Vienna Photoshoot and Travels to Graz

This day was mostly spent relaxing. I could feel it in my legs from the day before, and I was still just over this cold so I really wanted to take care of myself (plus all the wine made me groggy waking up). I also had some planning to do on the computer, so I was busy busy busy sitting on the couch on my little laptop. I didn't really do anything too exciting - made pizza, ate it, watched Weeds with a few people that night, and ate homemade Tiramisu! It was a good day!

My planning involved going to Graz the next day on my way south to Ljubljana to meet up with friends going there. I wanted to take some photos of Vienna though, and I was going to hunt for some wool to make something with, so off I went!

























I had a day ticket for transit so I was able to run around taking photos! I managed to find my wool (yay!) and get home, pack, and go to the train station. Within an hour I was on the train to Graz, Austria :)

I arrived in the evening. I had no problem finding the apartment building, although getting into the actual apartment was a challenge... I got into the building with the mailman, but I hadn't written down Misha's last name so I had no idea what button to push. I was not getting an answer from my texts, so I had to guess what house it might be. Someone was coming out of their door and we managed to figure it out.

This turned into an epic drunken wine night. We started at the house, and took some with us. We wandered about the city (not in the centre but somewhere else)...




and ate some kebab. We were sitting eating kebab after the adventure walk, when we noticed there was this nice church behind us. We could hop the little fence, so we did. We threw plums that were given to us from the kebab people at the church; I was elated! We saw a nice green area over another small fence so we went above that...

it was a backyard. We sat on a bench and read the paper, he saw his friend in it so he ripped out that piece and we left the paper for them to be confused the next day.
We walked by another building and the door opened so we went in. It was just a passage into the communal garden thing of some group of buildings, so we walked around and left.

This was a big adventure! We headed back and proceeded to drink even more wine and watch stupid hilarious shows on the internet :D

Invisible Explorations in Vienna

So I woke up in the afternoon as you may imagine. I was tired but curious to see the city! I was told a route to go and I took it.

On the way though I realized I had forgotten my camera!! So this whole adventure is sans photo (hence the invisible in the title) :(

I walked along the canal, and into the city center. It was gorgeous - even more pretty than I expected!! I found a bike thing similar to the one I was using in Luxembourg, so I figured it out and rented the bike for an hour for one euro!

I biked and biked, but I had no map and no concept of the city so I had no idea where I was or where I was going. It was awesome.

I took streets just because they looked interesting... when they stopped looking interesting I turned... eventually an hour was almost by and I had to find a little station to put it back or I would have to pay for another hour (you can wait 15 minutes in between and take a new one and it's free - I love these things). I found one with almost ten minutes to spare right near a market!

I walked down this market (also near a subway so I now had an idea of where I was) and ended up sort of near the city center. I found another bike station, but it wouldn't let me take out a bike! It was strange. So I walked. Found the tourist office and got a map. Filled my water in the Starbucks in a sneaky fashion, and wandered to some main points I had yet to see.

The buildings here are so intricate, massive, clean, and impressive... I was blown away! It involved a lot of walking too though since the buildings took forever to walk around. My feet were beginning to suffer, so I found a neat seat in the Museum Quartier and rested while deciding where to go next.

Dinner was going to be prepared that evening so I didn't want to stay out at night... so I decided to figure out how to get back I think... I walked and stumbled across the Palace totally by accident!

Then it was really time to get a move on. I tried more and more bike things along the way, but they were all rejecting my credit card. I was kind of freaked that they were charging me every time I tried, so I stopped and just walked fast. In the wrong direction. Then I had to walk even more to get on track, but I made it home blister free and with a LOT of exploring under my belt :) I saw more of the city than I expected in one afternoon!

The evening consisted of dinner with Ida and her Austrian friend, wine, conversation, and YouTube. It was super pleasant! I went to bed a happy but tired girl.

Bus Station and ATM Mafunctions

So I had decided to take off and go to Vienna today. I bought a ticket online, but then realized I had to print it and I had no printer! I rushed to get my stuff together and ran out the door knowing time was going to be tight. I had only walked to this bus stop once and I had to find a printer as well now.

I got to the city center and ran into a hostel. They weren't able to help me. I ran into an internet place across the street, and I had barely enough Polish change left to print (I thought I had none it was a fluke I found some even!)

I printed my ticket but the tram had already left. I had 20 minutes to walk to the bus station, and I had only walked there once so this was going to be from memory and very very tight for time now.

I walked as fast I as humanly could with my backpack on. I was still just getting over this cold, so I was covered in sweat in no time; felt like I was really really pushing myself especially after dancing so much the night before... I tried and I was only 5-10 minutes late. I was hoping the bus was late.

I walked into the station and showed them my ticket asking if my bus had already left. The man shook his head and pointed to the date. The ticket was for Thursday! It was Sunday! Somehow I had messed it up online... either when I went to buy it I had to re enter info and it was on the wrong day and I didn't notice, or that was the ticket that showed up for Sunday because that was the next bus leaving by that company. WTF.

So I was disheartened. I looked and there was a bus at 9pm that night, so I went back to Ali's by tram feeling very defeated.


I told my host in Vienna that I had missed a bus (that may or may not have even existed) and that there was another but it arrived early the next morning. She was okay with this so I hung out at Ali's for a while...




... and went back to the bus stop. I had gotten rid of my Polish money, so I had to go to an ATM first. I left early to make sure I had time to do this. Good thing I did! There was an ATM outside, but I tried and then afterward it said it was a broken machine. UGH. There was one inside, but it was inside a store that had closed half an hour ago and the guy cleaning would not let me in to use it!! FUCK!

I had ten minutes before it left now, and I had no money! I was again looking like I was going to miss the bus. Then I had a genius thought that the train station is across the street and they should have one... so I ran for it. Again I was covered in sweat with my backpack bouncing behind me, but the ATM worked and I made it with a few minutes to spare. That was close.

Unfortunately since I was so close there were no places with two seats empty, so I had to be one of maybe three or so people that had to sit beside someone and not lay down sleeping on the seats for the overnight bus. Eight hours in a bus seat overnight later, I had not gotten very much sleep and it was not even 5am when I got on the Ubahn in Vienna. I arrived at about 5:30am tired and hungry.

Ida, my wonderful host, met me at the station at this ungodly hour and showed me back to the house where we both went to sleep right away....