Tales of Nell's Excellent Budapest Adventure: When Will You Realize...... Vienna Waits for You

This past weekend, a group of us visited Vienna and it was certainly a trip to remember. Some of us had a harder time than others (poor Mary) but it certainly added some excitement to the adventure. We took a pretty nice train to Vienna, from Budapest, about a 3 hour ride. Upon arriving, I experienced QUITE the reality check... We had NO idea where we were going or what we were doing. I'm used to Dad and Mom knowing where the trip is headed (or dad pretending to know, even if we cross the Delaware Bridge 7 times because he won't ask for directions), or our tandems meeting us at the airport... so some train dropping us off to fend for ourselves in a foreign country was sort of, if you will, foreign. We slowly wandered off the train and decided we at least knew to go left, because right would take us down the train tracks into the woods. Well that wasn't going to happen, so left seemed to be an obvious choice. But after that, I certainly wasn't sure of where to go... which may have been why I rode the escalator up and down from the first floor to the second three times before I figured out where the bathroom was, only to find out I had to pay .50 Euro... which I did not have. Guess I'm holding it.... Now I was lost and had to pee... excellent. Anyway, we found the metro pass station, and after fiddling with that for a good 15 minutes everyone had purchased our passes and we were on our way. I would like to point out that my major contribution to the trip was realizing we had to validate our passes or else we may have to pay 60 EURO... YAY NELL! Anyway, off we went. Some of us certainly led the navigation and read the subway maps better than others, but hey we all know I am not the most direction oriented person. (watch those side comments Daddy). Needless to say, after a bit of confusion and walking the wrong way a few times, We Made It! Our hostel was super nice and had the most amazing view of the entire city. We saw so many incredible things that day. We stumbled upon the coolest playground ever... I think we were making little kids mad for kicking them off the swings and such, but hey everyone needs to play. Then we stumbled up a BIG KID playground... aka a HUGE amusement park. We went on some crazy rides, including a roller coaster you lay down on (of course i tried to sit down and was unaware i could not until i was being told to lay down on my stomach- not impressed) and also some flying swings that were 117 meter high... turning out to be the highest in the world! From the top we could see all of Vienna, miles above the tree tops. I sang Vienna by Billy Joel. Grace loved it. We also saw many other cool things in the park, and I was forced to pose with clowns and confront my fear. That went well. NOT. After the amusement park, we went on a hunt for Austrian's famous Wiener Schnitzel. It was about an hour before we finally understood directions enough to locate a nice place. Well of course it was a pretty fancy restaurant and there we were in our American, not dressy clothes... and unable to understand the German, so we sort of had to wing the ordering. However, lucky for us, a couple sat down next to us, who spoke English but lived in Vienna... and the man's sister WENT TO UNH! how awesome is that! So we ended up enjoying some delicious wiener schnitzel and getting so much needed help and information. I must say I embarrassed myself when they brought out my food because the fancy potatoes on my plate did not seem like potatoes to me so I announced to the everyone "Guys, I didn't order pineapple." Nice nell. Regardless, it was great. The next day we had a great breakfast at our hostel, complimentary, including many different sorts of breads and spreads.... among my favorite's was "calf's liver spread." Have to say that's a bit of sarcasm, I didn't get near enough to taste it.... I was too busy trying not to be disturbed that this was looking at me in a jar. But the rest of the breakfast was delicious. The remainder of the day consisted of exploring the streets, some amazing buildings, palaces, Parliament and some cool statues. If I could read German, or knew the names of anything we saw, I'd tell you. I do know that we went to the Crime Museum which for me was AWESOME. Mary and I saw some pretty sick, twisted things but it was super cool. Each room was A-Z... one room was one letter of the alphabet and it went through all the awful criminals from Austria. It showed pictures, displayed weapons and coolest of all, a mummified head!!! Needless to say, the Crime Museum was SUPER AWESOME. After this, we explored some more in the museums quarter and sat on some real cool, colorful, funny shaped seats and observed Austrians at their best. Really, quite interesting. Well I mean from what I could pick up on, its not like I know what they are saying. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We had become pros at navigating Vienna in less than 24 hours (well again, some of us not all) and had made some new friends and eaten some new cuisine. We even finished out strong with some fun train truth or dare on the ride home. It was probably the coolest thing to say "Yay, we are home!" and be calling Budapest, home. After all, this amazing city, is our home.

Stay tuned for the next adventure up ahead this weekend: Pula, Croatia!

Grace and I on the train with our tickets!

This one is for Daddy! He loves his efficient energy!

VIENNA! (Wien)

Stephansdom Church!

the gorgeous view inside the church

Grace and I in front of one of the many, beautifully designed altars.

Amazingly constructed and painted.

Funny story: This was my first experience with the painted people who look just like statues! So when he started moving after I threw a coin in, kind of caught me off guard! But then we danced and I loved him. Kind of weird he is all one color and moving.....