Planes, Trains, and Wagons East

Vienna was... big. The old city was the biggest I've visited to date. And the Danube, well, when you get to the Danube, its not the Danube. It's a canal from the river snaking its way next to the old city. The actual river is another 30 minutes away on foot. But once you get there its GORGEOUS. The buildings are also huge. Gigantic. Get-blisters-from-walking-around-them big. If you go inside, though, you have to walk around the whole building because you probably paid 10 euro to get in. Vienna is a most expensive city. Fortunately, I had a place to stay.

Before leaving on my European odyssey, word spread though the family grapevine of my impending adventure. Turns out I had a relative living in Vienna. To be perfectly honest, Vienna was not on my original itinerary, but that changed with this new information. My relative is my mom's cousin's daughter, Zoe, who I'd never met or heard of. I sent her an email and she instantly offered me a place to stay. Gotta love family.

I arrived in Vienna early in the morning after my overnight train from Krakow, met Zoe for about 10 minutes before she had to be off for work. I settled into my cozy new diggs, a double bed in an awesome apartment on a quiet street just outside the old city (easily the best place I've stayed so far), took a nap, then headed out. I was tired and didn't feel like being a tourist so I left the camera at home, walked around the old city, ate soup, drank coffee, and came back home. Later, Zoe and I went out for dinner and got to know each other better.

The next day was tourist day. The Hapsburg palace was first up, and its pretty incredible. Huge, marble, shiny, and intricate.

Part of it is a university library and they wouldn't let me in. The rest is a museum filled with Greek stuff from Ephesus, arms (the metal kind, not the limb kind), and old musical instruments. I guess the Hapsburgs were mild collectors. Then I went to the center of the city where theres a bigass cathedral, after which I discovered just how far away the Danube was. I didn't actually make it there. Instead I went to Prater Park and didn't rent a bike cause it was too expensive. The park is a huge, beautiful green area just across the Danube canal. Amusement parks, restaurants, bike paths... the works. After the park I went to the bigass art museum and saw a huge Egyptian collection (awesome), a Roman collection (yeah), and some classical paintings (which I don't really get or like) including a few Rembrandts (ok, he's good). Not a bad day.

I told Zoe I was into hiking and she recommended I go through the vineyards just outside the city, so thats what I did the next day. And boy was she right. Just beautiful neighborhoods and houses scattered across beautiful, hilly country. It was cloudy and grey, but still gorgeous. And best of all, Austrians enjoz wine with their hiking, so many of these vineyards are open for wine tasting. I stopped at one and had some delicious local wine while demonstrating my complete lack of knowledge of the subject to the owner of the huge vineyard. We had a few laughs and I got a bit tipsy. Austrians sure know how to hike.

After a delicious homecooked breakfast of french toast and french-pressed coffee prepared by my host, Zoe and I took a walk down to the Nascht(?) Markt, or snack market of you know Yiddish. It was a huge open-air market near the old city filled with delicious local foods and fleas (get it? there was also a flea market). I loooove markets. I bought bread, hummus, peppers stuffed with cheese, and brie for way too much money, and I headed for the Danube. I took the subway this time, to the long, skinny island in the middle of the river. Its a spectacularly beautiful river. I stayed there for a long time. There were swans.

The next day was the best day of my trip so far. I woke up early and took a train (Austrian trains are awesome) to Melk, a small town on the Danube, about an hour West of Vienna. Its a pretty touristy town but I got there before all the rest of them, so it was quiet and beautiful. People come here because of the river and the Abby. Stift Melk, as its called, is a huge monestary sitting atop a cliff over the town. Its amazing, mostly for the views from the top. After that I walked around for an hour trying to find a place to rent a bike cause the information center was closed and the guy at the train station told me where to go but after i couldnt find it told me he actually didn't know where to go. I finally found a hotel that I could rent from. I rode along the river for about 20 km, through tiny towns, meadows, and fields surrounded by gorgeous green mountains until I arrived in the town of Spitz. There I stopped for lunch at a Hariger, which is the home a local vinyard owner turned restaurant with tables set up outside. I sat down with an older couple from Linz and they helped me order from the German menu. I had the house wine and some cheese spreads. Just amazing. We chatted for a while and they paid for one of my glasses of wine. Wonderful people. At the second Hariger I went to I had more wine and some cake. I could have Hariger-hopped all day like my friends from Liz, but I was full and I had to get back to Melk to return the bike. I was going to ride back on the other side of the river so I asked my server (the owner) where the next bridge was. "Theres no bridge here," he replied, "only in Melk or Krems" which was another 20 km up the road. How wonderful, in a completely non-sarcastic way. 40 km between bridges, and I'm used to cities with four or more just downtown. Its nice to be in a place where rivers are respected, especially one as beautiful as the Danube.

I returned home just as Zoe was preparing dinner. We ate pasta, talked, and I think bonded in the way family should. Pretty much the best day ever.

Next Week on Planes, Trains, and Wagons East: Hungary? I'd like some Pest with a dash of Buda.

ps. sorry for the lack of pictures. I'll change that when I get to a computer that can handle it, but I'm getting too far behind to wait for that.