Wien

Vienna was one of my favorite cities from the whole trip. It is lovely and full of beautiful things to see and delicious things to eat and very nice people.

We got up early Monday, May 18 and accidentally went to the wrong train station, but somehow made it to our train at the right train station on time. The ride from Prague to Vienna was about 5 hours. We got there and took the metro to the end of the line, then set off on a hellish 1 hour plus hike uphill (with our packs on) to the hostel. I think the view was worth it though. I loved staying outside the city in what was sort of the woods. The hostel was amazing too.

The first thing we did was have some delish wiener schnitzel and good Austrian beer. Afterwards we walked around in the woods for over an hour. Back at the hostel we just chilled for a while, eventually meeting our Chinese roommates.

On Tuesday May 19 we had the fantastic free breakfast buffet (quite the smorgasbord). This time we got smart and took the bus to the metro to the city. Then we walked around Stephans Dom, got to the Hofburg Palace, went to a square with a building Mozart played in, and wound up in front of a strange music-playing giant clock. At noon giant figures of important Austrians cycle in front of the clock with music from their time period playing. Pretty neat.

Lunch was at a cool open-face sandwich restaurant where all the sandwiches were 1 euro. We got 1 egg and cucumber, 1 mushroom and egg, 2 cheese and onion, 1 super spicy horseradish and pepper relish, and 1 bacon and egg.

Another culinary experience: a very fancy pastry shop called Demas. We both had cake (mine was a little too liquor-y) and I had a special Viennese coffee.

We walked to the Belvedere museum, and lo and behold they were having a special Mucha exhibit! So we got double the Mucha from our Europe trip. We saw Klimt's The Kiss and lots of excellent Schiele as well as a special exhibit on Lovis Corinth.

A metro ride took us to the Schonbrunn Palace, lauded as the "must-do" in Vienna. It was just so-so. Afterwards we went to a heuriger or Austrian wine tavern. It must have been fun judging from the hangover the next day.