Vienna, Austria

      Last weekend, we made our way to the great Republic of Austria. Friday morning, we stepped off the train at Wien, or as most know it, Vienna. The sun was shining and the air was terribly crisp. We could tell right away it was going to be a beautiful day-filled with adventure. But before I go into the happenings of those adventures, let me back up.


      Getting to Vienna, wasn't all cake and cherries on top. It was quite an amusing event, actually. Vienna is over 10 hours by train from our wonderful city- Maastricht, and because we have class until mid-afternoon on Thursdays, we had to embark on our very first overnight train journey in order to get to Vienna by Friday morning. 


      Overnight trains have to be reserved in advance, so my roommate Kristen was kind enough to travel to Liege, Belgium the week before and take care of that for the group (Kristen, Carissa, Marley, and I). The plan was to reserve four beds in a sleeper cart on the train to Vienna from Franfurt, Gernamy. Kristen said it was a bit of a challenge getting the tickets reserved, because the people working at the train station in Liege generally don't speak great English,( and I'm sure you could have guessed we don't speak great French). But Kristen did manage to communicate sufficiently enough and reserved four beds on the train. Therefore, we were all set for the weekend! 

Our travel group (from left: Carissa, Kristen, Marley, and I)

      Everything seemed to be going smoothly for us Thursday evening as we train-hopped to Frankfurt. We'd like to think that all of us have become expert train travelers (ha ha), and that making the journey to Vienna, the longest trip thus far, would be a piece of pie.....


     Well, to give us SOME credit, we DID make it to Frankfurt. We ALSO made it to the overnight train. We EVEN managed to find our correct cart......And when we looked up from our cart to our tickets to our reserved spot...our mouths dropped and our eyes stretched wide. What we found were not beds at all. Instead, it was a small, closely contained, six-man sitting area- with chairs squished together, and an pot-bellied, rainbow-wearing, greasy-haired, cigarette-smoking, crazy-looking man. It was going to be a LONG, long night.  


      Well, it turned out the language-barrier in Liege (where Kristen booked our tickets) had landed us seats on an overnight train, and no beds. The train ride was nine hours. And it looked like we were stuck in this tightely enclosed cart with Mauk, the rainbow man. Turns out Mauk was a nice guy, who just happened to smell terrible (it probably didn't help that his shoes were off and on the other side of the cart), and loved to dance and play guitar. He lives in Vienna, and told us he works with kindergarten children. 


     "Oh, so you are a teacher!" I proclaimed. 
Mauk suddenly paused, offended. 
     "No. I HATE this word [teacher]. I am an ENERGY SHARER!!!" he said. 
He then proceeded to head bang and play his air guitar, and occasionally would shout things like, "ACDC, yeahhhhh!"


After five minutes, I had an epiphany. 
   
I was NOT staying nine hours in that cart. 


     After a few random outbreaks of ZZ Top impersonations and the like, I announced to the other girls, who were also caught in between crying from bouts of laughter and total fear, that I was going to find a sleeper car, or seat on the floor, or in a luggage room, ANYTHING really. Kristen jumped up to go with me. By the grace of God, I found a train conductor, and explained the situation. He seemed annoyed, but I persisted. I told him there was no possible way we were staying in that cart, and we MUST have beds. 


    I don't know if it was the boldness in my voice, the 

audacity in my words, or the crazed looked in my eyes that told him I meant business, but it worked. Within ten minutes, we had a sleeper cart to ourselves. 

    Kristen and I went back to the rainbow cart to tell Carissa and Marley the miraculous news. I walked in the cart just about the time that our new buddy Mauk was practically head-banging on Marley. She and Carissa jumped up as fast as lightning and we ran from the cart, shaking with laughter to our new spots. 

Carissa, ready for bed in the sleeper cart!

    The rest of the night was uneventful. We made ourselves comfortable and went to sleep shortly after. 

     Our first sleeper cart experience? Well, let's just say Kristen will never be sent to make train reservations ever again. 

THIS.....is Mauk.
I didn't manage to capture a picture from the front, but we saw him walking away the next morning when we got off the train in Vienna.

     Well, now that the most eventful part of the weekend has been told, I will talk a little bit about our short day in Vienna. 

    When we got off the train we went to the tourist information center. We got day passes for the metro, rented lockers (we weren't staying the night in Vienna- went had hostel reservations in Salzburg later that evening), and we got city maps. Like I said, it was a beautiful day, but it was absolutely BITTER cold. My face was frozen as soon as we started walking away from the train station. We hurried to the metro, jumped on the 6th line and headed to 

 Schönbrunn Palace.

    We stood outside the palace and took pictures as quickly as possible (remember, our faces were falling off by this time). We didn't go inside, partially because once you have been inside Neuschwanstein castle and the Palace of Versailles, you don't really need to see any other royal edifices, (kidding), but mostly because it was pretty expensive, and we are college kids on a budget. But it was really beautiful on the outside and made for some pretty pictures! 

     After leaving the palace, we wondered around the city for hours trying to find the Cafe Central, an old, traditional, landmark cafe in Vienna that I had read about in a few different travel guides. Vienna is the world's coffee capital, so I was particularly excited to try a "Kleiner Brauner," a cup of Austrian espresso with cream and sugar. 

    

    When we found the place we were nearly frozen and tired of walking, but it was quite an accomplishment to know that were capable of finding our way with only a metro card and a city map. 

    The cafe was absolutely beautiful, too. It had gold and green arches (hey, Baylor colors) and soothing music. It opened in 1860 and quickly became a key meeting place for intellectual thinkers and some of the world's most famous names: Adolf Hitler, Sigmund Freud, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky, to name a few. 

    We each had our own warm coffee (and in Kristen and Carissa's case- hot chocolate). You must know how disappointed I was that we were in THE coffee capital of the WORLD and they wanted HOT CHOCOLATE....but I guess I'll leave that one alone. 

      We ordered traditional Austrian dishes for a late lunch, some of which, like spinach schnitzel, we really enjoyed, but other things, like pickled ox cheek, I couldn't handle. But we have been trying to order things that are traditional to the country, for the sake of experiencing the culture as best we can. 

     

    After literally sitting at Cafe Central two and a half hours, (this is also customary there, maybe I should move to Vienna?), we took off to see as much of the city as we could before we had to catch an evening train to Salzburg. 

In front of Hofburg Palace

     We wondered around some of the most beautiful buildings and gardens I have ever seen. We eventually made our way to the Hofburg Palace, the National library in the Josephsplatz, the Imperial Chancellery Wing, the Swiss Gate, and the Michael Cupola- just to mention a few landmarks. 

     After we sped through sight-seeing, we ran back to catch our train to Salzburg. It was such a bummer to have to leave so soon, but I guess that just means I'll have to go back! 

       The thing I liked most about Vienna, (other than the coffee) was how every things was so clean and fresh looking. It was a city saturated by linen white buildings. The people were friendly, from what I could tell in one day. Everyone seemed so kind and traditional, and the majority of the population seemed to be dressed in fur, which I LOVED. It was a city of elegance, classical music, and coffee. What more could I ask for?