Spring Break in Eastern Europe: Phase 1- Vienna

This year for spring break I decided to take advantage of being abroad and having a full ten days worth of traveling.  Along with a few other friends, I signed up with a company called EuroAdventures which is a company that takes students on discounted trips throughout Europe, entirely transported by busses.  The destinations of my particular trip were Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; Krakow, Poland; Auschwitz, Poland;  and Prague, Czech Republic.  All of those locations would be hit within this ten day span.  I prepared myself for spending just as much time on the bus as I would off of it but I knew that it would be totally and completely worth it as this was a once in a lifetime experience.

Horses in Austria

The first leg of the journey was the longest: a 2.5 hour train ride to Florence followed by a 10+ hour bus ride into Vienna, Austria.  We arrived early in the morning after a relatively sleepless night.  After a few cups of tea, I mustered the energy required to get out into the city.  Once out and about, I found myself alive with excitement and ready to see what Vienna had to offer.  We began the day with a walking tour of the city.  I was overwhelmed by the incredible architecture, which was so different from anything I had seen at home or even in Rome.  St. Stephen's Cathedral was among the first sights on our list and was still incredibly impressive despite the fact that it had partially been destroyed by a fire.  Intricately decorated buildings and elaborate statues lined

St. Stephen's

every street.  On a more personal level, numerous horses and carriages also caught my eye, reminding me of the horse I left at home and made me long to ride again.

Schonbrunn Palace- admiring the "statue"

Belvedere Palace

Following the tour of the city I experienced my first "street meat": an Austrian sausage filled with cheese- one of the more incredible meals I've bought off of the street in quite some time.  With a few friends, I set off to explore the rest of the city.  First we wandered upon the Schonbrunn Palace, famous for its beautiful gardens...or so I had been told.  To my surprise, all we could see were rocks!  Apparently it is only in the summer months that the palace garden is tended too.  Even the statues in the garden were covered with big, ugly tarps!  However, the palace itself was lovely thing to see on its own.  Next I headed to the Belvedere Palace, meaning "beautiful view" and it was just that.  On one side, the palace had an incredible view of the rest of Austria while the other had a huge pond in front of it in which you could see the Palace's reflection.  Finally my image of Austria had fallen into place.  This was the beauty and glamor that I had expected from the country of Captain Van Trap and Fräulein Maria.
The Danube river proved to be just as impressive.  We couldn't have had better timing as we hit the river just around sunset and the sky turned beautiful shades of orange, purple, and pink, providing the perfect backdrop to the Austrian skyline

The Danube

As a final farewell, we treated ourselves to a traditional Austrian dinner of schnitzel, which I had never tried before but will now always be on my mental list of favorite foods.
The nightlife in Vienna was dominated by the Bermuda Triangle, appropriately named as the streets turned and twisted in a confusing maze of bar after bar.  After a little taste of this, it was time for bed as the next morning brought another bus ride and new cities to explore!