The train left Prague at 7 in the morning. It was a little difficult to get up and out of bed at the same time our Brazilian roommates were just getting back from the bars. We packed up, checked out and headed to the train station.
In the process of checking out, I unknowingly committed what would turn out to be the only serious blunder of the vacation.
So, what can be said of Prague? It is a beautiful town with enormous character, slowly being discovered by the Western World as a tourist destination. But, it is still early in this transition and it was interesting to see how they are handling it (damn Prague Card). They are a very young democracy, with a more modern society with a more modern governance then I am used to. The people are very kind, intelligent, and welcoming and the women are gorgeous. Best of all, the beer is cheap and amazing.
As I boarded the train and found my seat, I was very satisfied with my stay in Prague. Time to head south-east to Austria.
The train ride was beautiful, at least for the parts I was awake for. The area to the east of Prague was very hilly and interesting.
We arrived in Vienna just before noon and navigated the subways to our hostel. Our first impressions were that Viennese are disgruntled, unhappy and cold. Of course, who isn't when riding the tube (as our British friend would call it)? Our final impressions would be drastically different.
Wombat's City Hostel at the Naschmarkt is no Sir Toby's Hostel. It was opened this year so it still had that sterile, fresh steel smell. With 5 floors and probably a hundred rooms, it was more of a hotel than a hostel.
Some people prefer the modern, clean look. Not me. I need character.
We were unable to check-in until the afternoon, so we dropped our stuff in the lockers and asked for a good place to eat. He pointed outside and said, "any of those are good." The staff was a little less than friendly.
We found a little restaurant in the Naschmarkt and I had the lamb.
Then we strolled down the Naschmarkt. The Naschmarkt is a large street market which runs down the raised center of a boulevard. It was crowded full of both temporary and permanent little shacks used to sell a wide variety of goods. It had everything from shirts to spices and cafes to restaurants.
It was a little stressful being continuously haggled by the shop keepers, so we left for the city center.
I had read some information on Vienna prior to my arrival and there was much talk about the Ringstrasse, the street which formed a ring around the city center. Supposedly, there were all sorts of goodies on the Ringstrasse and I was intent on finding it.
Somehow, I completely missed the Ringstrasse and ended up outside the Austrian National Library. We decided to take a gander inside and check it out.
If it weren't for the bookshelves lining the wall, I would have thought I was in an old palace! There was magnificent marble statuary and granite columns with gold plated capitals. The woodwork of the second story balcony was highly detailed and quite impressive. The place was massive and beautiful.
The most intriguing aspect was the collection of ancient texts the library housed, all of which were being digitized and provided to the public.
We continued our journey through the city center and onto a main thoroughfare which led to their most prized cathedral. The cathedral itself was going through a tough restoration. They were trying to remove the soot and dirt that accumulated on the stonework from centuries of pollution. This picture shows the difference between the cleaned stonework and the dirty stonework.
The same attempts were made on the Colosseum in Rome, but they only did a half-dozen arches before giving up. It's an unfortunate side effect of the industrial revolution.
I found it interesting that their government was able to put forth the money to clean the entire monument. But when you consider how much of a contribution it has to the economy, it begins to make more sense.
The intricate gothic groin vaults of this cathedral were particularly unique.
I was getting pretty tired and I had not yet found my Ringstrasse. We decided to head down to the river and relax. There, we discovered the only beach of our Spring break.
While many of my peers headed for the ocean with beach towels, we headed for the artificial beach on the river bank in Vienna. It was crowded with college students enjoying a beer and the sunshine. Not surprisingly, I did the same.
Wow, way too many pictures of me drinking beer.
I took a glorious nap.
When I woke up the sun was setting and it was time for some coffee. We wandered the north-east side of Vienna. Ringstrasse was still elluding me. Finally, we stumbled upon a cafe that looked worth checking out. After our delicious coffees, I asked the girl behind the counter where the hell Ringstrasse was.
She told me to just head down the road toward the Rathaus. The what? She showed it to me on a map. She pointed to an area which we had not been yet and said it was the nicest part of Vienna. She was right, especially at night!
We arrived at the Rathaus just before the Ringstrasse. The Rathaus wins my favorite Spring break building award. It was lit up so perfectly at night that it looked like a finely sorted array of gigantic candles.
It was a perfect piece of neo-gothic architecture. Directly opposite it was the theater building.
Kitty-corner to the theater building was the Parliament building.
All of which were lined up on.... RINGSTRASSE!
I was pretty damn proud of myself! It called for a celebration, so we started looking for a place to eat. We walked around and passed by some more beautiful Austro-Hungarian imperial architecture. After a while, it was difficult to pick out what was what.
We found a place to eat located near the city center. Prague, Vienna and Budapest all had one thing in common, goulash. However, each city did their goulash very differently. My goulash in Vienna was a soup with a good hunk of meat. Amazing! Mickey had wienerschnitzel which, contrary to popular belief, is a breaded piece of meat, not a sausage.
Vienna is famous for their cafes. There are hundreds of them and they all function differently. None of them are restricted to just coffee. Some are full-blown restaurants, some are coffee joints during the day and bars when the sun goes down, some are classy and some are more modern. The most famous cafe is Cafe Central which I was a little under dressed for.
Eventually, we came across a random cafe which appeared to be very authentic. In fact, it was so authentic and so genuinely Austrian that I felt completely alienated and a little frightened when I went inside. This subsided quickly when the old Austrian waiter invited us to sit at a table. He was so kind and welcoming. I ordered a couple of beers using the little German I know from high school, sat back in my booth, and relaxed.
Austrians (central Europeans in general) do not look down upon smoking. They've completely adopted it as part of their culture by putting ash trays on every light post. Fortunately, the smell of smoke doesn't bother me. Still, it was so smokey that I nearly suffocated in that joint.
The neatest part of the night was also the strangest and most hilarious. Randomly, the table next to us started flinging coasters across the room. Pretty soon, everyone in the cafe was throwing coasters at everyone else as if it was a normal thing to do with complete strangers. I joined in pretty quickly and was quite entertained. It was so simple yet so much fun!
Although I was feeling pretty light on my feet, I was ready to go to bed. We got to the hostel, checked-in and found our room. Of all the gin joints in all the world, Esmee, the Brit from Sir Toby's, was in the same room as us! We chatted a bit and went to sleep.
I was awoken at around 3 in the morning... I think. The other girl in our room was looking at me with a terrified look on her face. Then I realized she was covered in blisters.
"What happened?"
"We have bed bugs."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, we need to change rooms."
I was very cranky and the Wombat's staff was not very accommodating. They said we all needed showers and needed to do our laundry. I took a shower and asked them to do my laundry so I could go back to sleep. They didn't like that plan so gave me a bag of fifty cent coins and four or five free drinks at the bar. I guess this was their compensation. I didn't argue and just went back to sleep.
Yikes. What a night.
