Eurotrip: 4th stop - Vienna
PSA before we talk about Vienna and Munich: Wombat Hostels are about as awesome as it gets. They're friendly and geeky and cheap with awesome bars and breakfasts and beds and we cannot recommend them enough. Beware, there will be gushing.
As usual, text by pegasus_01
(Comments by nusuth)
July 9th (Thursday)
On the way to Vienna!
Pretty much slept the entire way (recuperating from my bowel movements the day before - I was trying to ignore the horde of sick Australians on board. I mean, I know the weather hadn't been that good but did they all need to cough up their lungs at the same time? Also, I feel that we haven"t properly noted the fact that 90% of the bus were Australian. They were. ). Passed by a cute little town in the Czech Republic, etc. (it was know for its selection of extreme sports and rafting pub crawl. No, I have no idea either).
Got to Vienna and LOVED the hostel! (they had a Totoro behind the counter!) The beds were good, we had towels and everything was CLEAN!
Went to eat schnitzel at a restaurant called Mozart (with everyone from the bus and the guide, it was awesome) and it was good and CHEAP (it had a deal with the hostel where we were staying) Yummy.
Went back to the hostel, watched some eps and went to bed (still recuperating).
July 10th (Friday)
Woke up at 8ish and went down to breakfast which ranked as the best one YET! €3,70 for all you can eat and it was GOOD! (it was)
Then we bought a 24h pass (the metro in Vienna is eerily similar in style to the one in Brussels) and went exploring. We arrived in front of the Stephan Church and got accosted by a dude in a "Mozart" outfit who was selling tickets for a concert that night played by the Imperial Philharmonic ( or something like that) with dancing and opera (we HAD been warned on the bus about dudes in costumes trying to sell concert tickets in the summer but it was actually pretty impressive). Tickets were €29 + free drinks. So we jumped on that bandwagon. Then we needed something to wear (considering that we pretty much only had jeans and t-shirts with us and really, there's NO WAY we were wearing jeans to a concert in VIENNA. Totally defeats the purpose) which turned into a 2 hour shopping excursion whereupon I found a super cute dress and Hila found an awesome skirt (yeah, that skirt. I laughed a lot when I bought it).
Then we found the tourist info and discovered when the tours were. So we decided to wander until 2PM when the next one took place and totally failed at finding the entrance to the Sisi museum and the apartment chambers.
So in the end we decided to go to lunch (v. light) and then a coffehouse (yay for coffee, hot chocolate and pie! She means ). Then we walked around some more until it was time for our (not free *sulks*) tour.
Our guide was very interesting and she did the entire tour in German and English. The funny part was when she kept telling us a scandal after every explanation (I still can't get over the one with the horse statue on top of the building being an advertisement. OH! and the one with the horses and the library!). After the tour we went to the Hofsburg Palace (which the guide pointed us the entrance to) and did the tour with the audioguide.
Afterwards we wandered around until 6:30PM and made our way back to the hostel for food (Turkish) and to get dressed. Then it was concert time!
We got there fashionably late (we got lost) and spent a wonderful time ogling the pretty people on stage and their wonderful performance. After a fantastic concert we were joined by a Mexican girl who didn't want to wander by herself and hopped on a tram - we then proceeded to get totally lost (entirely my fault, I'm afraid. It's a continuation with this thing I have about riding trams at night) until we hopped off at a U-Bahn station and rode that back to the hostel.
Then we made good use of our free drink voucher, got a beer (they were screening Cowboy Bebop down at the bar!) and retired for the night.
July 11th (Saturday)
Got up at 8ish, got some breakfast and got a move on!
After the awesomeness that was the buffet, we got on the U-Bahn again and made our way into the city to catch the tourist tram that went around in a ring. We rode that for a loop and a half and got off at the Parliament for some much needed pictures of the pretty Greek architecture (it's US , what do you expect?).
Then Narjess showed signs of life and we went to Nachtsmarkt to meet her. After the happy happy reunion, Hila and I got sausages in bread and Narje got a pita for lunch and we wandered the length of the market.
After that Hila went to Pratter Amusement Park to snag some pics for her dad and I went to Narje's house to say hi to her mom.
After that we met up again and went to eat some (yummy) Sacher torte and (amazing) apfelstrudel with some (vienese) coffee. Then we bought some groceries and wandered around some more. Narje went back to her place and Hila and I continued for a while longer until we decided enough was enough.
We went back to the hostel and dropped our things and made our way back to the Mozart for some schnitzel once more (chicken schnitzel this time for me, it was yummy). Then we decided to try to find the Bermuda Triangle of bars. After a few unsuccessful minutes we found it and went in search of a grasshopper. Unfortunately, we did not succeed.
