asked some another tourist for several information regarding CAT and Vienna, we went from Sudtiroler Plazt to Stephans Plazt by using CAT. The trip from Sudtiroler Plazt to Stephans Plazt only took few minutes. At Stephans Plazt we found many old high architecture buildings just like the building in old town, Bratislava. The difference was if in old town bratislava we only found several old building which well treated, in Vienna almost all building were old building but well organized and well treated. One of them was Stephansdom or St. Stephen’s Cathedral. That cathedral had multi-colored tile roof and become one of Vienna city most recognizable symbols. At that time, there where so many tourist in there. Near from Stephansdom, there were many horses with the horse cart and we could ride that horse cart for sightseeing around Stephansdom which cost several Euros. In another side of that building, we could also find Dommuseum but at that time the museum was closed.
From Stephansdom, we walked in the middle of many tourists into Staatsoper. Staatsoper was place for state opera and the origin of the Vienna Opera, the oldest theatrical institution with an unbroken record of performing. Around Staatsoper building, we would find the officers using the traditional Vienna clothes who sell the opera ticket. At that moment, we decided not to see the opera and then we continued our walking to Albertina, an art museum which was place for the largest and most valuable graphical collections in the world. After that, we went to some another places like Nationalbibliothek, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Naturhistorisches museum, Sezession, and another places. Sometime, we used CAT for trip from one place to another place if the destination was quite far but sometime we just walked to went there. Also, sometime we got rest for a while in Mc D restaurant and order some Chicken nugget with fried fries and coca cola for 5.7 EUR. After that, we went shopping some chocolate and some handicrafts in the side of way around Stephansdom area and then went back via CAT into Sudtiroler Plazt. At that time, rain was falling and the weather become cold enough when we went back to Sudtiroler Plazt. At Sudtiroler Plazt we bought Slovakline ticket for destination went back to Bratislava, Mlynske Nivy bus station. We took sit in front row near the driver. At the moment after saw my friend, the bus driver predicted that we came from India by said “India?”, then we told him that we are Indonesian and he quickly said “Oh, Jakarta?” then we said “Yes, Jakarta”. Hm.., it’s glad to know that Indonesia also known by others. 
