The city of my dreams

On Thursday Katie and I went to Hallstatt. It is a tiny town located near Salzburg just at the base of mountains on a huge lake. For years I have seen pictures of it in calendars and travel books and have always wanted to go there.

We took the train to a little station and then took a ferry across the lake to the town. As soon as I saw it I felt like we were walking into a painting. It is perfect, just the most beautiful and picturesque town in the world.

With the help of a kind German woman named Erica we found our hotel. Because it is so small there are not any hostels. We stayed in Pension Sarstein and it was the nicest place I have ever stayed in my life! It is run by a older couple named Klaus and Isabelle and they are the cutest Austrian people. We had a room with a big balcony overlooking the water, a big bathroom, a big comfy bed, it was amazing! And it was only 30 Euro each, which is pretty freakin good. They also made us a big breakfast in the morning which included Klaus hard boiling eggs for us and serving them hot in a little egg cup.

So we wandered the beautiful town and stopped and had a late lunch right on the water. We spent the rest of our time there just staring in awe at the beautiful mountains and water. We drank red wine late into the night and talked on our balcony. It was one of my favorite days of the whole trip so far. We definitely needed a day where we were not trying to explore a huge town.

On Friday, today, we made our way to Vienna. I honestly had no idea how big this city was. It is HUGE! And no matter where you look there is a big church, palace or cathedral. At first I was a bit overwhelmed, but as we started to explore we found some lovely quite parks right in the heart of the Old Town area and we had a little picnic.

Vienna feels like a city of odd blends. There is all of this old town beauty and its famous classical music scene and operas, but it also has a big city feel and is filled with punk kids and posh city people. Very cool so far. Katie leaves for the Netherlands tomorrow morning and I am on my own in Vienna. I will let you guys know how it goes. I am excited to see more of the city tomorrow. Katie and I had such a fun week exploring together and I am so glad it worked out for us to come at the same time. It made for a great adventure.

So I must go, as Billy Joel so eloqantly put it, Vienna waits for you (well, for me)

(The apostrophe key will not work on this computer by the way)