Our train ride to Vienna was quite an experience in itself. We got to the train station, exchanged the leftover Czech crowns we had, bought our tickets, and found our platform. The train was running late by around 30 minutes, but eventually it got there and we got on. Turns out, they had overbooked the “second class” (coach) section of the train, so we either had to sit on the floor for the entirety of the 6-hour train ride, or pay a little extra and get bumped up to business class. So we paid the little extra and got our own little room on the train with comfy seats, which was pretty great.
We finally got to Vienna around 7pm and took a bus and a metro to our hostel (which was not nearly as nice as the hostel in Prague, but still acceptable. Even though besides us, it was filled with random families and teenagers, which was kind of weird).
Anyways, we were STARVING after our long train ride where they had RUN OUT OF FOOD somehow in the dining car, so we walked a few blocks from our hostel and found an Italian restaurant and got some delicious pizzas for dinner. We sat for a while, then went back to the hostel, where we decided we were too exhausted to go out, and that instead we would just go to bed and get up early for a day packed with sightseeing.
And so we did! On Saturday, we got up, had our complimentary breakfast at the hostel, and set out to see the city. We started by going to Naschmarkt, which is this huge outdoor market in the center of the city. On Saturdays, they also have a MASSIVE flea market there, so we went and walked around. While we were there, we happened to run into the girls we had met at the bar in Prague that were friends with Carolyn, which was really crazy since the place was PACKED!
After the market (where we spent a couple hours), we went to see the famous opera house and also the Hofsburg Palace, both of which were cool to look at from the outside. The palace had a gorgeous park with fountains that we walked around it. There was also a butterfly conservation house that I really wanted to go in, but we decided it was too much money (ahh, the life of poor college students…).
We were all hungry again so we decided to find a café where we could eat lunch, but the area we were in was very touristy and therefore very expensive, so we decided to take the metro towards our next destination, the Freud museum, where food would be cheaper. It worked out and we found a café near the metro exit where we got a delicious and cheap lunch. After lunch, we walked to the Freud museum. My friend Nicole is a psychology major so she was enthralled with all of the information, and it was really cool to see the place where Freud used to live and work. It brought me back a little to AP Psych from senior year of high school!
After the Freud museum, we hopped back on to the very convenient metro and headed to Praterstern, a amusment park/carnival in the middle of Vienna! We went on the famous ferris wheel and a few other rides, it was so much fun. After that, we were pretty worn out so we went back to the hostel to relax for a little while before dinner.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant that my Europe guide book recommended (thanks again for that book, Mimi! It is wonderful!) that is famous for its schnitzels. We wanted to try some local cuisine, so we decided to check it out. It was DELICIOUS and had a great atmosphere, we sat in an outdoor courtyard at picnic tables. Plus, it was really cheap, which made it even more awesome!
After dinner and couple glasses of wine, we decided to check out another recommendation of my book, a bar/club called Babu. Now, the main nightlife scene in Vienna is a long line of clubs and bars built underneath the arches of one of the Vienna metro lines. Babu was one of these. We found it, and managed to convince the bouncer to let us in for free so we didn’t have to pay the 5 euro entrance fee! We got a table because it was still fairly early and not very crowded, and had a few drinks. We stayed for a while and listened to music and had a pretty good time, then, after some unwanted attention from some creepy guys, we decided it was time to leave.
The next morning, Easter Sunday, we got up and headed to the other palace in Vienna, Schonnbrun. It was BEAUTIFUL! There were gardens and fountains and so many flowers…amazing. We didn’t go inside because there was a long line and we only had a little time before we had to get to the airport, but we walked around outside and in the Easter festival that was going on there. We sampled some apple strudel and took a lot of pictures, and then headed back to the hostel to get our bags and head to the airport.
What an awesome spring break! I am again amazed that I have been this lucky; to be able to travel all over to the places I have always wanted to see has been a dream come true!
I can’t believe I have less than two weeks of classes left, then a week of finals, and then my program is over. There is so much I still want to do and see, so I will be cramming the next couple weekends with all sorts of adventures here in Barcelona!
I hope everyone is well and had a lovely Easter and is having a great week!
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