One Post to End them all

So, it has been a few weeks since I got back. It took em forever to get all my pictures up on the internet, move out of my apartment on campus etc. And after reading so much or our good friend Mark's blog, I have been inspired to create one last post to epically follow my trip home.

I awoke early to the travel alarm, informing me of my need to awake, as well as the time and temperature. After tearing the batteries from its innards, I proceeded to as quietly as possible, open the locker, which screamed as the metal scraped metal. After some bleary eyed looks from my roommates, I crept into the shower, so as to not offend my fellow airplane passengers later. A little ahead of schedule, I proceeded to the lobby to check out. Upon arriving, I discovered Adam, returning from a quest for breakfast. I followed our quester back up to their room to hurry them along. Some last minute packing later, we proceeded downstairs again to request a cab to take us to the airport. A few minutes later, a champagne colored Mercedes Benz pulls up, and a tough looking woman steps out. She hurriedly asks how many people, to which we respond 4, and then hurries to clear out her bag to make room as we stuff our bags into the trunk. Angela's bag would not fit, so Adam volunteers to carry it on his lap. Having already collected the money to pay for the cab, I took a seat in the front. This gave me a prime view of the crazy Viennese traffic, and to our driver's curses at the other equally reckless drivers. We arrived at the airport, and before I could realize what was happening, the cab had come to a rest in a handicapped spot as the driver jumped out and proceeded to through our bags to the ground. Obviously, you are not supposed to unload in the handicap spots. So after dodging a bit of traffic, we were into the terminal. All we could see was Austrian Air check in places, which extended the entire length of the terminal. After a little investigating, i found that i had to check into my Lufthansa flight at the Austrian check in area, while Alex's check in for British Airways was a little ways down. Angela and Adam, having the earliest flight, bid us goodbye before running off. So Alex followed me as I found an Austrian Air person to guide me in checking in, whom took my passport and did the whole process for me at a computer kiosk, the kind we have to operate on our own in the States. She then directed me to the place to check baggage. After waiting in line for a little while, we noticed that Angela and Adam were in line, about 10 people back from us. Turns out the check-in for them was also with the Austrian Air desks, thus explaining why there were so many due to everyone actually checking in there. The Austrian baggage checker took one look at my backpack before slapping a tag on it and directing me to the oddly sized baggage area. After dropping my pack off, Alex and I proceeded down to the British Airways check in. Upon arriving, we noticed a line, and a lack of open desks. Turns out we were too early (her flight was even later than mine), and the desk would not open for another 15 minutes. So we joined the queue (it is British airways...). A few minutes later, an agent walked up to begin setting up the desk for check ins. We then noticed a computer kiosk, which people had only begun to start using as another agent started directing people. So Alex went over to investigate while i saved her place in line. I quickly realized that there was a new line forming to drop off checked bags where people using the computer kiosk were heading into, so I jumped into that line. After Alex successfully dropped off her backpack, we headed down to the shopping area for some last minute Euro usage. I grabbed an Austria shirt, with the totally bad ass Austrian/Hapsburg eagle. The shopping area in this area was limited, so we proceeded through the first security checkpoint, taking a small break to gawk at the cellophane wrapping service, where they completely enclose your bag in cellophane. After the first checkpoint, there was a little mall area, with plenty of shops and restaurants. We wondered around a bit, scoping out a place for lunch, before settling into a star bucks to wait for hunger to catch up with us. After tapping into the wireless network with my iTouch, we headed back towards a cafeteria thing we saw in the beginning. I grabbed one last toast (ham and cheese panini). I could barely get half of it down, as I was becoming anxious/excited to be getting back home (I can blame my Dad for training me in the art of pacing before traveling). So I gave myself an excessive amount of time to go through the second line of security and get to my gate. Alex was in a different terminal from here on, so we parted ways. I made my way down, passed through the metal detector, and found my gate with 45mins to go before boarding was supposed to begin. So I cracked open my copy of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and worked on finishing the last book. About 10mins after we were suppose to start boarding, a couple of agents and a bus pull up to the gate. So everyone packed into the bus like a can of sardines, before taking the bumpy ride out to the tarmac where our small regional jet awaited us. The blistering sun beat down upon us, as we waited in line once again, this time to climb the stairs and into the plane. Upon entering, i was greeted by some light classical music, and with my limited knowledge of classical, I could only assume it was Mozart as he is Vienna's favorite son. The light music was then broken by the ear splitting scream of a baby. This would seem to be a long flight. This was only complicated further by the man sitting next to me, who seemed to have a fear of flying if his constant figiting is any indication. After a 20 minute taxi, we were on our way to Frankfurt. An hour and an in-flight meal later, we touched down and began our arduous taxi to the plane's place on the tarmac. I believe the combined taxi times may have been greater than the actual flight time.

