Austria, Hungary, and France, oh my!

Hiyo!

Well, as from the title, you thought that I was supposed to be going to Greece, well on May 4th, EasyJet announced that the Greek airlines went on strike for the week, so therefore our first flight to Mykonos was cancelled. Well after sorting some things out, EasyJet gave us the opportunity to change some of flights around and we were able to rearrange it for Vienna, Austria!

May 5th, 2010

So, Jess and I wound up leaving from Colindale early, more like 1:30 in the morning to head to Gatwick to catch our flight. After taking the never ending National Express, which actually wound up getting into an accident on the trip to Gatwick, arrived on time at around 5am, to check into our flight at 7am to Austria. We checked in and made it through security, arriving at the furtherest freaking terminal and waited for the flight. Granted at this point, the two of us had been up for literally around 48hrs, so during the flight, exhaustion took over and we both passed out in our seats. About three hours later, we were in Austria!!

With barely any plan, we managed to navigate our way on the railway into central Vienna and along the way decided the best place to stay. We meandered and somehow managed to get onto the S-Bahn (the underground) and headed toward Westbahnhof. Westbahnhof is one of the major train stations, so naturally, there was a decent selection of hostels to choose from. Not taking too much of a chance, we settled on Hostel Ruthensteiner, which Lonely Planet reccomended. We managed to locate the hostel and secured our hostelling after a bit of back and forth. In the end, we decided to say 'screw it' and went and got the two bed private room with kitchen attached, which turned into being a complete apartment in another building next to the hostel complete with terrace. For the 5 nights we were in Vienna, this place was amazing, minus the annoying bath without shower curtain. After all of this, it was around 12pm so we went outside to find some groceries and some food items to get replenished. After our meandering, we came back to the room, ate, and then entered food comas, more or less ending our first day in Austria.

May 6, 2010

Today was the first real day actually walking around Vienna. Vienna is by far one of the most beautiful and also cleanest places I have ever been. We more or less didn’t have any sort of plan per say, but we generally just meandered around the city center just taking in the beauty of the city. We took the S-Bahn into the center and just hit up the local parks to enjoy the sunshine and attempt to blend in with the locals who were taking advantage of the sun. After the first stop at Stephenplatz, we headed into the cathedral and just took in the size of the church. We weren’t allowed very far in because of a ceremony that was taking place within the church, so we just went outside to look around for west tower, which you were able to climb to the top. The tower really wasn’t anything persay special but it was cool to see the sky views of Vienna. I wasn’t necessarily mad about paying 3 euros to get to the top but at the top there was a gift shop which was sadly kinda lame. After the uneventful tower climb, we meandered around the square and just took in the various streets and shops. After a couple of hours of visiting the outsides of many of the locale attractions, we went to the amusement park on the outside of town and ultimately took part on this sky swing, which was exciting and terrifying at the same time. This thing literally swings you around in a circle but steadily climbs all the way to the top, probably about 100meters or so. Needless to say, it was an incredible adrenaline rush. After that fun, we headed back into town to more or less find something to eat, finally eating at this Italian restaurant, which had amazing four cheese ravioli, but had these weird holly-like berries mixed in. After dinner, we headed back to our apartment and crashed for the night.

May 7, 2010

Today, we decided on traveling to some of the surrounding countries, ultimately choosing Budapest, Hungary to visit. We left on the 7:05am train from Westbahnhof and arrived in Budapest around 10:45. I knew Hungary was in the Eastern Europe and I know I have my prejudices about Eastern Europe, but the area around the train station was the most stereotypical outlook on what an old Soviet country would be like. After about 15 minutes of trying to figure out where we were, we finally headed into the center to see what Hungary is all about. After taking out 50,000 Forinths (~35US), we grabbed lunch at Burger King and just meandered. Budapest was by the far the hottest country I have been to since leaving Florida, I was practically drenched in sweat by noon. We walked across the main bridge and just meandered through the city park and then took the Funicular up into the castle district to look at the city government buildings. We more or less just meandered and just experienced what it was like to be a Budapestian for the day. We ate this weird chocolate funnel cake-like thing, which was gross at first, but after consuming more of it, it actually started to grow on us. After that little impromptu snack, we traversed down the mountain and just went through a bunch of the beautiful back streets. Ultimately, we came across the main big park where all the locals were hanging out, which encompasses the Hungarian palace. The center of Budapest was beyond gorgeous, had the classic old world architecture and everything was completely amazing. After being in Budapest for about 9 hours, we headed back to the train station to make it on the last train back to Vienna.

