Shonbrunn is the royal residence of the Austrian Kaisers. We went there on Friday after work, at 2 o’clock. Petra was guiding us through. We didn’t know anything about it in the beginning so were pouring questions on her head all the time. We found out that the name Shonbrunn means a beautiful axbjur smth like that. It was built in the 17^th century and is a huge complex consisting of the royal park, the zoo, greenhouse, etc. We entered it and took some photos near the entrance. Then bought the long ticket for 3,5 hours which was disappointing for some of usJ Then we started our tour into the golden past of Austria. We took audio guides which were very convenient as they were explaining each room in details. I was the only one to take the English guide and it was very good in terms of creating the atmosphere of kingdom. We were passing through the rooms that each represented the lifestyle and things that were used in those times There were their bedrooms, galleries, guest rooms, card rooms, etc. I found out that Maria Theresia had lots of children and that only Marie Christine was allowed to get married the man she loved. That Kaiser Josef used to receive 100 people each day and he remembered the cases of each of them.

The most interesting rooms were the “blue room” that had all the walls decorated with blue ornaments and 100s of small portraits drawn right on the walls. Then Maria Theresia had 2 Chinese rooms very expressive ones with Chinese paintings and furniture all over the room. There was also a very interesting room called Rich room that had lots of mirrors on the walls that were creating the illusion of unlimited space , this illusion was very common for those times. The biggest room in the palace was the Gallery room that had 40 metres length and 10 meters width that was used for big events and celebrations. I admired the beauty of Elisabeth or Sisi how people used to call her. She was a very interesting woman but had a difficult life. She got married when she was 15 and was not ready for the emress life. But afterwards she became a self confident and mystical empress. She was not interfering in politics much, except when she was promoting the rights of Hungary, of which she was extremely fond of. Sisi knew English, French, Hungarian and Greek and wrote poems. She was fond of travelling. Elisabeth had three children of who she was mostly connected to Marie Valerie the youngest, as it was the only kid grown up by her. She was unbelievably beautiful, was 172 cm and 46 kg. Maria Theresia’s life was very prominent and hard, her usband loved her crazilz. She was assacinated by an anarchist in Zurich , a very stupid death, but she actually wanted to die and i even suspected that this was an organized suicide.

After this very interesting tour into the glorious past of Austrian kaisership we went to the Privy Garden that had wonderful plants (even citruses), flowers and very nice tunnel like ways all decorated with green. Then we went to the apfelstrudel show where they were showing how to cook it. The room was crowded already as we were late, besides the cooker was talking in English like in German and all we gained form there was a piece of apfelstrudel that was like a manana for us as we were veeeery hungry. Then we went to the most beautiful park I saw in my life. It was huge and different destinations one leading to Roman ruins, the other to labyrinths, another one to the Gloriette, a high wonderfully decorated building to have a view over the city. We went to this Gloriette and tried to go upper but I made a very funny mistake. People were buying new tickets to go up, but ours were valid for all of the places so we just needed to put it inside the box to be let in. But after I went in I immediately went out from the exit place, thinking that the way to the top was after it. And after we found out that we are already out of the place our tickets didn’t work. We were very disappointed. Then I decided to ask the ticket seller about what should we do. He seemed to have faced these kind of situations quite a lot of times so calmly told us to go to the entrance and he will open it himself. We were so happy!

We went up took some pictures of the incredible view and went down. Then I sat a little bit on a bench listening to music waiting for others to come back and trying to recall all I had seen during that day. That was our first trip to Shonbrunn but not the last.

After a week some of us (me, Alla, Luiza, Tigran, Karen) went to the zoo of the Shonbrunn. My biggest desire of course was to see the pandas and guys were having fun on me that I am going to marry them and live in Shonbrunn. Not badJ

First we entered Shonbrunn we were welcomed by a short rain and also we mixed the way and walked much more than were supposed to. At last we reached the zoo and bought the tickets. All the zoo was constructed in a very good way, had a easy to understand structure. We first say the big yak with lots of hair. I was particularly shocked with his big head and body and small back feet wondering how could they carry such a weight. Then we went to some birds, penguins, entered into the tropic climate place that was very hot and humid besides I had a very big thing in my mouth that was supposed to be sweet but instead had a smell of garlic and I couldn’t finish it!

