Life As A Vagabond Part II

After the DIS Trip to Rome, I met Laura and Natasha at the Airport for our flight to Vienna. Our plane, Niki- a part of AirBerlin- had Hip Hope written small on the side of the plane in sparkly writing.. noticed that as we walked on the plane... comforting? Their logo is some sort of fly/mosquito too... Quality flight. But got there with no problems. We checked into our hostel... which was really nice. Run like a hotel, but a hostel feel. They even had drums and guitars for guests to play!!

We bought the yummiest lunch and ate it outside, in the hostel's gardens.

Ps. I ate tomatoes. Whoa. Be amazed family, be amazed.

Then we walked to Schoenberg Palace right around sunset!

We climbed to the top of the hill and had an awesome view of the city!

We saw a sign for a biking winery tour in our hostel and our interest was caught immediately! We just happened to be walking by the bike shop as the owner was opening and asked him about it. He said the season was technically finished, but since it was nice out, if we could find at least 2 more people, he would take us. Well, we found the people, but they didn't wake up... so we got a personal tour from our Aussie guide, Adam.

We set off early the next morning and took several trains to get us 85 kilometers out of Vienna into the Austrian countryside. Our first stop on our winery tour was literally someone's house. It was locked, so Adam had to call to have the lady who lived there let us in. She was making dinner for someone's 50th birthday that night.

We literally walked in to this woman's kitchen as she was cooking sausages off an old-fashioned stove. It was all set up with decorations for the party.

Everyone else in her family was out picking grapes because it was so nice out!

Our first glasses of wine. Adam taught us about the art of wine tasting. And we tried a wine made out of raisins. Who knew?! It tasted like honey, mmmm.

The view from the countryside was beautiful as we biked to the next town!

We stopped to look at the winery co-op of Wauchau Valley, where we biked through. The castle by the co-op was where they held Richard the Lion Hearted for a year!

The castle surrounded by vineyards.

We biked to the next town and had even more of a view to enjoy...

Follow the leader on our bikes.

We stopped to try some of the grapes off the vine!

I fell while posing for the picture... No surprise there. Adam caught me falling...

A stop for some grapes!

So many grapes! Tasty!
We stopped again for another picturesque moment... so easy to have so many of them on this tour!

We rode to the neighboring town, where we stopped for lunch at Adam's friend's winery.

In front of the town where we stopped for lunch!

Natasha and our guide, Adam, at lunch.
Laura and I at lunch!
We went into a couple other wineries, a chocolate shop for homemade chocolate and schnaps, and climbed up a hill. We were in Wauchau Valley for an entire day and could have stayed longer!

At the end of our bike ride. Survived with only minor injuries! One of my favorite parts of the travel break!

The next day, we went to go listen to the Vienna Choir Boys sing. Little did we know that we were going to standing room only of a church service. We stayed to listen to one song and left. It's just for the experience, right?!

At the church with the Vienna Choir Boys above us

Nina, Aliza and Hanna got into Vienna that day, so they met us up and we wandered around Vienna. We visited the Freud Museum, whoop de doo. Then tried to find Beethoven's house... and got really close... but no one there knew where it was. So no luck there.

Playing in the newly fallen fall leaves by some beautiful church!
Awesome views by Hofburg Palace!
The Palace!

Laura and Natasha left the next day. Hanna, Nina and I went to Belvedere Palace to see Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" in Belvedere Park.

The outside was beautiful and the grounds around it were so pretty! The inside of the museum was the same! Every room was as much of an exhibit as the art in it! So immaculate!

My new favorite piece of art (if I ever had a favorite to begin with...) is Klimt's The Kiss. SO awesome, but ten times better in person!

Later that day, we waited in line for standing room tickets to the opening night of the Opera's Madame Butterfly. Only 4 euros to see what others paid almost 200 euros! Quite an experience!

The outside of the Opera was so pretty, and the inside was even prettier!

The next day, we only had a little time in Vienna. We visited the Waser house, which was really cool

The architect believes that buildings get their personality from their windows, so he makes no window the same. He also believes that humans aren't meant to walk on flat ground, so he makes bumps and little hills in the floor!

Our bus to Budapest was awesome! They played a movie and we got free hot chocolate/tea/coffee!! So luxurious!