New country, new city

Trip Start Jun 05, 2006

Trip End Aug 01, 2006

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Flag of Austria Vienna, Austria
Tuesday, June 20, 2006

So yesterday, I did get reunited with the rest of my group. It would seem that their tour group ended at 2 way up on the hill, and they couldnt get down to the tourist office till around 2:40. I decided to give up and get some lunch at 2:30, and then came back at just past 3, when they had just decided to leave. Bad luck all around. Anyway, I went back and went for a run, which it turns out was a bad idea since these archless shoes caused me to hurt my knee, but Ill manage. When I got back from that those other kids were there and we decided to go to Prague 2, or the new part of town, and go to this chic vegetarian place the Frommers guidebook recommended. Best experience of the whole trip (thus far). We had some amazing fresh hummus and I had a really good thai dish. But the best part was just the way the place was decked out with all this cool Bohemian ornamentation.

Anyway, we didnt do too much else in Prague--watched Australia get beat by Brazil and made some English friends. After running some errands this morning, we got on a 2:40 train to Wien (Vienna), Austria with some trouble. The Eurail timetable and the chick at the desk pointed us to the wrong station, which almost set us back...but we got on the train with a few minutes to spare, and would spend the next 5 hours suffering in balmy swamp of a railcar. Jon said he had been in spas that were colder. But a bit tired (didnt get much sleep because of some early morning jackhammering outside our window) and ready for showers we nonetheless stepped off the train into Austria and managed to find our hotel in a mere hour and a half, navigating another metro system and somehow dealing with the lack of a map with the street were staying on.

forgive me, but I still think this is funny

As with our last hostel, the hostelworld.com directions were something like, step off the metro and walk 50m to the hostel...but in WHICH direction?! Turns out our last hostel was right across from a McDonalds, and sight unseen I jokingly suggested we should look for our hostel wherever we saw a McDonalds. Well, guess what's right down the street from our new place...yep...the golden palace of the Big Mac.

Anyway, the place we're staying at is actually a hotel, with free internet and a tv in the room. It's pretty nice, especially for the price, but it's kinda outta the way. But the metro's right here so we should have no problem getting to the attractions tomorrow. Tonight we had carnival food at this permanent carnival famous for an 1890?--constructed Ferris Wheel. It was kind of a neat scene. We got yelled at by a raving old drunk German. And the other 3 rode the ferris wheel, hoping for a good glimpse of the city...it seems like we try to climb/ride/grappel something in every city...so I guess I've grown tired of the whole paying to use stairs and wheels, so I just waited for them to come down and tell me how I'd made the right decision. And that's all. Tomorrow I'm gonna find me a computer that lets me upload photos, cuz the last two have been a little ornery. Well, catcha later alligator.

matt