Ok, so got back from my last trip this summer and my first one in foreign countries last night – this morning?! - at about 1 a.m. Had a lovely time, had also a hell of an exhausting one, so now it's time for a review over it all. I'll just pinpoint the main parts in which I was interested by paralleling the experiences I had in both capitals. Keep in mind that I'm being, as expected, rather subjective about it all, so when talking about the general behavior of people I'm just stating what I observed in
some people and by extrapolation I've just considered generally true for others as well. My apologies for that, but if you ask me I'm not that far away from the truth either. So without any further ado here I go.
Culture & Co From this point of view Vienna in itself is truly a piece of jewelry, tourists discovering aspects of history and culture practically right around every corner. Hofburg and Schonbrunn palaces(including the later’s park and zoo), St. Stephan’s and St. Paul’s cathedrals among many others, museums of natural sciences, archeology, science, astronomical observatory and planetarium, modern buildings in Hundertwasser Village built in a style inspired from Gaudi, the Opera … Vienna truly does have them all. Bottom line is that culture in this European capital really is at its finest and I can guarantee for this. The only thing which bothered me was the overall architecture, majestic and full of sculptures in the historical centre, yet also big, boring and utterly cold when talking about blocks of flats. Reminded me of communist/Nazi buildings, really creepy.
Budapest really isn’t different, from my point of view, from Vienna in this aspect. Again you have numerous cathedrals and churches(again a St. Stephan – St. Istvan in Hungarian – cathedral, St. Andrew, Holy Virgin Mary etc), the Parliament House, the main palace on Danube’s left bank, the Heroes Square and oh! so many more sights to visit and find about, including museums, art galleries, concerts, opera and theatre shows. The architecture isn’t as majestic and full of itself as the one in Vienne, but that only makes it more human in my opinion, more suitable for a person to actually live in it.
Cityscape, shopping & Co Vienne is a crowded city, and when I say this I’m talking about it’s massive buildings and overall pressing feeling on tourists, at least that’s my impression. Wherever you go you see only rules and signs that can easily make you go nuts, especially when people aren’t friendly either(will debate on this subject in the next section). It is nonetheless a magnificent city, but for me it’s just not suited for a long-term period of time.
Shoppping is rather expensive, seeing as the prices go up, up and away! even for the natives, and you can find a lot of famous brands which have far more expensive prices than in other capitals of the world, for example Bucharest and Budapest. You will most certainly find quality stuff, seeing as Austria is indeed a Germanic-nation state and we all know they make a point of honor out of quality, but this comes along with a rather spiced price you will hardly find anywhere else in Europe, except maybe for Monaco, Paris and other cities like that. And it’s not even the case about quality, but about the price policy large brands seem to adopt in Vienna.
About comics/anime/manga/Japan related goods… don’t expect too much. You will only find some shops in Vienna dealing with this industry and you will certainly need to know German seeing as they don’t import English translated items. You will find your answer to the question “why don’t they import them?” in the last section.
All in all I recommend visiting Vienna and enjoying shopping/museums and other attractions there only if you have the money for it. I did have money for museums and stuff – hell, I even made a sacrifice and went to the Opera -, but I sure as hell didn’t for shopping, at least not there hehe
Budapest on the other hand… for those who know think of it as a larger Bucharest. You certainly won’t find the same Germanic order and stoicism you find in Vienna, but instead crowded traffic at rush hours, a lot of pedestrians and not quite the same cold buildings, but rather nice blocks of flats with balconies, flowers and a more friendly architecture. Don’t be mistaken though, the road system is still far more advanced than what we have here in Romania, likewise the level of cleanliness and overall aspect of the city. Having actually 2 parts, Buda and Pesta, the city is well divided by the Danube in the normal inhabitable area, with shops and the likes – Pesta – and the historical part – Buda-. The view over the Danube from one of the 7 bridges or 4 islands is truly amazing, and I’d definitely recommend also seeing the city by night, it’s indeed a feast for the eyes and soul.
Shopping is made possible here by relatively decent prices, very close to those from Romania, especially for mass production goods and even for luxury brands. You will most certainly find everything you want and even more, from Emporio Armani and Cacharel to New Yorker, Salamander and Benetton.
