Nathalie - CS #11 | Run

Our hopes of waking up at 7 and catching an 830 train to spend the day in Salzburg was a wonderful idea in theory. In reality, we were incapable of getting up before about 11. We spent the morning packing and cleaning up after ourselves. We had to catch a 1:42 train to Vienna. We didn't end up leaving until at least 1:05. At this point I was freaking out. We had to walk with all of our stuff to the subway station, buy our tickets, take the subway a couple of stops, transfer, get to the Central Station, get our Eurail tickets validated, find out if we needed reserve seats, and get to the train. Pretty much impossible.

We speed walked to the station and I tried paying with my 20 Euro note. Nope, the machien doesn't take bills that big. So Laura finds her change and we get our tickets. We scramble down to the platform, luckily a subway was already there and we hopped on. We got off two stops later and frantically tried to find where our connecting S-Bahn was. We found it, but it was too packed to get on. A few minutes later, another one came, but it was empty and nobody was allowed on. Confusing. A few minutes later, another one came and we got on. We arrived at the Central Station and went to the first ticket information counter. It was probably 1:25. We waited in line for 5 minutes but it felt like forever. We asked them if they could validate our Eurails here and they said no, we had to go upstairs. We go upstairs, find another information booth. They send us to the ticket center which is somewhere else. We run over there, and nobody speaks English. Finally they got it that we needed a stamp, and told us that the conductor on the train would stamp it. It must have been 1:38 by now. We asked them if we needed to reserve seats, and they said it was recommended not required. So we sprinted with our bags to our platform, and somehow made it on to that blasted train. With literally one, maybe two minutes to spare. I still can't believe we made it.

We had to switch trains in Salzburg, where we almost spent the afternoon (oops), and we got our Eurails validated there with ease. Then we waited for our train to Vienna. It was a very smooth transition...I'm so glad we made our trains!

Nathalie was waiting for us at the train station. She is 20 years old but has been SUPER involved in CS since she was 18. She goes to CS meetings regularly here in Vienna. She is a student and lives with 4 other people. She is the only person I have ever met that admits to hating to sleep! She speaks 4 languages (English, German, Spanish, and Russian) - sooo jealous.

After we dropped our stuff off we went to this bar/restaurant to go to one of her CS meetings. This meeting (read: a bunch of people hang out at a bar together) was focused around practicing speaking German. But since we spoke English most people just spoke English for us :) I was in a very quiet mood which was too bad because there were lots of very nice people there. Everybody was so loud and energetic - it was a great vibe. I wish Seattle was as on top of their CS meetings as Vienna is. Nathy (her nickname) says that nearly everybody in Vienna has at least heard of CS though there are only a few hundred active users. At this restaurant we got cheese dumplings which were amazing! We also tried a dumpling soup (they love their dumplings here). I didn't like the dumplings as much but the broth was really good, though very, very salty! We finally left around midnight and walked through the city back to Nathy's place. The city is described as a "big small town" and is extremely quiet, especially compared to Munich.

Today was just not my day so I went to sleep soon after we got back to her flat so that I could make tomorrow better!


Quotes:
"These are my CouchSurfers." - Nathalie, this was our introduction

Other CS guy: "These are my two CouchSurfers."
Nathalie: "Want to take them all for a walk in the park tomorrow?"
Haha, we are like pets to them...lol

Accomplishments:
Slept through our train to Salzburg.
MADE our trains to Vienna.
Tried two different dumpling dishes!

Travel Tip:
I recommend not putting yourself in a situation where you need to run with 30 pounds on your back to catch a train.


I think I am going to really like Vienna. Meredith studied abroad here for a semester so I've heard a lot about it. Meredith loved it, and I love Meredith, so I am pretty sure I will love it too :)