I only had those two days in Vienna, but I was doing budget stuff on the train so I thought I'd share in case you're interested.
I paid for a lot of things beforehand- city passes, trains, planes etc. but as of Monday here's what I've averaged: -$18.37 a night on hostels -$22.63 a day on food, souvenirs, and sight seeing Not bad right? I wanted to show you in case you were thinking of planning a trip. Though I won't lie to you, the plane ticket and train pass were mighty pricey. I'm in Germany now so you can click the button below to get to that page.
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So I was listening to that song (Billy Joel) while I was walking around palace gardens today and it was magical. Gave me goosebumps.
Today was amazing. It rained all day. I was supposed to go on a walking tour but they cancelled it-nobody showed up because it was raining. So I headed to Schönbrunn Schloss (pronounced shun-brun and Schloss means palace). Before touring the palace I had Weißwürste- which is Bavarian sausage and they served it with a soft pretzel and homemade mustard. The mustard was delish. The sausage was okay- but keep in mind I'm not a huge fan of meat. I've been real good at eating traditional food here. After eating I went into the palace. It was awesome!! It makes #1 for palaces/museums I've seen. It was gorgeous. They have 40 rooms you walk through while an audio guide gives you a little history about the palace. I was pretty impressed with how organized the exhibition was. Not at all like places in Italy (though I loved Italy). Also It might have been my favorite because I've mentioned before that I'm a succor for good design. And every room was perfect. White walls with gold trim, or wood paneling with gold trim. I would love to design a house that is modeled after that palace. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I snuck a few blurry ones on my phone. Sometimes I'm a rebel. It it is the palace of the Habsburg family (royal family of Austria). Maria Theresa is one of the famous rulers who lived there. It was her summer home. Her youngest daughter was Maria Antoin. Whom you probably know as Marie Antoinette (or at least I hope you know). Executed during the French Revolution. I'll post some of my blurry palace pictures below. (Not of the execution, of the palace) And THEN the gardens. A few of the gardens were gated just for people with a ticket (luckily I bought a ticket that included the secret gardens) but most of the back garden is open to the public. Because it was raining, there was hardly anybody there. Guess what? I loved it!!! I love going on walks and I love when there's no one around. And it was a huge beautiful palace garden. And the rain was more like a mist at that point. So I twirled my umbrella as I listened to music and felt beautiful things. I spent most of the day at Schönbrunn, afterwards I took the the metro back to the downtown area and had apple strudel at Café Mozart. Mozart was born in Salzburg but lived in Vienna later in his life. AND he performed for Maria Theresa in Schöbrunn palace when he was 6! I saw the room! That was my day. Vienna day 1.
I went to an English ward for church today. I didn't realize how much I missed hearing English. Well I speak in English to people all the time, but for the last few weeks on subways and trains and in restaurants I have no idea what people are saying. I don't like that. So it was nice to be in a place where everyone speaks English. I've noticed that tourists from the United States tend to stick to the really big cities like Rome and Paris. In places like Naples and even Barcelona the English-speaking tourists are from Australia or the UK. A few people have told me that Vienna is really classy. Giovanni (Naples hostel) told met here are lots of 'old people'. He's right. From what I saw today there weren't many young tourists. There definitely were in Roma yesterday. In Vienna people seem more inclined to mind their own business. And the city doesn't really seem that crowded. Even in the downtown area it was more common to find an empty street than a street with people on it. The metro is set up kind of weird too. One of the people I met from Germany warned me about it. There's no gate leading to the metro trains. They have ticket machines, but you have to go to a certain spot to go to the machine to validate your ticket. It's much easier to go directly on the train without looking for the ticket validation place. So it seems to me buying a metro ticket is relies strictly on an honor code. And it seems to me that most of the people here do buy a ticket. I have ridden the metro 5 times today and there wasn't ever a train where there was no place to sit. Mom, you would like Vienna. They have a lot of parks and squares with gorgeous buildings, and like I said-not crowded at all! That might have something to do with the fact that it's Sunday (a lot of the shops were closed). I had Wiener schnitzel for lunch today. To be honest I didn't even know what it was until I tried it. Pretty good schtuff. I was sitting next to a Mozart monument for a few minutes today and I watched tourists come up and take pictures and walk away without really even looking at the statue. It made me think about different kinds of tourists- I wonder if I'm that way. I'd like to think I only take pictures to capture memories or something beautiful, instead of taking a picture and walking away. It made me wonder if their motivation was just to post pictures on social media. Anyway.... Not sure what my point was with that. The pictures below are all for today, I thought the 'Okay Pizza' place was funny. I'm all for honest advertising. I mean, I know I'm not in Italy anymore. I also thougt the description on the apple juice was funny- 'like a soft kiss from the inside'. I'm not sure what that's supposed to feel like, but that was not my experience. Also the juice was not mild. FYI. This hostel is pretty nice. I'm becoming quite the connoisseur of hostel living (not hostile living)... and a bunch of other things, but I don't like to brag :). Hannah, Aubry, and Rachel if you're reading this... Do you remember our words of the day? Connoisseur was our first one! |
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