Off to Wien, aka Vienna 7/18/08

Wallet: Day 12
Jeans & Sweatshirt: Day 3

I woke up this morning feeling slightly better but still feeling the effects of this random sickness. The room we were staying in was incredibly hot so I was pretty toasty all night. Prague has been a rough place to stay so far, I am sorry to say it is my least favorite. I am looking forward to getting to Vienna and seeing a familiar face in Meli, who was an Oper for my cousins in Washington D.C. We met a year ago when she came with them on their Seattle trip.

We headed to the train station to try to catch the early train to Vienna. We made it with time to spare so we walked to go buy our tickets from a ticketing agent. Our Eurail passes don't work in the Czech Republic so we have had to purchase tickets for this part of the trip. When we got up to the counter the guy told us we needed to make a reservation and that it would cost more money. At first, I wasn't sure if he was simply up selling us on something unnecessary or what, but we went with it regardless.

We walked up to the platform a good half hour before the train arrived and Loyd went off to use up the remaining Czech money we had. He came back with 2 water bottles, a kit kat bar and orange tic-tacs, I couldn't have picked more random things had I tried. No worries, we were off to Vienna on what must have been The Czech's nicest train, yet it still looked around 15 years old and had a funky smell to it.

Once we got onto the train itself, we realized just how valuable our seat reservations were. The train was an absolute madhouse. There were people with reservations and people who were trying to squat it seats. The result was craziness - people yelling at each other in different languages, kids crying and massive disorder. Loyd and I climbed on, found our seats and sat down, completely avoiding the insanity. It was slightly entertaining to watch, I have to admit. Two girls we saw come on the train had to switch seats 3 times in a matter of 2 hours. That's how crazy it was.

About 3 hours into the trip, most of the people had either found their seats or gotten of the train and the next stations. We were cruising into the Austrian countryside when two older plain-clothed policemen approached us. One of them was carrying a laptop and the other flashed his "badge" if you can even call it that. The thing was the size of a quarter and could be easily replicated in a trip to Staples and an arts and crafts store. They said in their best English that they were passport control and needed to see our documentation. Clearly not a problem, Loyd pulled out his passport and they inspected it and typed a few numbers into the laptop. Then they asked me for mine. When Loyd pulled mine out from the same bag, they were puzzled. It took a good 30 seconds for them to realize that were travelling together. Eventually, they took a half-second look at mine and handed it back. They proceeded to walk all the way through the car, passing the 70 or so other passengers sitting in the car.

Loyd looked at me and asked "how did they know we are Americans". I answered him "Look at us man, I have Barack Obama's book in my hand, typing on a Blackberry while listening to my Zune and you are sitting listening to your iPod, how much more American could we look?!" We laughed it up and chilled for the rest of the train.

Once we got to Vienna we found the information desk in the station. Once the massive line got to us we asked for directions to our hostel. As soon as we said the name of our hostel we were handed a pre-cut sheet of paper from our hostel that had exact directions. They were clearly prepared for random American tourists to come looking for them. In my mind, that’s a sign of a good hostel, being prepared.

The trip to our hostel took about half and hour and we as soon as got in we realized we couldn't do our typical set our stuff and down and pass out for a few hours - since Meli was coming in a few hours. We rinsed our faces and headed out to do some touring. We hopped back onto the U-Bahn near our hostel and headed towards the museum area on the map. We emerged from the station in one of the coolest settings yet, there were old buildings and statues everywhere. We started imitating the poses of the statues and took some really great pictures. We wandered around and found ourselves in the middle of a film festival that was going on, full of food and drink vendors. We each ordered big beers and began sipping away at the Austrian goodness.

Once we were done with that we walked over to the Parliament building and Opera house. I was snapping away pictures as the sun was setting behind these amazing buildings. I looked down at my watch and realized 4 hours had flown by so we had to rush home to shower and get ready for our night with Meli and her friends. We made it back to the hostel a short while later and once we had finished showering, we headed down to the bar in the lobby. It was packed with American tourists, you could hear the English immediately. We sat down with a group of girls at one of the tables and did introductions. One of the girls was from Lowell, MA and had a few friends who went to NU. Crazy how small the world is.

Meli and her friends arrived a short while later and brought a wine bottle with them. We made our way to the U-Bahn with the bottle in hand. It is so strange how liberal they are in Europe regarding drinking in public. We took the train down to the Danube River and checked out the strip of bars and clubs. We partied the night away and got home around 3. Meli easily convinced us that one night was not enough in Vienna so tomorrow we are going to meet Meli in the morning and leave our bags at her parents house before touring the city with her for another day. So from Vienna, Cheers!