I ordered some room service I got a Caprese Salad and a Club Sandwich which came with french fries. The Caprese Salad was awesome and the club sandwich was cut into quarters and was Ok. I ate the food and then went to sleep at about 9:00 PM as I had to get a train to Vienna at 10:30 AM the next morning.
I woke up at 8:AM on Tuesday morning. I quickly showered and headed downstairs to get breakfast. Once I had breakfast I went back upstairs to quickly pack. Some friends were messaging me on Facebook, and I was a little behind schedule. I was hoping to get to the station with about an hour before the train so I could change money, buy some food and drink and figure out where I am supposed to go.
I checked out of the hotel and asked the woman at reception to call me a taxi. I waited about 5 mins and the taxi arrived. The driver took me to the train station and I arrived with about 45 mins left before the train arrived. I found an exchange counter and changed my Koruna for Euro. I tried to change the Hungarian Forints I still had and I could have but they didn't take coins, which is all I had. "I guess I am stuck with them then", I said.
I bought 2 bottles of water which cost 60 Koruna (about $3.00 AUD) and then asked in the information centre where I needed to go and get the train. The woman I spoke to just told me to look at the board. I looked at the board but as you might no from previous stories I am really bad with understanding the arrival and departure boards. It is because I have no patience. Anyway the board was telling me the train left from platform 1B. I went to try and find this platform and I thought I had but it didn't look right.
There were no staff around to ask, so I waited near a board listing the trains and hoped for the best. With about 15 minutes before the train, I looked at the board and now it said the train was leaving from platform 4S. I went back downstairs and through the tunnel to platform 4. As I walked up to platform 4, the monitor showed the train was going to Vienna. Relief finally.
The train came into the platform a few minutes later and I got on and looked for an empty compartment as I didn't have an allocated seat. I found one and took a seat next to the window. A minute or 2 later, 2 girls came in. They were lesbians. I could tell by the pink mohawk that one of them had. Also I had seen them on the platform hugging and kissing.
They were friendly girls. They were Italian. They didn't speak much English. I listened to my Ipod for awhile and then decided to draft the previous story. The train trip from Prague to Vienna was just over 5 hours long. I got to see some of the same countryside that I saw on the way in. The scenery in the Mountains of the Czech Republic is some of the best I have seen.
The girls offered me some of their food but i wasn't hungry so I politely declined. About 3 hours into the trip, i did get hungry and bought a sandwich and packet of chips from the guy who goes from carriage to carriage with a cart of food and drinks. It cost about 3 Euro which is not too bad. Things are getting expensive now as I am using Euro everywhere I go except the UK, so I have to watch my spending.
At one point 2 police officers came onto the train. They pulled our door open and looked at us, then looked at our bags, then closed the door and walked off. The girls and I started laughing and I said "That was strange" and they just said "Yes". About an hour and a half before we were due to arrive in Vienna, I decided to try to sleep. I think I slept for about 20 minutes and when I woke up the girls were standing outside looking out the window.
The villages outside of Vienna are very nice. The houses are fairly small but in some of the yards I saw small swimming pools that had frozen over.
When we finally arrived they said "Ciao" as we got off the train and i replied "It was nice travelling with you". As soon as i got off the train I exited the station to have a cigarette. It had been almost 6 hours. After smoking I headed back into the station as I thought it would be easier to buy my ticket to Munich while I was there.
I asked in a ticket office but they told me it was for domestic tickets only and I needed to find the OBB office. I found something called the OBB Lounge and asked the guy if I could buy a ticket there. He told me it was only for 1st class. I asked how much it was and he told me it was 149 Euro and 2nd class was 89 Euro. I opted for 2nd class. I walked down 20 metres to the main OBB office and bought my ticket. After that I exited the station and tried to find a taxi.
It's not as easy as I thought it would be. There were signs directing me to trams and buses but not taxis. I walked around 2 blocks in the snow with my backpack and as I came up one block I saw a taxi stand outside one of the other exits of the train station. I got in and showed the driver my hotel address, the Hotel Royal. He said he knew where it was and off we went.
The driver pointed out a few sites and told me that my hotel was right in the middle of the main part of Vienna which was perfect. He told me I could easily walk around and see everything in about an hour. This was ideal. I could save money on tours and just do it myself. The fare to the hotel was 23 Euro. I gave the driver 40 Euro and he gave me 7 Euro change. I said, "Sorry, but I gave you 40 Euro". We did some maths and he gave me the extra 10 Euro. I am sure it was an honest mistake on his part but it just goes to show even outside of Eastern Europe, you need to pay attention with the taxis.
The hotel is nice decorated with antique furniture and I guess you'd call it a Victorian era decor. It makes me think of Mozart. I guess that's what they were trying to achieve as Vienna was the birthplace of the classical composer Mozart. I went up to the room and got sorted. I spoke to Miss C online for a bit. Across the street was a Billa, so I went to get some supplies.
I bought some Austrian beer called Gold Fassl', its a Bock style beer and is 7.5% alcohol volume. A 6 pack of 500 Ml bottles cost 5 euro. I bought the 6 pack, 2 Red Bulls and some M&Ms & lollies. All together it cost just over 10 Euro. Even though I am using Euro now, I find the prices here to be still cheap, even when converted to AUD.
I went back to the hotel and decided to have dinner in the restaurant in the hotel. It was an Italian restaurant. I walked in and was shown to a table. The waiter handed me the menu and asked if I wanted an aperitif. I decided on a Campari with soda. I looked at the menu, the prices were reasonable. I looked at the wine list... WOW... the wines however were not reasonable prices. All of the Chianti, which is what i wanted were over 100 Euro. Some were 250 Euro. I am sure they are really nice but in my opinion there is never going to be a need for me to pay that much for a bottle of wine.
I opted for a Cabernet Sauvignon, which was 25 Euro for a half bottle. I ordered a salad to start with. It was Rocket, Parmesan and Pine Nuts. It was nice. The main course was Roast Beef with Red Wine sauce and Potatoes. The waiters were very attentive and the waitress was smoking hot and had a beautiful smile.
The food was very good and when I finished I asked for a shot of Limoncello. For those that don't know Limoncello is an Italian liqueor made from lemons. You have it after a meal and it cleanses the palate, so that the taste doesn't remain in your mouth. The meal cost 60 Euro and I left a 20 Euro tip as the waitress made the meal more enjoyable.
As I got up to leave the chair fell backwards, I felt a little drunk. I went upstairs to the room and drank the beers and played on the laptop a little and texted Miss C. I fell asleep at some point, I don't know when. 3 litres of 7.5% beer really messes with you.
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