Vienna, Austria - Day 1

Location: On my bed, Wombat's City Hostel

We're finally in Vienna, Austria! Had a lovely day looking around the city centre. We arrived in Vienna around 12.30pm and though the hostel was very close to the Westbahnhof train station, we took about an hour to reach it with our not-so-good direction-interpreting skills! My first impression of the hostel was great. The decor here is very cool and youthful and the reception people seem really nice. We couldn't check in yet as our room wasn't ready so we dumped our backpacks in the luggage room and kept wow-ing at the hostel's lounge area. People, mostly our age, were just chilling out on a huge couch and chatting. It seemed so nice and we decided to hang out with them at night if possible.

We then set off to the city centre on the efficient U-Bahn. Went to the Hofburg area (Imperial Palace) and chanced upon the Volksgarten (People's Garden) which had lovely rose bushes. I realised my favourites were the yellow roses and these two were swooning over the pink ones.

Neela and I - roses among roses (hehehe)

Had a nice little picnic there with our Oreos and Milo and generally relaxed in the sun and breeze. The weather here is excellent. By the time we returned to the palace, we realised we should get to the St. Stephen's Cathedral aka Stephansdom for a tour at 1545. So we walked there, to Stephansplatz which was brimming with tourists and buskers. The cathedral looked magnificent and forbidding.

Stephansdom by day

I think Gothic-style cathedrals are very cool. I'm sure we'll be seeing more in other cities too. Anyway the tour wasn't too great as the guy's accent was extremely strong and we didn't get half of what he said! Interior of the cathedral was gorgeous but we were slightly disappointed as they'd put up some structures for a show that was happening every evening, thereby blocking out the main altar!

We walked back to Hofburg to visit the Treasury which was what we were most interested in. Since we reached about 30 minutes before closing time, the staff was very worried that we won't fully enjoy it and was reluctant to let us in! But we said we're very fast and got tickets anyway. About 15minutes later, this woman came to kick us out, but ended up giving us a tour of the remaining exhibits instead coz we asked quite a lot of questions hehe.

"Tourguide", Neela, Krupa

Around 6pm, we headed to Demel's Cafe for the famous Austrian Sachertorte. It cost about 3.20 Euros and was delicious! But not as chocolatey as we'd expected!

mmmm.. Sachertorte..

There was SO MUCH stuff there. All desserts. My mouth was watering the whole time. So we shared 2 cakes and had an ice cream float each (mine was Hot Chocolate and simply divine!). Again, we stayed till closing time - all these places close by 6 or 7! Mad. - and got kicked out. Walked via the Hofburg again where I managed to get a decent photo as the sun wasn't too bright.

Me at the Hofburg

While walking, we came across a gorgeous theatre. The usher was this old guy who insisted on telling us the history of the theatre. Heavily accented, again, so we didn't understand most of it! We felt very bad for leaving him as he'd just barely started, but got him to take a group photo of us first :P

At a theatre (didn't catch its name)

It was getting dark and we went back to Stephansplatz to take the U-Bahn back. I'd thought the cathedral looked forbidding during the day but at night, it was way worse. And there was an added eerieness.

Stephansdom by night

I think I'd have gotten a little freaked out if I was alone there, but thankfully the square was extremely crowded. Once we reached the hostel, we checked-in and found out that we were sharing the room with an elderly American man. Well actually, I just found that out as he's sleeping across from me. I'm probably not going to sleep much tonight as well, especially since there's a stranger in the room. First dorm experience! Ok I'd better sleep now. Walked a lot today so very tired. Goodnight!