As soon as we stepped off the train it was gogogo- since it was the last few days of Ellie's program there were a lot of activities to which we could tag along. After checking into our hostel and getting briefly but amusingly lost, we made it to a wine garden and met some of the professors and students in Ellie's program (but not in her class). After a bit of time there it was on to a club in the Prater (which is a public amusement park that's free to enter-you pay for each ride individually). The club was enjoyed by all except Emily who affirmed her dislike for all clubs. We didn't get back til about 5:00, which made the fact that we slept in till 3:30 slightly less ridiculous.
We got ourselves together just in time to be swooped up by Ellie to join an after hours tour of the oldest zoo in the world. It was okay, but not very impressive, possibly because they haven't been allowed to change the shapes or sizes of the cages for at least 100 years since it's a monument and part of the Schonbrunn Palace grounds. We spent that night hanging out with Ellie's classmates in their dorms and helping them get rid of all the food and drink they couldn't/didn't want to take on the planes back home. It was great to meet and hang out with a bunch of people we could both communicate with and actually liked- most hostel people are doing their own thing or not very interesting or only interested in getting smashed in every country. Unfortunately Leah got a little ill again and had to turn in early, but otherwise it was a great night. We slept in the vacated bed in Ellie's dorm, and by the morning (when we woke up at ungodly-o-clock to help Ellie move out) we were all feeling a little ill. Since we woke up so early though, we had a huge long day to do Vienna things. We:
- went to a big flea market where Leah got a new scarf and Ellie got a funky shirt/coat/patterny thing.
- went to a pool Ellie had discovered that looks out over the whole city from a high hilltop. We had it all to ourselves because it was pretty much way too cold to swim (we swam anyway).
- had a Viennese food experience of dessert and coffee with Justin- the last classmate to leave town before Ellie.
- wandered a bit and hung out at an excellent playground
- went out to find a karaoke bar with our new hostel friend Flora. The goal was to hear Austrians hilariously singing English songs, but the place we found had a lot more talent than we were expecting. Emily discovered a love for karaoke bars, but everyone else was in favor of moving on, so we ended up at an Irish pub and played never-have -i-ever into the wee hours.
After sleeping through breakfast for the third time, we had a planning day and saw Ellie off, then wandered around for ages trying to figure out how we were going to get to the airport in a couple days. Eventually we gave up and went to the Prater again, this time to actually ride one of the rides. We chose a swing ride... the mother of all swing rides
It was absolutely terrifying.
The next day we had another Vienna exploration day, this time without Ellie to guide us. We:
- went to the Kunst Haus and Hunderwasser Haus which were reminiscient of all the Gaudi stuff in Barcelona but more recent and arguably better.
- couldnt figure out how to get into the church at Stephensplatz (eventually we realized it was closed derp derp).
- went to the Leopold and saw a fake Jonathan (see previous post) along with a lot of Egon Schiele and an interesting exhibit that included a fair amount of Gustav Klimt.
-finished buying flights and booking hostels for the rest of the trip!!!!!! YEAH!
The whole time we were in Vienna we were on a fast food binge, since we were surrounded by such delicacies as noodle boxes, kebab boxes, falafel boxes, ice cream, pizza, etc. and we were afraid the UK wouldn't have any of our beloved kebab. (No worries, they do)
Now we are in Scotland, in a town called Fort William. More on that later, since we have to check out of this hostel very soon and go hiking on the coast
yaaa this is more like it! i also rode that swing ride my first day in Vienna and i was also terrified. did you see how thin the chains were holding you up?? just BARELY worth it for the excellent view.
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