Wien

Outside the natural history museum in Vienna
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Hello Everyone,

It's hot here in Vienna! It's also a very different vibe from Salzburg. There's still plenty to see but more like any other big city in the world. We are staying near Westbahnhof (train station) which is convenient to lug our 25kg bags only a short distance. Apart from that we are a little bit further from the main attractions so we get to do more walking :)

The place we're staying is a welcome change from hostelling. Technically it's still a hostel but the setup is a little different: the rooms are freshly painted with a modern feel, they are mostly double rooms and you only share a bathroom with a few other guests (rather than hordes of teenagers like the last place!) We also have a comfy bed and a door that locks electronically so we don't have to cart bags to the luggage storage every morning. A big plus.

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The neighbourhood where we are staying is pretty lively - a bit more gritty than Salzburg, less touristy. It feels ok in the daytime but we've sort of decided not to go out too late at night just in case. Don't worry Mum's and Dad's we're fine!!!! We've also already had some quite interesting language barrier experiences here. For example - we went to order food at the Bakery in the train station and nobody spoke English. After all, why would they when we're in Austria!?! So we had to get smart real quick. Anna ordered an Apfelstrudel and ended up with a dry croissant. Apart from that it was ok. We also wanted to try the local cuisine so we went to a nice restaurant and had Weinerschnitzel. By that stage our German had improved quite a bit, we managed to get all the right foods and drinks without too much English and rude hand gestures. The waiter kept saying "Jawohl!"which freaked us out a bit but the food was delicious and the view from the rooftop restaurant quite special.

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On the second day we were in Vienna we took a long walk into the city to see some OLD STUFF including the Natural history museum, Rathausplatz and the Lipizzaner museum / Spanish riding school. Anna was quite dissapointed to have missed the mid morning exercises with the pretty horsies but she thinks Michael was a bit relieved that we didn't have to pay 25 euros each to go see it! Instead we just took some photos and went on our way. This day was even hotter than the last and by lunchtime we were both sweaty and a bit dizzy from the heat. It was really nice to relax in the Volksgarten (people's garden) and soak up some shade before continuing on our journey.

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We saw some other key buildings including Parliament house and a church that we've already forgotten the name of (shame on us!). By about 3pm we were both exhuasted so decided to leave the Danube for another time. By all accounts it's now the Brown Danube from all the pollution so perhaps we didn't miss much..we'll have to see next time.

The hostel also has free internet access, very handy for emailing and booking accommodation! There was also a really big storm outside - lots of thunder, dust and wind. It was so strong it blew the flowerboxes off the windows and cancelled a Barbara Streisand concert that was scheduled for the evening. One woman staying here had come all the way from the Netherlands to see the concert and paid some insane amount for the ticket! Oh well, guess all that high pressure had to go somewhere. We're ok though - it's quite safe indoors.

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We're off to Prague next! Very excited about what we'll see and trying to cram as much Czech language from the guidebook as we can!

Love and Best Wishes to you all xxxooooxxxx

Anna and Michael