Vienna Days 1 - 2

When I got to Austria, I checked into my hostel and made sure Andrew and I would be in the same room. Then I decided to walk around the city for a little bit and look for a place to sit down and read for a while. I couldn't find a place for a long time, so I walked around the city for a little while and found a bench in the middle of the place where all the museums are. Of course it was raining, so I found a bench under a tree and was reading for a little bit, but the raindrops kept getting on my book, so I decided to just sit and maybe take a little nap. I must have looked like a bum just laying there because all I had was a backpack, and I wasn't using an umbrella or anything. I took about a 20 minute nap, which seems to be the thing to do after a night train experience. I woke up and walked back to the hostel and actually got into the room. I took a nice hot shower and saw that there was nobody else in the room, so we might actually get the room to ourselves that night. I tried to go to the train station to see if we could get our tickets to Germany, but when I started talking to the information guy, he looked really confused. Apparently, I was in the metro station, and the train station was across the street. I was really confused for a while, then I realized that the metro stop was called Westbahnhof, which is the name of the train station. The real Westbahnhof was across the street, and it was a lot bigger than the metro station. Anyway, I found that and made sure that Andrew's train was coming into that station. After walking around a little bit more, I went to wait for Andrew. He came in right on time, and there wasn't any problems picking him up. I thought that he might have missed the train or something, and we wouldn't have any way to communicate with each other, but everything worked out.

Now Andrew has a story about a Romanian guy he wants to tell:
Alright ladies and gentlemen, here is my absurd tale. I was having a grand ol' time on the train, just minding my business and falling asleep on people's laps, when I was suddenly interrupted by a strange tapping on my chair above my head. I turned inquiringly toward whatever individual might await me, and I was met with the fairly large face of a slightly bearded Romanian. "Romania?" He queried while pointing toward the direction the train was going (Of course, he pronounces it, "Lomahnia?"). I arched my eyebrows in surpise and perplexion. He continued to repeat his question, and finally I decided to pull my handy-dandy eurail map out of my suitcase. I saw that Romania was ridiculously far from where we were, and I answered no to him. I should have just said yes; oh the fool I was. Anyway, after this first encounter, I resumed my lovely adventure of trying desperately to stay awake so as not to impeach upon my fellow passenger's space. About half an hour later as I was failing miserably at my task of staying awake, a sharp tap above my seat brought me back to my senses. I turned around and repeated the same conversation with my new Romanian friend. I decided to ask his name, and he said, "No, thank you." It sounded like a wonderfully delightful Romanian name. Long story short, we had several of these little conversations, many after I and the train attendants realized that he did not have a ticket, and each time we talked, I think he got a little more confused. I ended up giving him 45 euro to get a ticket, mostly because I felt that it was what the Lord wanted me to do and he was just trying to get home. After we got off the train, I handed him a little piece of paper with a cross and Jesus's name hastily scribbled on it, and after he clasped his hands together and asked for some food, Steven gave him some corny bars. I will always have a special place for Nothankyou in my heart.

Alright, it's me again. After this little encounter, we got back to the hostel, walked around the city for a little bit and went to bed early (and we still had the room to ourselves... SCORE!) The next day, we decided just to walk around and tour the Hofburg Palace. It was pretty interesting. They had an entire museum just dedicated to the dishes of the palace! It was nuts. We then went to a park where we had a conversation with a Russian Jehovah's Witness girl. This was interesting because she didn't speak english very well. After that, we went to a bar and had some wienerschnitzel. It was really good. We then went back to the park and played some hackeysack and watched people make out on the grass... fun times! It started raining again, and everybody left except us, which was nice. Then we went back and rented a couple of bikes for free. It was pretty cool. We biked back to our hostel, where there was a drop-off point for the bikes and we had some gelato. It was a good day. More to come later. We're here in Germany with my mom's cousin and her family and we're about to go to some kind of festival. It should be a good time.