Day 21 - Wien Osterreich

So much for having a good night on the train last night. It was really horrible. I got a half an hour to an hour of sleep, maybe, throughout the entire night. Surprisingly, it didn't actually make me too upset. I can sleep anywhere at anytime. How often will I be able to stay up all night on an overnight train headed to Austria? ;) We were officially awoken by a steward on the train. Last night, he asked us if we wanted sparkling water or still water with our breakfast (after chuckling over how weird it was that we all wanted water instead of coffee or tea). A few people in my sleeping area got sparkling water. Well, when Hans (we named the steward this) was handing up the plate of food with the sparkling water to the middle bunk, the water fell and hit the ground. Ciera (on the bottom bunk) picked it up and asked if it was fine to drink. Hans replied, "No it is dangerous." And a few seconds later replied, with a smile on his face, "You wouldn't want to take a shower" because you know, the water would spew like soda HAHA :) It is kind of a "you had to be there" (and hear his German accent) kind of story, but I thought I'd put it on here anyway so I could read it later and smile.

An hour or two after waking up, we arrived in Vienna! Martha and Greg met us at the train and we all received big hugs from Martha. We went to the hotel, but just to drop our bags off because our rooms weren't ready yet. Then we headed out to the city of Wien! We saw so many many things and I don't even know what they all were, but here are some pictures!

Odd Altarpiece. Apparently it is part of some sort of exhibition where this woman photographs dead animals. Rabbits are a symbol of Christ so that is why it is in this particular position. Very strange.

Painted dome from an unintended viewpoint.

Remnants from the Roman Empire.

Parliament?

We stopped after this because we were all exhausted and starving! We grabbed some food in the U-bahn (the metro, which has some food shops in it), then went back to the hotel at Gas-o-Meter city.

These are gas tank holders or something. Not sure. There are several of them that comprise Gas-o-Meter city. They include clothing stores, restaurants, and groceries. Nice place.

Anyway, once back at the hotel, we were free for the day and we couldn't decided what to do. We looked this brochure thing to see all of the museums and such in the city, but they all were closing soon so we wouldn't have been able to make it to them in time. We (Elisabeth, Claire, Rachel, Mckell, and I) finally decided that we would go to the Vienna Festival. So that is where we went.

While there, we got some authentic food, which included schnitzel (deep fried veal), some special type of Austrian lasagna that I didn't like very much, and a frankfurter (just a regular hot dog). It was quite tasty. Then we watched the beginning of the Opening Ceremonies for this Festival.

We would have stayed longer than we did except that we were afraid the metro would close and we didn't know enough about it to chance it. No problem. So we headed back to the hotel where I used the spacey, though free, internet. And now it is time to tuck in :)