Vienna

Day 19. Budapest to :( :( Vienna

Miserably. All the wile deeply considering caving to the pleas of Gemma, Jess and Will to screw Vienna and stay. It was then that I noticed my name on the sign up board for that nights jäger train. Funny guys. 

I chilled with the gang and spent a good amount of time on the verge of tears. I finally did leave, slept a while on the train and then had the most awful walk ever to the hostel in Vienna. The place was nice and pretty. But I got off at the wrong station and could not to for the life of me work out the trams. Not to mention it was a fucking furnace. Then I finally, after walking a really long and hot way found a metro station. But was unable to buy a ticket, only having fifty euro notes with a machine that takes only coins. So I considered my options hard and decided to risk the damn fine if I was caught and just rode the train illegally. It all worked out fine too. 

I checked into the hostel and went and meet my weird room mate. Then headed out for a food hunt. Deciding that could wait till the temperature dropped even one degree. It is so hot here. Feeling very depressed (probably the lowest point of my trip, even worse then the furnace hike) and all because of leaving Budapest and all the people there.  So I went into the bar and asked to join a group that was hanging out there and I then used my drink voucher and chose to upgrade it,  this landed me with a gigantic stein of beer for one euro. I was sitting with some Aussie guys and an American and then a Swiss guy joined us too. We talked about all sorts of normal travel things, our trips, where we are from etc. Things like compulsory military service in Switzerland. 

Then we set out for dinner at a pretty typical Austrian restaurant, more beers and much to my utter delight, an in depth and detailed conversation about game of thrones. Ahhh. Night is looking good already. 

Back in the bar, still stinking hot and fanning ourselves with menus while drinking and playing pool, one of the guys suddenly cried out in shock as a bartender shot him in the back with a water gun. I immediately ran across the room begging to be sprayed and get a little bit cool. It was sweet and blissful relief and just about everyone on the bar laughed. 

Then the bartenders started handing out super soakers to the patrons. In no time at all, I was utterly soaked. Literally, not a singe part of my body, hair or clothes was dry. There was also a startling moment when the Swiss guy got a hold of the water gun and did this incredibly army roll and barrage attack on some other putz with a gun. Oh yeah, we all realised at the same time. Soldier. Wow, it was a little scary. 

So, water fight in a bar. Who'd a seen that comin?

Day 18. Vienna

As pre arranged I met up with the six boys I had met last night (sans the adorable, yet scary as fuck with a water gun Swiss soldier, who left Vienna early that morning). After a bit of decision making we then set off  for a day of touristing. We followed a suggested walking trail on the free map given to us by the hostel. And it was actually pretty good, though a took a little mental energy to whittle out exactly what building we were looking at.

So Vienna is chockers full of a lot of big, grand and gilded buildings. Opera houses, palaces, mansions, I don't know what else. 

We had fun posing in front of the Mozart statue. But more fun when we discovered some sprinklers in action and ran for then, diving under and getting wet. Apparently Vienna is going to have a water theme. Water fights last night, sprinklers today. But good god it was blissful relief. It was so stinking hot, even early in the morning. 

We had a lot of fun wandering along, chatting and making crass jokes. While I love all my closest girlfriends I really do prefer the company of guys. I dont know why exactly but I was having a pretty great day surrounded by my pack of men. 

We stopped at one point and sat on a bench in a gorgeous park - for some unkown reason selecting a bench right next to one occupied by a couples out for a romantic date - what followed was a discussion about orgies. Sorry nice couple, I hope we didn't ruin your romance.

Next we went to the SHMETTERLING HAUS!!! The SCHMETTERLING HAUS is... a butterfly house. Oh the gentle and soft German language.

We also stopped in a park for a few good minuets and stared transfixed at ducks. Odd, but we were all doing it. And the whole time commenting on how odd it was to be in Vienna, and staring at common wood ducks. 

I left the boys at the Freud museum (which they seemed to enjoy) and I left for Spanish riding school tour I had booked earlier. Unfortunately this time of the year the Spanish Riding School has its stallions away in the hills for breeding and there are no performances. Sad face. BUt I did get to have a tour of the grounds, the gigantic automatic walking machine, the tack room, the arena and of course the stables. Growing up I always had this idea that Lipizzaners were not the most attractive horses, they tend to have mealy mouths and pink skin around the eyes, which is never attractive. BUt that was blown completely out of the water. These horses (that were not even their prize stock) were some of the most magnificent creatures I have ever seen. Perfect confirmation, glorious necks and backs and pretty heads (majestic really, with beautiful roman noses) I was spellbound and dropped back from the tour and just basically stared at the horses. 

After the tour I met back up with the boys and we all walked back to the hostel, meandering and getting into a bit of a political discussion. After a last minute chill and talking one of the guys who was heading to Budapest to get a booking at one of the BPH hostels there. Much to both of our excitement  he got a booking at Retox. Wooooo! Latter I got a message from him that he had decided to extend his stay. Sound familiar?

I bid the guys farwel and loaded up my pack and headed off to catch my night train to Amsterdam.