Well we said goodbye to Budapest today and hello to Vienna :)

The whole day I have had Billey Joel's Vienna playing in my head....

Anyways, we woke up at around 9am and packed everything up. Andrew made us
coffee and we sat around and talked to the other people that were staying at the
hostel. Andrew was trying to talk Meredith and I staying longer, he even said
that he wouldn't charge us! But we had already cancelled one night in Vienna, to
be able to stay in Budapest and we felt like it was time to leave.

Initially we were hoping on being able to walk Margret Island this morning
before we left, but it was raining out :( So we decided to just head straight
to the train station.

Saying goodbye to Andrew we got our first taste of hostility for the day. There
was construction going on right in front of the hostel, so that sidewalk is
barely wide enough for one person. So when saying goodbye we got in the way of
an old man. And judging my Andrew's face what he said to us couldn't have been
very nice :X

We then walked to the metro station. It started raining and then it started
hailing! So we sprinted in... there were tons of people in the metro station
because of everyone hiding from the hail that we just hopped on the metro
heading to the train station. Totally not bothering buying a ticket because
they have never checked for them, and you only need them to get in... which we
were already.

Big mistake. Turns out they just happened to be running a check point at the
metro station we got off at. So Meredith and I got nailed with a 6,000HUF fine
:( Which is about $25.... First off I know it was Meredith and I's fault for
just getting on the metro, but every other person that didn't show a ticket they
just let go. But it was because they were Hungarian. This was the first time
that Meredith and I felt as though we were facing overt hostility for being a
tourist, if not American... It was extremely frustrating and I think I am going
to invest in a Canadian flag.

The rest of our time in Budapest I just felt continuous hostility. The workers
at the train station were all being rude ... which is totally not what we had
experienced the beginning of our trip, but we were happy to leave.

I had about 800HUF left over, so we decided to just buy some candy bars :)

We got on the train around 1:10 and at first we were really scared because it
looked like every seat said reserved on it. We ran into some other kids
traveling through rail passes so we all decided to just sit down without
reservations. I was a little nervous doing this considering that I had already
been fined once today for not having the right ticket... but it turned out to be
okay. The train was actually dead!

I was determined to catch up on my blogs, which I got about three done and I
also ate every single one of my candy bars .... ugh! I still have the stomach
ache.

It was about a three hour train ride to Vienna and soon enough we arrived :) We
had the directions that the hostel provided which were very direct and easy.
You can literally see the hostel from the train station. We are staying at the
Wombat's the City. Which Wombats is a corporate hostel and they also have
hostels in Berlin and Munich. But the staff was really nice and checking in
went smoothly!

We were absolutely starving because besides candy, we hadn't ate and it was
about 5:30pm.

We decided to put our stuff in our room and then walk and find a place to sit
down. We found a little corner cafe which sold me when they had a vegetarian
section of the menu! It was a real Austrian style restaurant as well. I had
Käsenpätzle, which was little balls of egg & dough cooked with fried onion and
cheese. It was really good, but reaaallllyyyy filling! I think I should have
gone with something a little lighter. It also came with a salad, which was
excellent! Minus the fact it had about a cup of dressing on it. And that is
not an exaggeration, I was literally squeezing dressing out of my lettuce before
eating it. Meredith had Wiener Schnitzel, and besides the pork part, looked
really good!

Our waitress was also nice! And after feeling hated in Budapest today it made
me so happy... so right now Vienna is number one in my book for places to
recommend to others.

We headed back to the hostel but stopped by the market on the way back and
picked up watermelon :) apples, peanut butter and some cookies. I am excited to
have peanut butter again. As much as I like my Nutella and apple sandwiches, I
have found myself eating straight Nutella too often. So it will be good to
break that habit.

It was about 7pm getting back to our hostel. Although our hostel is great, it
really isn't located close to any major attractions. So we decided to take the
rest of tonight to plan the rest of our stay in Vienna and then to catch up on
our blogs. A part of our night in also included our last episode of Chuck :( I
am a little sad that is it over... we looked at buying season 2, but it is $60
... so I don't think that will be happening.

We just got done planning tomorrow, which we are going to head to Schöbrunn in
the morning, which is pretty much the Versailles of Vienna. And then we are
going to head towards the center of the city and see the other major attractions
including Parliament, City Hall, Hofburg Palace, & St. Stephen's Church. We are
also going to go to the Haus der Musik (House of Music) tomorrow after 5pm,
because it is half admission :)

Im excited for Vienna because it has a lot of offer. Although there are a lot of
churches and museums, just like every other European city, it also has a lot of
unique things to offer. And I think it is going to be those different things
that we focus on :)

Okay well I am going to get to bed, because tomorrow is going to be a LONNNNGGGG
and exciting at the same time day :)
-brooke.