Friday was a mad hectic day at work. What with the Queens day celebrations and the fact that we had two days off, one day of work and the weekend off, most people took the Friday off to go back to England and make the most of the free time. This left only a couple of us in on Friday and as is typical, we were inundated with clients and work to do. I left work early at 5.30pm and headed to the station. Usual boring travel occurred and I eventually landed in Vienna at 10.10pm right on schedule. I had planned to meet Chris at the hostel at 11.00pm so I had a lot of time to get there.
On exiting the airport the only taxi's I could see were these all white BMW's and Merc's and Audi's and I guessed that they were exclusive cabs which were expensive. I took a wander around the outside and could see no other so hailed one of these expensive looking cabs. As it turned out, all of the taxi's in Vienna were like this. My driver was a mad old bastard told me he lived in Australia for a bit and called me a "bloody Pommy". It took him about 10 minutes or driving round streets trying to find the hostel and on arrival I quibbled the fare as he had kept the meter on whilst he was lost. The translation of this was pretty bad as his English was (selectively) not that good so I eventually paid up and got out. Chris came and met me at the door and as is typical in these situations of being in foreign climes, it was a great relief to see her.
Chris was with her friend Miller who was Austrian but had a really good English accent. We checked into the room which we were sharing with 3 other people who were absent. They had what looked to be a strike anywhere t-shirt and other paraphernalia of potential punks/anarcho's so we figured they could be cool. We went back downstairs and headed to a bar. If I'm honest I was completely spaced out from the past week of partying and tiredness so wasn't my usual self. We had a few beers, caught up and decided an earlyish night was in order so we could enjoy the rest of the weekend.
On arriving back at the room we found the 3 guys who were staying in the room and I asked one of them who owned the Strike Anywhere shirt. Some awkwardness followed as they had never heard of the band and Chris in German tried to explain but they just looked at us funnily, They also probably thought I was being quite forward and were weird with me for the rest of the time we stayed. They were 17 year old boys who had been on school trip but who had stayed behind and had quite possibly never been away from home before.
Saturday 3rd May 2008
We woke up around 9am and had a pretty crappy breakfast. Our plan for the day was to hop on the transport and head off round the city sightseeing. We walked to the station and headed towards the tube. I hadn't taken a tube in about 4 years because of my anxiety and I asked if it was cool for us to travel by tram. We set off but eventually headed back to the station as it was not going the way we wanted. I bit the bullet and decided to just jump on the train. Just as I suspected it wasn't bad at all and I got through it and eventually used them for the rest of the weekend. Another barrier in my life overcome. Its very difficult to describe but this for me made my weekend and I could have left right there as I had accomplished something amazing.
We took the tube to the Museumquarter and headed to the Hapsburg Palace where Hitler gave his infamous speech on the balcony of the ringed building. Amazing place to see and the naming of it as "Hitler Square" annoyed our Austrian friend Miller for the rest of the weekend.
From here we headed to a cafe to grab a drink as the skies were about to open and waited for Miller to turn up. Our plan was to head to the Schonbrunn (royal palace) but I wanted to see the Danube before we headed back to the west of the city where our hostel was located. I'm glad we did as it was a beast of a river, kinda weird as well as it breaks off into two parts and there is an island that runs down the middle which must be a good few miles long.
From here we took the tram all round the outside of Vienna central and again saw some amazing buildings. I was slowly becoming slightly mesmerized with the city and got an amazing feeling from it. I think it was definitely a combination of the company and the weather. From here we headed to the Palace which was almost certainly the best thing I saw all weekend. I've been to some places in my time, but this was definitely up there for me. Amazing grounds containing a huge palace which faced a hill with a ridiculously over the top fountain. We sat on the fountain and talked for ages about everything and nothing. Just enjoying our time together and our surroundings. As we went to leave the heavens opened and we sought refuge in the palace.
Post palace we sought refuge in some fine vegetarian cuisine and Chris had been tipped off about an amazing oriental all veggie restaurant which we set off to find. Apparently all shops shut at 6.00pm including booze establishments?!?!?! We decided to stock up for the night ahead once back in the center and headed off to find this place. 3 or 4 different tram rides, and almost going home meant it took us around an hour ti find it, BUT, the veggie prawns I had meant any tension was relived instantly as they were mind blowing. We all agreed the food was incredible and it wasn't earth shatteringly expensive either.
We headed back to the hostel after all the days excitement as I had ridiculous blisters from my new crepes and we were both exhausted. I introduced Chris to some new tunes whilst we lay in bed, eventually the vodka came out which was a bloody good plan. We talked all night whilst we listened to music on our mp3 players and found out so much stuff that we had in common. A truly successful night and one that definitely goes down in the Chris/Steve saga alongside TGI Fridays. One of those nights where going to a club would have ruined the good times we were having. Plus I was more than content to talk rather than shout.
Sunday 4th May 2008
The morning greeted me with:-
which was kind of a testament to how the start of the day went. Sunday was unbelievably chilled after our manic Saturday. We sat on the amazing purple benches in the museumplein until it rained and from there we whiled away the afternoon in various cafes until it reached 6.30pm and Chris and Miller had to take their train back to Graz. We said our goodbyes at the hostel where we had left our bags for the day and I headed off to the airport to prepare for my night of sleep in the terminal until my flight at 6.30am where on landing I went straight to work for the day.
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