palace
What pops into your mind when you visit a castle, a palace, anything grand, or even just seeing expensive/valuable artefacts from the past?
Whenever I visit any attraction related to kings, queens, or anyone else in a royal family, I never fail to imagine what life was like for them. I imagine princesses playing on the grounds of the royal castle, kings and knights fighting battles, etc.
I've always wondered what it was like to be THAT rich in those times, especially when most people are just middle-class farmers or worst, living below the poverty line.
What I wore
Top: River Island
Skirt: SheIn.com
Shoes: SheIn.com
Bag: Gap
Watch: NakedGlory.com
I was always able to conjure up a grand story in my head, and have images of how people were dressed like, or how they rode in carriages and horses from one part of the palace to another. This could be attributed to the fact that I grew up watching TV shows revolving around Royal Families.
I remember being 5 or 6 and watching some chinese dramas in the afternoon of princesses and princes who could sword fight, jump/fly around doing tricks, and they would go on battles and have loads of family drama. Either that, or it could be my loyal following of Once Upon a Time.
Anyway, I always wanted to be part of that time. The time in the past where being a Princess was a thing, where people wanted to marry into the Royal family, or just have of some relation to the family in power. I know many young girls wanted to be princesses, (some teenagers or even adults today wish to be Disney princesses) but I don't think I was ever one of them. Ok, I could have been when I was really young, but as I grew up and understood what being a princess meant, the appeal wore off.
I still wish I could live in a palace, but for quite some time, I've wanted to live in a palace as a palace maid (no, don't you laugh at me!)
Princesses have no power over their own lives. Every story is the same. They just seem so... meek and sad.
Visiting the Schonbrünn Palace in Vienna, I heard about how the princesses lived their lives back in the day, how they weren't allowed to love, or rather, they had no choice in who they got married to. They were married off so as to build connections between royal families. Only ONE of the daughters of the Viennese Royal family was allowed to marry the man she loved.
It's just depressing to hear. I'm pretty sure a lot of rich families in today's day and age still subscribe to this high level of control. Sad, isn't it?
This is why i'd rather be a palace maid (and why I'm content in my own level of average-at-best-mediocre-family-wealth). Palace maids, though poor, seem like they have sufficient to eat and sleep, yet have the chance to see into the lives of the rich and famous, and the ability to accompany princess on their palace garden walks.
Visiting the Schönbrunn Palace is something most tourists do when they visit Vienna. To be honest, the cost of the tour in the castle (21 Euros) was a little too expensive for what I got to see. The palace is nice, and it helps that there is an audio guide included in the entrance price, but visitors aren't allowed to take pictures inside. The other sad thing for me was that it was raining heavily when I was there. This meant that the view from the Gloriette was less than great due to the haze. Also, I couldn't spend as much time in the different royal gardens as I would have loved to.
It would have been a lot more enjoyable, and the views would be stunning if not for the rain.
Although I enjoyed walking around, looking at the gorgeous flowers, and listening to the history of the viennese royal family as I explored the palace, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed.
Comparing the Schönbrunn Palace to the Château de Versailles in Paris, the palace of versailles was larger, grander, and just... overall more impressive.
It could be because I've already visited many other castles (including Neuschwanstein in germany) in Europe, that the one in Vienna didn't impress me as much.
It is a lovely castle, and I'm pretty sure many people would enjoy the visit. But it just wasn't the BEST in my opinion.
Even though the weather was rather unpleasant, I honestly loved walking (occasionally running for shelter!) around the gardens surrounding the castle ground.
If you've been to palaces around Europe (especially château de versailles!), and you're not a massive fan of paying for attractions, I'd suggest giving the castle a skip and just exploring the nearby gardens or walking up to the gloriette for a great view.
Also, don't forget to give the parks in the main city centre a visit. They, too, have such lovely cultivated and arranged flowers, to the point they rival the one right outside the Schönbrunn Palace!
Outfit Diary: Viennese Royalty
13 July 2015 Schönbrunn Palace, Schönbrunner Schloßstraße 47, 1130 Wien, Austria
The French have an awesome work life balance, so shops usually close on Sundays: shops including the supermarkets!! Everything in the area I live in (same can be said for the rest of Paris) is pretty much closed - give or take a few asian food shops.
