Got up at around 8:30am today and went down to breakfast as usual. The coach took us into the city centre today for a short walking tour with Tasha. The walking tour was alright, I realised that Vienna isn't really the place for me. I mean it's very beautiful but to be honest it just looks like everywhere else I have been to in Europe. Still worth the visit but I think it's safe to say I won't be coming back. The walking tour finished at Swarovski, I took this opportunity to buy myself a new earring as the one I had when I got it pierced the back of it fell out in Prague.
Eddie, Yana, Vi and I wondered of afterwards and just decided to explore Vienna a little more by ourselves. We ended up in this castle like area so snapped a few pictures as you do. We then walked to the museum district and then that's when we spilt off, I went with Vi to find somewhere to eat and sit down and Eddie and Yana went to see some museums. Vi and I went back to the area where we had dinner last night as there was quite a few places to eat there. We found a nice restaurant and set up camp there. I got some tacos and Vi just got an iced coffee, within seconds of getting her iced coffee she spilt a quarter of it on the table as she was trying to mix it. After lunch we walked around the shops for a bit and ran into Taylor (boy Taylor also from sydney) and then also Ally. It's so strange 'running into' people in a foreign country, even though we are all travelling together it's still a little strange when that happens.
After some walking we decided to head to Demels which is a bakery, this bakery invented this chocolate cake that Vienna has become famous for. We didn't end up getting the chocolate cake though, I got an apple strudel and Vi got a cheesecake. After our desserts we went to our meet up spot and the coach took us to the schnapps museum for those that chose to do that optional. This optional was pretty good, you got some good insight into how they make the schnapps and also got to taste some of it afterwards. I tried about 7 different ones, none that were really good that I had to buy but they were ok. After the schnapps tasting we got taken back to the hotel to get ready for a night out and for those that chose to go to the classical music concert and dinner we got ready for that.
There weren't many of us going to the optional tonight, there was about 17 of us out of 51. Everyone got dressed up for the occasion, I was a bit sceptical about going but when can you say that you went to a classical music concert in Vienna; we were at the same hall that Mozart once played when he was a young child. I considered this my one cultural thing I do this tour. We went to this nice little Austrian restaurant for dinner, we had a nice soup, Wiener schnitzel and apple strudel. This dinner has got to be one of the best contiki dinners that I have had. The winer schnitzel was the best one that I have had and also the apple strudel was the best I have had so far. After filling our bellies with the delicious Austrian food we walked to the music hall for the concert.
The concert went for about an hour and a half with a short interval, it was actually really good. Very relaxing music and they also had 2 dancers and 2 opera singers. I did get very tired towards the end of it though as the music was so relaxing I think it was starting to put me to sleep. The hall did get very hot as they did not have air conditioning as most places in Eastern Europe do not have this for some reason. After the concert some of us got back on the coach to head back to the hotel whilst others took the metro and went out to some outdoor club. I decided to head back as I was still feeling sick/hungover from Prague so decided to get some rest. Also Vienna is quite expensive and I know if I go out it will be an expensive night so it decided to stay in. From what I heard from the others though they said that the club was really good, it we big and apparently had some very attractive men. I was still happy with my decision to stay in as I got a good nights rest before heading into Budapest tomorrow!
Until next time sexy people,
Ray