Vienna!

A few days since I've last posted; here in Vienna the internet is not free...boo. Our last day in Prague I got a semi-early start and headed out to the battlements with Steve and Brenton. It was only about a 15 min. walk from our hostel and greeted us at first with a HUGE wall. I'm going to guess about 25 ft. high, and all brick. Inside there were few battlements left, but there was a really pretty church inside that had tons of paintings of saints all around the walls. I took pictures of some of my favorites. Afterwards we wandered around the graveyard of the church and saw Dvorak's grave (which Angela and Adam told us to be on the lookout for). Our final farewell to Prague was sitting atop a wall (not one of the super tall ones) looking out over the Danube and on the city of Prague. Really nice views, and we watched some rowers in the river. From there it was onto the train station and the worst train ride we've had so far. It was about 90 degrees the entire 5 hours journey, killer. Steve and I felt like we were in Italy again. At least we were slightly better off than Angela and Adam whose car was nonexistant and they had to get a conductor to find new seats for them (this was the case for a bunch of people). After the most dehydrating train ride possible (and meeting 2 UK guys who I had a suspicion I would see again) we made it to our hostel. Along the way we ran into the Indian guys who has stayed at the same hostel in Prague and we both took the same tram out to the west side of town. After checking into our room (which is almost comically small for 3 people) we tried to find an Indian resturant that an Indian man in Vienna had suggested to our Indian friends. We agreed to try and meet up there, but couldn't find it. After a lot of wondering around being very hungry and tired we went into an Indian grocery store and Adam took one for the team and asked the store owner if he knew of an Indian resturant in the area. The shop owner was really nice and gave us detailed directions to a really good place only a few minutes walking away. Needless to say I got buttered chicken and a large coke. One of the best meals I've had on this trip. Then it was back to our hostel for a good long sleep. On the way back we saw a parade of bikers, joggers, and rollerbladers having a party along the roads. They had a car blasting music (at one point it was Switch by Will Smith) and a police escort. It looked like a ton of fun.

Next day we slept in a bit and then took the metro out to Stephanplatz. We went into Stephendom, but couldn't go too far in since Mass was currently in session. Then to Mozart's house and took some pictures from the outside. Steve and I were really proud of ourselves for understanding what the Spanish tourguide outside was saying. More walking over to the Royal Cemetary Church, the Opera House, the Sucession museum, etc. It was a nice walking and orienting day; all of these things we just saw from the outside. From there was the Naschmarket, which was awesome. It's an enormous (several blocks long with multiple rows) market with sections of resturants, food markets, new clothes for sale, yard sale stands, etc. Everything and anything you could think of. We all wished that we lived in Vienna so we could shop here on a daily basis. Angela bought some cool Indian bags (Adam did a good job of bargaining down the price) and I looked at tons of lapis lazurli jewelry, but didn't buy. Also, as Steve pointed out all the food stands seemed to sell something stuffed; usually stuffed olives..but they are big into stuffed foods apparently. To end off our walking tour of Vienna we headed over to Karlsplatz and went to take some pictures of Karlskirche (Karl's Church for you non-German readers). We happened upon a huge wedding and got to see parts of the chruch (from a roped off doorway obviously) that usually you don't get to see. We saw a horse-drawn carraige outside (they are everywhere in this city) and decided to wait until the bride and groom came out. One of the members of the wedding party gave us all some rice to throw, which made us all feel pretty special. It was a ton of fun and I have to wonder now how many tourists have pictures of this random person's wedding. On the metro ride home we ran into the UK guys (my suspicions are always correct) and then took a quick trip to the grocery store and then on a schnitzel adventure. We are starting a pattern of having bad luck trying to find resturants. Angela had read about this really famous schnizel place with the schnizel bigger than the plate. When we got there (about a 30 min walk) we found it was closed for 2 weeks while the family went on holiday (only problem with family owned resturants as Adam pointed out). Ah well, we did get some schnizel after checking out a few resturants in the area. Also a random note, you can get free tap water in Vienna! This is very exciting for us. When we got back to the hostel Steve and I played a very close and intense game of Settlers of Catan (he won...I need a rematch) and while playing a guy played the Simpson's theme on the piano, which completely made my day.

