So when we all woke up on Vienna day two we weren't all that
excited to go out. Paige, Hannah, Jessica and I felt like we had pretty much
accomplished everything we really wanted to see in day one. Rosie and Rachel
wanted to go back to the palace, but we weren't really in the mood to pay like
30 Euros to go inside (We had heard that most of the rooms were empty anyways).
So what to do…. What to do… Our original plan was to take a day trip to Hallstatt
(or pronounced Haghllschtatt in a German spitty voice), but our hostel people
said that it wasn’t plausible at all. I was soooooooooo sad. This is one of the
#1 places I wanted to visit in Europe, and now I might never get to go. This
made me even a little bit more mad at Vienna even though I know it didn’t do
anything to me.
Finally, we settled on going to the Naschmarkt and then going to
hang out at the Danube River. The Naschmarkt is sweet. I have always loved places
where you can barter for goods. I think that this roots all the way back to my
childhood when my parents brought me to Hawaii and I got a small budget to walk
around the International Market Place and barter my little heart away. I also
feel like I have a pretty good talent at it, and my talent was refined all my
months of bartering in China. The Naschmarkt market was obsessed with selling dried
fruit. I swear every other stand was a dried fruit stand. I didn’t mind because
they were all willing to give you samples. Our new favorite dried fruit is
dried watermelon. I didn’t even know that that was a real thing, and I have no
idea how you can dry a fruit that is like 90% water, but that stuff is dang
good. We also tried hummus and falafel. I was in heaven. We spent most of our time
eating pita bread and hummus while Paige fed the nasty pigeons(I am not a pigeon fan. Those things freak me out!). I also bought
myself a fake Burberry scarf, and I was pretty thrilled about it because those
scarves are all the rage in Europe. Everyone has one I swear.
After the market we found our way over to the Danube River.
It is the second longest river in Europe. I have always remembered this river
because all the way back when I went to American Heritage of South Jordan and I was in the
Geography Bee, I lost on a question about the Danube. Well, who would have
thought all these years later I would actually visit it! It was really pretty.
Hannah, Jessica and I spent our time taking a ton of fun pics. Paige stayed up
on the bridge because she wasn’t feeling well. To be honest, we all got sick at
least once on the long 10 day trip and today was the day the sickness picked
Paige. We decided to bring her back to the hostel and find something else to
do.
In the few months that I have lived with Rosie, Rachel and
Hannah, I have discovered a few things… They are afraid of big girl things!
Hah. Things like boys, bras, makeup and periods are like a foreign language to
these cutie pies. I am not saying I am the master of all things girly, but I do
know a thing or two. Earlier in the vacation, Hannah disclosed to us that she
had never EVER had a real bra. She had been wearing a sports bra her whole
life. Face Palm. It was time to help a sister out. We knew exactly how to spend
the rest of our day in Vienna… Hannah
would probably kill me for telling everyone this, but we went out and got that
cute girl a big girl bra! Yay! Womanhood!
Jessica and I had a blast bringing Hannah into the big girl
world. When we were done, we explored the Vienna streets for about another hour
and decided to go on home. When we went under ground to go find the tube
(subway), we were a little lost. All of a sudden a cute little grandpa man came
up to us and in poor English offered his assistance. It was so sweet. As we
were leaving, he walked up to another group of foreigners and did the same
thing. The sweet little man literally just walked around the subway entrance
trying to help foreigners. That is so inspiring to me. More people should be
like that man including me.
When we finally made it home, we spent the rest of the night
girl bonding, doing my math HW and playing phase 10 (It made me miss my Becca
Boo). It felt good to just chill for a few hours and then get a really good
night’s sleep.
Goodbye Vienna. You were fun I guess. Next stop? Budapest
XO Mikele
P.S.
Also, just in case you needed your daily dose of babushka, here is Paige sick and cold and telling me not to laugh at her babushka head. Haha Paige....