Vienna and Prague

My hostel in Vienna had a very early check-out time (9:30am), at least compared to everywhere else I've stayed so far (usually ~11am). It turned out to be a good thing because I was able to catch an earlier train to Munich. Otherwise, i would have had to wait until 3pm or so and with a 5 hour train ride, that doesn't leave much time for exploring Munich!

Vienna, though...was so beautiful! It's a city that seems like it breathes culture. From the second I stepped off the train yesterday until I left this morning, I just felt energetic and alive. Everything was so clean for such a large city. Sure, there was still graffiti in places, but the buildings were romantically constructed, everything looking like it was one step away from a waltz.

I left Prague early in the morning yesterday because it was another 5-hour ride to Vienna. When I caught the train from Berlin to Prague, I learned a very valuable lesson: people here fight for their seats and if you aren't quick enough, you get to stand for the entire way. Also, I learned that some seats are actually reserved -- I learned that when I had to move because I'd taken someone else's reserved seat. For about 10 minutes into the ride to Prague, I was just standing around trying to find something to learn on, faced with the prospect of standing for the entire 5 hours; luckily, some people missed their reservations and I got to steal a seat in that car with those Irish boys I mentioned before.

So, when I stood in line to board the train to Vienna, I fought to get in early, I scanned to make sure there were no reservations displayed, and then I nabbed a window seat across from another girl who silently stared back at me. Right before the train left the station, a loud group of Spaniard boys boarded and two of them sat besides me and my silent friend. I had pulled out my iPad, meaning to catch up on some reading, but the motion of the train lulled me to sleep for most of the five hours. It was an awkward sleep: I could still hear the fast and sloppy Spanish being spoken through my dreams, and every so often the boy beside me would accidentally brush into my arm or elbow, waking me up.

The ride seemed to take ages. From Berlin to Prague, the countryside had been amazingly gorgeous and we had followed a river for a good deal of it. For this ride, the trees blocked most of the view. But then, finally, ages later, the train arrived in "Wiener Miedling," my stop.

I was able to get to my hostel, check in, and drop off my bags to be back on my way towards the city center within the hour. The weather was wonderful -- I threw on a tank top, rolled up my pant legs, and then set off for an adventurous romp through the city. For the better part of that time, I just wandered around, lost and happy to be lost.



The city definitely has a magical feel to it. Ladies walk around in evening gowns halfway through the afternoon; grand carriages pulled by Cinderella horses tour the streets; people dressed up in Mozart-era costumes try to sell you maps of the city, tickets to the night's opera, walking tours, etc. I tried to buy a ticket for the opera and winced at the prices. They sell standing-room only tickets starting at about 2.50€ but when I got there, the line was about 300 people deep! And that was 90 minutes before the show started! The night's music was Mozart's The Magic Flute, so of course many people wanted to see it as well.

I stepped inside of St. Stephen's cathedral and was blown away by the beauty of it. Half of it is blocked off, accessible only if you buy the 15€ ticket, but the other public half was gorgeous enough. They have some sort of disco lighting in it, I can't hardly explain why, but the effect is like you're in a shiny bubble. It was really, really cool.


In the streets, everyone was sitting in their cafes eating ice cream or drinking coffee. The background noise was a nonstop conversation between so many hundreds of people, all just relaxing on this sunny afternoon. I met several very nice people and one man in particular who wanted to talk about America because he was going to go backpacking there for 3 months next spring! They talked to me about how everyone goes to the opera here, and that they all waltz in the streets for New Year's. While I was walking, I only saw one beggar: he was blind, holding his walking stick in one hand and his begging cup in the other, and he was belting out this beautiful opera song out like he was standing on a stage!


It wasn't dark but it had started getting late when I headed back to my hostel. The metro system in the city was incredibly convenient and I'm certain that the only reason you'd ever need a car here is for when you were leaving the city. I had bought a day pass but no one ever checked it; I'm certain that, if I hadn't, I would have gotten away with it. In my hostel dorm, I met a girl from Hong Kong who had just arrived in Vienna from Budapest and whose next stop was Prague. We chatted about our similar experiences of traveling alone, the best and worst places we'd been, and our future plans. She was really nice but I never got her name!

The evening was just as beautiful as the daytime. It stayed warm until very late; the air was slightly humid, like a light blanket around you, and everything smelled of flowers. The hostel was full of what seemed like groups of school children with their exasperated chaperones; they set up camp on the grass in the back and played soccer until twilight. I read a little, feeling like it was only appropriate to scan some Freud in this place, then checked my emails and chatted a bit to Jess and Popi. I also tried to figure out the situation in Greece.

I didn't know anything about it until I saw a German newspaper with some riot pictures on the front page. Apparently Greece is on the verge of defaulting on some of its debts; the Germans have worked out a new repayment schedule for them, but it will require another bailout of the country by the EU. And it will also require about another 20% cut of public spending, which means job and pay losses for many, many people. The population already went through a massive spending cut a few years ago, when Greece's government was first bailed out; the cuts in their paychecks then have made them angry, and the threat of more cuts have made them riotous. For the last three weeks, they've been peacefully gathering outside the Athens Parliament house to protest this new plan. Yesterday, or the day before, those peaceful demonstrations turned violent. Flights in and out of Greece are for the most part undisrupted (Popi checked that out for me!) and the violence is limited to only certain areas of the city (John got an inside source to confirm this) so I'm not very worried myself. The only thing I continue to be a little frustrated with is the public transportation in Greece. Some of the reports say that all public transportation has been shut down; some say nothing else is affected. Blah! Greece, even without riots, has a terrible public transportation system. There was no reliable information on the Internet and I've read up on horror stories about taking 6 or 7 hours on a 45 minute bus ride. Hopefully by the time I actually get into Athens on the 24th, it'll have calmed itself down.

I do miss home terribly! I told Jessica that on my slow days, time goes by in seconds. On my busy days, time races by so fast that I feel I been on fast-forward the entire day. I miss Lucas awfully. Lisa and I talked about the guys in our lives and I felt like I could just brag about him all day. I have a few pictures of Randy and Julie that I show off -- I haven't bought any souvenirs yet because I haven't seen anything worthwhile, but I know I've got to get Randy a cool toy from London and Julie some beautiful thing from Paris at least! I've been gone for almost a month now and, with two months to go, I already know that the best place I'll see will be home.

Location:On the train towards Munich