Julianne, the girl from Brisbane whom I have been hanging out with the past couple of days, and I were going to go to Czesky Krumlov in the Czech Rep last night, but the train out of Vienna departed from the minor station that was a bit difficult to get to, and by a bit difficult I mean: we took the metro, in order to catch a tram, so we could catch a bus. Well the metro took longer than expected, we couldn't find the tram, and then once we finally found the bus we got on it going the wrong direction. So we jumped off the bus as soon as we realized, hailed a cab and prayed we could make it to the station in 10 minutes. If you are not at the station at least 15 minutes before your train leaves, I would say, "don't even waste your time," unless it is Spain or Italy where trains are always running late. Finally we were sitting in the cab looking at our watches going, "this is not going to happen. Where else can we get to tonight? Lets look in my train schedule. Oh, look at that, we could go to Poland on an overnight train. That sounds fun!"
That is the basic stream of consciousness when one misses a train, but still wants to leave where they are. I mean it takes so much effort to pack in 5 minutes. You really don't want to have to do it all over again the next day unless you are doing it in another country. So, we hoped on an overnight train to Warsaw Poland. Poland wasn't even on my radar as a destination, so it was fun to completely veer off my path. Plus this way I get to make it to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. And got to do my first sleeper couchette, which was so much better than trying to sleep sitting up.
Vienna was a blast! I did so much, and loved every minute of it. Met a bunch of great people, and did some rare tourist activities. After doing the "War and Peace" of walking tours, Julianne and I decided to go to the Royal Viennese Opera and see the ballet that was playing that night, so we got the 3 euro 'standing room only' tickets and stood in the Alps watching a wonderful ballet. It was so much fun seeing a classical ballet in such a fantastic venue, while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans. (FYI... If you do standing room seats at the opera, there is no dress code. So you can basically walk off the street and see the performance. No need to bathe!!!)
The next day we spent going to a couple of museums, seeing the largest single collection of Klimt artwork at the Leopold Museum, and went out to dinner at this awesome wine bar. The Wine Bar was formerly the wine cellar of the Royal Family, with tunnels connecting many noble establishments in Vienna, so it is HUGE. The food is really cheap, you can buy wine by the liter, it is not too touristy, and it is supremely historic. The Austrians are known for their pork, so the two of us got deep fried pork chops and a liter of fine to split. Finally Sunday morning, I went to mass at the private Royal Chapel to see the Viennese Boys Choir perform. They perform every Sunday at the "Catholic Light" mass. It is incredible, but buy tickets early if you want to see them in Vienna (if you ever go) because the Chapel is REALLY SMALL, and tickets go quickly, but the music is wonderful, and you can take pictures with the little boys in the courtyard afterwards.
Vienna is a wonderful destination. I would highly recommend it to anyone. There is so much to do, and (for the most part) it is reasonably cheap. I can tell if a city is cheap based on how much I pay to use a W.C. In Vienna, if you had to pay, it was only 50 cents. Quite a respectable sum for the privilege of relieving yourself.
I have attached a couple of pictures from Jule's and my night at the ballet.
Those Webster dance classes paid off!
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