Vienna, Austria

Day 44 Wednesday, July 1st - Today Lydia and I arrived in Vienna. It was a pretty long bus ride, but well worth the trip. When we got there, I realized I had booked us in the "wrong" hostel (Our bus picks us up and drops us off at a recommended hostel, so I have been trying to book us into these places). There are three Wombat City Hostels in Vienna, so it was a simple mistake. We asked the front desk at the recommend hostel if they had any room for us over the next three nights and they said they were booked full. Well, we were planning on doing a tour of Vienna with a bunch of people that night, so we left our luggage at the recommended hostel and were going to figure out how to get to our hostel that we booked when we got back from the tour.

Vienna installed same-sex and opposite-sex couple cross-walk signs for the Eurovision Song Contest to show their openmindedness and the city loved it so much they kept them. Truly Amazing to see the love of this city. 

Our tour of Vienna started at 6:30 pm and Lydia and I arrived about 5:30 pm. After all the commotion of people checking-in and getting settled, Lydia, our friend Kate, and I walked down the street for a quick beer before we departed on the tour. The tour itself was called a ‘Walk and Fork’ tour of Vienna. Basically, we got a tour of the inner city from a local and at the end she took us to a local restaurant for some schnitzel. The woman who guided us around on the tour was remarkable; she had so much energy and was so excited to show us her city. One of the things I really liked was how she talked about her childhood and what she was taught about WWII and coming to know the reality of what actually happened. What she said that most of the world views Austria as Hitler's first victim, but Austria willing submitted to Hitler's rule. She then showed us how Vienna treated the Jews right after Hitler took over, making them scrub the streets with toothbrushes. Even more, she told us about when she was growing up, there were a lot of Nazis still in Austria and she was taught that it was the Americans that set up concentration camps. She then went on to talk about how as she got older the truth about Austria and its involvement in WWII became known and that Vienna didn't want to hide from its past, but embrace it, so as to learn from the mistakes that it made; some very powerful stuff.

Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial.  It is the central memorial for the Austrian victims of the Holocaust.

Anyway, our guide also took us through the Imperial Square, gave us hints on how to get around in Vienna, pointed out good spots to go drink and eat, she was pretty amazing. At the end of the tour, like I said, we stopped at a local restaurant for some homemade schnitzel.

On our walk back to the recommended hostel we stopped at the Soviet Monument. Stalin had this build before handing Austria over to the Allies. It was a pretty incredible monument for what it was. We took a couple group photos and made our way back to the hostel.

Soviet Monument

When we got back to the hostel, I thought I would ask one more time if we could switch to the recommended hostel from the one we booked, thinking maybe someone had cancelled. Luckily, the guy I asked said no problem, but the woman I had asked earlier was a royal bitch and yelled at us for asking again. Well we were able to switch no problem; the guy that took care of us was very helpful.  

After we checked-in and got into our room, Lydia and I went downstairs to the hostel bar to meet our friends Kate and Issy for a beer before heading to bed. It was kind of funny because we got our drinks, but none of us really talked I think because we were all so exhausted.  

After our quick drink, we said goodbye to Kate who was leaving Vienna the next day for Salzburg, and went to bed.

Day 45 Thursday, July 2nd - The next morning, a group of us were going on something called the 'Grape Escape.' It was a bike tour through the vineyards and along the River Danube sampling quality wines, schnapps liqueurs, and jam at small family-owned wineries. We stopped for a BBQ lunch and took a swim in the River Danube.

Well, before the tour we had to take a train out into the countryside. At the train station there was this crazy woman walking around the platform; SERIOUSLY CRAZY. If you made eye contact she would make these devils faces at you, start speaking tongue and walk circles around you. There was a group of small school children that she was flashing her underwear at. Well, a train arrived at another platform and someone from our group, Skyler, went up to her and was like "That's your train, hurry you're gunna miss your train." It was hilarious because she quickly grabbed her things and got on this random train. The teacher from the school children asked us if that was her train and we said "No idea, we just needed to get rid of her."  The teacher laughed and said thank you. (This was one of those you had to be there moments). Anyway it was scary and hilarious.

At the beginning of the tour, our guide said that at least one person falls every time. Well that was me; three bottles of wine in I tried to look behind me and well drove off into the ditch and fell off my bike. My instant reaction was laughter because well I was the person that fell. No worries, I got back on my bike, made it to the beach, bought another bottle of wine and swam in the river!!! After our bike tour, we took the train back into Vienna, had a group dinner and then made our way back to the hostel for bed. It was probably one of the most fun days I have had on this trip so far.

The one downside about today was when I got back to my hostel I noticed that someone had used my towel. These two people from Finland said that two guys from South Korea came in and just used it and then left. I never had a chance to yell at those guys because they came back to the room after I was asleep and were checked-out of the room before I woke up. It was gross

Day 46 Friday, July 3rd - This was mine and Lydia's last day in Vienna. A group of us decided to tour Schönburnn palace and gardens. It was pretty remarkable. It was this GIANT palace that was the center to a GIANT garden. It was something out of a fairy tale. After that, Me, Lydia, and our friends Gerry and Vanessa went back toward our hostel to find some lunch. We stopped at the Naschmarkt for some street food. Lydia and I then went to St. Michael's Basilica to hopefully see the catacombs. Unfortunately, we got there too late, but the church itself was beautiful.

At Schönburnn palace with (L to R) Me, Gerry, Lyida and Vanessa

Lyida and I at Schönburnn palace

We made our way back to the hostel to get out of the heat and take a nap. That night I met some people down in the hostel bar for a quick drink. Lydia and I were going to be leaving the next day for Munich. Lydia stayed in that night, so I went to meet these new friends by myself. We had a couple Jaeger bombs, and then left to go to a different bar because the hostel bar was so crowded and hot it was unbearable. The group stumbled into a gay bar by accident. It was really weird because everyone was sitting; they were playing a slideshow of different kinds of chairs on the TV screens.... I don't know, was just weird, so we had a quick drink and then left. I stopped at one more place to hang out with a couple of people and then headed back to the hostel for the night.