We went to see the map of the park then to find out where the pandas were. At last we managed to find the right direction and followed it. Before the pandas we had a look at the tiger, who was extremely popular and the lions whom we could see through holes only. We hurriedly reached the place where pandas were drawn but…there was nobody outside. I was already getting in a panic but Tigran found the way to the inner room where the wonderful toys were having their rest. And then I saw them…a soft, kind and lazy creature lying on the floor with eyes open. I was crying from happiness and couldn’t believe I saw it, this cutie humble and such a pretty panda. There was another a more active one, who was occupied with the second and last activity of pandas, besides sleeping; he was eating. He was seating with his back to us and furiously tearing the leaves of the bamboo by his mouth. There was a kid panda who we unfortunately didn’t manage to examine properly as it was sleeping on some high branch. I was though so satisfied and happy that couldn’t help just standing and looking at their lazy movements for hours. But we needed to move and leave those cutie cutie puppets.

After it we also had a look at giraffes, and sheep. The guys were tired and sat while me and Alla went to see the monkeys as well. There was a very funny orangutan who was very bust cleaning his room to find out little corn lying on the floor and take it to his big mouth by his looong fingers. He looked like a human with his movements and self confidence. Then we joined others who were already out and took and Ubahn to home.

These were two days in Shonbrunn, unforgettable trips to the glorious past of the big Empire.

Prater park

Today we had decided to go to the carousel park, near our station, Pratestern. I was at home with the boys and had to put something on the table as they were hungry. All I could find was some tomatos, jam, butter, cheese and Coca. We had our BIG dinner and then Grigor’s ”axper”, the guy from Iraq came. I made just coffee for which he was verrry thankful. He thought I am the housewife which was quite a big compliment for me as I never do anything at home usually.
We hardly managed to go out and meet Petra but the girls said they will be late after shopping so we decided to go and then meet them at Prater park. We went out at Pratestern and appeared in a big amusement park. There were very appealing rollers and we first took one like American roller coasters which was quite nice but hurting for me as the seats were very rigid. Then we went to the carousel that was called Space Shot. I was quite afraid of its look and first thought I wouldn’t take it. But then i didn’t know what was expecting me…The dose was to increase step by step!

This one looked like the lift I took when I was a kid and my nose started to bleed. But I decided to overcome my this childish fear and sit in it. So we sat…There was a veeery funny man with long hair, a very self confident one, who seemed to have been dreaming to become a spaceman but now has to get satisfied with just pushing the button of the Space Shot. So he tied us tight to those seats and we started to rise very slowly. And then it just sprang up so fast that I thought I left my head on the ground. The funniest thing is that I had the feeling that it flew up with a round pace. And then it rapidly went down and again I felt that my head will explode now! I also had the feeling that my stomach flew away from me. This process repeated for 4 times and each time when we were going down we were looking at the long haired man with his feet over the button standing very importantly and waving his head very meaningfully showing that the game was not over yet. And at the end I already stopped fearing and just got lots of pleasure from this flight.

We went out half alive but very happy and then we met the rest of the guys who were very hungry and decided to have smth to eat.
So then I went to my final destination –the long big frightening killing machine! We saw it at the beginning and thought it was too frightening and impossible to take. But Tigran wanted it badly so we came back again. This time I felt that I need to do that to step one more big step forward. When I already sat in it I felt I am regretting but it was too late….Soon the killing machine went up slowly and the n furiously went down and the horrors began. It was flying back and forth and my head was also flying with it, we were turning and turning and all I could see was just white clouds in the sky. After a while we got hung in the sky on a height of 40 meters I guess for other people to sit on the other side. And then round two began with going behind now even worse and more terrifying . I was yelling so loudly !!!!!!
And at last we were on the ground. I had the feeling I really did something big in my life . I had some stomach and throat ache in the beginning but it passed after a while.

Then Tigran and Luiza decided to take the “ragatka” one which seemed to be the more frightening variant of the “killing machine” and everybody was looking at it and nobody dared to sit in it. The chair even looked like an electronic chair so that when Tigran went to have a look at it everybody around started to clap for his bravery. First he didn’t want to sit but after this clapping he just had to do that. Besides, that the creator of this roagatka said he won’t let Luiza to fly alone. There was a video camera around the seats so that when the person was sittng all the people around could watch his face’s expression on a big TV set.

