I was a little surprised at how bright it was at 4 in the morning, but it made it a little easier to drag ourselves out of bed and drearily walk to the Keleti train station. It took us over half an hour to get there, and once we arrived at the station there was absolutely nothing to do. I made sure we were there pretty early just in case there was a snafu with getting tickets, but that turned out to be surprisingly simple so we just sat on a bench and stared at the wall until the train came. It was a pretty short ride into Vienna (about three hours) and I was a little bummed at the lack of scenery on the way in. I was hoping to go through the Alps, but a quick look at the map reminded me that they're on the opposite end of the country. I probably should've known that, huh? Our hostel was just a couple of blocks from Westbahnhof and it took us a whole four minutes to find it (woot woot for advance planning!). It was too early to check in so we dropped our bags off and jumped on the metro. It was really easy to figure out here, which was great, and it seems like they heavily rely on the honor system. All the other metros we've been on have you buy a ticket and then insert it into a door that opens just long enough for you to get through. Here you bought a ticket if you felt like it and walked right on; there was no security or verification at all. The three of us could have never paid once the entire day and nobody would've known. Come to think of it I don't ever remember even seeing someone that worked there. Of course we paid but wow, talk about a government trusting its citizens! We came across more witnesses in the metro and all through the day. Those little carts are everywhere! I know we have them at home too but here the cities are so dense and large that they're probably the most effective way to talk to people. I made a point of saying hello to them whenever we were close, but no English + no German doesn't spell great conversation :) Hungarian looked just about impossible to read, but here the words look like people just threw a bunch of letters together and bet nobody would figure out how to say them! Check out the pictures. Ever see a 29-letter word before? Instant Scrabble champion. In the city we walked down a back street and found a tiny restaurant. We were the only ones there, and I think our waitress owned the place. For less than ten euro we got three courses of delicious home-made food (I'm not sure my body remembers how to process vegetables) and a fantastic beer. Just writing the word beer gets me excited for Prague! Unfortunately we found out that they don't take credit cards a little too late, and I had to leave the girls at the table while I jogged in the heat for about thirty minutes looking for an ATM. I was drenched when I got back, but the experience was worth it! I found a little walking tour of Vienna online last night, and we were trying to do that on our own. As usual, about half an hour in we realized we were walking in the complete opposite direction and had to start all over. I am so tired of writing about how lost we got! You can imagine the grumbles I heard... Ironically around that time we saw two blind people walking arm in arm down the street, both furiously waving their walking sticks in front of them. How in the world does that work? The 'blind leading the blind' comparison was too easy to ignore. Anyways, by the time we were in the right place and started seeing some really cool stuff, the girls were too tired to care. Beautiful steeple? Gorgeous spire? "Enh" was the common reply. I had gotten my second wind, but with beckoning golden domes gleaming just blocks ahead of us, Brittany's tortured expression meant we got on the metro (in all fairness Chelsea was right there with her, so I was straight-up outnumbered). One four-hour nap later and we were ready to go again! Unfortunately we never made it back to the Museum Quarter, but we did get to see Schonbrunn palace (I can't remember how to spell that). We couldn't go inside but the gardens were open so at least we could walk the grounds. We were all a little...underwhelmed. Sure it was large, and I'll bet the inside was breathtaking. But the exterior was really bland and lifeless. Nothing about it popped, and it's only impressive feature was the multi-colored rose garden by the carriage houses. From there we went to the main square, Stephensplatz. The second you walk out of the metro you're confronted with a massive and beautiful cathedral. They were having some kind of concert inside so we got in free, the towering walls were lit up in blues and greens. We stumbled around in the crowd for a while but at some point during the choir's recital we heard "get out of her, my people" in the back of our minds. We hoofed it out of there :) I had been looking forward to Wiener Schnitzel for weeks, but at that moment fried meat and French fries just didn't sound all that appetizing. Somehow cheese-covered dough did (makes sense, right?) so we ordered up three massive pizzas at a little Italian place and filled up for the night. Of course, there's always a little room for ice cream, and Brittany led the way in our search. Chelsea and I hung back behind her, and I told Chelsea she was watching a master at work as Brittany's ears seemed to perk at the sensation of nearby but unseen desserts; in fact I was going to title this post "Like a pig sniffing for truffles" but Brittany was less than amused hehe Five minutes underground and we were back at our hostel, which is about as close to a hotel as you can get for less than twenty bucks. This just about never happens, but we've got the whole dorm to ourselves, shower and all! Unsurprisingly, Brittany decided NOT to lock the stall door. We'll be able to sleep in tomorrow and grab some breakfast before catching our train to Prague. It should (fingers crossed) be a pretty uneventful day, so I'll probably skip the post. Beer ho!!!