We got a very nice 4 person sleeping compartment for our 10 hour trip to Austria (no crazy, stinky people for us!). It took them almost an hour to come around and take our tickets, check out passports, and take our breakfast orders. Then it was time to play, of course! We thought we would just walk down the the dinning car and play some cards or something. 25 cars, 5 traveling Eurocup parties, 3 invitations to enter their cabin, and one blatant sexual advance later we decided that there wasn't a dinning car on the over night train. So - back through the 25 cars and other assorted advances to our cabin. Where, right outside, were to LOVELY gentleman that told us more than once that we could buy beer from the ticket lady. DUDE, GO AWAY AGAIN, WE'RE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!
At 8 am the next morning (and after very little sleep) we got to Vienna. We were able to drop our bags off at the hostel but weren't able to get a room until after 2. So we borrowed their bathroom to do a little freshening up and we were off! We decided we were hungry so we looked in our book and headed out towards the local coffee shop. On the way there we found this beautiful, beautiful building. - just got off the subway and TADA! St Michael's Dome and Hofburg. I believe this is where the Spanish Riding School is. Of course, right outside of this beautiful, historic building there was a crazy group of Turks that were trashed blowing their horns and noising their noise makers AT 8 AM!! You can kinda see a bunch of them in the left corner of the picture.
After our cafe and croissant breakfast (no, not in France yet - they have coffee and bread everywhere) we headed off to St. Stephen's Cathedral. Ok, not really 'headed off', more like 'this looks like a major area...' and actually ran into this church and decided to go in. Again, absolutely beautiful but there was this modern art installation that kinda looked like a bunch of kites being flown indoors (see the 2nd picture). We walked around and looked for a looong time before we were shooed out because mass was starting.
Can you see the guy with his elbow up? I have a funny story about him. We followed him up to the front of the cathedral where a guy was trying to get through the crowd with a cart of hymnals. The guy is obviously of Asian descent (is that the pc term?) and didn't speak a lick of English. The church guy, although he looked a lot more like a night club bouncer..., was like 'excuse me, pardon me, I need to get through with these Jesus books, excuse me, pardon me'. This Asian guy just stood there, at first looking at the front of the church, and then staring directly at the guy. The bouncer was obviously pissed by this and kinda pushed the guy out of the way, like an owner skooches a little dog outta the way when they walk in the door and the dog won't get out of the way. The bouncer pushes his books under the velvet rope (there really was a velvet rope) and then comes back to the guy and starts yelling at him, in English, and then rips his hat off of his head and throws it at him and walks off.I did feel bad for the guy, I'm not sure he had any idea what was going on. But then I had to laugh a little bit, this church bouncer was screaming at a guy in a language that was not the country's, and not the Asian man's, and it didn't sound like it was the bouncer's first language (I'm getting really good at determining what a person's first language is)...it just seemed very weird.
After the church we decided to walk around to the outside and climb one of the towers. About half way up I absolutely had to stop. My knees were on FIRE. I still had some measle 'residue' (for lack of a better term) on the back side of my knees that was very sensitive. The longer I walked the more the skin would rub against itself and against my jeans and then I was sweating and getting hot and sticky...BAH! So I found a little viewing area and waited there while the other girls went all the way to the top.
After that, we decided to go back and check into the hostel and take a little nap. Well, a little nap turned into about 3 hours. Finally we got up and were starving - GET OUT THE BOOK! We found a place we would like to eat and headed out. We get to the building, which is in the middle of a neighborhood, and it's leveled to the ground. Ok, not eating there. So we get back out the book and find another place to eat - again, in a neighborhood. By the time we get there it's about dark. This place is very off the beaten path. This little old lady sells wine and snacks out of her garage and you sit in her back yard and eat, drink, and be merry.
We got the wine in mini glass beer steins:
and we bought all of this food (all kinds of salted meats, cheeses, breads, sauerkraut, pickles, and cheese/meat spread) for like 18 Euros!
The next morning we decided to get up and head to Schonbrunn Palace. Wow, this palace was HUGE, and BEAUTIFUL. We got the full tour package. We started by walking through the palace and looking at all of the stuff from the last real king in Austria. They said the Napoleon used this house when he was in town (you know, just chillin' with his pose). After the tour we went and learned how to make apple strudel and then went out to the gardens.
In case you can't see the sky it wasn't exactly a nice day. It was super windy, and always threatening rain, and about 50 degrees. This is what Megan wore:
After we got done with the palace it was time to get back on the train and head to Salzburg. Abby's excited about that.
1 comment:
Oh wow. I didn't know my eyes stretched to such proportions.
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