So the guys were pulled up and stayed there for a while and during all this time we were following their faces, its color change to white and back ))))). But when they cane down they said it wasn’t so much frightening .
After this our trip was over and we wnet back. The boys went to “have a walk”. We took a very nice 2 floor train with a nice conductor which appeared to have not a very nice destination. So we had to take one stop back.
That was my day full of adrenaline and first-time-fun.

Trip to Salzburg

We decided to go to Salzburg for the first weekends and bought the tickets from the station the day before. We were to depart at 8” 22 in the morning. We got up early and I didn’t even manage to eat smth. We rushed to the Westbanhof station and ran to the ticket window. We needed to buy one more ticket for Stepan as he didn’t clearly say if he wanted a ticket or not so we hadn’t bought one for him the day before. When we at last managed to approach the ticket window we were told that it’s too late to bu a ticket and if we can we should try to just find seats in the train. So it was already 8:20 and we ran to the train which was already going to move and hardly managed to spring on it. Then we somehow managed to cheat the conductor that we have ticket for 10 people but actually there were 11 of us. On the way I was having a music tastes crush in the same cabinet with the boys who didn’t like rock . I managed to sleep a little bit and we finally reached the station. We went out and I don’t know why the guys rushed into a big store. As I didn’t have anything to buy and was quite hungry I went to eat at a restaurant with the boys. The day actually started for me with intensive getting in touch with the boys only. When we were finished we noticed that the girls are still digging in the markets so we spent another 20 minutes wandering and waiting. When everybody was out of the shop FINALLY we asked the way of the fortress and the Mozart museum and went. The street we were walking made me feel we are ina resort city very much like our Tsakhkadzor. We reached a big open place and suddenly a river appeared in front of us with a splendid view around. We crossed the bridge having photos a thousand times.

Then 4 of us stayed to walk a little bit in a nice park nearby, I sat a “ kacheli”. We were behind all the rest and started to rush. When we found them we reached a place very much like our Vernisage. There were tents all over the river bank with people form all around the world selling a piece of their culture. We couldn’t resist to buy some musical staff form a Peruvian who gave us thread bracelets as a present after he knew we are from Armenia. All the way we were seeing new great things from Africa, latin America and Austria which were though quite expensive. Then we also entered a souvenir shop and I bought a parcel with Mozart on it for a present. We decided to go to the Mozart house first. So we appeared in a narrow crowded street which led to Mozart’s house museum. It was full of people both outside and inside. I didn’t know why but there were lots of Russian tourists there. The museum had three floors that were telling about Mozart’s creations, represented his life and family, the life in Salzburg. I remembered a funny fact; during those times people didn’t have bath very often as they still believed water was something devilish. But Mozart’s family was an exception ffrom the rules as they were having bath everyday. I saw his violin and piano as well as some furniture form his home. Then we went to a room which was very much like a sauna as there was all wood there and it was very hot. But actually it was for listening to Mozart’s music so we did. It was nice to hear it. After we went out we were very tired but decided to rest a while and go to the fortress. On the way there was a nice hurch that we entered with a stage in front of it. Then we appeared in a very nice festival that was organized by an Austrian beer producer. During that lots of very expensive things were being sold by funny prices. It was a jarmarka of luxurious things with low prices. We couldn’t resist to buy some things form thre. I bought a very nice bag just for 10 euros! Then we were half dead bu decided to continue. Some boys except Karen had been up already and we saw them coming back. They wished us patience!

We were awfully tired but all the surroundings were so picturesque that we were eager to go further. There was a big queue for the museum besides the weather seemed to be spoiling so we decided to go down. Then we continued our wanderings in shops, I bought some staff for myself and at last we all gathered in some eating place. We still had 3 hours left but it was raining heavily and we couldn’t go anywhere else. So we went back by the same way. It was raining heavily and we were having fun on ourselves walking like homeless under the rain , two under one umbrella, with dirty ankles and slippers.

At last we reached the station but as we still had lots of time left some of us went to internet. Then we found the rest who were having fun in one cafe watching funny ads on TV.

