A Sunny Weekend in Budapest

I have my camera back! I went to Budapest 2 weekends ago and left my camera there, but I have it now and am back in business! The first picture is Budapest at night (obviously!). I was staying with a friend of mine, Gabriella, who works occasionally as a tour guide in Budapest so I got a world class tour of the city, but at a comfortable pace this time. One of the places we visited was a museum the size of a small town. It is made up of buildings from all over Hungary in different architectural styles dating back several centuries. They were all transplanted to this location from various places around the country, and they even have some animals that were common at the time, including pigs with hair! Neither Gabi nor myself had ever seen one, although her mother later told us that is part of what we ate for dinner on Sunday! Her mother prepared a traditional Hungarian dinner, and I have not seen so much food in one place in a long time. Everything was great, and it was nice to get some spicier food for a change. The last picture is of Heroes' Square. There are a total of 12 statues which represent important people in the history of Hungary, including St. Stephen (born in 1000), the first King of Hungary. Only the right hand side is pictured here. Throughout the city you can see references to St. Stephen, who is symbolized by a double cross. Budapest is really a beautiful city, and like most places, you can not really take it in all at once. I need to go back there again to see some of the sights that I missed this time for sure.

Happy Easter!

I just wanted to wish all my family, friends, and everyone at St. Laurence (also considered family of course!) a very happy Easter! I was planning on going to the Jesuitenkirche this morning for mass, but I never made it. I didn't mention it last night, but I was amongst those standing for the entire 3 hour Easter Vigil Mass. In addition, I was standing outside the cathedral for about 1.5 hours prior to make sure I got a place. This seems to have irritated my back problem from last summer a little bit, and I want to make sure that it is better for tomorrow so I can begin my week with no problem. It was nice for a change though to have this option of not going to more than one Easter service. Anyway, enough of the excuses!

I made it down to the center of Vienna early yesterday because I was not sure what time the service would start. I took the opportunity to go into several churches in the area, and I had decided that if I made it to the 1st district for mass today I would go to the Jesuitenkirche. It isn't too far from Stephansdom, and is simply gorgeous inside. The pictures speak for themselves, and certainly don't come close to doing it justice. One of these days I'll learn to keep my hands steady during those long-exposure pictures, but yesterday was not the day!

Easter Vigil at Stephansdom

I figured the best place to go for the most important church service of the year would be Stephansdom, the cathedral for the diocese of Vienna. Previous pictures of Stephansdom can be found HERE and HERE. The Easter Vigil Mass was quite an experience. I do have a couple of videos that I took towards the end of the mass, but it was not really appropriate to take pictures at any other time, although some people really made fools out of themselves and had most of the church mad at them.

The service started in a Romanesque style courtyard of the church building across from the cathedral. If I had to guess, I would say it was built in the 18th century because the similarities to other 18th century buildings in Vienna. There was a fire pit about one square meter in the center and at 9PM the Cardinal came into the courtyard and started the ceremony there. He lit the Easter candle from the fire and we all processed to the cathedral. Fortunately they didn't use all of the readings, but they did use five so it was about an hour until we got to the Gloria. To my surprise, they used both the Gloria and Sanctus from the Schubert German Mass that we use at St. Laurence. Of course they used the German words though and not English! The church bells also began ringing and there was incense everywhere, but not quite as much as Larry Votto likes to use! I'm beginning to think that there must be some problem with the main organ, because they used the choir organ exclusively tonight. It's no small instrument itself, but the main organ is the largest in Austria and it would be nice to hear it. I never got a clear look at the instrumental ensemble, but there were also brass and timpani with the organ and choir. The cathedral was absolutely packed, and even the last place to stand was taken. Fortunately a few people left after the first 2 hours, so it cleared up a tiny bit. The Mass ended just before midnight, so around 3 hours and when I walked outside the church bells began to ring again in celebration of Easter.

The first video is part of one of the anthems. I apologize in advance for the quality of these videos, but I recorded them with my digital camera so a lot of the bass in particular is missing. Also, since I wanted to make sure the files were small enough to upload easily, they are only sections of the pieces. For the purposes of scale, the tallest pipe in the facade of that organ is roughly 32' tall. This organ is also at the front, right of the church in one of the aisles.



This second video is part of the organ postlude, Simon Sechter's Fuge über das österliche Alleluja.

Maundy Thursday

I've decided during Holy Week to go to a different church each day and experience the services and music as much as possible throughout the city. Tonight I went to the Pfarre Altlerchenfeld, a church not too far from me that I have written about and posted pictures of before. I took one new picture because I think it's boring to make a post here without something to look at! Overall, the music was fairly plain tonight. The musical tradition in Vienna does not include a prelude before the service, and instead of using an opening hymn during the procession, the organist typically improvises something or plays a short chorale prelude. The organ was used very minimally, and there was no choir at this mass, just a cantor. This is, of course, just a neighborhood church, although it is huge by typical American standards. The music wasn't complicated, but was very good and effective, and was certainly supported by the fine acoustics in the building. It was also interesting to hear this service in German for the first time.

Schönbrunn Part II

Inspired by my early morning walk yesterday, I decided to take a walk this afternoon on the grounds of Schönbrunn palace. There are a ton of trails on top of the hill, and out of nowhere you find beautiful views of Vienna from various angles. The weather was warm today, and there were a ton of people walking or just sitting on the park benches in the sun. Today was definitely a day to spend some time outside and enjoy one of the more quiet settings in the city. I am still in awe of the fact that this was all on the grounds of someone's "summer home." It kind of makes the 1 acre lot I had in Connecticut seem like a parking space at Walmart. Schönbrunn even has the world's oldest zoo (Tiergarten Schönbrunn), founded in 1752. I didn't go in today, but after discovering the various walking trails and paths I am probably going to make this a regular stop during good weather, so I will get there at some point. I'm a big animal lover, and they have some animals that you don't get to see at most zoos including panda bears and cheetahs. I noticed today that they are getting ready for Easter. There is apparently a huge Easter egg hunt on the grounds every year, but I think I will probably skip that chaos in favor of something else.

Schönbrunn at Sunrise

I was out for a real early morning walk today and headed to Schönbrunn palace. This was the summer residence of the Habsburg's, and is on the outskirts of Vienna. Fortunately, I arrived just as they were opening the gates to the grounds, believe it or not at 6AM. I can't quite believe it myself that I was up and out so early! The first picture is the front of the palace, but it is impossible to capture the palace from inside the gates due to the size of Schönbrunn. The second picture is the view from the back of the palace. Normally in the summer there is a fountain running, but none of the fountains around Vienna have been turned on for the spring yet. It was quite a hike, but I hiked up to the top of that hill. There is a cafe at the top, but unfortunately it was not open by the time I got there at 6:30! The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking and I could see landmarks from all over Vienna from there. The last picture is the view of the back of Schönbrunn, and you can get a perspective of just how high that hill is in proportion to the rest of the immediate area.