Summer '16 Trip: Day 8

Time for Vienna!

We got up, got dressed, and checked out of our fancy hostel. Kayla bought another muffin to have as a quick breakfast, while I just ate some of the cake I had gotten at Aldi/Hofer the day before. Then, we walked to the S-bahn station to take the train back to the train station. We had to wait more than 20 minutes for it, but it all worked out okay. When we got to the Hauptbahnhof, we had no trouble getting seat reservations for our train to Vienna. Well, again, we had trouble finding the ticket center (there are NO helpful signs at the Salzburg Hbf), but actually getting the reservations was painless.

It was another short train trip; just a little over two hours, I think. I wrote blog posts pretty much the whole time.

In Vienna, we took a minute to figure out how to get to our hostel via the subway. It was actually really easy--just one transfer and three stops total. And once we got to our stop, finding the hostel wasn't too difficult either.

We were able to check into our room right away, which was pretty clutch. We were worried we'd have to wait until 3, but it was already 2:30, so I guess that wouldn't have been horrible.

After putting our things in our room, Kayla and I decided to go explore the Naschmarkt right outside our hostel. It's this huge outdoor market, complete with food vendors, actual restaurants, and a whole flea market section. We were absolutely dying from the heat (and the hostel didn't help--no AC), so Kayla got some ice cream and I got a milkshake. 

Next, we decided to go find the place where we could pick up our Vienna Passes. (The Vienna Pass is this super awesome card that lets you get into almost every attraction in the city for free, and also includes unlimited hop on-hop off bus rides). It was in the underground shopping center by the Opera House, which was just a short walk from our hostel. Once we got the passes (which we couldn't start using until the next day), we headed to a nearby park, the Burggarten, to chill for a little bit. 

The main thing Kayla wanted to do in Vienna was to go to the Spanish Riding School to see the Lipizzaner horses. Amazingly enough, as we were sitting in the grass in the park, six Lipizzaner mares and their foals came strolling by! Well, actually, they were being escorted by a couple handlers, but still. We were worried we wouldn't be able to get a picture of them, but then they went into a little roped-off section of grass in the middle of the park where they got to graze for a while. It was so cute! Kayla was so excited, and we took a ton of pictures.

After watching the horses for a while, we went around to the edge of the park. We were actually on our way out to go find dinner, but we happened to stumble upon some sort of weird old woman country dancing class. Yes, I mean like country western music. So strange...

We settled on a nearby restaurant for dinner, and were certainly not disappointed. I got a salad with GOAT CHEESE (my all-time favorite), and man, they were NOT skimpy with that cheese! It was almost too much for me. Almost. So we both had yummy salads and yummy drinks and were quite pleased with Vienna Day 1.

Once we got back to the hostel, we showered and put on some cuter clothes to go check out the hostel bar. All the ads for it around the hostel made it seem like it was going to be even better than the one in Munich (we stayed at the same brand of hostel in both places, by the way), but it was somewhat disappointing. I mean, the drinks were decent, and they had some good deals, but everyone there was kinda lame. Then again, it was Saturday night, so I guess all the cool kids were out clubbing. Oh well. We went back to our room and went to bed, trying to somehow stay cool.