Wieeeeeen

I've just arrived in München where it's cold, rainy, and gloomy so thought what better chance to update about my stop in Vienna. I arrived Friday late afternoon in Vienna where I was exhausted from the previous night in Prague. It was a bit rainy that day as well and I didnt want to do much that day. I met one of my roommates and then headed to walk the streets and check out the downtown area and get a quick lunch. I was starved and knew I'd be hungry again in an hour, but figured Id go cheap. I grabbed some pizza from one of the million fast food pizza type joints. I thought I was going for chicken, onions, and green peppers when i selected the pizza in the window, but turned out to be tuna. It was good, and I'm fine with it, but I could see some people being not happy. Afterwards I thought I knew where I was going, but I walked quite far away from the city center and my hostel. None of the areas seemed shady, which was nice, but definitely a very German feel based on how the outskirts of Berlin felt. It makes sense since Austria is a German speaking country.
Eventually I headed back to my hostel to figure out what to eat for dinner. I had done pretty well sticking to traditional Czech meals in Prague so figured I'd at least attempt that path early in Vienna.

The hostel I stayed at had a bunch of restaurant recommendations so I decided not to walk this time and take their Ubahn metro which seemed quite basic compared to some of the other cities I had been to. I got off at the real downtown this time and scoured the area for some of the restaurants I had remembered. I looked at some of the nice places around in the area, but had yet to research what anything actually was so it was semi meaningless and with the shitty weather I cared even less. After about 15 minutes I made it to a place that was said to have the best Schnitzel in town, apparently that was no lie because the wait was over an hour, first legit wait Ive encountered in any restaurant in Europe, wasn't a fancy place either so was semi surprised. At that point I was starving, so I walked around some more, lots of places were closed for May Day and the rest were busy. I headed back to the hostel, found a local bar/restaurant that was in one of my books and had some schnitzel and rice. It was very good, also got myself some sort of beer and headed back to the hostel. I got back there, ran into a person who was in Berlin on the pub crawl with me, he was all excited to see me, but unfortunately I had no recollection of ever meeting the person being that I was quite inebriated that particular night. I think he picked up on that, but what can you do. Afterwards I decided to do some research on what I wanted to see, circled some things on a map and went to sleep a few hours later.

I woke up semi refreshed the next day and thought it'd be a good time to explore, the weather was a little cool, but no rain and it was supposed to warm up later in the day. I walked about 25 minutes down to Schoenberg Palace, its away from the main city, but it was unbelievable. I spent about 3 hours walking around the gardens, "climbing" to the top of the hill that overlooked the palace and whole city as well as getting a bite to eat. I went to the restaurant on the grounds on top of the hill, but it wasnt too overpriced so i was fine with it. I got a potato pancake with spinach and baked mozzarella on top with some earl grey tea just to act like a member of a royal family (or I was cold).

From there I headed down and saw my next challenge in the gardens. I could either head inside the actual palace or head to the labryinth and maze area. Not a hard decision. I paid the 2 euros to join the families with kids, a few random old people, and some adventerous tweeners who didn't fit in either category. I decided I'd start with one of the labrynths filled with weird obsticles. There was some math problem to solve, but too many people were standing around, but then I stopped my new goal. There were three climbing poles with bells on top. I knew there could be no proof of me actually climbing because I couldnt take a picture of myself on top and I dont trust people, but I was determined anyway. I watched a few people try and then stepped up myself. I had no idea if I could do it, but I made it to the top with ease, I felt like a spider monkey on top of his game. I rang the bell and tried to grab for my camera and that officially ended my climb as I had to jump off or risk sliding down getting "iron burn." After completing that it was maze time. I entered it and was quickly lost inside the world of paths that lead nowhere. I dodged left only to be stopped by the irritating bush, follow kids thinking they should be better at that only to realize they're taking me to where I had already been. Finally I found another opening, started taking that around and saw the glorious ending in front. I climbed up the steps to the platform to overlook the maze and took a victorious picture of myself to weird gawkers. I took the short way out, did another labrynth with some crazy human kaleidoscope and a mario-esque avoid the fire balls (or water) by jumping on to different platforms. I completed my mission dryly and felt it about time to see inside.

Inside of the actual palace was nice, but way too crowded with tours and people to make it truly enjoyable. Some nice art, royal bedrooms etc., but the rooms were somewhat tiny and not good with hundred people per room. I finally made it out of there after an hour and was going to walk back to my hostel, but decided to head downtown to the museum quarter to see if anything intrigued me. I decided I didnt want to go into any actual museums, it was already 3 and most would close shortly anyway, but for the next day i'd keep stuff in mind. I took tons of pictures of the architecture, walked through the parks and gardens snapping photos of ducks, couples taking wedding photos, and random shots of myself being fantastic. I was also hungry again around this time so i found one of the markets, got some semi-cheap japanese food (which turned out to be ramen noodles with chicken, its hard enough ordering food in German, but Japanese food in german may as well just be written in hieroglyphics). I then walked past Hofburg Palace to see if anything intrigued me there, I found one thing I wanted to save for tomorrow so i checked that off in my mind and headed back to the hostel.