The city has only one comics/anime/manga shop located in Rákóczi shopping center, but it has a whole lot of different genres, styles and titles of your favorite works, both in Hungarian and English. And the shop vendor is a really nice guy.
People, Interaction & Co Now comes the part which is probably the most important one, seeing as it will explain some above mentioned things. Again I’m warning everybody reading this of the inherent subjectivity.
Viennese people are Austrians, and by extrapolation a Germanic race. This comes with a hell lot of good qualities: the best of friends once you really gain their trust, people who like order above everything else, true to their word, polite and so on and so forth. But on the others side there are also negative reverses: they are extremely nationalistic, coldly polite towards strangers and most of their social time behaving like some kind of well-programmed robots.
The one thing that pissed me off to the extreme was their nationalistic streak, manifesting in their complete donkey-like behavior of not knowing, not wanting to know or simply not wanting to speak any other language except German. It was truly hell on earth for me trying to communicate with most of them, even with some bartenders and people working in the public services domain. Not only that, but some of them don’t even know what they’re selling, like the time when I went to the comics shop and started asking, very animated of course, about seinen, fantasy, SF, shounen-ai and yaoi manga, with the shop vendor looking at me like I was some sort of wild extraterrestrial beast escaped from a level one security cell in Area 51
Only then I understood from his constant German babbling that: 1. that guy had no knowledge of English whatsoever and 2. most probably he was just as clueless as to what exactly was he selling in his shop. God keep me from idiotic, xenophobic people
Point is that, if you want kind, happy people, expect them from anywhere except Germanic races like Austrians and Germans. They will only treat you efficiently and coldly polite, but not friendly. Expect, on the other hand, a job well done along with an impeccable client service.
Having reached Hungarian people … well, they certainly a whole different kind of fish soup, to put it like Romanians do. They are warm, friendly and extremely, but extremely polite, but with that kind of heart-warming politeness that can make it up for you even if they were to have wronged you with something really serious. For example they have a lot of people who prefer to use bicycles instead of cars, so usually you get pedestrians slaloming on the pavement in order to make way for them when they klaxon, whistle you or simply wait behind you to observe and let them pass. What you get in return? Not some sort of fouled mouth invective for not clearing the road sooner, nothing like that. You get a “Köszönöm!” – “Thank you!”, a smile, a head bow and/or a hand sign as thanks. And yes, from everyone, be them young or old, males or females.
I was always asking for directions, although I had the city map provided by the hotel with me and I could have find my way out of the trickiest street in the end, just as I did back in Vienna. But here in Budapest it was an absolute pleasure of mine to just ask somebody out for directions and receive them in a more-than-satisfying English and with such smiles and clearly concerned about my welfare directives that I was simply flabbergasted when comparing them to the Austrians.
So if you wanna get excellent service, but with a very large touch of kind politeness, big smiles and overall friendly attitude, Hungarians are the right people for you. No matter what politicians try to say and make us/them do, that’s not true if you ask me. They are really a very welcoming nation, that truly knows how to welcome its guests.
Personal, even more subjective review First of all traveling by buss is hell, at least for me and my mom. This was the first and last time I’ve done this. On the way to Budapest the tube for the oil bath of the car broke and so we’ve waited 3h for a spare piece to be delivered. Why didn’t the drivers checked the car properly, or why didn’t they have a spare tube? Simple answer: Romanian mentality. Add 2 more hours of waiting at the Hungarian border and you will understand why our first day of the trip was only by bus and not getting 3 or more hours of preliminary promenades in Budapest, as was planed under normal time conditions.
The second day we left Budapest foe Vienna, and in 3 hours time we were there. Due to the previous 3 lost hours the entire trip was rushed, it’s a good thing me and my mom only stayed with the group when it was convenient for us, namely in the bus during the overall tours of the cities. Once the visiting program, by foot, was starting, we would just leave the group and head every which way. Seeing as we already had an English-speaking guide with some knowledge in architecture, art, sciences & Co with us, namely me, a map of the city and money, everything went smoothly and we got to see many sights and tourist objectives the others didn’t, because they were afraid to wander off from the group. Instead, me and mom bought one-day subway tickets and started wandering the city and getting to see all the main attractions and even going shops sightseeing as I call it, since the prices were so “cheap”. Still, the fact remains that, because it was such a short trip, we had to rush everything and each day at about 12 at night we would drop dead tired in our hotel room. Especially after, on Monday, we returned from an Opera show, but damn it was totally worth it. Good thing we agreed prior to our departure that we would try and see an opera there, so we also packed some elegant clothes with us. And luckily I bought a dress especially for this before we left, otherwise I would've been left with the choices of either buying one from there(that meaning over 150 euros for one >.< ), or simply giving up on the Opera. Fortunately that weren't the cases, and I totally love that dress, must find opportunities to wear it more often.