After that we wandered around some more and finally our feet protested once too many times. We got back to the hostel, packed and retired for the night.
As usual, text by pegasus_01
(Comments by nusuth)
July 9th (Thursday)
On the way to Vienna!
Pretty much slept the entire way (recuperating from my bowel movements the day before - I was trying to ignore the horde of sick Australians on board. I mean, I know the weather hadn't been that good but did they all need to cough up their lungs at the same time? Also, I feel that we haven"t properly noted the fact that 90% of the bus were Australian. They were. ). Passed by a cute little town in the Czech Republic, etc. (it was know for its selection of extreme sports and rafting pub crawl. No, I have no idea either).
Got to Vienna and LOVED the hostel! (they had a Totoro behind the counter!) The beds were good, we had towels and everything was CLEAN!
Went to eat schnitzel at a restaurant called Mozart (with everyone from the bus and the guide, it was awesome) and it was good and CHEAP (it had a deal with the hostel where we were staying) Yummy.
Went back to the hostel, watched some eps and went to bed (still recuperating).
July 10th (Friday)
Woke up at 8ish and went down to breakfast which ranked as the best one YET! €3,70 for all you can eat and it was GOOD! (it was)
Then we bought a 24h pass (the metro in Vienna is eerily similar in style to the one in Brussels) and went exploring. We arrived in front of the Stephan Church and got accosted by a dude in a "Mozart" outfit who was selling tickets for a concert that night played by the Imperial Philharmonic ( or something like that) with dancing and opera (we HAD been warned on the bus about dudes in costumes trying to sell concert tickets in the summer but it was actually pretty impressive). Tickets were €29 + free drinks. So we jumped on that bandwagon. Then we needed something to wear (considering that we pretty much only had jeans and t-shirts with us and really, there's NO WAY we were wearing jeans to a concert in VIENNA. Totally defeats the purpose) which turned into a 2 hour shopping excursion whereupon I found a super cute dress and Hila found an awesome skirt (yeah, that skirt. I laughed a lot when I bought it).
Then we found the tourist info and discovered when the tours were. So we decided to wander until 2PM when the next one took place and totally failed at finding the entrance to the Sisi museum and the apartment chambers.
So in the end we decided to go to lunch (v. light) and then a coffehouse (yay for coffee, hot chocolate and pie! She means ). Then we walked around some more until it was time for our (not free *sulks*) tour.
Our guide was very interesting and she did the entire tour in German and English. The funny part was when she kept telling us a scandal after every explanation (I still can't get over the one with the horse statue on top of the building being an advertisement. OH! and the one with the horses and the library!). After the tour we went to the Hofsburg Palace (which the guide pointed us the entrance to) and did the tour with the audioguide.
Afterwards we wandered around until 6:30PM and made our way back to the hostel for food (Turkish) and to get dressed. Then it was concert time!
We got there fashionably late (we got lost) and spent a wonderful time ogling the pretty people on stage and their wonderful performance. After a fantastic concert we were joined by a Mexican girl who didn't want to wander by herself and hopped on a tram - we then proceeded to get totally lost (entirely my fault, I'm afraid. It's a continuation with this thing I have about riding trams at night) until we hopped off at a U-Bahn station and rode that back to the hostel.
Then we made good use of our free drink voucher, got a beer (they were screening Cowboy Bebop down at the bar!) and retired for the night.
July 11th (Saturday)
Got up at 8ish, got some breakfast and got a move on!
After the awesomeness that was the buffet, we got on the U-Bahn again and made our way into the city to catch the tourist tram that went around in a ring. We rode that for a loop and a half and got off at the Parliament for some much needed pictures of the pretty Greek architecture (it's US , what do you expect?).
Then Narjess showed signs of life and we went to Nachtsmarkt to meet her. After the happy happy reunion, Hila and I got sausages in bread and Narje got a pita for lunch and we wandered the length of the market.
After that Hila went to Pratter Amusement Park to snag some pics for her dad and I went to Narje's house to say hi to her mom.
After that we met up again and went to eat some (yummy) Sacher torte and (amazing) apfelstrudel with some (vienese) coffee. Then we bought some groceries and wandered around some more. Narje went back to her place and Hila and I continued for a while longer until we decided enough was enough.
We went back to the hostel and dropped our things and made our way back to the Mozart for some schnitzel once more (chicken schnitzel this time for me, it was yummy). Then we decided to try to find the Bermuda Triangle of bars. After a few unsuccessful minutes we found it and went in search of a grasshopper. Unfortunately, we did not succeed.
After that we wandered around some more and finally our feet protested once too many times. We got back to the hostel, packed and retired for the night.