I am really glad I kept a diary.  If I had to write this from memory, today would start out as “took the train from Bratislava to Vienna, dropped my stuff off in my hotel and hurried to see Prater Park because I could not wait to ride the Riesenrad!!”   But reading my diary, that not what happened at all.

I took the train from Bratislava to Vienna.  In my diary, as I’ve mentioned, I write down all the intermediate stops and times we are supposed to stop at them.  Despite this, I ended up questioning myself as to where to get off and ended up staying on one stop longer. Then I had to figure out how to get back to where I was supposed to be.   It turned out I had to take a commuter train back to that stop and then continue following my directions for the subway.  I did all of this with my stubborn insistence of never asking anyone for help.  It’s funny how I don’t remember the annoying mistakes I had to deal with.

I am spending two nights in a hostel, private room with a shared bathroom.  The name of it was Hotel and Guesthouse Kaiser 23.  It was very close to West Bahnhof.  I always choose to be near the train station I am leaving from because i am neurotic and fear everything.

I don’t want to share a bathroom but this was a budget cut I had to make when planning my trip.  My room was nice and bright and comfortable.  It had a sink, which made it a bit easier to share a bathroom since I could wash my face or brush my teeth in private.

Cute little room:

Room view!

My schedule says I was supposed to arrive in Vienna at 4:00.  Due to my train mishap and the time it took me to figure it out….plus the extra time it took me to get to my room from a completely different location than I had planned on, I probably ended up in my room closer to 6:00.

I dropped my stuff off and headed to Prater Park following the subway directions I printed before leaving.  I LOVED it here.  Of course, it started raining as soon as I got to the park.

I found casinos in the park without even trying. I didn’t enter any of them, but loved knowing they were there.
The merry go round in Prater Park is with real live horses.  Poor horses.

RIESENRAD!!!!!  I was so excited to see this. This thing is so cool.   It takes a while to go around.   There’s an option to dine on it.  You get your own cabin and every time you hit the ground, a waiter comes on and serves you your next course.  Since everyone is on the same ferris wheel, this delays everyone, including people (ME ME ME ME MEEEEEE!) who are trapped in cars with 239847 kids.

Also at Prater, this thing freaked me out just looking at it.  it was SO high up!

After leaving Prater, i went to the Donauturm, also known as the Danube Tower.  I had purchased a combination ticket for the Riesenrad and Donauturm.  My camera is not the best at taking night pictures, which I solemly promise to work on.  You can still get a feel for what this looks like in real life.

The next morning, I was determined to find iced coffee. This is my biggest addiction in life.  I had yet to find any the entire time I had been in Europe. I thought I had found it when I saw “eis caffe” on the menu at McDonalds.  But nope, it was regular hot coffee with ice cream in it.  Close enough!I Checked out of my hotel and stashed my bags in a train station locker right around the corner.  Semi-caffeinated from my eis caffe, I went off to Schonbrunn.  It was beautiful and HUGE and BIG and ENORMOUS and (insert so many other words to describe how MONSTROUS this place is).

There were so many paths for me to choose (resisting the urge to type Kill Your Idols lyrics here), all lined with these gargantuan trees.  it was so so so so so amazing just walking around inside.
As you make your way up the hill, everything gets smaller.

Gloriette up top:

I just had to go through the Shining-esque maze:

I still had plenty of time so I decided to go back on the subway to take a picture of the stop I had passed through last night.  This is so cool.  Here is the exit of the train:

And this is what you see when you exit the train on top of the bridge:

Inside a Vienna subway station:

St. Stephen’s Cathedral, way too big to fit into a single shot:

I found a Starbucks and asked them if they had iced coffee.  I was told “yes” and then given some iced drink that may have been iced coffee, but wasnt really iced coffee.  It came with milk and sweetener already in it. It was really thick, more like a melted Frappucino.  It was also 6 euros, so close to $8.  It was delicious.Other random pictures:

I made my way back to the train station.  After a long day of walking around in the heat, I changed into clean clothes and got on my train just as it started to pour.   Next stop: nap into Budapest.