Vienna

Hello again!!! So much to tell you all since last I wrote!

First of all, I did attempt to get to bed early on Sunday as I had to be up at 5am but... ya.

I had a nice shower, packed up my bag and climbed onto my top bunk and put my ipod in. The whole Spanish family was in the room reading, singing and whatever else. At 11:30 after I finally dozed off they woke me up to ask if I wanted the light off. DUH.

Anyways, I woke up at 4am to hear Ben outside our hostel - super drunk. I was not impressed. Before my alarm goes off at 5am Derek is in our room waking up me and Roy telling us they are all ready and downstairs and to hurry up. Um Derek, first bus to airport doesn't leave till 5:45. But he doesn't know this cause Ben woke them up at 4:30 by being annoying in his drunkeness and getting everyone up. So anyways I get my stuff together and turn in my sheets and get my key deposit and walk down to the bus stop where we wait. And wait.

We got to the airport and there was a long check-in line but it went fast. Got upstairs and went through security without any problems and even had time to buy a giant bag of MandM's and the best cappucino I've ever had out of a machine. Hopped right on the plane and had the best 2 hour sitting up nap of my life, sitting in between 2 big guy strangers.

We bought a CAT pass into Vienna city centre for 9 euros and then bought a week U-bahn pass for 14 euros and walked to our hostel.

Our hostel is called the Blue Corridor Hostel and literally that's what it is. I am in room C and Deanna and Roy are in Room B but it is just a hallway separated by curtains.... and 1 shower per 10 people. But it is clean so that is good.

The lady who runs the hostel is really wierd. She sleeps in reception. We arrived at 10 am and check-in wasn't until 2. Ben was super hung over and as soon as he sat down in the lobby and closed his eyes she was up telling us to go to a cafe and see museums and to get out. Whenever we walk in to meet up with everyone she is at us "What do you want?". Anyways, Ben went to lay in a park and Derek, Roy, Deanna and I had lunch around the corner. I had this huge pan of spinach gnocchi and could only eat half of it.

After lunch Deanna and I went to do our laundry. Supposedly it was close. We went to get our clothes at the reception desk and the lady started hounding us about that. We told her we were doing laundry so she told us the laundry mat is closed but there is one 5 stops up on the tram.

Well naturally I don't believe the crazy lady so we decide to walk there and if it is closed, hop on the tram. Well we didn't see a laundry mat and then we weren't sure how many stops we had gone so we just walked all the way in 30 degree heat. She also told us the new laundry mat was around a corner. It was not.

So after asking around we find it. Hooray. Then I have no change. Then no stores around would give me change. Then I buy a Coke to get change and they won't give me change. Then luckily a girl tells us we can use bills. Well then I don't have a small enough bill. So this lovely man makes change for me and finally I am doing laundry. 2.5 hours later and a dryer that did not dry, we go back to the hostel and check in and lay out all our clothes to dry and have a much much much needed shower. Kinda like the shower I need right now.... but I'll come back to that.

At 6pm we meet Donny and Edith at the church at Stephensplatz. Very hard to miss... but they were late. In the meantime Clara (a new Danish friend) and I go into the church and look around. Amazing! We also got hounded by a guy to buy a 29 euro ticket to see the opera, orchestra and ballet all in one. Roy told me that we can stand in line and get a 3 euro standing ticket to the opera so we declined.

Roy lived in Vienna for 6 months so he knows the place really well. He took us to this amazing chinese buffet where you pile food onto your plate and they stir-fry it up for you. It was so delicious and much needed!

After supper we went into this sketchy U-bahn station where all the drug users hang out... just to see it. They are the ones with the blue lips because one of the drug makers around here put a dye in the drug so that the police know who is using drugs and now I know who not to give my money to... not that I've given money to anyone begging except for a little boy in Stockholm outside the mall who only knew one song on the accordion :)

We bought some beer and walked around into Stadspark and saw the Johann Strauss monument. Such a pretty park. It was at that time we also lost our new friend Darryl from England as he didn't have a U-bahn pass and just walked there. Oops. We went back to Karlsplatz and hit up a few pubs and clubs but I took the last U-bahn train at midnight with Ben and Clara and the rest stayed out pretty late.