Me and Luiza started to play “normal” dart and it was very funny. After a while it was already time to move so we went to the station. There we found a football team of kids from 9-12 years who had just won some cup of junior championship and were soooo happy. They were talking and talking and talking. It was the first sign of energetic and warm, really hot blooded people in Vienna and it was very nice to observe them. They were so self confident and grown up and just like actors or humourists could do whatever u wish. Only Marianna could understand them and they were prettily chatting together. One of them the most cunning one asked Marianna if she will give him a euro in case he dances and he started to dance so sexily shaking all his body …We had such fun with those kids and even met them in the train. We sat in a wrong place and the conductor made us go back. Leaving our card playing we started to wander all over the train which was a very funny process as the train was moving and we were walking like drunk hardly managing not to fall on people sitting and gazing at us with wide opened eyes.

At last we found our places which were also pretty good and wanted to continue our card game when a man of about 50 with a very kind and sunny face came and took his seat near Suren. He was a very nice man from Salzburg with a funny sense of humour and tremendously loud laugh because of which we were heard all over the train. He started to speak with us about Armenia as he had been there and after that we spoke of lots of things. He was showing his tongue while laughing and also beating the table with his hands …that was such a funny scene. He told us about his first marihuana experience. He was in Netherlands and after a heavy rain being very tired entered a café and along with tea took cookies which had a very nice name for him : space cookies. He said he was feeling very nicely after them and felt they were something more than just biscuits when he was paying for them and realized they cost too high for average cookies. Then he gave his mobile number to Ani and we agreed to call him the next day in case we go to the museum. When we were going out of the train a woman who had previously asked us to be more quiet looked at me with a very tired and desperate look and after I said my excuses she said we were awful:))).

We reached Westbanhof very late at about 12:30 and found out that we can’t go to Traisengasse already. Besides it was raining so heavily and we were stuck in some station form which we decided to take a taxi. But we had to wait at the station for the rain to stop. We were like BOMJ, standing there with strange people in torn dresses from every nation.

At last the rain was over and we got out to catch taxis. We found one and then the second one. The first one appeared to have a crazy woman as driver. Our driver was not a woman but was not less crazy. He was going to hit us and then just said: “Oh sorry”. He didn’t know the exact place we were going and was hoping to drive after the crazy woman but suddenly he lost her and then he started to curse!

It was our last adventure as we finally reached home surprisingly safely and went to bed.

This was a very great day full of funny adventures when we got to know that Mozart lived in a very tiny and hot house...

Duran Duran concert…

I was told that there was going to be a concert of Duran Duran in Vienna. I was shocked and I felt I want to go there. The tickets seemed to be quite normal for this kind of a concert , 36 euros, besides when I looked up I couldn’t find another more appealing concert during our stay in Vienna, though afterwards I found out that there will be a concert of Lenny Kravitz too.

So the day came and I went out. I was alone as other guys didn’t find Duran Duran worth spending this much. Didi was with his friends, who were quite familiar with Duran music. The place called Gasometer was initially a place where there used to be a gaz station, but now students stay there. It was a big round red building. We entered and as it was early decided to take some drinks. It was only me to drink a beer. We were surrounded by people mostly 30 and more. I was one of the youngest. There weren’t much people but those who were, were real fans of Duran Duran. THEY WERE THE FIRST BRITISH BIG BAND I WAS GOING TO SEE! So we drank and talked a little bit about music and concerts that Didi and his friends had gone to. After a while I started to hear music coming from inside and we went there. First I felt the drums all over my stomach and feet because of the loud music and saw a big splash of light around. Then I saw them standing on the stage in pink and black

colors. I couldn’t believe I was really there. The hall had standing places and places to sit in behind. The concert started form some song I didn’t know but which I liked. And there were mostly new songs in the beginning, from which I especially liked Falling down. I felt very sorry for not downloading all the famous songs to be knowing them and singing with others. But though they were first time to be heard by me I liked most of them .I thought they are a really great band and maybe could have reached more? Or maybe now they worth more than they get. They had really skilled musicians and everything was of a very high quality. There were people in front who came to Vienna from Czech Republic, Croatia for their concert. Then the first part was over. After a break they came back with electronic staff and started to play electronic dance music which I didn’t like much. And then the third part started with coming back to normal style. They started to play really famous and old songs which were all very great but then… I heard these very dear sounds for me of the “Ordinary world”! At last something I know and love so much! It was such a moment when I was singing this song and there was so much harmony in me and satisfaction!

Then they played some cool songs like Rio, Reach up for the sunrise and finished the concert with a great rocky song! The concert lasted 3 hours.

So this was my first ever big concert which was so great...!