Friday October 19th 2012

In this day in history, I visited Vienna for the first time. You all know the drill for train rides, so after our 7 hour trip, we arrived in Vienna 15 minutes before our "Required Arrival Time" at the Youth hostel. That added with the fact that we had no idea how to get to the hostel was a nice comfort. Mark and I assumed the way and got out of the Bahnhof. We sat down and I got on my computer and looked at the invitation, we found basic directions, i.e. take this U-Bahn to Burggasse, then take this bus Neubaugasse and walk to the youth hostel. We followed those directions, but once at Neubaugasse had no idea where to go. Luckily, our German had progressed enough that we were able to ask passer-bys and actually found a couple Belgian guys who helped us get to the hostel (they were staying there too). Once at the hostel we greeted the 60+ other exchange students, and got assigned to a room with Parker and Chris (an oldie from Australia, the first male oldie I have liked so far). We walked around the back of the building and through a sketchy alley way to get to our room. Afterward, I was set on going out and exploring, so I went to see who I could find to join me. I ended up walking around with Blake the rest of the afternoon, as he lives in Vienna. He showed me a near by church, which was hosting a little market, walked a couple main streets, then ended up at one of the many train stations. It was his first time there too, so we climbed up the stairs and lucked out with a great view of the whole city. The back part of the roof was filled with little glass triangles that let you see down into the rooms below. We walked around the whole roof, admiring the view, then sat and talked a while before heading back. On the way back we stopped in an interesting little international grocery store. Then, we saw a few other exchange students and joined them in a little cafe for a couple minutes (I tried the famous honey gummi bears and was not disappointed). Next we ate a snack, prepped, then left for the opera. We took the U-Bahn again (I never bought a ticket but I don't think it was free, oops). At our stop, we got off and walked to the gigantic opera building. Inside it was deluxe and luxurious. I checked my coat (like am English gentleman), then sat down for the 3-Part performance. I was planning on taking a bunch of photos, but Walter gave me a dirty look when I started snapping some. During the break we were offered expensive refreshments, then we continued on with the opera. From what I understood, it was about an asian painter in the French revolution who helped a bum, got attacked by a horde of children, then was captured, and killed. So I am pretty sure that isn't right... We went to "Asia Restaurant" afterwards and had some good Asia food (oh grammar). Afterwards we all took the U-Bahn back to the hostel and received some much needed rest.