After what seemed like an eternity on Dora, we crossed the Slovakian border and made our way to Bratislava. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and to my surprise is a very cute town. I don't know if any of you have seen the movie Eurotrip, but that is the depiction of Bratislava that I had in my head prior to our arrival and it is not even close to what it actually looks like. Anyway, we spent about an hour in the city and had a lovely lunch before getting back on Dora to head into Vienna. Although before we left, Amanda and I each bought Bratislava T shirts which we both find ironic and funny since we were there for such a short period of time.
Once we arrived in Vienna, we drove straight to the Schoenbrunn Castle and it was one of the most beautiful castles I have ever seen. There was a wedding going on and I saw the bride and groom kiss from the balcony and it was so cute. They have a Zoo, fountains, a few labyrinths, and beautiful gardens. A couple of us girls did several of the labyrinths (mazes) and felt like kids all over again...it was awesome! We were even more excited when we completed them!
Once we got to our hostel and got checked in (by the way, our hostel is so lush compared to everywhere we have stayed so far) I decided to go for a run around the city before dinner and try and get acquainted with my surroundings. For dinner we had traditional Vienna Wiener Schnitzels and apple (pronounced apfle) strudels. Both were pretty gross if you ask me, but our group was pretty divided on the topic of dinner. Alan gave us the option after dinner whether or not we wanted to go to the Prater Amusement Park, which is supposed to be the oldest amusement park in the world. Most of us ended up going and had a blast! The first ride we rode when we got there was called Extasy (that is how it is spelled) and it was insane. It looked like some kind of alien spaceship... I have never seen a ride like it. It jostled you around in so many different directions you had no idea which way was up all the while smoke is blowing at you, there is raging music, and wild flashing lights in every corner of your eyes. Needless to say, riding this ride after a huge meal was not the best idea. Most of the group didn't feel well afterwards but we all stayed and played for a few hours which was great fun!
The below picture is a bunch of girls with ponchos on after they rode a water ride.
Saturday 7/31 -
This morning was yet again another dreary, rainy day in Europe. I don't know how it is possible that our days on the bus are always beautiful and sunny and our free days seem to be so cruddy, but that is just the way it has been lately. Fortunately, we had checked the weather report in advance and knew what to expect so we all turned off our alarms and slept in until a whopping 10AM!!! It was amazing! I didn't even know my body could sleep into the double digits anymore! Anyway, Amanda and I set off into the city and decided to go shopping first. We have a couple of themed parties coming up and I was in need of a few things and we luckily came across everything on our list! After shopping we took the metro over to "Ring Row" which is a famous circle around Vienna that takes you past a bunch of the cites. We saw a bunch of beautiful buildings and churches, played in a park, stopped and enjoyed Austrian beer & wine from a cafe (of course we were people watching), shared a brownie from Der Mann (which is a local cafe that I was instructed to try by a friend who used to live here) and just as it was a bout to rain, we made our way to the super market to grab some food to make dinner. I didn't know this even existed, but our hostel has a whole kitchen area set up and you can cook and leave leftovers for other guests to enjoy.
After a lovely home cooked meal, which after eating out for 6 weeks was amazing, we decided to go and see another movie!! Everyone knows how much I love seeing movies, so this is probably not that much of a surprise but we decided to see "Cars 2" since it just came out the other day. We saw the movie in 3D and it was especially good because it featured many of the places in Europe we have just seen.
Now I am back at the hostel preparing for bed and tomorrow we are off to Krakow, Poland. Talk to you again soon!
Love,
Lindsay
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Vienna, Austria
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