Monday, November 7, 2011

Prague Day 2 and the Journey to Vienna

So Prague day 2.

Once again, Prague is an amazing city. I love it. We started our morning by walking across the Charles Bridge towards the castle. As we walked along the bridge, we saw musicians and beautiful views. The hike up to the castle was a tough one because we were carrying our stuff with us, but it was worth it. We got to see fantastic views of both the city and the castle as well as the cathedral. We didn't pay to go all the way inside, but we got to stand in the back and take some good pictures. After that we headed back down the hill towards the Jewish area. I really wanted to go inside the synagogue that was there because it was really cool on the outside, but you had to pay and we didn't have a lot of time to go back to where you had to buy tickets. And you couldn't take pictures inside, so I wouldn't have been able to share it with anyone...just a reason to go back! Then we made our way to the old town square and had something for lunch. Our final walk in Prague was to the train station. We ended up taking an earlier train because we didn't want to get to Vienna too late. So we got to the station, got our tickets, found some seats and camped out for the 5 hour train ride.

The train actually wasn't too bad. It was a quiet smooth ride with only a few stops along the way. I slept, listened to music and played games on my ipod for most of the ride. Plus we got to see the country side of the Czech Republic, not so much Austria because it was dark by the time we got there. I probably saw things you would never see unless you took the train I was on. Seeing small towns and farms...thinking about these people who have lives there while I live in the United States in my house......

So we arrive in Vienna. We got on the underground and headed to our hostel. Something that was shocking is how inaccessible Vienna is. In Prague, and when I was in Paris, signs were in the local language and in english for the most part. That's just how most of the world is as I've seen it. But not here. Very few signs have english translations. Luckily I had looked up the underground route before we got there, so I had it figured out. We got to the hostel and what culture shock it was. First of all, this is the first real hostel I'm staying at. We are in a dorm with 8 beds. We have three and the rest are all taken. Very VERY weird. Don't really like that at all. But something else, we were walking around at 8:00pm and almost everything was closed! We were in what seemed like it a very pedestrian area...but no one was there. Eventually we asked the front desk for suggestions where to go and they told us to go into the central city. But even there, it was pretty quiet. We found a bar to sit at and have a few drinks which was nice to relax. I know it's a Monday night, but still! There were no corner stores either. Vienna is a pretty weird city so far. And following up Prague is pretty tough. We are hoping tomorrow we will wake up with a more lively city. 

Here's to hoping tomorrow is better.

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