After exiting the plane, we were once again crammed onto a bus, but this time the bus was larger, so the packing was not so tight. We were then dropped off at the main terminal, and greeted by a "Welcome to the Non-Smoking Frankfurt International Airport" sign. We proceeded through a number of escalators and hallways before reaching a giant screen displaying the other flights. My flight was only designated by a gate "C", so I proceeded towards the terminal C. 2-3 miles of twisting and turning later I found myself having to go through customs in order to exit the country. After being questioned about when I entered the EU (and the German customs guy exclaiming his distaste for the Italians after I told him about their non-stamping), I was off for another mile hike to the gate for my flight. Upon arriving at the gate, I was informed that I must wait in a line to have my passport scanned. It was only 5 people long, so I thought it would be quick, but it turned out to be 40mins, due to the agents talking on the phone in between helping people. So I apparently got upgraded to Economy plus, so that meant an extra 6 inches at this point, which only was discovered upon finding my seat on the plane. The plane was so humongous, that 1st class got it's own entrance to the plane, away from the unwashed masses. This time we were treated to some soft Enya before take-off, so i quickly jacked into the techno XM station on the plane's audio system. As I sat there waiting for departure, I noticed as it slowly began to drip and then pour. As we taxied to take off, the engine's roar caused the water on the tarmac to fly backwards in great waves. During the flight, I watched a few movies. The first was Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson. It was pretty crappy, due to the poor concept and script. the next movie was Flawless with Demi Moore, which proved to be pretty good with a good twist at the end. The final movie was Stop loss. It was obviously a propaganda piece against the Iraq War, and after the first 30mins, it just dragged on.

After those, it was finally time to land in the USA. After touching down, I once again traveled through the miles of halls, stairs, and buses to get to customs. Upon making it through and picking up my backpack, my bleary-eyed self was greeted by the jubilant cry of "STEPHEN!!!!" as I see Cassie leaping up and down in excitement. As I make my way over to her, she bursts into tears after such a long absence of my awesome presence. She then directs me to the other side of the exit, where my Mom is hiding with her camera. And then I was directed to my Dad at the end of the exit way. So I was finally back in the USA. The first thing we did was head to TGIFridays to get some American in me (FREE Refills!!) Hurray!

Vienna day 5

Today, we got an early start and walked the km to the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It is a massive garden compex with a zoo and the necessary massive building full of opulent rooms. Alex and I opted to just do the gardens, while Angela and Adam did the inside as well.

We toured the gardens for a few hours. We first got some great overall pictures from the back of the palace. Then we explored the hedgemaze, which was surprisingly well designed, making it a lot of fun. We then took pictures of the massive Neptune fountain, both from the front and through the waterfall from the back. We then trekked up to the top of the hill to see a giant monument to the Habsburg's glory. I opted to go to go to the top, while Alex decided to chill at the bottom (good for pictures!). We then headed back down the hill to a few more monuments (one was an obelisk with heiroglyphs made before they had deciphered what they meant, though that didn't stop them from claiming it told the story of the habsburgs). We then visited a couple of over hyped fountains before heading back towards the hostel.

After a quick bathroom break (free toilet at hostel), we got some more ice cream and walked to the metro stop. We then rode out to the Nashtmarkt for some last minute shopping. Alex got a bag and I got a new soccer jersey. The guy who sold me the jersey didn't have it, but he told us to wait while he checked with his dad. Turns out that his dad had a stall a couple down. So his dad came over and they told us about the grandfather who was an American Jew from Detroit making the father get the nickname "American guy" despite his lack of English speaking. We then headed back to the hostel for a couple games of Settlers before heading out for one last unsuccessful souvenir hunt. We met up with Angela and Adam before grabbing some Turkish for our last dinner in Europe! ;(

Vienna day 4

After posting yesterday, I noticed a pair of British girls struggling to figure out Settlers of Catan (my new favorite game since learning it at Rag, and the game I had beaten Alex in the night before, and had intended to do a rematch) so I coached them through a game before they naively asked me to play in the second game. Me being me, I brutally slaughtered them with ease despite their gang up against me (muhahaha). An older british gentleman then sat down to tell us all about his life, which was quite interesting, and then between the two of us, suggest the best route to experience Vienna in only 1 day. The British girls then got me to tell them all about Prague, they're next destination. So, after attempting to escape for a number of hours, I was finally able to around 3am...