The next morning a hung over Deanna :) and the group hopped on a tram to Baden, a small town outside of Vienna whose name is German for "bath". It took about an hour and after a short walk we had arrived at the spa :)

What a great idea, kudos Roy! This place was crazy!!! You get a wrist band and you swipe it to get into things and pay at the end of the day. It cost 5.30 euros to get in cause we are "students" and then I booked a massage for 25 euros. A little pricey but hey, it is my b-day on Friday! After my massage I went in the pool which has a number of water features like a bubbler and fountain etc. Then I went in the outdoor hot tub, then the indoor whirlpool then we had lunch. After lunch Deanna and I tackled the sauna.

The first saunas we went in were wet saunas... nothing like what I've experienced in Canada. Those, I found out, are finnish dry saunas. Anyways, the first sauna we could keep our bathing suits on and it was scented with Eucalyptus and way too hot. We were the only ones in there until a naked old couple came in. Awkward!

Well then we found out the rest of the saunas you have to take your bathing suit off. So we went in with our towels on.... and then since it was just me and Deanna, we took the towel off. SO WIERD. We are now bonded for life. Anyways, we are sitting there (hoping the others from the group don't come in) and the old couple from the last sauna come in. Just act natural...

So we came out of that sauna in our towel just as Ben and Donny were about to drop trowsers and come in. So they went to the Finnish saunas and we stayed on our side and finished the last 2 saunas... still wierd.

Anyways, we kept moving around the spa like that. We never went nude in the finnish saunas, we just used the bathing suits allowed one to dry out our suits at the end of the day. We had arrived at 1130am and we left at 7pm!!! SO RELAXED :) So totally worth it.

When we went back to Vienna we went to a Greek restaurant Roy recommended and I had some amazing chicken souvlaki. We were trying to make it to a international movie house but Roy forgot where it was and we were too late anyways. We stopped at an Irish pub and had a beer then called it a night.

This morning we met Donny and Edith and went to Nash market. Mom, you would have loved it. So much fresh produce!!!! Mouth watering. I think we are going to go there tonight to have supper at one of the restaurants and then back to the Castle to see it at night all lit up. I wish I lived here and could have bought fresh herbs and produce and pasta and meat and cooked a meal!

We lost the group and went to Schonbrunn Castle. If you ever go to Vienna I recommend this highly, just allocate yourself half a day! We lined up and took an audio guided tour of the state and royal apartments. Afterwards we went for lunch at the over-priced cafe there and tried to make it to the apple strudel show. We were too late but still got a slice of it to try :) Then we wandered out into the garden and took dozens of photos of water features and plants. As part of the ticket we bought we got to go into a hedge maze and labyrinth. Fun times when it is 30 degrees! We also climbed to the top of this hill to see this huge monument. 5 pounds of sweat later we made it! The last thing we did before leaving was visit the privy garden with its orange trees and floral arrangements it was really pretty. We got there at noon and left at 5.... it took that long and we still didn't see everything on the grounds. I can't wait to get to Versaille and compare the two since Schonbrunn was modelled after it.

Currently I am at a traveller's information centre. We were going to book a bicycle winery tour (9 hours) for tomorrow but there are none running. We either have to book for Friday or Saturday. Friday is my b-day and Saturday is my hung-over day. What to do.... just kidding. I think we will book for Saturday since Jeff is coming in on Friday. I think he'd like to do the tour as well so that will be fun.

Sounds like tomorrow will be museums (air conditionned?)... this is another place, like London, that will require more time. A truly beautiful city. I bought a picture book of it at the gift shop, so much to show everyone!

Another thing we bought were mozart chocolates. Supposed to be good, recommended by Roy, but I guess I'm just not a fan of marzipan. They were ok.

I am just going to throw in a blurb about Riga that I forgot to add. Deanna and I went to a little place called Black Magic and tried Riga's drink, the Black Balsam. Well we tried a straight shot of it and it was disgusting. Deanna didn't finish hers and I sure stumbled out of there... it packs a punch! Thankfully we had it with desserts so once sip with one bite.. it was bareable. We also had the cutest waiter. When we came in he gave up a schpiel about buying a box and filling it with the chocolates that you want as a gift and he did a little magic trick for us. Then midway through our meal he brought us 2 envelopes and told us he had a gift for us. I just thought it was the bill so I kept eating my delicious coffee cake thing. Deanna opened it and it made this noise and something moved around inside and she jumped a mile. It was this thing you wind up and when you open the package it unwinds. The envelope says "pure adrenaline" which is pretty much right on the money. We had fun tricking all our friends with it afterwards :)