Sunday started with my new standard of apple and bread breakfast, then off towards the center of town again. It is way hotter in Vienna than in either Prague and especially Berlin, so that took a bit of getting used to. We rested in a beautiful rose garden for almost an hour and got to see tons of different types of rose bushes. One of my favorites (and Angela's) was the Piccadilly Rose. One of the very few rose bushes with no blooms was called the Americana rose (we get the hint). After the garden we headed to the Hofburg Palace and checked out the treasury. There were also some relics in there for me (score!). Lots of ridiulous detailing, ornateness, shiny, etc. Everything we like in a museum. For lunch we got some bratwurst. Here it is surved in a bageutte and is about a foot long...I could not finish it, not even close. From there Angela and Adam split off from Steve and I. We went to Stephendom (where we got to go more inside and see more beautiful church architecture), the Royal Crypt (main highlight was the crypt of Franz Josef and Elizabeth) and the Sucession Museum (this time we actually we inside). The Succession museum was....interesting. I think Steve put it best: "it blew our minds with modern art". The main attraction was a 30 meter fresco called the Beethoven Fries which is an interpretation of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. That was pretty cool. The rest was a little freaky (an enormous room dedicated to seal stuffies covered in blood, fur coats covered in blood, dead manniquins admist coke bottles, pictures of dead people who were obviously blown up or shot...etc...). After that we took a nice refreshing break at a huge fountain and memorial dedicated to the USSR, we are guessing for their help in liberating Vienna from the Nazi's. The coolest part was a rainbow that was in the fountain (I have good pics of this). We met up with Angela and Adam and took the tram to a huge graveyard on the outskirts of Vienna. Inside is a section dedicated to musicians and has the graves of Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, and more! That was very cool and we met up with a US kid there who was a musician. With him (none of us remmeber his name) we took the tram up to St. Mark's cemetary to see Mozart's grave. We got off the tram a stop early since a ticket checked got on and none of us had gotten tickets. I would like to note that this was the first time we had not gotten tickets and the first time we have ever seen anyone check. Not a far walk we found the graveyard...which had closed 20 minutes earlier. Steve made a mock attempt at climbing over the wall, but stopped after we had 1) finished our pictures of him and 2) he completely scraped up his elbow. We metro'd back to the hostel (with a ticket!) and got schnizel (again) from a really nice family owned resturant. The family was Turkish, as are tons of families in this area. Adam and I got some ice cream on the way back which was amazing! I am already planning my trips back there. I got 4 scoops (I didn't finish, eyes way bigger than my stomach): coffee, after eight(the mint candy), nutella (awesome!), and poppy seed (way better than you would think). A fun part about that too was the ice cream guys reaction to Adam and I standing around a crowd of Austrians not really knowing what to do or how to order. He simply looked at our confused faces and said "English?". There are tons of people here who speak English, many more that I expected and a slight relief after Prague.

Today was a lazy day with Angela and Adam splitting off again leaving Steve and I to our shennanigans. First we went to PraterPark to ride the big ferris wheel. It was a small amusement park inside a large garden park. The ride was nice and we got some good panoramic shots of Vienna. We then walked to an apartment complex with a funky and artsy outside decor. All the apartments painted different colors, mosaics, etc. Really cool, I can't remember the name right now though. From there we tried to find some clock in one of the platz's that was supposed to be like a glockenspeil with a show, but couldn't find it. Later we learned Adam and Angela had no better luck. So we just wandered over to Stadtpark and relaxed for a few hours; napping and wandering. It was hot again today, so lethargy was quick to set in. We headed back to the hostel around 5 and got more ice cream along the way (double yum!). Angela and Adam have since returned and we are planning what to do with our evening.

It is kind of weird having been travelling for so long, all these hostels start to feel like home. I am definitely looking forward to coming home, but am already planning my next trip back to Europe. :)