Vienna, part 1

So, Friday morning I got on a plane to Vienna. It’s really a wonder how early I had to get up to catch an 11am flight. First I had to be two hours early to the airport, plus the train takes 15 minutes, plus I had to buy a ticket, which took about five minutes, plus I had a fifteen minute walk to Paddington Station which turned into a twenty minute walk because I kept getting stuck at crosswalks, plus I had to brush my teeth, get dressed, and check in for my flight. All in all, I had to set my alarm for 7:30am. For an 11am flight, that’s pretty ridiculous, especially considering I was already in London. If I’d been in Oxford the whole process would have taken me even longer. I say this, not to complain about how much of a pain it is to get to Vienna, since it’s really much easier than flying anywhere from Columbus, but to point out why it’s a really good thing I didn’t choose the 7am flight. I’d have had to get up at 3am, and I didn’t get to bed until midnight on account of the ballet. That would have been miserable. On the upside, I got a free drink at the duty-free. I didn’t realize before I drank it that it was both before noon and the first thing I’d had to eat all day. It’s sort of weird that they give out alcohol samples before noon. 

So I got to Vienna around two-thirty, but didn’t get into the city until 4ish. I was considering going straight to my hostel, but the U-bahn train I was on passed right by Schönbrunn Palace and I decided to take a stroll through the gardens. The weather was really beautiful, and I’d read in my guidebook that there’s a really good view of Vienna from the Gloriette Pavilion in the gardens. Of course, what I hadn’t thought about was that for there to be a really good view, the Gloriette had to be on top of a hill. That was not a fun walk with my backpack. I don’t like walking uphill when I’m not carrying things. But the view was great, and the hill was a great place to sit and marvel at the fact that I was in Vienna!

There is something magical about a world where you can decide on Wednesday that you’d like to go to Vienna for the weekend, and then you just use your airline miles to book a flight and go! I am so lucky. It’s really going to be a letdown to have to go back to Columbus after this. 

The U-bahn station