I was supposed to meet up with the crew about 10, but thanks to the previous night's hijinx, didn't make it over till 11:30, much to the crew's worry, as my door was apparently locked. So Alex and I embarked on more cool shit, while Angela and Adam once again opted for a full day of lame. So they got off the metro before us at the the corner of lame street and lame avenue. Meanwhile, we went up on a giant ferris wheel (with the requisite copious picture taking). We then attempted to navigate (no street signs) towards a funky apartment complex, where each person has painted/sculpted their apartment differently. We then continued our broken navigation towards a supposed glockenspiel, grabbing some Viennese currywurst on the way. It was larger, had more curry powder, and had the ketchup on the side as compared to Berlin, overall: satisfying, but not as enjoyable as the Berliner. We never found the clock, but managed to stumble upon a number of new churches along the way(#s 83-87). We then slowly navigated over to the Stadt park for some relaxation. It was nice and quiet (though all of Vienna is surprisingly quiet) and decidedly unmetal. After so much relaxing, Alex and I agreed to head back to the hostel for a mid-afternoon nap to cope. On the way, we stopped to gorge ourselves on ice cream (only my second this trip!) After a few hours of napping/relaxing, we decided to relax some more, blogging while chit chatting with the recently less lame Amgela and Adam, whom had decided they wanted to hang out with some cool kids for a change!

Vienna day 3

After posting, we went into town to the palace and gardens area (we are staying on the western edge of the main city). We walked around to see Parliment, the Rathaus, and the palace opera house. We then wandered into the gardens next to all of that. After relaxing in the shade a bit, we headed into the palace and its treasury to check out the holy roman jewels. They were very sparkly, but dimly lit. So after playing around with the camera/ getting blinded by the bling, we walked to the other gardens on the other side of the palace. At this point, Angela and Adam wanted to go to the lame music museum, while the supercool kids (Alex and I) wanted to see some dead bodies. So we headed over to the Stefansdom in hope of checking out the catacombs. The church was open this time so we wandered around and found the catacombs, but we knew of a cheaper and better Imperial crypt nearby, so we just went there. On the way, we ran into a street performance of break dancing. After being entertained, we made it to the crypt. It was very metal. We then headed to a modern art museum we had scoped out earlier. After having our minds blown by the modernism. We then headed to meet up with Angela and Adam, stopping at a big fountain that seemed like a tribute to the Soviet liberators. We then rode the tram out to an absolutely massive cemetery which has a bunch of composers in it. We found Beethoven's grave, and took the necessary copious quantity of pictures. We then headed to the neighboring graveyard for Mozart's grave, only to discover that they had closed 20 minutes before we got there. After taking some pictures of me pretending to be angry/ breaking in, we headed back toward the hostel/ dinner/ slash!

Vienna day 2

We spent the first real day in Vienna getting used to the new town. We headed to the convienently named center of town, Stefansplatz. We went into the Stefansdom, but mass was in session so we only saw a little bit. We then checked out Mozarts house. We then meandered towards a market district, passing St Elizabeths church (next to Stefans Dom so I kept an eye out for any other family member's churches) and the imperial crypt and the end of the imperial palace. We also saw the Opera Hausa and a crazy modern art museum. We finally made it to the market, and spent a few hours wandering the many food and junk vendors set up. It then began to get stormy, so we headed back towards the metro stop, pausing to see a wedding at the giant Karlskirche. There were maybe 50 other tourists gawking at the wedding going on in the giant tourist attraction church. Anyway, we then headed back towards the hostel, stopping to pick up groceries for breakfast. We then set out on a quest to find a schnistel place that Angela had read about. After half an hour of walking, we discovered the place closed for a month while the family that runs it goes on vacation. We then wandered about for a while, and eventually settled on a bar that served schnistel. It was pretty tasty. We then settled back into the hostel for some much needed rest.

Prague into Vienna

Lets see if this works... So we woke up in Prague for some last minute sight seeing. Alex, Brent and I walked over to the battlements. It consisted of a a wall with a bunch of gates, a giant cathedral, and a graveyard with famous Czechs in it. There was also fantastic views of the river as well as of the city. We then headed back to the hostel to head out to the metro and the train. We saw Brent off at the museum metro stop, then caught the train. Alex and I ended up in the compartment without AC, and the temperature swelled bringing back memories of italy. So we made it to Vienna fine and ran into a trio of Indian fellows from the Prague hostel. They were chatting with a local Indian guy about good Indian restaurants, so we got the down low on the local scene, and decided to check one out. We checked in then quested for Indian food. After an hour of wandering we found the place. It was just as delicious as Berlin. So we concluded a good first night in Vienna

Prague Day 7

So we got ourselves up to do the churches that we had until then skipped. So we (Brenton, Alex and I) headed over to St nicks church. It was worth the few bucks that we had skimped out on before. It was seriously covered in gold and marble, from floor to ceiling. SO we gasped in awe for a while before heading to Loreta church. It was supposed to have the house of the virgin mary (which the czechs stole from nazareth?), as well as the prague sun, a fancy piece of jewellery. We werent too sure which part was the stolen house, but the jewellery was pretty impressive, very blinged out. Brenton then headed over to do Prague Castle, which we had already hit up. So now we are jsut chillin back at the hostel, doing laundry (2nd time in 24 days! we smell awesome!) and relaxing around out of the rain. Tomorrow we head to Vienna and the next hostel, so hopefully it'll have more free internet to blog with!