The Wiener forest

Two weekends ago, we traveled to Vienna. By we, I mean Yaiza, Laurie, Jason, Stefan, and myself. Let's just say that the amount of people in the car made for quite a cosy ride. Stefan's car was the "little car that could," leaving us, well atleast myself, wondering if were going to be able to make it up that next mountain. So we arrived to Vienna in the most wonderful of weather: Windy, cold (let's say 0 degrees Celsius), and rainy. Welcome one and all!
Seeing as this was the first time that 3 people from our group had visisted Vienna, it was interesting to walk towards the major places, namely St. Stephans Dom. The awesome thing about this Dom is that you don't notice it until it's right in front of you. Hard for you to believe, I bet, but it's true. You just turn the corner and then BAM, it's there. It makes it all that more impressive. When we went in, we had the opportunity of hearing some wonderful music. A oratorio, or passion, from Haydn was playing (Stabat Mater) and it sounded so sweet in that church. I wanted to stay there until the glorious end, taking in the church and it's stained glass windows, and the echos, and the choir, and the orchestra, and the how all of this mixed into a wonderful exclamation for God. But no, we went to McDonald's. Praise Jesus?
That McDonald's saw more action from us than any other part of the city. We went there first to meet Stefan's friend from Bulgaria. He gave a mini-tour of the city as was possible, and at the end we made for a coffeeshop in downtown Vienna. The people there were total bitches. Noone smiled, noone was willing to help, and noone was willing to work. They acted as if we were in the way, and that we had no reason to be there. This makes sense how? After coffee we ended up back at McDonald's again, but this time for Abendessen. We ended up back there a couple of hours later, but this time we were trying to find our hostel.
The hostel adventure was quite....interesting. First of all, we had no idea where it was. Second, the public transportation had all but shut down by the time we went looking for it (1am!). The only thing that was running were the buses, and even then bus stops were so poorly marked, that if you walked by it, you could pretty much miss and not know it. SO, with no underground, we eventually did find a bus to take us to Hütteldorf, a town on the outskirts of Vienna, which is where, supposedly, are hostel is. So we arrive, get out, and are left alone in a place none of us has any familiarity with. Stefan calls the hostel, and they tell us to walk in the direction that the bus was driving, so we do this. They said that we would run into train station, and from there it would be easy to find the hostel. So we walk. and walk. and walk. Mind you, this is in the rain, wind, and cold. and at night. So we arrive at a train station, but it isn't the right one. Somehow we had pass the correct train station, and ended up in the outskirts of Hütteldorf, on the outskirts of Vienna, far from civilization. Plus, this is about 2-2:30 in the morning, and we are not the happiest of campers. So we hike it back in the opposite direction, flailing our limbs trying to hail a taxi. Eventually we get one, even though I flipped the guy off as he was driving by. He takes us to the right station, which was way out in the middle of nowhere IN the middle of nowhere, and we would have never found it had we been walking on our own. So from the station the journey is easy, but it is 3-3:30am and we are tired, cold, and wet. We get to the hostel at long last, kiss the ground in celebration, and then sleep.
In the morning, we wake up to hopefully have a good breakfast, as it was included in the hostel cost, and the main reason that we had forged on to get to this damned place. Turns out the breakfast is just bread, lots and lots of bread. The meat, cheese, and eggs you have to pay for it! and the coffee wasn't even any good, neither was the kakao. We ate anyways. But on the plus, we had the sunshine, and that was a plus. We spent the day at Schönbrunn, in the gardens, walking around in the sun, and happy to be not wet. Stefan even found a companion, Squirrely the squirrel. We ate lunch/dinner at this chinese resturant in which we were persuaded by an overly orderly staff. "Chinese buffet, you come in now. Chinese buffet, bitte." When a waitress came to take our plates, for example, she said "finished" as if it were an order, not a question. But it was still fine. We left Vienna, and I don't remember much of the car ride, mainly for the fact that I was incredibly tired, so I used the car to my advantage.
All in all, a very interesting journey to the capital of Austria.

When I get home

How will I ever be able to describe to ANYONE at home what has happened to me this past year? I don't think I could find the words, or the time, to do so.