We left Prague early morning and were greeted by our train with the strong stench of urine and wet hairy floors. Tried to get onto another carriage but found they were all the same... we also found out that our seats were already reserved by someone and ended up in the back carriage which is just normal rows of seats rather than booths. I.E we had been sitting in ‘first class’. Luckily for us, second class was cleaner (at least the floors were dry) and the only problem was the lack of running water in the bathroom. Toilet and basin. We spent most of the 5 hour ride wishing we had brought hand sanitiser from new Zealand...
VIENNA!
After hours of passing newer and newer cute houses and sound-of-music-style rolling fields with red flowers growing alongside the road, we arrived at Wien Meidling station. I loved Vienna from the moment our suitcases hit the white stone ground, clean and commercial train station and wide open Austrian air. The contrast between here and Prague is fantastic. Even the tram driver stopped to ask us where we were going. He didn’t even slam the doors ON us like the Prague drivers. He waited til we were seated before leaving. He told us where to get off. The tram was neat and the other passengers did not stare at us like an alien species, OR ignore us when we clearly needed help getting our luggage through the doors. Vienna is spacious and laid out beautifully. Row after row of gardens, lawns, lined by massive white stone buildings from Mozart’s day. There are hundreds of beautifully dressed people and especially beautiful tallllll people. I felt average-to-short. We must have passed multiple models. At the same time there is a bustling student culture and tonnes of funky people. Men did not even stare at us when we walked down the street. We spent about 3 hours revelling in this culture shock. We spent the afternoon after we arrived walking the main sites, which are all generally in the same area so you don’t need to take underground trains everywhere. We finished up with shopping on the main streets (window shopping) and eating AMAZING gelato and icecream sundaes at “Eis Salon” which our landlord lady recommended us. Dad would be in heaven. I’m not even a huge icecream fan and I was.
The streets were still full of people roaming around like us even at 10pm. Shops were closed but people were just milling around in the atmosphere under the white buildings and gold lights. We didn’t feel unsafe even once.
Of all the cities I’ve seen in Europe, this is one I love the most. Possibly even shunting Copenhagen out of first place.
