My day had a bit of a rocky start. I went down to the communal kitchen and had breakfast, and then proceeded to pack my lunch for the day. When I opened my bag in the fridge, I saw that someone stole my cheese and had enough tact to leave the empty wrapper! I thought that was a bit rude, but I still had some deli meat, so my sandwich wasn't completely lost.

This morning brought more rain, but like always I braved the weather to make the most of the day.

I arrived in town in the morning and walked around admiring the architecture until just before noon. At that time, I headed over to the Anker clock. The Anker clock is a famous clock in Austria that sits between two buildings. I waited for about 10 minutes in the pouring rain for the clock to strike noon. Every day at noon the various characters that represent each of the twelve hours all parade across the face of the clock to music. The whole thing takes over ten minutes! Could you imagine living or working near there and having to hear that every day??

After that I headed to the hofburg palace to see one of the museums there - just to get out of the rain, really. I went into the Imperial treasury which houses crown jewels, luxurious robes and various valuable trinkets. It was cool to see!

Luckily, when I was done at the museum, the rain had stopped. I took advantage of the change in weather and headed to the Belvedere palace gardens. I walked from the lower belvedere palace, all the way through the gardens, to the upper palace. It was a very beautiful garden with lots of fountains and statues. The morning's rain made the grass look to vibrant and green (so there's a silver lining).

So now I'm back at the hostel reflecting on a nice stay in Vienna. I was able to cover all the sights I wanted to see, and I enjoyed myself despite the bad weather! Vienna is a nice city. I've decided that if you're not a fan of palaces, then it's not the city for you. It seems that the many palaces are the main attractions of the city. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting them, and imaging what living in such a grand palace would be like.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Vienna. I was thinking it would be a more traditional eastern European city. Instead, I found this bug bustling and modern city. Despite that first shock, I really enjoyed my time in Vienna.

Next stop Prague! Hopefully the weather is better there!