Vienna was an awesome way to spend our day!! We arrived at about 8:15pm. Before we left Budapest, I had connected with a friend of mine from Highschool, Fiona, because I knew she had been doing research in Vienna and I asked her for some tips and tricks. Well, I thought she was already back in Palm Bay, but it turns out she was still in Vienna for one more day!! So she met us at the train station (with little gifts in hand, she's perfect) and helped us get around and find our hostel. She had told me about a film festival going on at city hall, so we headed out there to go see it. They put up a huge projector screen, and every night played a recording of a different opera that you could go and watch for free, since the opera house is on summer holiday. They have a huge sitting area set up, and behind that, tons of food a drink tents. We got dinner, caught up, enjoyed eachother's company, and lost track of time. When we realized it was midnight, we were going to head back, but Fiona wanted to spend her last night in Vienna exploring the city at night one last time. So we did just that. She showed us around, we saw some major sights, she showed us how to get to some others, and then before it got too too late, we headed back, because she had to leave at 7:30am to catch her flight back home. She gave us a note full of information and things she thought were must sees, since our time there was so limited. We said our goodbyes, and then went our separate ways. Since we didn't find the hostel ourselves the first time, we had a bit of difficulty finding it again, but no worries, we did. Oh! And a word about the hostel: we were in a 3-bed room, but we didn't see our roommate at all that day. It was set up exactly like a dorm, but it was in a hotel so it was super fancy. We came to learn that it actually is a dorm for Webster University kids, and the rooms not used are then a hostel, so that makes sense. My inner RA came out when I saw themed floors, ours was Scooby Doo. It was a super throwback to my peer mentor days on North 2, for sure.
We woke up in the morning and found that our other roommate actually did exist. We all small talked while packing up and getting ready for the day, and he decided to join us on our walking tour. We kind of got lost on the way there because of bad google map instructions, and then he wanted breakfast so we missed the tour group leaving and had to catch up, but no matter. Our tour guide was so great, she was spunky and personable, and made little jokes and laughed at them herself and her laugh was just adorable. We saw basically every site there is to see, because Vienna isn't very big. Along the way our roommate decided he wanted to take advantage of the lack of open container laws and bought us all a beer, our tour guide thought that was the greatest thing ever. I don't know why, but mine kept exploding all over me so that was great, and Megan almost spilled hers inside a church, so we were really good to hang out with, I'm sure. When the tour ended, our guide gave us some suggestions of things to see and do with our last three hours, working in coordination with Fiona's list. We went into St. Stephen's Cathedral (yes both Budapest and Vienna had one, and also both had a Heroes Square), and then we climbed the tower to see the view of the city (so we've done that at two St. Stephens now). It was a spiral staircase, super skinny, all the way up, and then we didn't get to go all the way to the top, just most of the way to where they have a little shop set up and you look out of a few windows, so it wasn't nearly as great as the one in Budapest, but in still glad we did it, definitely. It was the malt stairs we've climbed yet, too, at 358. Quite the cramped crowded work out. Thank goodness for tower windows and a breeze!! We then wandered past the opera house, down to a really pretty park, explored the museum square, and just hung out. We headed back to the City Hall and film festival area to see it in the day time. Then our roommate and us went our separate ways, him to meet up with some other people he had plans with, and we went back to the main part of the city to get this very specific chocolate cake that Fiona says is a must, called Sachertorte, which originated from the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, so we went to the hotel's cafe and enjoyed a piece. By then it was time to head back to our hostel, grab our things, and go to the train station. Of course, our train was delayed by almost a half an hour, by because of this, we met a kid we were waiting next to, who ended up sitting with us on the train and we chatted the whole time. He's from New York and in school too so we had quite a bit to chat about. Somehow our train is only supposed to be 10 minutes late, so hopefully that stands because we were already scheduled to arrive at 11:30ish pm.
Vienna, you were great and beautiful! And I'm so glad you got to bring me and Fiona back together for a nice little reunion!
Prague, we're coming for ya, and you're our last stop before heading home, so this will be our last train. The feeling is bitter sweet, I'm ready to come home and to start school, but I don't want to leave yet. It doesn't really matter though because regardless we will be home in 3 days! Ahhhhh I can't believe our 5 weeks have gone by this fast!!