Vienna.com
Trip Start
Feb 05, 2008
1
62
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Vienna,
Vienna,
Austria
Friday, August 22, 2008
Vienna is expensive. Western Europe is expensive. That's why I've been avoiding it. But the difference in courier costs between western and eastern Europe is substantial. For example, cost to courier a 2 kg package to Budapest or Prague is in the $230 range. For Vienna, $127, and it didn't really cost me anything extra to swing through. As soon as I checked in I went to the Mailboxes Etc store where Sadie had arranged to have my package sent. It was only about six blocks from the hostel! My package was there waiting and the guy at the counter was expecting me. Everything went off without a hitch. In the box was my laptop and assorted cables, recent copies of the Journal and See Magazine, my much needed light jacket and some lip stuff that I can't get abroad.
I booked myself into the highly rated and reasonably priced ($55 for two nights) Wombats-The Base. There are two Wombats in Vienna.
The Punk exhibit
The other is The Lounge. They also have locations in Berlin and Amsterdam. They are clean and well run. These are what I call institutional or corporate hostels. In order to keep the cost per bed night down in the more expensive cities these operators must run huge operations, like dormitory hotels, complete with a bar that also offers a simple menu. My dorm was spacious with only six beds and an ensuite bathroom. The staff was fabulous. But I just don't like the big hostel, especially in pop cities like Vienna where they tend to attract guests with an average age of about 19 and quarter. They travel in packs, some of which are of the organized variety, like Contiki. They are loud and obnoxious. Cheap shitty draught beer (one euro for a small glass) that causes severe headaches facilitates the debauchery. Two Contiki groups came though during my two night stint. Imagine the fun. My first day was interesting. After picking up my laptop and getting sorted, I sat down in the lounge and started messing around on it. I chatted with a fellow who was sitting nearby for a while and then asked him if he'd watch my stuff while I ran upstairs to get a notebook. I continued working and some time later he came up and asked if I was going to dinner soon. I told him I had eaten. Then he gave me some kind of sob story about not having any money in his account and that he was busy trying to contact his brother to wire some into his account (on his expensive iBook and what was he using to pay for his room anyway?) and could he borrow some money.
Album covers, half of which I have.
I gave him five euro. He said he'd pay me tomorrow. I never saw him again nor did I expect to. Does he travel this way? Later in the pub, traveling with the Contiki group was one of those punks who always bumps you when he walks by but doesn't turn and smile and apologize, you know, with a 'sorry man' or something along those lines. It happened three or four times. He was a real charmer, swillin' beer like it was water. He figures he does much better socially when he's absolutely blotto. I was sitting at the bar and watched him, with one hand full of money, take a euro out of the tip jar with the other to pay for one of the four beers he just order. He looked over just then and knew I'd busted him. I narked him out to the bartender who said he had ways of dealing with guys like that. Something about spit. In the morning there was a young fellow woozily flopped down on the sidewalk next to the front door, head bobbing and just after I walked by him on my way next door to get my laundry I heard a 'ralph' type sound. When I returned there was a gargantuan puke stain on the sidewalk. I then notice a couple more stains where messes had been recently cleaned.
Night two blessed me with the worst dorm mates I've ever had. I went to bed at around 11:00 p.m. At around 12:30 I was awakened by a hell of a racket. The light was on and my five roommates were showering, running their computers, downloading pics, talking and laughing, apparently oblivious at my presence. I was I think the word is incredulous.
Display I was not supposed to photograph
Yuko and Rumi who I'd met in Sopron were staying at the other Wombats. We had drinks one night and dinner the following evening. I spent an afternoon strolling around and seeing how different Vienna looks when the Fanzone and other related Eurocuppification is removed. That shit really made a mess of what is a very fine looking city-one of the most beautiful in this leg of my trip. I took in an excellent exhibition, 'Punk - No One Is Innocent' at the Kunsthalle Wien, contemporary art museum, featuring a phenomenal display of early Sex Pistols, Ramones and Clash paraphernalia. TV's played early concert footage from those bands as well as the likes of Television and Patti Smith. Check out Amos Poe, Ivan Kral - Blank Generation, 1976. This type of thing beats hell out of classic art museums any day.
There's good news on the food and coffee front. You can eat excellent local cuisine or kabobs for well under 10 bucks a meal. And cappuccinos were under three dollars. Beers of course are very, very good here and cheap also. If you keep your admissions to museums and other attractions down you can get out of here for under $50 a day. The walk down to the centre from my hostel along shopping Mariahilfer Strasse is excellent. The weather was fabulous. I returned to the Naschmarkt where I had been during Euro for some people watching and a beverage.
I bought my ticket to the much talked about small town of Cesky Krumlov from Westbahnhof, Vienna's second largest train station just around the corner from my hostel. On the morning of my departure, my roommates from hell left early (Which was a pisser because I was going to get up and make a helluva racket.) so I thought I'd relax and catch up on some stuff. I double-checked my train ticket for times and that's when I noticed I had to go to a different station some distance away. Christ. The fun never stops. I had just enough time to finish packing, check out and get over to whatever bahnhof it was 20 some minutes away on the tram. 10:30 a.m. and I was back on track and on my way to Czech Republic.
