Morning Layover in Vienna
Posted by Stuart at 08:49 AM on August 29, 2004There was no way I was going to spend my five hour layover in Vienna sitting in the airport. No offense to the airport, but once I found out that the city was only 15 minutes away by train, I practically sprinted to the station.
It took me a while to figure out the train system and the routes, but soon enough I found myself in centuries-old Vienna on a bright, cool Sunday morning. I spent the next 4 hours wandering the streets and marvelling at the architecture. I was all alone, sharing the streets with only a few pigeons and a random youth or two stumbling home from a night of partying.
The city was eerily quiet. It was so quiet, in fact, that every hour I could hear not only one church bell ringing the hours, but usually three or four different churches. To add to the ambiance, the sun was slowly rising and was casting a beautiful yellow glow on the surrounding history. It was a very special experience.
But, after 4 hours, I started to get hungry. Apparently Vienna has hundreds of cool little sidewalk cafes and apparently exacty zero of them are open on Sunday morning. I could only find one place in the entire city to eat -- and again I hate to admit it -- but my first meal in Austria was at McDonalds. Sigh.
Now, it's time to fly to Helsinki...
