Packs and Boots: Vienna, Austria

When we started off thinking about this trip, we decided that we wanted to be completely flexible with our travel plans so that we'd be able to travel to whatever kind of place whenever the mood hit us. Most of the time, this works out great. When we get too hot, we go to the mountains. When we get sick of cities, we go to the country. When we have a craving for curry instead of goulash, we find the closest major city. And so on.

So maybe that's the reason we ended up in Vienna, Austria. We certainly hadn't talked about visiting Austria during this trip, but somehow, we wound up on an overnight bus that dropped us off on the outskirts of Vienna at about 5am one morning in mid-May.

Our introduction to the city didn't start off very well. We had no place to stay, and no destination in mind. Tom managed to recall some memory of his last trip to Vienna (10 years ago), and navigated us into the center of the city, where we waited on a park bench until the McDonald's opened up 2 hours later. It was not our finest moment. Thankfully, I have no photo to showcase our humiliation.

But just a few hours later, we managed to find our way into a gigantic hostel full of the friendliest staff members. Seriously, they must've been robots. We showed up like zombies at a little past eight, and the staff offered us coffee and a couch to rest on. They had us in a comfortable, quiet room within a half hour. We napped blissfully on the nicest sheets in the world. (I have a thing for soft sheets that stay well-secured.) If you're on a budget and heading to Vienna, Austria, check out the Wombat Hostel.

After we re-emerged as humans, we spent the next few days touring the city. Although we were only there for a few short days, we were completely taken with it. The city was filled with lush green spaces, and the architecture surrounding it was incredible. We didn't try much Austrian food-- instead, we stuffed ourselves full of Asian foods and other international dishes that we had been craving. We popped in and out of churches (including the stunning St. Stephen's cathedral) and window-shopped until Tom felt weary.