32 hours in Vienna

Slept it briefly after too much walking the previous day. Left for Weltcafe behind the Votiv Church from a breakfast recommendation by the hostel staff. Students seem to form majority of the breakfast crowd and there was an overall relaxed atmosphere in the cafe. The cafe prides itself as fair trade and has detailed writeups about its philosophy in its menu. On offer were various types of breakfast such as Oriental (which I think is nothing close to been oriental), English, French, Continental, etc. Ended up going for a Mexican version as it seemed to be the odd one out from the menu. After 5min, I was presented with a plate of scrambled eggs with nachos and bread - pretty strange combi although I have to say the eggs were nicely done and went well with the nachos. Paid €6 + tips for the meal and coffee, seem to be the perfect fuel to start the day!

Popped onto the tourist tram 1 at the corner of the Ring road, which used to be Vienna's enormous city walls and bastions some 2 centuries back before they were replaced by wide and tree-lined roads and tram tracks. As I have bought the 24hr day pass, decided to try out the metro as well which turned out to be comfortable and efficient too. Switched back to tram 1 again heading towards the creations of eccentric Hundertwasserhaus, the architect who thinks that straight lines are wrong and everything revolves around spirals - "we always walk in circles but never end up at the same place...". His museum was dull but his other creation, a social housing project was really quite unique although I will loath to live in there with so many tourists coming round to 'visit' you everyday!

Headed back to the city centre before taking a peek into the majestic Stephans-dom, or commonly known as St. Stephen's Cathedral where it has been perpetually under construction since 1147, much like Sagrada Família in Barcelona. This is the main square for the Old Town and there are loads of horse drawn carriages parked beside the cathedral, awaiting for willing tourists. Heading southwards, I continued to the Wien Museum which was celebrating 50 years of its anniversary by having a New York Street Photography exhibition by a group of well known shooters in the 40s to the 80s. Entry - €7.

Made my way back to the hostel for internet access to check the train and bus tickets, as well as a brief rest of my tired feet. "See if there are any coffee houses in here that interests you, they are slightly more expensive but it is authentic Viennese experience", the hostel lady behind the counter kindly handed me a "Best of Vienna Konzert-Cafes" guide. One of the reason why I did a detour to Wien was to see and soak up the smoky coffee house experience that is so famous throughout the world. As the sky darkens, I hopped onto the U3 metro and headed to the northeastern end of the ring road.

Prukel sits directly out the exit of the station but moment I stepped in, the smoke was pure overwhelming and stepped right out immediately. Not good first experience, maybe I can try out the next one down the road - Ministerium, beside the nice looking art nouveau Post Office Savings Bank designed by Otto Wagner. The crowd was a lot smaller in this and I took up a seat right at the end of the cafe before ordering a coffee and chocolate cake, which ended up to be 2 slices of the cake when it arrived - it was probably the last piece and decided to give it to me anyway. I can see why it is so charming when you sit in one of them and watch businessmen go about their daily dealings and couples sharing a tender kiss under the cozy lighting. But unless smoking is banned indoors, I will probably not be one of them, and I still prefer cafes that are more unique in its atmosphere such as those in Brooklyn or the few I chanced upon while in Stockholm. Still it has been a good experience gained.

Made full use of my day pass and continued on to Spittelau, where U4 and U6 meets, to see the last work by Hundertwasserhaus. This time on a factory with oil like bunkers and a tower to match. The wind howled along as I spent the next 30min trying to capture a good shot before making my way back to hostel. Chatted with a Korean gal, Ashley, who was doing an exchange in Bonn in the room who thought I was a rude korean guy after I ignored her when she said hi (in korean obviously) yesterday. Her english was rather good and we followed with some beers in the lounge downstairs with a bunch of other aussies, kiwis, germans and surprisingly many japanese after I offer her to check the internet on my laptop. Apparently, Koreans have 2 ages when you ask them how old they are, the international age which is what we all use and the korean age, which is always 2 years older than the real age. Seems like it is counted the moment they are in the mothers' womb, but still did not quite figure out where did the additional year or so come from?

By 1am, I figured I should I should just go ahead to get to Pecs by train even though it will cost me €50. The alternative was to take a cheap bus, stay overnight in Budapest before buying the cheaper train ticket to Pecs directly from Budapest (Any train journey is expensive from Austria, but cheap in Hungary). A friend once chided me for complaining too much on my last train ride into Prague and said I am unromantic and should appreciate the joys of travelling on trains. Knowing that I have quite alot of train rides coming up in my next road trip, I decided I should prove her wrong :)

From Bratislava to Wien

Got up at 8.30am today. Bread that bought from Brno yesterday taste cold and yucky. Did not even finish even half of it. Sky is completely overcast and looks like it is just a matter of time before the rain falls. The taste of the free coffee from the hostel taste equally bad and decided it is best to head into the Old Town to get some proper breakfast.

