Let's Explore: AUSTRIA

This past weekend I traveled to Austria to meet my room mate from Wisconsin, Kelly, for a fun weekend trip to kick off SUMMER BREAK!

Since I was meeting Kelly there, this meant that I would be traveling to Austria alone! I was a bit nervous because this would be my first trip alone! I had to: get to the air port, get my boarding pass stamped before going through security because RyanAir is ridiculous, go through security, board my flight, got to Barcelona, had to take a shuttle bus to a different terminal, go through security again, boarded my flight, got to Vienna, had to talk to the info desk to figure out where I was going, had to get on a train, then got off the train and had to take a bus, and then walk to find my hostel. All with just a map and through the language barrier, Spanish would not be able to help me here!

but I MADE IT! and then took a nice nap because travel is exhausting and I wasn't feeling to good!

but a few hours later I heard a knock at the door and stormed out to greet Kelly with a giant hug! We settled in our room and chatted for a while before deciding what to do. I met a girl when I was in Prague a few weeks ago and was from Vienna, so we ended up meeting up with her! She took us to one of her favorite cafes and we had a very yummy dinner (I had a salad and it was fantastic)! She also ordered us a famous Viennesse drink called a KaiserSpritzer, which is wine with syrup-- so good! Then she took us to her favorite ice cream shop, which was also great! It's so cool that traveling and meeting people creates so many connections and friendships! Who would have thought we'd have our own personal guide our first night in Vienna!? Anyways, Kelly and I wanted to call it a night early because we were so exhausted, so we headed back to the hostel and passed out!

The next day we planned a trip to Salzburg to see the city, but most importantly, the Sound of Music Tour.

We took a train to Salzburg and as we walked out of the train station we saw an old lady trip to the ground. I instantly ran to her and we helped her up and tried to communicate but she only spoke German, she did however say "Coca-Cola" a universal word, so we ran into the station and bought her a bottle of Coke. She was so thankful and was the most adorable lady ever!

When we finally found our way to the city center of Salzburg we were a bit hungry. So we found a cafe and I had some capresse toast, while Kelly was adventurous and got the typical Vienna Wiener!

After lunch, we hopped on our beautifully painted bus and started the tour! The movie was based off of the Von Trapp family who lived in Salzburg, and while we learned that the movie was slightly different from the actual story, it was sooo cool to see all of the landmarks from where most of the movie was filmed! Maria Von Trapp was mad that the movie wasn't an accurate description of her life so 20th Century Fox paid her $900,000 to go ahead with producing the film. I loved the tour-- our guide was a bit odd but funny, and they played the soundtrack to the movie as we drove through the very alive hills!! We took stops at the Von Trapp Mansion, which was gorgeous, the gazebo where they sang the "I am 16 going on 17" song, the beautiful lake district, the Abbey, the Chapel where they got married, and the Marabel Gardens where they sand the do re mi song! I was most definitely singing at all of the spots and trying to be like Julie Andrews!

After the tour we roamed around the gardens a bit more and then went to a hotel where we took the elevator to the top floor for a gorgeous view of Salzburg (recommended from our tour guide). It was well worth it (and it was free) so we got some good pictures, and then headed back down because unfortunately, it was starting to rain! We wandered around on the other side of the river a bit and looked in some of the shops, but then made our way back to the station to catch our train!

We got back rather late so we chatted for a bit and then went to bed!

We spend Saturday in Vienna and had a wonderful day, despite the misting rain and cold temperatures (cold compared to 90 degree Sevilla). We started off with our hostel's free breakfast and then made out way to the center by Metro, and we had definitely mastered the metro system by this point. We wandered for a bit before coming across a bunch of BBBs (Big Beautiful Buildings). We saw what we knew was St. Stephens Cathedral, but that was about the only building we could identify. We came across the Manner cookie shop, Manner is a Vienna brand of wafer cookies that I definitely remember having in America, so I bought some and they were just as wonderful as I remember! We then saw some more BBBs and decided we should try to find a free walking tour. We found an information center and then found out that there are no free walking tours in Vienna. Sooo, we took out our handy dandy map and looked at all of the attractions on the map and then mapped out our own free walking tour!

First thing on our list, lunch at a Cafe recommended by someone Kelly met on her flight. Before coming to Vienna, I read some articles about the city and the biggest thing that people said to do was go to cafes and have some coffee, eat, and people watch. I wasn't sure why this was such a big thing to do in Vienna, considering there are cafes in every city.. but these cafes were definitely different. They are all very grandiose-- like your coffee is served on a silver platter (no joke) along with a cup of water and packaged sugar cubes. We decided to skip on lunch at this cafe because it was a little pricey. So we went to this food cart that Kelly saw and she got a Brat Sausage thing with cheese inside, and I got a pretzel (typical). I tried her sausage though (look, I'm being adventurous!) and it was pretty tasty!

The next stop on our tour was the Naschmarket, which is Vienna's market. There was produce, meats, spices, breads, cafes, and flea markets! All of this was located on a strip of pavement between two main streets-- it was really cool!

We then headed to our next stop, Schonbrunn Palace. This reminded me a lot of the Palace of Versailles. While we didn't actually go in the palace, we peaked inside and it looked incredible. We did however, freely roam around the gardens for a few hours and climbed a large hill with a monument on top (reminded me a lot of Bascom!) The gardens were so beautiful and it felt like they went on for days!

Next up, the Museum Quarter. Where we looked at a whole bunch of BBBs. Museums, churches, and government buildings. They were all so beautifully crafted, colorful and huge!

We then went to a bar before dinner, because we had a reservation at a restaurant that one of Kelly's room mates recommended, but they couldn't seat us until 8:30. So, we grabbed a glass of Kaiser Spritzer and chatted until it was time to head over to get our foooood! The restaurant was a traditional Austrian restaurant so I actually decided to get some traditional Austrian Schnitzel. I got the chicken schnitzel, which looked like a pancake but was just very thin deep fried chicken.. and it was good!

After dinner we decided to go to another cafe and finish off the cold day with a warm cup of hot chocolate (also served on a silver platter with a cup of water and a separate cup of whipped cream). We chatted and then headed back to the hostel for our last night!

Sunday morning we had our breakfast and then ventured over to the other side of the river where there is a large tower that offers great views of the city of Vienna. There are also a lot of parks over there so we wandered through those before riding to the top of the tower for some exceptional views of the city as well as the mountainous regions! It was soooo windy up there though! I thought I was going to get blown over or that my camera was going to fly out of my hand! After our time at the top, we headed back down and to our hostel to grab our things and journey back to the airport. Our flights we both at similar time and our gates were actually right next to each other so we were able to hang out just until Kelly had to jump on her flight back to Rome!

I got back to Sevilla safe and sound and had a lovely dinner with Virginia.

Overall, really enjoyed my trip to Austria! Salzburg was breathtaking and Vienna had so many BBBs, but most importantly, it was great to see and spend time with Kelly!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Views of Vienna from the top of the Tower!

Schnitzel Dinner!

Hot Cocoa and Coffee on our silver platters!

OATMEAL AT OUR HOSTEL!! First time having oatmeal all semester-- I missed it so much I had two bowls each morning!

BBB

The Palace!

The markets!

A bunny!

We made it just in time for the clock show at noon! (we didn't know there was a show.. we just stumbled upon a large group of people looking at this clock and decided to wait and see what would happen! It made noises and moved!)