Since the family wanted to go to the Chauteux de Versailles, we hopped on to one of the Grand Lignes in Gare Montparnasse and headed for Versailles.
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Since the family wanted to go to the Chauteux de Versailles, we hopped on to one of the Grand Lignes in Gare Montparnasse and headed for Versailles.
Exiting from the station of Versailles, we see a small-town like area, with streets lined with mini bars and food shops.
This area surprisingly had very few people. It was as if we were transported into a quiet old town in the countryside with a population of like 30. Hahaha!
We had no map, no nothing so we just followed the street signs, and then the number of people started increasing as we were walking, and we knew we were heading in the right direction.
Walk towards the crowd and you'd be right on track!
After walking for a couple of minutes, we were faced with the massive grand castle with WONDERFUL Architecture.
The castle is beautiful. This picture (and those below) are just UNABLE to do justice to it. Its massiveness is just. wow. You'd be in awe if you saw it in real life.
Typical sight in famous tourist attractions. They had an exhibition of old antique cars and a private event at the square right outside of the castle, and here's a pro taking a shot of some strangers on one of the cars, and the famous Louis XV's statue in the background. Felt inferior with my iPhone and selfie stick at that moment.
Behold the Golden Gates! Many failed jump shots were attempted here. We gave up after probably 20 tries and went through the gates.
And Viola. We had to try another 200x to get a nice shot. This is one of the less fail ones. Somehow Zara and I just fail at coordinating to 123, but it turned out okay... Acceptable-ish!
Close ups of the statues!
The Hall of Mirrors. For the narcissist haha!
It was magnificent inside the castle. Its hard to imagine owning everything there, such wealth. It unfathomable. Its amazing how the ceilings of roofs are all painted differently, and the decoration of each room coordinated from bed sheets to wallpaper to furniture. It was creepy, interesting and enviable all at the same time.
My favourite part of the castle. The Arcades. It exude a serenity that was a stark contrast to the massive crowd attempting to get a picture with it (it was cordoned off). I found the contrast really amusing to be honest. Nevertheless, just looking at this picture makes me feel as though my world is at peace.
After Exiting the castle, we went to the garden behind the palace, linking to Marie-Antoinette's Estate, where she fled to during an attack. (OK I'm not very familiar with the history, but yeah, after the passing of Louis XIV, and somewhere before/during the reign of Louis XV, Marie-Antoinette's Estate was built if I'm not wrong. Don't quote me on this.)
Here's Zara being a monkey.
The Garden outside the Palaces of Versailles was HUGE. MASSIVE. VAST. I was wondering the whole time, what do people in the time of Louis XV do in the garden. Did they just walk? People could die there and nobody would have known. And what if the king was somewhere, and they needed him urgently? How would his magistrates/dukes known where to find him. He didn't have a phone. How did they deal with emergencies? They probably rode horses...? Did they have the soldiers comb through the castle to find the King? Turns out Huan Zhu Ge Ge didn't do a good job educating me on this. I swear I'm not weird.
- My phone died when we headed to Marie Antoinette's Estate, so pictures on FB from my sister's Iphone-
Anyway, Marie-Antoinette's Estate, as expected was not as grand. Like duh, he had to run away from the Main Palace.
After Visiting all the attractions in the area, we chanced upon this beautiful small vintage greenhouse looking stall. Couldn't resist going in, and I was glad I did. Found post cards written by lovers dating back to 1930s maybe even earlier. :)
I find it cool reading about old love stories between lovers in the past who had to write letters. I would form the characters in my head imagine they were in some form of a secret long distance relationship. I am NOT weird. I swear. Hahaha!
The trip to Versailles is something not to be missed. I got judged by some Parisians who went "why do all asians want to go to versailles?!" we don't have such palaces/castles with painted ceilings, with gold plated muriel edges, and huge ass gardens with colourful flowers and a temperature of 20degrees thats why. Hahah! I loved it there. If i could, i'd bring everyone who came to Paris to visit me to Versailles.
The Grandeur of Versailles
28 June 2014 Versailles, France
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