Vienna (and Budapest part one)

The first stop on the grand Eastern Europe adventure was Budapest.  To start the trip, I met Helen and her friends Evan, Sydney, and Kam at the Budapest airport.  They all study in Madrid with her.  Evan and Kam are American, and Sydney's from London.  We got along so well and I'm so glad I got to tag along on their trip!  We stayed in this hilarious hostel, Tiger Tims (please, please click on the link).  It looked like a log cabin inside.. so odd.  Luckily Tim recommended a delicious Hungarian restaurant for us to try.  We all ended up ordering the Gnocchi which was the best meal I've probably ever had.  Granted, we were all absolutely starving, but I inhaled that plate.  Stomachs stuffed, we walked to the river to see the parliament at night.  

The next morning we took an early train into the city and then got to navigate the metro to get to the hostel.  I wasn't thinking when I decided to take a rolling suitcase, so I had some issues in the crowded metro.  At one point, we were rushing to catch a train (along with about 400 other people) and I was focused on not running over someone's foot with my suitcase when I realized I was staring at everyone's feet.  My entire right leg went into the gap between the platform and the train!  Sydney went into superhero mode and whisked me back up and we made it inside right when the doors shut and the train started moving.  So I could have ended up in a hospital in Austria with no leg... luckily that did not happen. 

The evil metro

After we settled into the hostel, we headed to the Belvedere.  It's a palace complex that was built during the Habsburg Monarchy.  It's been made into a museum, housing collections from people like Gustav Klimt.  You'll recognize his most famous piece, The Kiss.  The museum was really cool since it was basically just the old palace plus artwork.

After the museum, we were all starving so we made our way to street vendors.  Me, Evan, and Kam got frankfurters, which were hot dogs shoved into a baguette with a ton of mustard.  Not too shabby!

After lunch, we explored Vienna and walked around the city.  Evan and Sydney went into another art museum, but me, Helen, and Kam played with Legos outside.  Productive, I know.

Then it was off to the hostel for some much needed sleeeeep.  Unfortunately, I started to feel sick the first day which resulted in my voice turning a bit Louis Armstrong-esque.  I had been complimenting myself on not getting sick and not having to break out the mountains of cold medicine I brought with me from the states, only to need them as soon as I'm away from Leeds.  Oh well!

The next day was filled with more exploration through Vienna's museum quarter.  Me, Helen, and Kam headed to the Natural History Museum.  Note to self: natural history museums are the same regardless of where you are.  After the museums, we went to an outdoor market and had delicious doner kebabs.

Stephansdom, or St. Stephan's Cathedral

After the museums, we headed to Schonbrunn Palace, another one of the Habsburgs.  I would have liked to go in, but it was pretty expensive so we explored the grounds instead.  Helen and I also did a lot of Sound of Music trivia (seriously), in honor of being in Austria.  Mom, you'll be proud to know that I dominated the questions.

Sydney, Evan, Helen, and me freezing outside the palace

We headed back to the hostel to nap before going out for classic Austrian schnitzel!  I forgot to take any pictures, but this picture shows what we ate.  Um, delicious. We had to wait to be seated for like 45 minutes, but it was totally worth it.


We were supposed to leave early the next morning, but we managed to miss our bus by about 1 minute.  Kam, Evan, and Syd all decided to take the train to Prague, but Helen and I decided we couldn't justify the price of a train ticket, so settled for a cheaper bus later in the day.  We walked around the outskirts of Vienna for awhile which was really interesting.  Once we were away from the touristy areas, I really felt like we were in Eastern Europe.  Which we were, so that was a stupid statement.

 We spent the duration of our time in Vienna in a small cafe watching the regulars chat with the owners and trying to figure out what speisewurze sauce is (still don't know).

We had a wonderful time in Vienna, but the cold and windy weather kind of put a damper on it.  Also, it's an expensive city!  Even though it's in the Eurozone, it's pricey.  Luckily Budapest and Prague are still on their own currencies so it wasn't as painful to be in those two cities.  However, Vienna was gorgeous and they had a lot for us to see, so that's really all we can ask for!