May 8, 2010

Today was a completely uneventful day. We tried and ultimately failed at going to Bratislava, Slovakia. We sat around at Westbahnhof, only to be told that the trains leave from Ostbahnhof. So we traveled down to Ostbanhof, only to wait around for three hours for two trains that never showed up. We then just got on one train that was going to somewhere in Slovakia, but turned around since it was almost 4pm, we would maybe only be there for like two hours before we had to go back to Vienna. In the end, we just decided not to risk it and went back to hang out in the apartment.

May 9, 2010

We decided today was the day to go and get to hiking the Austrian Alps. We decided to not go to Salzburg where the Sound of Music was filmed, but to a smaller and closer area that was only ten euros return. We got our tickets and headed down to Puchberg am Schneeburg, where we took the Salamander train to the top of the mountain, which took about 75 minutes to get to the top. Once up at the top, we had amazing views the entire way up. Once we got to the top of the mountains, we discovered to our horror that it was about 2ºC and we were in jeans and windbreakers. So, after a couple of pictures, we left base camp to trek up the mountains and just bounce around to get some blood pumping. We basically stayed to the single path that went the most direct way, just because we didn’t know how much time we would have. We ultimately made it up the top of the mountain in 90 minutes, however, there was fresh snow covered several of the points of the path meaning that we had to traverse it in our converse, whilst soaking our jeans too. All in all, we made it to the top with a couple of slips and wet butts. After returning to base camp, we went to the restaurant on the mountain to get out of the cold to grab some dinner. I would up ordering the weinersnitzel, which was not sausage covered in Bavarian like goodies, but pan fried veal steak severed with French fries, completely not what I expected. After grabbing lunch, we took the train back down to the base of the mountain and just went about our way back to Vienna.

May 10, 2010

Monday was the last day in Austria and I was definitely sad to see the time go by, but Jess and I were on our next stop, heading to Paris! We cleaned and tidied up the apartment and returned the key to the hostel before taking our last ride on the S-bahn to the Wein Mein station, where you catch the trains out of the city and to the airport. Of course because we were running late, the train needed to get to the airport left about 30 minutes after arriving at the station, so naturally, we both started to freak out. However, we wound up making it to the airport with enough time to get some lunch and something to eat before embarking on the nicest/sketchiest airplane ever, FlyNiki (a subsidary of Air Berlin). They literally have the easyjet plane, but their mascot is a poop fly. However, on board the plane was nice and the service was good, but the landing was actually really scary. The plane actually, more or less, bounced. Anywho, we arrived in Paris in tact and figured our way down to the train station. After taking the right train into the city and getting off at Gare du Nord, we had a hell of a time finding the metro ticket windows and then ultimately making it onto said metro line. After about an hour searching and with tickets in hand, we were on the metro headed for the apartment that Jess' aunt has. After about 45minutes on the metro, we were at the stop Passy and met up with her family and her aunt's friends. We went out and strolled around the neighborhood taking in the sites and growing ever hungrier. Ultimately, we wound up eating at this really expensive Italian restaurant, which was actually exceptionally very good, plus I finally had my first french crepe. After satisfying our hunger, we headed back to the apartment and managed to catch some of the eiffel tower sparkling, and then headed back around 11:30pm to crash, waiting for the next day to arrive.

May 11, 2010

This was officially my first morning in Paris and it was a dreary one. The rain was coming down and the temperature was freezing, but it did not stop us from heading to the Museum d'Orsay and waiting in line for about 1.5hrs. We meandered along and finally made it in, with me getting in for free due to my UK student status. We stayed at the Orsay museum for about 5 hrs and then decided to head back in to the apartment to cook some food and have some laughs for the rest of the night.

May 12, 2010

Today was my final day in Paris, as I was flying back to London that night from Charles du Galle, so it was a whirlwind day. We ultimately walked around most of Paris and met up with some Canadians who were also waiting in line at the underground graves. After walking under Paris for the hour, we headed above ground and were given some good advice on where to go from there. We headed down to Saint Sulpice where we stopped for lunch at this little bistro who had a set menu. I wound up getting this House soup, which tasted more of leeks and potatoes, but was still very good. The main entree though was more of something that I was told to try, the Boudin Noir (aka the Blood Sausage). Surprising, it was actually very good and was even better when combined with these amazing mashed potatoes. After lunch we visited Saint Camille's chapel, which has the most amazing stained glass windows, only to venture onto the islands where Notre Dame is. Whilst inside Notre Dame, I ran into Rene Snachez, our adbroad advisor, and exchanged greetings. After the trip inside, it was time for me to start my trek back to the apartment and then onwards to airport.