Finally, a quiet place to rest our heads
Our friend Garmin the GPS (Our handheld GPS) showed us a straight way to the hostel, but it was like 2 kilometers away! Bad job, GPS lady! This hostel is really quiet, it’s inexpensive and it’s got huge rooms, our room is actually an apartment, we sleep in separate rooms, and even have our own kitchen! The people that work here are very nice, and give exellent service, they even washed our clothes. It feels nice having our own shower, after putting on fresh underwear, shaving and relaxing in the room, we feel like new men! Fire even got himself a new haircut!
So fresh, so clean. Shaving made us feel like new men!Castle Schönbrunn and the oldest zoo in the world
We decided to visit this huge castle in Vienna. The castle is also known as the Summer Palace. It has 1440 rooms. In its backyard there are several sculptures that was made by a local sculptor, a monolith, a roman ruin and several statues. Other things we could see in the backyard were a big maze and the oldest zoo in the world.
Oh no! It's the Minotaur going berserk! Run everyone, run!
The castle and the park behind were really intimidating, really huge. The sculptures and flowerbeds were stunning views. We walked a little around in the maze, it was a lot bigger than we thought, and we kept getting lost! We spent a good 10 minutes in there before we dicovered the way out. Also, Dice claims this maze is really nothing compared to Old City in Prague…
In the zoo we got to see lots of cool animals: Orangutans, giraffes, elephants, tigers, jaguars, cheetahs, and many, many more. We had a long walk in the zoo, and got some nice pictures.
We had a great time in the area around the castle. If you want to see one single thing in Vienna, this would be a good choice.
The Danish girls
We got to meet two Danish girls who we first met in Prague. We had a nice dinner at a asian restaurant in eastern Vienna. The food was great, but it could get a bit frustrating for those that didn’t know how to handle the chopsticks. We had a nice long dinner and sat for a few bers afterwards before leaving the restaurant. Then we left the restaurant, and headed west toward Wombat’s hostel, because we knew they had a nice backpacker’s bar (Fire had been there before).
Fire with the girls, doing the famous German Picture Pose, with tilted heads and right arm on the hip.
The party at the hostel was good, and we met some Irish guys and a girl from California at the hostel. Irish accent is a joy listening to, and the guys told us some amazing stories. Joe from Ireland also told us, in a thick Cork accent: “I was really scared when you guys walked in, cuz we’re like, fockin’ skinny, and you're like, fockin big!”. We had a fun time over there, but the bar closed at 2, so we went back to our apartment in the HappyHostel.
Dice wanted to be on the picture, but Fire just wanted to capture the entire Stephansdom. It's incredibly huge, both of us just gasped "Oh my God" as we came around the corner..Spectacular and beautiful Vienna
Today, we went into the city, and dicovered that Vienna truly is a beautiful city. We were amazed by the spectacular buildings and palaces, and spent a few hours just walking around the city center. Hofsburg was partuculary stunning. A must see in this town. Fire went on a crazy shopping spree, in the end he had to buy a new bag just to put all his new stuff in!
Everywhere in Vienna, great artists are playing classical music for money.
European weather can also be spectacular. Thunderstorms are quite awesome. Specially if you are Fire without rainclothes on his way to the apartement. He really got soaked. Dice was resting inside with a book, so he got to see it all from the bright side.
The toilets in Austria are weird. When you have to go number two, it lands on a platform in the back of the toilet. The platform is not that far down either, so if you really got to go, you have to plan the shitroute. Why can't they just do it like everyone else?
We got to see Die Hard 4 at an englishspeaking movietheater. It was a great movie. And it was a good break from all the touristactivities like walking and drinking. Tomorrow we are going to East Tirol. The destination will be Lienz or Zell am See. We'll have to see soon.