Europe - Day 21
We finally got to sleep late (till 9am) today. We headed out when we were all ready to Piazzale Roma and the bus terminal. We took our last photos in the waterway city and waited for the bus to Treviso airport - the bus was supposed to take 70 minutes but only took 40, which was really good because we were worried 11:40 was cutting it close for a 1pm flight. Of course, when we entered Treviso airport, we realized even that wouldn't have been a problem.The entire terminal was dead. There were like 6 checkin desks, one of them for SkyEurope - there was almost no line, so we checked in right away.
We went through security pretty much immediately afterwards. I had actually forgotten my can of deodorant and suntan lotion in my backpack and it came up on the x-ray, so they made me throw them out, which kinda sucked but no biggie. There were a whopping 4 gates at the airport. It was just a little silly. When our plane finally boarded we just walked out onto the tarmac to the plane. We were totally expecting the plane to be a tiny plane, but it was actually a normal sized 737 with 6 seats across each row.
The flight was not bad. It was really like we got in the air and then almost right away we were landing. It was also supposed to be 70 minutes long, but was actually only about 50 minutes. It was not bad at all. We had a croissant and raisin bread thingy on the plane for lunch (and some really good breadsticks from the Venice bakery). They don't give you any complimentary drinks or anything on the plane though, which I guess makes sense since the ticket is so cheap.
When we landed in Vienna (we weren't even sure we'd end up in Vienna and not in Bratislava). We took a bus to the terminal and headed to baggage claim to pick up our checked boxes. I got mine (it was all wet though because it was raining) but it turns out they lost J's box - which is problematic considering it had all our hygiene and medication products. J had to file a lost and found report for them to send it back to Philly - it doesn't make sense for them to send it to our hotel in Vienna (if they had lost my box I guess I'd get it shipped to the US for free). That was the only damper on an otherwise surprisingly decent flight.
When we were ready to leave and take the express train to city center, and as we were trying to buy tickets, a guy came up to us and explained in English about the train and told us where our hotel was. He also said there was a point-to-point shuttle to hotels that he could take us to. Now of course, we being the wizened tourists just come from Italy first asked how much he was going to charge us for helping us out, and we were very surprised when he said nothing. He led us all the way to the shuttle - except he led us to the parking lot to his minivan (there was also another guy with us). We were a little confused - we thought he meant a shuttle bus, not his own personal car, and there he was telling us to put our stuff in the trunk of his SUV. In hindsight, going along with it and getting in the car was probably the stupidest idea we've had yet (he said it was only 2.5€ more than the train which lured us in). I'm not sure why it seemed like a good idea at the time but as we were driving I thought about it and came to my senses. There we were, riding in a black SUV with a guy dressed in black and white with slicked back hair like a mafioso, occasionally talking on his cell phone in German - he could have been driving us to some sketchy junkyard or abandoned warehouse for who knows what. Granted, he was also driving another tourist with us but still. It was an incredibly stupid idea. I even found myself trying to detect stress in his voice and thinking of pulling a Zuber. I would have even felt better if he had a simple badge around his neck or some shuttle bumper sticker or something. But in the end, thank God, everything was fine, he was very nice, dropped us off at our hotel and didn't try to kill us.
After all that, we checked into our hotel. It's actually not too far from the city center but the entire corridor smells like horse shit - we discovered that this is because we are across the street from a stable. Our room is fine though.
A word about Vienna. Everything is in German, including the street names and shop names. This means that many of the names are really funny or amusing or impossible to pronounce, for example, "Kopfart" or "Gumpfendorferstrasse." It's really funny how they have to hyphenate their street signs because the names are so long. Anything we can't pronounce (i.e. most things) we just make up some gibberish for it (like flugenspiegenwillenwasser).
Our first activity was to walk right down Gumpfendorferstrasse (hehe) where we went to see the Museum of Torture. We figured it was something unique that nowhere else had. It was somewhat informative but kinda creepy and uncomfortable. They had displays of all different sorts of implements of punishment, torture and execution - I felt a little creeped out so we didn't stay terribly long.
We went back to the hotel to pick up a jacket/umbrella because was cold and rainy. It's too bad - all day the weather in Vienna was pretty yucky. It's a shame that our last city is like this but maybe it's a sign that it's time to go home - we're both kinda tired of traveling and miss home.
We went back out and found the metro and took it to the 2nd district, the Jewish area. We basically just walked down one main street and found a lot of the kosher places. We stopped to eat in the first kosher restaurant we found, since we were pretty hungry. We had a big meal - soup with meat and noodles, fried schnitzel (does having a schnitzel in Vienna count as Wienerschnitzel?), lamb shish (I liked it but J didn't) and fries. All in all a very filling and pretty unhealthy meal, but hopefully we'll make up for it tomorrow. The shish itself was relatively cheap - 3€ for a stick.
We wandered around some more, looking for a place we'll be able to take out food for tomorrow night's airport all-nighter. We checked out the butcher, the kosher supermarket, and the bakery. We actually stopped at the bakery, Ohel, for dessert (unhealthy too, yes, but we couldn't resist). I got some sort of rum cake coated with a cherry frosting of some sort, called punschkrapfen - it was reeeeeally good.
We walked back to the metro and took it to see the Danube River. It is very large - much larger than any other river we've seen so far. It's all green though - so much for that whole "beautiful blue Danube" crap - I feel ripped off. It wasn't all that pretty though - it was kinda plain.