We stayed in Vienna for 3 days, returning to Budapest on Tuesday. Here things got a really better, but also kinda complicated in a way. The program became even more rushed(if it was even possible) since on Thursday we had to head back to Romania, but at the same time I had the awesome advantage of having my mom, who had previously visited Budapest thoroughly, with me. So again we visited many places, but this time we mostly went for the shopping part. Bought myself some stuff for my wardrobe and my make-up bag and generally we ran all over the place, starting with Buda – the historical half of the city – and then having a wild time in the shopping district of Pest.
Reaching the comic/anime/manga shop I was mentioning about… all hell ensued, much to my mom’s horror since she had a bag full of stuff which she won’t let me carry. She just stood there on a chair for like half an hour while I was talking like a lunatic with the shop vendor about anime and manga, rummaging among the English manga shelves and frankly speaking not leaving one corner unchecked. The guy simply went along and in no time we were debating ideas in anime and manga, arguing which one is better, Alucard or Ichigo – yeah, he was a Bleach fan, and a rabid one I might add – while mom… well, let’s just leave my mom out of this, poor her
. I was disappointed seeing as the yaoi section had been previously almost entirely cleared due to the Hungarian anime/manga/Japan convention Sakuracon in spring and the vendor was expecting a new shipment only in about 2 weeks’ time. However I did buy the first 4 volumes of shounen-ai manga “Loveless” and an artbook, thus spending my last money on them and being really happy about it actually. And I will certainly miss the vendor dude. Man, you really made my trip that day, köszönöm szepen, en akarat visszajön nemsokára!
And finally I guess that’s all I wanted to say. I will most definitely return to Vienna only one more time in order to see everything I didn’t get the chance to during this trip(but as sure as hell not for its people,
!). Even more definitely I will return, time and time again, to Budapest. This is one city I wish to come back to until I’m old. But until then I’m planning to get a job and raise money for our next trip in Paris, which will most definitely be planned and organized entirely by me and mom – meaning making hotel reservations online, buying train tickets and making our own tours for visiting objectives -. And then will see, I still plan on going to JapanExpo in Paris if not next year then in 2 years’ time.
About NijiKon… I think I will give away what I wanted to do, seeing as I’ve heard some things concerning stuff such as restrictions over the number of items per model of commercialized works in the Artist’s Alley and others. Since I’ll also be busy with looking for a job, starting the last year of my master studies and also looking for a place to do my advertising stage of practice, I don’t think I would like to have another thing to worry on my back, but most importantly not knowing exactly how many pieces to make and then being left with them unsold or something. I was planning to do a set with the characters from the “Hellsing” manga/anime in the form of chibies, including Alucard, Integra, Seras Victoria and Walter C. Dornez. I will finish them in the end until the convention, since I’m planning to give them to the Anime-Mania site, which will probably make badges and other stuff out of them. Will talk to my friend Bebe this evening and I’ll start the other 2 characters these days, seeing as 2 are already finished. And the plan for changing my account is unchanged, I will do so in about 18 days.
So that’s kinda it. See you in my last journal next time, and sorry for making such a long one for my travel accounting
Job + New dA account
Tired
. Don't expect to find photos anytime soon on it, I'm really serious about getting better at drawing, at least for myself if not for anything else. And no, I'm so not gonna take drawing lessons and then try going to art university, too much hassle and don't wanna feel pressured into drawing and other objects I really don't give a f**k, like clay modelling or shits like that.
Happy
You can find the song here 
High
Anguish
- I thought one tiny one wouldn't hurt anyone. 'sides, I'm in a confession spree so wtf, bring it on!
