HBMK

We got up for breakfast at around 8.15am, and then Jo dropped us into the city for a guided walking tour with Tamara. Vienna has some beautiful statues, monuments and buildings, and of course history. Amongst other things, we stood in a courtyard area where Hitler gave one of his speeches stating Austria would be joining Germany in WWII. Bit surreal imagining that we were standing in the same spot as supporters, imagining all the nazi flags and chanting, wondering if there were also people in disbelief at what was actually happening.
We ended our tour at the main Swarovski store in Vienna, where we had a 5 minute talk about the crystals and how the company came about, as it began in a small town just outside of Vienna.
T and I waited outside for Charli and Jess, as the plan was to head to St. Stephens Cathedral, then for some traditional Vienese chocolate cake, Sacher Tout.
We arrived at the Cathedral, walked inside, and I got a bit lost in its beauty, I nearly cried. Being the first Catholic cathedral/church I'd been to in Europe, I started thinking about my Nan, and a few other personal things that had happened just before (and at the beginning) of my trip, and it was all a little overwhelming.
I went a lit a candle, then the 4 of us headed up one of the towers to get a view of the city.
Incredible views. A lot of these cities we are going to don't have towering skylines, as they're so old, which makes the views even prettier.
We probably stayed up there for about 20 minutes, before coming back down and exiting the Cathedral.
Somehow T and I lost Charli and Jess, but we knew they were both headed for a pharmacy so we headed in the direction of Hotel Sacher.
We got a little table for two, and ordered our cake and drinks.
Free wifi at the cafe, so I got to call Dad and have a quick chat to him, the first since I'd been away!
Our cake came along, and I'll be completely honest, it was kind of disappointing... I think it had been talked up too much, so whilst it was good, it wasn't the best I've had... It was no 'OMG Cake' like we've had for Specsavers birthdays! The hot chocolate, however, probably was the best I've had. It was silky smooth and perfect!
From there we decided to head for a birthday drink at an Australian pub we'd passed earlier. It was packed with people watching the rugby. We found Tamara, Arwen and Craig there, so grabbed a drink and sat with them. The bartender was Australian, so when I tried to just order midi's of cider, he gave me a whole lot of crap and pretty well forced me to get schooners instead. Typical Aussie peer pressure!
We stayed there probably just under an hour, before walking back to the pick up point with Arwen and Craig.
We got to the bus and it was time for our first goodbye. Tareisha was leaving, off to work for Sail Croatia for the next 3 months. That was pretty devastating, I gave her a massive hug, thanked her for spoiling me on my birthday (she bought me Swarovski earrings, a rose, and paid for my birthday cake!), and got a little teary - but we were all planning to head out later, so it was see you soon, not goodbye.
We jumped on the bus and were taken to an Old Vienna Schnapps Museum.
We learnt all about the company, how to make Schnapps, and of course got to have a few tastings! I tried butterscotch, cherry liqueur, and chocolate hazelnut, my favourite!
A few people made some purchases, then we jumped back on the bus to head to Maria Theresa's summer palace.
The building itself was pretty impressive, with approximately 2000 rooms, but we didn't get to go inside, so it was the gardens that were most impressive. They were so vast, you could spend a good couple of hours exploring, a lot more than our 45 minutes.
We jumped back on the coach, back to our hostel, where we had about an hour and a half to relax/get organised for our included dinner.
We headed a little outside of the city for a tradtional Austrian dinner - a beef soup with stips of pancakes in it, and chicken schnitzel and chips, pretty tasty!
We headed back to the hostel, where we were struggled to decide on whether we wanted to head out or not. We knew we were heading to Auschwitz the following day, so noone wanted to be hungover, but we still wanted to have a birthday drink. A couple of us ended up finding a little bar around the corner from our hostel, where they barely spoke any english. We had a few drinks and played a game of pool. I had my birthday Sash on and the lady behind the bar gave me a free Jaeger shot!
As we were heading out, we realised there was a group of people who had a dog with them. He was HUGE and so so beautiful, I couldn't even tell you what breed he was. Apparently his name was Jango, but he didn't speak any english, only Serbian!
We left around midnight and headed back to the bar at the hostel. I only lasted about 5 minutes - it was like a box of cigarette smoke.
I'm really struggling to deal with the fact EVERYONE seems to smoke here, and you can smoke everywhere. It makes me super grateful for our smoking laws back home, because I'd never be able to go out - my asthma has been playing up massively, when I normally never get it back home.
I called Mum, and possibly woke her up because of the time difference, and then went up to bed.Read more