Vienna

This past weekend I went to Vienna with my roomate Kristen an 8 other people from BSM. There are lots of interesting things to see in Vienna, even with the grey and rainy weather we had last weekend. It was convenient too - less than 3 hours by train from Budapest.

Some pictures:

Our train ride into Vienna was pretty uneventful - we split up into two cabins and mostly discussed math throughout the ride. Here are the other four occupants of the cabin I rode in (Destiny, Kristen, Crystal, Elizabeth):


We arrived at Westend City Hostel and were given keys to our rooms and lockers. Kristen and I were in a separate room from the other 8 BSM people. Each room had 8 beds and one shower. (Not a happy situation.) There's no age limit for this particular hostel so we were lucky enough to have a retired woman sleeping right next to us on both nights - she snored and got up to go to the bathroom every hour...plus there were people screaming in the stairwell at various times throughout the early AM hours. Needless to say the first night I got barely any sleep at all (by the second night I was either too worn out from all the walking to care or had just gotten used to the situation.) The picture is of Kate (a girl from the UK who was one of the only occupants of the room that we actually met) and my roomate Kristen.

Dinner on the first night - Kristen and Destiny at our table. The group decided to "split up" - which involved me, Kristen, and Destiny going to a different restaurant while the other 7 all ate together. We were already paying the bill by the time the 7 of them started getting their first dishes. We left them there and wondered around the city nearby, coming back 30 minutes later.
Me and Kristen at our table drinking carbonated water. (No such thing as tap water in Europe - not unless you ask them for it very specifically - they just love charging people for water.)

Oh and I almost forgot - the (clearly not enforced) rule of our hostel. It's not particularly good English, but I guess they get their point across.

Comments on the rest of these pictures possibly to come later, I have homework to do. Here's a short summary:
Shonbrunn Palace - residence of the Hapsburgs - amazingly beautiful and unbelievingly HUGE. Fun times at the labyrinth and maze and children's games. An interesting tour throughout the inside of the palace - tons of walking throughout the gardens and other little nooks. Could definitely spend days exploring this place, it's beautiful.

"Giant" Ferris Wheel - Vienna's real proud of its ferris wheel, which withstood some wars as far as I've heard. That's all nice and dandy but it's not actually all that huge. The only cool thing about it is that it's got covered cars, so rain and cold weather don't ruin the fun. Also while we were waiting to get on, some "private" cabins went by with pretty curtains, wine bottles, and tasty treats, so I guess this ferris wheel has some popularity with the rich folk who want to rent out a cabin for a while and spin round and round in their own private "room".

House of Music - a fun and interactive music museum filled with information about the physics of sound (and about musicians and music as well of course). You get to conduct the Philharmonic at the end (and you actually get booed by the video tape if you mess up completely). A really cool place overall - every room has something for you to do - bang on huge drums, pluck some strings, write your own waltz music, etc. Well worth the time and money.. and was our last stop on the way back to the train staion and home to Budapest.

I have literally over 100 other pictures from Vienna of the beatiful buildings, of the palace, of the house of music, the ferris wheel, random fountains, etc. It's a pain to post them all up, or even just the best half... But Vienna was a fun place to visit, even if the weather wasn't cooperating.