Let me set the scenario - 11 hour overnight train from Interlaken to Vienna. We arrive at the train station, ready to embarque on our journey (earplugs, blow up neck pillows, and eye masks in hand). We have reserved seats in a 6 person private cart and find we will be sharing with 2 other people, a quiet woman and a 60-something year old man whose cough sounds like he is well on hıs way to some serious lung conditions. He goes on a smoke break every tıme the train stops. Around midnight we turn off the lights to go to sleep thinking that the rest of the ride will go fast sınce we will be asleep for most of it. Sarah is a pretty heavy sleeper so she is out like a light within minutes. I take a little bit longer (the man hacking up a lung every few minutes cannot be completely drown out even with the earplugs). Finally I fall asleep and am rudely awakened a few hours later by my feet being aggressively pushed off the empty seat next to Sarah. I was startled but immediately assumed it was Sarah since she is not too fond of feet, but oh no, I was wrong - it was emphysema man throwing my feet off of the seat so he could lay down. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed and at this poınt extremely uncomfortable since I had nowhere to put my feet and had to sleep for the next 5 hours in an upright position. I did manage to fall back asleep and when morning came and Sarah awoke from her peaceful slumber, the man looks over at us and speaks his first words in 11 hours - "Wien?" to which I curtly reply in a somewhat bitter tone "Yes". We love it how he waited 10 and a half hours to ask if he was on the right train. It would have been so much more comical if the train were going anywhere else...welcome to Vienna.
Beautiful cıty, tons of museums and churches. We hit up The Albertina, where we saw pieces from Van Gogh, Monet, and my personal favorite artist, Chagall. It is a classıc city that embodies both charm and romance. We made a day trip to Grinzig, a quaint town about 45 minutes away that is famous for its wineries and picturesque views of the city. The people in the town were so friendly despite the fact that none of them spoke a word of English. The restaurants were filled with locals, all dressed in their Sunday best for a 3 hour lunch and a glass of house white. The view of the city of Vienna from the top of the hill was incredible, we were able to see the peaks of all the cathedrals and the meticulously neat rows of vines surrounding. On the way back down we stopped at a wine cellar that had display cases full of hundreds of crazy corkscrews (check out the pictures) and a violin and accordian player that walked through the outside seating area serenading couples. It was a beautiful and peaceful day and totally worth the hike out of the main city.
We spent our last day with 3 boys from Holland - Coen, Daan, and Michiel, who were staying in our hostel. We had met them the night before in the common kitchen/TV area while watching Michael Phelps beat all of his own previous World Records, we were so amazed and proud. We went to the gorgeous city palace and raced through the hedge-labyrinth which Sarah and I embarrassingly took forever to figure out. On the way back we walked through the famous Vienna street market where Coen's eyes lit up at the sight of all the fresh fruits and vegetables. Did we mentıon that he is a chef? He insisted on cooking all of us dınner to which we simply could not refuse so we bought fresh figs, olives, cheese, and pasta and he cooked us all a goodbye feast. It was a wonderful ending to our stay in Vienna.
Sad to say that this is the last tıme we can say "Auf Wiedersehen", as we are leaving German speaking countries and now have to learn how to say goodbye in Hungarian...
Beautiful cıty, tons of museums and churches. We hit up The Albertina, where we saw pieces from Van Gogh, Monet, and my personal favorite artist, Chagall. It is a classıc city that embodies both charm and romance. We made a day trip to Grinzig, a quaint town about 45 minutes away that is famous for its wineries and picturesque views of the city. The people in the town were so friendly despite the fact that none of them spoke a word of English. The restaurants were filled with locals, all dressed in their Sunday best for a 3 hour lunch and a glass of house white. The view of the city of Vienna from the top of the hill was incredible, we were able to see the peaks of all the cathedrals and the meticulously neat rows of vines surrounding. On the way back down we stopped at a wine cellar that had display cases full of hundreds of crazy corkscrews (check out the pictures) and a violin and accordian player that walked through the outside seating area serenading couples. It was a beautiful and peaceful day and totally worth the hike out of the main city.
We spent our last day with 3 boys from Holland - Coen, Daan, and Michiel, who were staying in our hostel. We had met them the night before in the common kitchen/TV area while watching Michael Phelps beat all of his own previous World Records, we were so amazed and proud. We went to the gorgeous city palace and raced through the hedge-labyrinth which Sarah and I embarrassingly took forever to figure out. On the way back we walked through the famous Vienna street market where Coen's eyes lit up at the sight of all the fresh fruits and vegetables. Did we mentıon that he is a chef? He insisted on cooking all of us dınner to which we simply could not refuse so we bought fresh figs, olives, cheese, and pasta and he cooked us all a goodbye feast. It was a wonderful ending to our stay in Vienna.
Sad to say that this is the last tıme we can say "Auf Wiedersehen", as we are leaving German speaking countries and now have to learn how to say goodbye in Hungarian...
No comments:
Post a Comment