Day 4: Farewell Vienna, Train to Slovenia

We bid farewell to Austria and Vienna and made our way to Ljubljana on the train. You could tell almost immediately when we crossed the border to Slovenia as the buildings got a little bit grubbier and the stations were not as grand nor the buildings as charming. The journey was through picturesque green mountains, sometimes farmland, sometimes lakes and forested hills.

Ljubljana was a bit of a shock after Vienna. Any city would suffer in comparision to Vienna so our initial impression was perhaps a bit harsh. It didn't help that it was raining heavily when we stepped off the train.

We abandoned our plan to camp (just for the first night) and looked for a hostel nearby. The first was full and though we worried that finding accommodation on this rainy Saturday night might be problematic the next hostel came good. A student dormitory for most of the year, it suited our purposes for a night and we dumped our bags and headed into the city center for some food.

The walls of the city buildings are liberally decorated with graffiti, not all of it with artistic merit. The buildings are of a style similar to Vienna but not as grand. As the rain stopped and the sun broke through again we started to warm to the place. A river winds through the old town center and the narrow streets and river-side cafes are as pleasant and full of European character as anywhere else. We had a very tasty seafood dinner and lots of wine. The waiter reassured us that the poor weather was not typical and so we looked forward to another day of exploration.

Day 3: Museum of Fine Arts, Austrian dinner and bar hopping in the rain

Woke up feeling that we both had the best night's sleep, we proceeded to help ourselves to the hotel's free brekkie. Feeling tired from yesterday's action packed day, we decided to enjoy some fine art on our last day in Vienna. Fueled by eggs, cold meats and crossiant, we powered on to the museum of fine arts.

The museum was a rather impressive architecture, located in the Museum Quartiet. What an amazing city! A quarter that housed a collection of museums, we felt that we could have spent a month in Vienna just soaking up the culture.

After 2 minutes of aimless wandering in the Egyptian treasure section, we detoured back to the information counter. Armed with an audio guide(cost 1.50 euro - bargain!) and a detailed map of the museum, we ventured back to the world of Egyptian mummies and treasures. The first floor was separated into 2 sections: Egyptian treasures and Greek/Roman sculptures. Both just as impressive but it was not just the items on display that took our breath away, it was also the effort the architect invested in the design of the each room. All were decorated in the same theme as the items and created the perfect atmosphere to learn and admire.

We were famished by the time we got to level 2 and decided that we needed food before we can proceed to appreciate paintings, and what better place to do so other than the cafe in the museum! We enjoyed the light salads with 2 glasses of Riesling and gaped in awe at the statues and carvings on theceiling.

Time flew as we admired the works of various artists, our favourite was Carravaggio. After we had our fill of art and culture, we headed back to our little piece of heaven and dined at Restaurant Boheme on some authentic Austrian cusine. The wonderful night ended with us bar hopping in the rain and falling in love with each other and the city again.

Day 2: City on Foot, Cycling tour by the Danube and Wien Film Festival

We awoke on our first full day in Vienna, after dumping our bags and fuelling up we hit the streets, eager to explore the city's architecture and parks. Even at this early hour we immediately felt the rising temperature of what turned into a 40 degree day of heat. We think Vienna is the cleanest, and most picturesque of cities we've ever seen. Even though it could feel like living in a national monument, the Viennese have tastefully woven the old with the new. There are plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants interwoven into the fabric of a city built when Austria was an imperial power.

We walked the length of Ringstrasse, Vienna's historical quarter past parliament, the town house, various churches museums and parks. We settled down for a snooze in the shade from the mid-day sun and ate seafood at Palmenhaus.

To give our feet a rest we booked a guided bike tour for the afternoon. Despite our reluctance to do guided tours this turned out to be well worth it.

There was only four of us plus the guide and her friend who accompanied us for some of the way. We proceeded to cover most of Vienna in 3 hours. Whizzing around the city on dedicated cycle paths for the most part is definitely the best way to see the city. We passed various concert halls, places of interest for Beethoven and Strauss fans, the Hundertwasser building, the Danube canal, some parks such Prater platz, Stad platz and the Danube island. The Hundertwasser building is a building with character. With few straight lines, trees growing out windows and on rooftops and mosaic tiles it resembles Gaudi's architecture in Barcelona. Apparently it was built for community housing but these properties were probably later snapped up as too desirable a place to live.

We didn't expect to see all of Vienna on our first day but we ended up doing that. We were wrecked by the time we arrived back at the hostel to collect our bags. We had to cart our luggage to a new hotel tonight. Though we shuffled like zombies out of the metro station it was hardly a hardship as our new accommodation was a 5 star boutique hotel in the center of town, a gift courtesy of Robin's mum. We were the most dishevelled looking backpackers this place has seen in a long time so we kept a low profile while we checked in and retired to our room to recharge.

Emerging in clean clothes and feeling human again we went for an al fresco dinner (Asian for Jess's benefit) outside the Rathaus. It was party central as a film festival was in full swing. As the sun set, we grabbed some strong cocktails and settled down to a re-interpretation of Swan Lake projected onto a screen on the front facade of the Rathaus.

Day 1: Arrived in Vienna

We arrived in Vienna city just before midnight in Vienna city centre. Hungry and cranky, we navigated through the alleys under the weight of our backpacks, in search for Pension Andreas.

It was a hot and humid night in Vienna, a huge differnce from the gentle drizzle and warm sunshine in Ireland. After a few wrong turns, we find ourselves walking up the steps of what appears to be an old university building. It was cool and airy in the darkness, we could see the ornate carvings on the ceiling. After checking ourselves in and learning that dinner was a vague possibility, we opted to have some ice cold beer in our room. Fortunately for us, there were some Lindt ball chocolates in our backpacks. We chatted over some Austrian beer, talked about our past travels and got ready for our first adventure in continental Europe.