Vienna...sausage

10/5/2009

We woke up this morning and had a good breakfast at the hostel. We hadn’t had a free breakfast in a while and it was nice to enjoy that luxury of cheap living. We had booked an 11:30 train for Vienna and decided we were just going to take the morning easy and make sure we got to the train station in time. While we were killing time at the hostel we started talking to two guys who were also backpacking around Europe for an extended period of time. One was in the movie marketing business in Hollywood. He didn’t thoroughly explain how he got so much time off from work, but I did think it was cool that he would still have a job when he got back or so he says he will.

I have started wearing only my sneakers and I think my foot is getting better, or at least I hope so. I put on a pair of cotton pants that I had just gotten on super sale from Patagonia before I left this morning to wear on the train. After doing laundry in Brussels, I didn’t realize it, but I shrank them up to nothing. It totally bummed me out, but I sported high waters. Im thinking that Ill make them into capris when I get home.

I feel bad about Prague. I don’t think we really gave it a fair chance to shine in our eyes. We didn’t get a very good feel for the city at all. Our hostel was out of town, we were tired and deflated after our sleeper train and Budapest debacle, only had one night there, there was a major language barrier, we were tired of money sketchiness, I was in a funky mood that night, and I just didn’t feel like putting a lot of energy into making the most out of the city. I am bummed out that I let myself get lazy (especially not going on the top of the boat), but this is about the midpoint of our travels and I think we were just running on low. I promised myself that from now on I was going to make sure that made the most of each city we were in so that I was satisfied that I had seen enough when I left there. Also I would very much like to visit Prague and Budapest later on in my life so until then.

We got to the train station in an extremely smooth fashion. Its so nice when you use public transportation and everything just works out. It turned out that we really didn’t need a reservation for this train, oh well. It explains why the reservation wasn’t that expensive. Our reserved seats were in a cabin that was pretty full, so we just went to the one next door and ended up having it to ourselves for the majority of the trip. In the middle of the train ride we decided to go to the dining car and get a drink. I ordered some original Budvar (Budweiser). After enjoying our beverages for a while we decided to head back to our cabin only to find it completely full with other people so we sat in our original cabin with other people. It was quite the musical chairs train ride. The weather finally turned pretty for the first time since Paris. The train ride showed a beautiful Austrian countryside in fall scene. It was very picturesque.

When we got into Vienna, the confirmation email of the hostel gave us great directions, so for the second time today we very successfully used public transportation. I love it when that happens. It brings me back to the days when I thought we were well on our way to becoming public transportation experts, only to then fail miserably in random places (which was deflating for my ego). Any who we got to the hostel no problem and it turned out to be a world “famous hostel” or at least belong to a group of famous hostels.

This hostel gave off a fantastic first impression. We decided to get a three bed private and just pay for the third bed, but even with doing that it was extremely cheap comparatively for clean privacy (only 24 euro). When we got into the hostel people we playing music because this hostel has musical instruments around that anyone can play. It has a bar in the common area. The room is so clean. The sheets look extremely comfortable. This hostel just has an extremely cool vibe and I totally dig it.

We asked for dinner recommendations at the front desk and the guy pointed us towards a typical Austrian dinner. I ordered a supposedly classic Viennese dish that was baked noodle, ham, and onion dish. It was extremely delicious and huge, so I brought the rest back to the hostel with me to put in the refrigerator and eat for breakfast in the morning. Katherine got a tomato soup (a favorite of hers) and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, which she also thoroughly enjoyed. Tomorrow I would like to go back there and get a Vienna sausage for lunch, just to keep with my trying native food kick.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel to hang out in the common area. It was nice to be around people who were on the same sort of agenda that we were and just chilling. I just cant get over how much I like this hostel. There are a bunch of Australians here (they seem to be everywhere) and they were getting rambunctious at the bar and started singing along with the music. It was quite comical. I already like Vienna.