We walked around a bit more and headed back to our hotel. We stopped for a beer on the way back - Zwickl. It's a blond Austrian beer with a mild but bitter aftertaste. Fortunately, our hotel does not smell like horse crap now. But it still sucks - the phone won't let me dial my PIN for my calling card, and 2 wooden supports for the mattress in the bedframe have already fallen out of place. Plus the TV is broken and there is no AC. Not seeming to be the greatest room. Tomorrow is another, hopefully better day, and also our last day in Europe - I hope it serves as a nice culmination.
We went through security pretty much immediately afterwards. I had actually forgotten my can of deodorant and suntan lotion in my backpack and it came up on the x-ray, so they made me throw them out, which kinda sucked but no biggie. There were a whopping 4 gates at the airport. It was just a little silly. When our plane finally boarded we just walked out onto the tarmac to the plane. We were totally expecting the plane to be a tiny plane, but it was actually a normal sized 737 with 6 seats across each row.
The flight was not bad. It was really like we got in the air and then almost right away we were landing. It was also supposed to be 70 minutes long, but was actually only about 50 minutes. It was not bad at all. We had a croissant and raisin bread thingy on the plane for lunch (and some really good breadsticks from the Venice bakery). They don't give you any complimentary drinks or anything on the plane though, which I guess makes sense since the ticket is so cheap.
When we landed in Vienna (we weren't even sure we'd end up in Vienna and not in Bratislava). We took a bus to the terminal and headed to baggage claim to pick up our checked boxes. I got mine (it was all wet though because it was raining) but it turns out they lost J's box - which is problematic considering it had all our hygiene and medication products. J had to file a lost and found report for them to send it back to Philly - it doesn't make sense for them to send it to our hotel in Vienna (if they had lost my box I guess I'd get it shipped to the US for free). That was the only damper on an otherwise surprisingly decent flight.
When we were ready to leave and take the express train to city center, and as we were trying to buy tickets, a guy came up to us and explained in English about the train and told us where our hotel was. He also said there was a point-to-point shuttle to hotels that he could take us to. Now of course, we being the wizened tourists just come from Italy first asked how much he was going to charge us for helping us out, and we were very surprised when he said nothing. He led us all the way to the shuttle - except he led us to the parking lot to his minivan (there was also another guy with us). We were a little confused - we thought he meant a shuttle bus, not his own personal car, and there he was telling us to put our stuff in the trunk of his SUV. In hindsight, going along with it and getting in the car was probably the stupidest idea we've had yet (he said it was only 2.5€ more than the train which lured us in). I'm not sure why it seemed like a good idea at the time but as we were driving I thought about it and came to my senses. There we were, riding in a black SUV with a guy dressed in black and white with slicked back hair like a mafioso, occasionally talking on his cell phone in German - he could have been driving us to some sketchy junkyard or abandoned warehouse for who knows what. Granted, he was also driving another tourist with us but still. It was an incredibly stupid idea. I even found myself trying to detect stress in his voice and thinking of pulling a Zuber. I would have even felt better if he had a simple badge around his neck or some shuttle bumper sticker or something. But in the end, thank God, everything was fine, he was very nice, dropped us off at our hotel and didn't try to kill us.
After all that, we checked into our hotel. It's actually not too far from the city center but the entire corridor smells like horse shit - we discovered that this is because we are across the street from a stable. Our room is fine though.
A word about Vienna. Everything is in German, including the street names and shop names. This means that many of the names are really funny or amusing or impossible to pronounce, for example, "Kopfart" or "Gumpfendorferstrasse." It's really funny how they have to hyphenate their street signs because the names are so long. Anything we can't pronounce (i.e. most things) we just make up some gibberish for it (like flugenspiegenwillenwasser).
Our first activity was to walk right down Gumpfendorferstrasse (hehe) where we went to see the Museum of Torture. We figured it was something unique that nowhere else had. It was somewhat informative but kinda creepy and uncomfortable. They had displays of all different sorts of implements of punishment, torture and execution - I felt a little creeped out so we didn't stay terribly long.
We went back to the hotel to pick up a jacket/umbrella because was cold and rainy. It's too bad - all day the weather in Vienna was pretty yucky. It's a shame that our last city is like this but maybe it's a sign that it's time to go home - we're both kinda tired of traveling and miss home.
We went back out and found the metro and took it to the 2nd district, the Jewish area. We basically just walked down one main street and found a lot of the kosher places. We stopped to eat in the first kosher restaurant we found, since we were pretty hungry. We had a big meal - soup with meat and noodles, fried schnitzel (does having a schnitzel in Vienna count as Wienerschnitzel?), lamb shish (I liked it but J didn't) and fries. All in all a very filling and pretty unhealthy meal, but hopefully we'll make up for it tomorrow. The shish itself was relatively cheap - 3€ for a stick.
We wandered around some more, looking for a place we'll be able to take out food for tomorrow night's airport all-nighter. We checked out the butcher, the kosher supermarket, and the bakery. We actually stopped at the bakery, Ohel, for dessert (unhealthy too, yes, but we couldn't resist). I got some sort of rum cake coated with a cherry frosting of some sort, called punschkrapfen - it was reeeeeally good.
We walked back to the metro and took it to see the Danube River. It is very large - much larger than any other river we've seen so far. It's all green though - so much for that whole "beautiful blue Danube" crap - I feel ripped off. It wasn't all that pretty though - it was kinda plain.
We walked around a bit more and headed back to our hotel. We stopped for a beer on the way back - Zwickl. It's a blond Austrian beer with a mild but bitter aftertaste. Fortunately, our hotel does not smell like horse crap now. But it still sucks - the phone won't let me dial my PIN for my calling card, and 2 wooden supports for the mattress in the bedframe have already fallen out of place. Plus the TV is broken and there is no AC. Not seeming to be the greatest room. Tomorrow is another, hopefully better day, and also our last day in Europe - I hope it serves as a nice culmination.