Wanderlust: Post #4: Vienna

Despite some pre-departure stress that may have resulted in me forgetting a few key items (including my netbook power cord... which arrived by Purolator today, hence no blog update until now), I arrived in Vienna safely and right on schedule at noon last Wednesday.

The overnight flight to Frankfurt was fine, couldn't sleep but they had a pretty impressive selection of movies, so I watched The Descendants and We Bought a Zoo. I managed to find my way through Frankfurt's MASSIVE airport (seriously the size of a small town) and onto my flight to Vienna. When I found my seat, the man sitting next to me noticed the Canada flag badge on my bag (to be clear, I have a really big backpack that has a small, detachable day pack which I used as my carry-on-- both have flag patches on them), smiled and asked what I was doing in Europe, so I told him about my trip. His name was Olivier (I'd guess late 30s or early 40s), he's from Switzerland but lives in Vienna, and was returning from a business trip. As it turns out, he's been to literally EVERY place I'm going in the next 3 months, speaks 5 languages fluently, and had tons of advice on things to do, places to see, cities/countries to be especially careful in, and other key places that I might consider adding to my itinerary (a quick trip to Italy to see Venice is now a very big possibility!).

I found my hostel without any difficulty, then made my way into the city centre to find Ali at city hall, which was slightly more challenging. But I made it (almost) on time and she was there waiting! We spent the next few days exploring the GORGEOUS old city, including taking a 3 hour bike tour of all the historical buildings and important cultural sites and a stop in at a few contemporary art museums. We took way too many pictures and tried out an assortment of Viennese cuisine and beer.

On the second night, Ali and I went out for dinner then walked around for a bit to try and find a pub so we could have a few drinks. We decided to stop back in at her hostel for happy hour (really cheap local beer!) and met some guys from the US who were travelling around Eastern Europe for a few weeks. They were great, had plenty of suggestions for us, and we ended up staying there all evening hanging out with them.

The next day, Ali left for Salzburg and I stayed in Vienna for another day to explore a bit more on my own before meeting up with her again. That night there was a free music festival going on at the Rathaus (city hall building that looks like the Ottawa Peace Tower except bigger and prettier) so I stopped at a street vendor for a bratwurst for dinner and made my way over. The festival was called Eroffnung Wiener Festwochen. There was a huge orchestra and the music was so incredible that I didn't even mind being there by myself! Also while I was standing in the crowd, an older gentleman came up to me and asked what part of Canada I was from, since he saw the flag on my backpack. He was originally from Montreal, worked as a stage hand for Cirque du Soleil, and when they came to Austria many years ago, he met a Viennese woman and ended up staying there! So romantic. That's now 2 points for the Canada flag badge (preview- a third is coming, someone approached me in downtown Salzburg today! More on that later).