Vienna

Corinne and I arrived in Vienna, Austria at 2 pm on Saturday, Feb. 19. We neglected to check that there are two train stations and the directions to our hostel were from the other one. After a short bus ride, we made it to Westbahnhof and of course got lost in search of our hostel that in fact was quite close. We waited 30 minutes for the hostel owner to show up, and after unpacking it was already 4:30 pm. Our goal was to hop on a city bus tour, but those were over by 1 pm. Corinne and I wondered around the neighborhood around our hostel and found a grocery store. We bought some snacks, frozen pizza and a bottle of wine. Our hostel was an apartment so we were able to cook the pizza and keep our water cold. We think the couple in the next room thought we were lesbians since we were sitting in the kitchen playing checkers.

Two girls came in carrying H&M shopping bags, so we asked where the store was. We ended up having a two hour talk with these girls who go to Catholic school in Ohio but are studying in Austria. It was so wonderful to hear English again. Ann Marie was hilarious. She is a theology major from Colorado and every story she told somehow involved a dilemma and her group pasuing to pray to Jesus for help. She shared a story about one of her professors in Vienna from Texas, who, in his southern drawl, warned his students that in Europe people will stare at you, but "thur jus lookin' " and he put his fingers up to his head and wiggled them, illustrating his point that Europeans think we look like aliens.

We were supposed to meet up with a group of girls who had taken the night train on Friday, but we couldn't figure out how to use our Italian phones out of the country. We received text messages on the train when we arrived in Austria with directions in German on how to make calls. We tried every way imaginable to dial out. Later we realized that when you're out of Italy, roaming charges apply. Your incoming calls are no longer free and text messages are more expensive. Corinne and I ended up doing our own thing in Vienna since we couldn't get ahold of anyone.

We woke up at 8 am on Sunday to cram in all the sightseeing. We thought we were headed to the center of town, to the church, palace and the ring. We came across a beautiful castle and thought we were in the right place (how many castles do you come across walking down the street, really?). Turns out we'd gone in the completely wrong direction, opposite side of town, way out of the way. The Schonbrun Palace was absolutely beautiful. We went on a 40 room tour. Their were exquisite paintings, decadent silverware, silk wallpaper.

We hopped on the subway to St. Stephen's cathedral and arrived in the middle of mass. We weren't able to walk around, but we stayed for a few minutes and came back after lunch to look around. I feel like I've run out of adjectives to describe the churches. Each one is very different, but leave you with similar feelings. It was beautiful and ancient but it was so dark I couldn't get very good pictures.

After that we went to the palace we assumed we'd arrived at earlier that day, Hofburg (the spelling may be completely off). We met up with a group of people from school here... It's funny to just see familiar faces on the streets in foreign countries. It was a huge estate. We only went into one exhibit within the estate and it took up two hours. It was filled with cloaks sewn with gold thread, crowns with large jewels and apparently a piece of wood that was part of the cross Jesus was crucified on, as well as the nail that went through his right hand.

Sunday night we went to "The Sounds of Vienna." The concert was string and woodwind instruments playing songs by Mozart and Strauss, with dancing or opera accompaniment. The dance couple did ballet and waltzed. The male and female opera singers sang solos and duets. I felt like it was a very cultural evening. I don't think I could've handled an entire evening of opera, so this was a perfect mix.

I was quite ready to leave Vienna, and our hostel (the Do Step Inn). The bathrooms forever smelled of urine, and we had to provide our own toilet paper. Although there was a pair of dolphins painted above the toilet in the bathroom and I couldn't help but laugh at the TriDelt symbol sighting. I don't quite think a picture of me posing by dolphins in a hostel in Austria would make it into the TriDent magazine, but they always say to submit your dolpin sightings...