I read about the blue church which is very popular with couples who are getting married and will hold their weddings there. It looks fairy-like and you can understand why they want to hold their biggest day in their lives in such a special place. Walked to the National museum and paid €7 to view the exhibits - was pleasantly surprised to find out that the Slovakia has actually adopted the Euros, saves me the trouble of exchanging another country currency although the rates are really bad at the moment! I was attracted to the photography exhibition which was very similar to the John Novis one that was happening in Prague, but this was more focused on Pavel Bem who reached the summit of Mount Everest, and also the cultures and people of Tibet, India and Nepal along the way. This is the 2nd photography exhibition that I have attended for the trip but both of them are so inspiring and just makes me want to start climbing as well.

Headed to a local eating place called U Jabuku off NAM SP 24 for lunch, recommended by LP. It turned out to be just perfect for people like me who doesn't understand a single word of Slovakian words as you can just choose what you want from the food display in front of you, much like a self-service cafeteria concept. I pointed to some rice that seems to be fried with some meat and vegetables. Gesticulated at nicely fried eggs on a separate plate to add to my mixture before the lady behind the counter added gherkins and asked if I wanted the soup as well, which I just couldn't refuse. You can see why there are so many working class folks coming here when I ended up paying only €3.90 at the counter. Turned out that it was rather nice too, would definitely recommend to anyone who needs a cheap and cheerful meal.

Strolled my way back into the Old Town again (this is probably my 3rd time going round some of the sights) and popped in a few galleries along the way before stopping by the chain Coffee & Co for a kava. Convenient to find out that it has free Wifi too which I used it to confirm the timings for the train to Wien. Headed back to the hostel to collect my bags shortly after and made my way for the 4.33pm train. Gave €2 to a little gal who came up the bus with 2 other older girls playing some musical instruments even though I know that she will probably not get to have the money for herself, or worse, they might be using it to buy alcohol or drugs...

As Wien and Bratislava are only 60km apart (they are the world's closest capitals), there is a train leaving every half an hour, but alternating between 2 train stations. Was advised to head to the Petrzalka station instead of Hlava Stanica as the trains in the former are newer and they cost the same anyway. Paid €0.50 (the price is based on how long your journey is, minimum is €0.25 for 5min ride) for a bus across to the south side of Danube River. At the counter, the lady quoted me €9.20 for a single ticket to Wien and €10 for a return! They really take advantage of travellers like me with such pricing although you could try to get a return and sell it for half price to someone on arrival for the return leg!

The train seems to stop at every place where there happen to be a house standing beside the track as it slowly rolled along the flat plains. Wind farms can be seen as far out to the horizon but nothing much else. The only indication that I have passed the borders was when 2 guards strolled down the train alley, took a look at me, and continued their conversation in German as if I wasn't there. After 6 countries, I have only got a stamp on my passport, on arrival in Riga 2 weeks back to show, which is a personal disappointment. I wonder how do they manage the flow of humans with such open border policies. Anyone can just come in and stay for years and not be noticed at all.

The train was new and comfy as described and only had a few souls taking the journey to the Austrian capital at that time. After 1 hour, we rolled into Sudbahnhof station in Vienna. Got onto tram 18 and headed in the direction of Westbahnhof station to Hostel Ruthensteiner. Single trip tickets for all public transport costs €1.70 and you will be better off with a one/two/three days passes for much better value. Checked into the hostel in no time and first impressions were quite positive as the whole place seem to have just been renovated recently and it is still working on a new garden in time for the spring/summer crowd, probably to have big barbecues! The staff over the counter is especially friendly too and directed me to some places to visit in the night. Only downside - price. So far, it is still the most expensive hostel that I have stayed in so far in my trip - cost €14/night and there are additionals like €1 for the bedsheet, internet terminals, etc. Found out in the end that the whole city is expensive, so this is no difference. Was however told by the staff that the tap water was probably better than evian as it comes directly from the mountains, hmmm...I wonder if I should believe him about the quality but drinkable is all that I need to know.

Spent couple of hours taking in the night sights of the Parliament building, Rathaus (City Hall) and the Votiv Church through my camera before my stomach to 'complain' by 10pm. Stopped by Steirische Jagastub'n behind the city hall as It looked like a really nice and cosy restaurant, and was eager to try out some Austrian food. The elderly woman who was taking my orders was really nice and I ended up ordering a Gulaschsuppe as starter and Reindlfleisch as main, plus half a litre of Gossen beer, whom she said will go well with the food. Meal was really nice but I think I had too much and was struggling to walk back to the hostel in the cold night. Paid €20 for all, which is fairly expensive in my opinion.

My Garmin watch indicated that I have walked 15 km for the entire day and my body was really feeling the strain of carrying 10kg bag all the while by the time I got back to the hostel. After a nice hot power shower (it was really powerful, another plus point), had a brief chat with the Kiwi dude sleeping beneath me who was complaining about the most expensive Burger King meal he ever had in his life, €8 for a meal!!! It happened that he used to be working in London too before and is also doing some last minute travelling in Europe before heading back down under. At least his trip is nicely covered off by his redundancy package. Seems like the exodus from the capital is not only limited to the Polish...

Link to all pictures of Slovakia and Austria.