Vienna

This is the start of my new format of just doing a quick summary of the countries I go to instead of a day-by-day account. For those of you that still want more detail Hilary's blog will probably do the trick:

Vienna was great. We had two hosts there: Nathalie and Veronika. Nathalie was our first. She's 19, still in school and has a really fun laid back spirit about her. The first night we were there she took us to a CS meet up that happens weekly in Vienna. She is really involved in the community there and all the people we meet were really cool. There was obviously a communication barrier going on and the group was really close so it was hard to understand all of their inside jokes and such but I enjoy people watching and there was definitely a lot to watch at this gathering.

The next morning we awoke to an amazing breakfast Nathalie made for us. As most of you probably know I LOVE breakfast so I was a happy happy girl. There was this special German bread in particular that was sweet and delicious. It was like eating candy. I could not get enough of it. During the day we went to a castle on the outskirts of the city Schonbrunn. It was beautiful. Lots of gardens and monuments. Huge. There was a zoo in it even. Oh the things they do for tourists, haha. After Schonbrunn we walked around the city, got lunch, coffee, cake, people watched, the whole nine yards. It was great. That night we were lame and spent at our host's place. We had planned to go out but it is hard constantly being on the move and I think we both wanted a night of good sleep and calm.

Our host had gone out with her friends to a movie and then out after wards and she was still up earlier than us and had breakfast ready again in the morning. Apparently she hates to sleep, which worked out well for us! Love love love her for this. :) We were staying with a different host that night so we had to figure out our whole bag transportation situation. Long story short, we were meeting up with a girl named Heather and she let us store our bags at her place for the day until we met up with our new host Veronika once she got home from work. Heather took us all around the city showing us the sites with her adorable son Hegan all day. Hanging out with them really made me miss my sister and nephew. :(:(

Quick, super embarrassing story. While we were out with them we stopped at a cafe to get pizza. The pizza wasn't cute when we got it since they don't do that in Italy and Italy is so close that the pizza's are more legit. So I'm cutting away at my pizza when my knife slips, knocking my plate over the table. I reach out to try and save everything but end up only being able to grab on to the pizza and the plate goes crashing to the floor and shatters everywhere. Awesome. Way to not bring attention to yourself, Laura. So stupid me is sitting there with the pizza in my hand and no plate as the waiter comes over to see what all the commotion is about. He was a really good sport about it and started laughing when he saw the pathetic site. He got me a new plate and I promptly put my still edible pizza on top of it. Ha. Ya. Embarrassing.

We walked around some more and then eventually met up with our new host, Veronika. She had told us she was going to make her grandma's favorite Austrian dish so we were really excited about that. It was essentially a meatloaf and really really delicious. There was also a chocolate mousse that I could not get enough of. We late found out after we had devoured everything on the table that we ate 8-12 servings worth of food. I never knew I was capable of eating so much. Apparently I am. Something I wish I didn't know about myself, haha.

Veronika is 26, working and studying for her PHD. I had a ton of fun talking and getting to know her. The presidential election was going on so at one point we had a really good talk on the politics of Austria and the history of the Nazi party, WWII and how it affected her family specifically. The great thing about CS is being able to get this type of information. Never would we be able to hear such stories without staying with people actually from the countries we are visiting.

The next day (Saturday) we made a slight impulse decision and headed to Slovakia. Why? Cause we could. Awwwwesome. Seriously. Just a random trip to Slovakia because it is so close there is no reason not to. We went to Bratislava, which was only a 1 hour bus ride one way and 11 euro round trip. It was a really cute town and a fun day trip. We also got to see some really young, uncoordinated Slovakians dancing to Michael Jackson. How many people can say that, really?

That night we went out with Heather again for some Viennese nightlife. The night didn't go exactly as we had hoped/planned but we got to see a lot of nightlife on goings which was really cool. The pitcher of daiquiris wasn't all that bad either. :)

Sunday was pretty much the most pointless day on the trip thus far. Everything closes down so everything we tried to do was a complete fail. And I mean complete fail. Luckily Hilary and I are both really easy going and don't mind walking aimlessly for hours so essentially it just ended up being another adventure and we got to see a lot of the city again. This was the night we got to talk to and learn a lot about Veronika which was great. She then took us to a bar called Tunnel where we had some great Austrian food. I stuffed myself to the brim again...goodness. We were going to listen to some live jazz as well but it ended up getting canceled so that was unfortunate.

Monday morning. OMG. Heather was amazing and offered to make us an American brunch. So delicious!! Thank you so much Heather. I was craving that so much. We had pancakes, muffins, biscuits and gravy, fruit, deliciousness everywhere! From there we went to a market to get food to cook Veronika finally and then went on a mission to find patches because both of our jeans have holes in them. Yay for my one pair of jeans trying to die on me one month into the trip. I have a nice big rip in the crotch of my jeans that doesn't make me seem very lady like when I go out in public. Luckily I'm not so obsessed with being lady like so it isn't that big of a deal except I am afraid the entire pant leg is going to rip off eventually and that could be a bit embarrassing.

After our errands we went back to Veronika's for dinner. She is a little protective of her kitchen so she didn't let us really cook anything. I'm not the expert cook. Or even a beginner cook. In fact, I am a self proclaimed ignorant in the kitchen, so I didn't really mind. The food was delicious of course. We had some anti-pastas and then pasta. Yum yum yum. After dinner we headed to this thing called a Heuriger that Hilary really wanted to go to. Turns out it was a great decision. It is essentially a place connected to a winery that then sells their 'wine of the month' for ridiculously cheap prices. It was great. We sat and had some wine and some great conversation. I love that we have been traveling for so long but still have stuff to talk about. It's great.

Tuesday we got up, went to an amazing all you can eat Afghan restaurant. You can eat whatever you want. As much as you want. And pay whatever you want. It's great. I would go there everyday if I could. Something like this needs to be brought to Seattle. I have no idea how it makes money, but somehow... It'll work. After that we headed to get some ice cream from the so called best gelato place in Vienna. It was delicious. Cause all ice cream is delicious. Especially in Europe. Then back to Veronika's to pack up and head to Budapest. Dun dun dun.