Vienna Day 2

Vienna Day 1 (12th)

When you wake up in a tent, things seem so close to you, and small. Imagine being in a 2 person backpacker's tent, with 2 large backpacks and 2 restless but tired people. Not much room. Little bit tight, especially with Becki being a little bit claustrophobic. With this, in combination with her comfortable level at around a 2 out of 10 due to lack of padding, our morning had started off a little rough. After preparing sandwiches (yay!) for our day, we rush to the showers. You have never seen us so eager to shower. At this point, it's a little cloudy, but in the 70s, so very manageable. We pack the day bag, a little suspicious of leaving our backpacks in the tent, but nevertheless, head into downtown. Some Brits we met the night before remind us they're off to an open market which apparently is not only huge, but packs great opportunity to haggle and price match, and all that good Sam stuff.
Vienna, much like most of Central Europe, is positioned around a main square, where most of the city's transportation meets, and is a huge shopping area, cultural center, and meeting place for most it's inhabitants. It can be a little unnerving at first, but once you get moving, the flow almost lulls you to sleep. The main square we arrived at was called Stephansplatz, which was named according to the large church that stood, rather loomed over the entire area. We skipped the church, and moved directly to the Albertina, a large modern arts Museum. Outside of the museum were pieces of art commemorating a group of artists that convened across borders during the hostility of WWII, and were praised for their gall and bravery. I too gave praise.
We climb the steps of the Albertina, eager to gaze upon some of the world's best art, and are stopped at the price. 15 euro. That is $22 per person, and frankly, with me liking money too much, and Becki not so fond of museums, we decide to chalk it up and move to the open market, where we can stock up on food, supplies and beer. I would like to get an ipod cable at this point, and with our converter's fuse blowing in Prague, We need to find an electronics store quickly so I can charge my phone and ipod. Necessary things, people!
As we struggle to get our bearings, it's important to describe in more detail Vienna's city architecture. First, the planning. At Stephansplatz, the surrounding area is called "1" or "I", all in Roman numeral. However, instead of splitting into quadrants such as Prague or Dublin, Vienna starts a spiral outward, with the next district due south, and the spiral continues clockwise. Quite easy on paper, but with dividing lines simply marked on building walls, it made it quite difficult to track down places on the map. The architecture was much like Prague, with large bronze statues and sculptures topping important buildings (during their period of construction), with open monuments and parks like that of London, and with twisted side streets like that of Dublin. It was quite beautiful, littered with many waterways and fountains. After a quick picture taking session of the Hofburg palace, we moved to the open market.
The market lay between restaurants lining a boulevard, but it's important to know the boulevard was only about 20m wide, and of that 5m of it was walking area that was difficult to manuever- the stands that stood between the restaurants sometimes encroached upon the walking space, creating bottlenecks that sometimes forced stoppages in front of stand owners that quickly recognized the situation- and took advantage. Food was offered at every stop to taste, and to walk both ends took roughly 10 minutes. At the end of the stand section, We recollected the prices we had seen over an apple cake and some melange`, and made our way back. We grabbed apples, nectarines, grapes, mozzarella, fresh basil, tomatoes, spicy salame, and bread- for around 10 euro. Not bad, and got some cream cheese filled peppers that were quite delicious. Now to the electronics...
Not a lot of shop are open late in Vienna, or on Saturday for that matter. We straggled along the streets, scouring for anything that looked open, with an added item on the list of things to get: a belt for Becki. Initially it wasn't a priority, but as we backpacked further and further, and did laundry later and later, her pants moved lower and lower with her backpack pushing down on her hips. We stop at a couple stores only to find that most of the places only sold either cheaply made products, or over-priced Ross-wear. Too snoody for either, we moved along.
With our patience wearing thin, and our camera battery dying faster than Kanye's reputation, we decided to cut our losses and make our way back.
At camp, we recoup, make some ghetto gheritas, and sip on some Pilsner Urquell, which, out of a can, doesn't taste half bad. After a couple card games, involving drinking, we empty our Crown Reserve, which prompts an impromptu trip to the local gas station we had seen earlier that day. This station had everything, but let it be known- the prices were the highest we'd seen anywhere, even more than America. So we bought a 6 euro bottle of something that looked like a brandy rum, and some Lowenbrau. We return, only to discover the rum is less than we expected, and with our expectations already quite low, it was almost unbearable. Yay for beer chasers! A couple rounds, I'm feeling tipsy... so we head to bed. Round 2 of Restless Becki, I hope she sleeps better...

Nighters!
Sam and Becki