At the hostel I got back to my room and met a new roommate, he seemed like a cool guy, we talked for a bit and told him I'd see him down there. I hung out in my room for a bit eating a random chocolate bar I had bought and relaxing. I headed down to the lobby/bar area, grabbed myself a large beer for happy hour and sat around for a few minutes. From there I ran into another person from a previous hostel, this time in Prague, who I actually did remember this time probably cause it was only 2 nights before and i stayed mostly sober that night. Him and his lady friend knew a few people they had met at a different hostel staying there as well so everyone merged together with a few others to form a large group. We all hung out drinking in the hostel's garden. Around 11 the hostel shut down the bar and garden. From there the eclectic group from Liverpool, New Zealand, Australia, US, Netherlands and probably a few more places headed off to a club suggested to us. It was of the electronica/techno type clubs, clearly the kind I rarely go to. Being that I hadnt had a real dinner either I was feeling the 3 beers I had. We got there and headed down to the main club part. About half the group went down there, not many people were dancing at first, but finally the place got busy. I decided that was the best time to show my techno moves. Not sure if people were making fun or impressed by my style, but some healthy imitating of my moves commenced. I personally think my style is where its at for that music, but who knows. After a while the smoke caught up with a bunch of us and we went to the outside bar area. I retired from dancing for the night and hung out up there until people were ready to go. I also realized that I talked to the (British) girl with the boyfriend a lot too, I don't know how I keep doing that, it's strange. I mean Im personally not looking for anything, but come on. About 8 of us left the rest stayed at the club. We grabbed some pizza across the street, this time went the safer route, though still strange as hell by getting a pepperoni (it was actually salami) and sweet corn pizza. For how starving I was though it was the best pizza ever. We ate and then we were determined to try and make it back. We were told to take 2 night buses. We got on the first one we saw, got off where we were supposed to, and then got on a second. The 2nd bus driver probably didn't want us on the bus as the directions he gave us put us on the right street we needed, but 30 minutes away. We all trekked back and finally went to sleep.

The next day I slept in a bit, took a quick shower, and decided I wanted to explore the city some more. It was slated to be 70s and sunny so I just walked. I grabbed some breakfast on the way, a cheap omelet and the first place that gave me water for free. I got back on the road and stopped at the Hofburg palace area. The day before I had looked at the treasury as a place of possible interest. I decided why not check out the royal jewels. I went inside and it was well worth it. It was a nice change from normal art with crazy golden jeweled crowns, fantastic swords, and royal scepters. I picked out what I wanted from when I'm king in the future and went on my way. I decided to go Forrest Gump for the rest of the day, every time I would get to a place on the map I decided to keep going. I went to the canals, walked up and down that area, cut through side streets outside of the main city area, went back to the canals, passed by the end of some marathon that had just taken place, walked past an art museum and then decided I was good. Of course I was about 6 kms away at that point from the hostel. I walked back, grabbed some quick gelato which was very good. I was still and hungry and thought why not get a street dog. And yes, in that order. I got one of those where it's stuffed in a baguette and looks fantastic. I took a bite and the juices burned the hell out of my mouth, but I continued on. For about 2 minutes I fought with the heat taking out about half the hot dog when I decided to look down. Inside the hot dog grease/lard freakiness was oozing out of the dog. I was done at that point. It freaked me out, a lot, it was quite disgusting. I continued walking and cutting through parks, taking a quick breather in front of Mozarts statue to recover from the oozing lard incident and then finished back at the hostel. I took a 20 minute nap and headed to the bar where I hung out with the people from the other night. I had a train to catch the next day so i was not looking to go out, luckily nobody else was either. We played cards, a game called Shithead, it was like a real weird bootleg version of the card came asshole and then called it a night. Most people were heading to Budapest the next day anyway so we all had the early 10 a.m checkout to get up for.

Today I woke up exhausted around 8 after a pretty sleepless night with lots of weird dreams again, I packed up and headed to the train station. The train was delayed like 20 minutes, first time that has happened. It wasn't that long of a train ride, about 4 hours though i wasn't able to fall back asleep unfortuantely after the ticket guy woke me up for the 5th straight train ride leaving me tired and agitated. i got to Munich where it's cold and rainy, I grabbed a quick bite, went with a hamburger cause it was the first normal restaurant I could find as this place is swarming with the doner kebab and pizza places, which aren't bad in moderation, but it's the majority of what I ate in Vienna. And now here I sit. Tonight I'm going to try to relax, grab some dinner in a bit, and scour the city for random shit. Tomorrow I plan on going to Dachau and we shall see from there. Thursday night I leave for Dublin for 4 days to enjoy an English speaking country and see Counting Crows while I am out there, weird how they are there the same time.

I be gone

BK