Vienna was hopefully going to be a relaxing couple of days as I had a fun time with Steph and Shana in Krakow and needed to rest up for a fun time at the beach with Jenny and Courtney in 5 days in Croatia.
So Vienna was filled with errands and a little sightseeing. First one – find an eye doctor for my 3 month Lasik check up. Sounds easy in a developed country, but this turned out to be an adventure in itself. My hostel helped me find some walk in eye doctors that were actually open on a Friday (as most were not and nothing was open on Saturday). So I was off on the U-Bahn to find Dr. Novak. When I found the place, the receptionist said the doctor is not in today. I thought why would you be open then? I asked if they could recommend someone after explaining my situation and time in Vienna and they did and I found another nice Swedish man who happened to be in the office offered to call over on his phone as he spoke the language. Too bad that doctor also wasn`t in there either. We even tried one more on the list my hostel gave me but no luck. Both doctors offices said I should go to the general hospital as they have an eye clinic. I thought…do I want to deal with a hospital in another country if its not an emergency…??? Reluctantly, I decided to head over there. I thought it would be prudent to have my travel health insurance just in case, so I was on the hunt for an Internet place to print it out again.
Once I found the hospital, finding the right place was another task. I got lost in Debbie`s hospital in New York and I could ask for directions there, in Austria, I was on my own. The information desk did not speak English, and I was surprised as most people in Austria did. With a little pointing, I was given clearance and directions to the 6th floor. Too bad he sent me to the emergency room for eyes, and I was redirected to the 8th floor. Then I was told to sit and wait for the doctor. After 30 minutes and no one addressing me, I asked again and was told the doctors stopped working at 3:00 (which was 20 minutes ago). I explained what I was trying to do and a nurse tried to help and got a doctor to come talk to me and after he listened…he just laughed a little and said he only deals with emergencies. It was a blow to me, not for the information, but the fact that he was laughing at me when he told me. I explained that two local eye doctors offices told me to come here. Oh well…hopefully I can find a doctor in Athens. If not there, it may not be until Australia as I prefer a developed country for this exam.
After that, I was a little tired, but decided to go out and explore the city and headed cross town. I found the Hundertwasser which was an amazing building. The builder did not believe in straight lines. This is not a museum and people actually live here. It was interesting as even the ground was uneven. Fun site to see. After seeing another one of his buildings down the street, I did what any California girl would do – find the beach bar by the river to relax for a while. It was nice to lay in a chair, with my feet in the sand and a beer in the other. I just sat there and listened to my new ipod for an hour and enjoyed watching all the boats cruise down the Danube River. Nice time.
My dinner hunt was for a real Weinschnitzel and our hostel had recommended just the place that I wandered to (after some effort). I got on the circle line tram that is supposed to go around the center ring of town, and half way around, it just stopped and turned around. Don`t know why it did, but I got off and figured I could walk there, but it took more effort than I thought as the streets were all curvy in this part of town, and finally I gave up and found a U-Bahn and took it two more stops as I was hungry. At dinner, they sat me at a table for 8 by myself as all the tables were huge. It was strange being at such a large table on my own, but then Oliver asked if he could join me. Oliver was a nice guy that was studying Economics in Vienna yet lives 7 hours away. So we had a great dinner and he gave me lots of info on how to spend my next day and some insider tips.
At this point, I was tired and decided to walk home as it was a nice night and still light out. As I was walking back, I saw a big department store and wanted to grab a couple more things. I was surprised it was open at 8:45pm as everything in Vienna closed at 6pm or earlier. I found what I wanted in two different departments (that were next to each other). When I went to pay, the lady yelled at me that I could not buy one item as that department was closed. How could it be closed when the store is open. She raised her voice and said “finished” and thew the item on the back counter and rang me up for the other item. I guess the other department already closed the cash registered so no more purchases could be made. How is that for customer service? That is not the Nordstrom way, but then again, I am not in the US and everything is different. Why the Austrian people enjoy to laugh at you and yell at me is beyond me, but I just let it roll off and kept on going.
My final day in Vienna was going to be a busy one. Off to the Schlonbrunn Palace and a long cruise around the gardens, hike to the top of the Gloriietta for a great view of the palace and gardens and Vienna too. After 2 hours, I had enough and wanted to go to the local market to have lunch, and pick up some fresh fruits. Saturday was the big market day there and it was a madhouse. Every step I took I heard “lady…lady…look here….good (whatever they sold).” It kept me laughing as every stall had the same Greek foods, olives, fruits and such.
I had plans to meet with Moriah, a 22 year old from Stanford area in California. She was staying in my room, and I said I wanted to go to the wine houses in Grinzing and she was interested to join, so we met up at 3pm and had a great afternoon. The Austrian wine region was very different from any other in the world as each place is a small family run house. We were actually in peoples backyards at long picnic tables having wine and chatting with the owners. Almost everyone there was a local, so it was fun to be out in the suburbs with locals. There was one owner that used to live near where I grew up (in Oakland, CA). He was very proud of his wine and we liked it too. We liked how excited he was to have us there even more. So Moriah and I tasted at 5 places and had about 8 glasses each and they were all quite good. Very dry white wines. I tried one red, but it was not too good and the white was much better plus it was refreshing on the hot day. We stayed out for 7 hours and had the best time talking about everything under the sun.
So Vienna was a nice stopover for me. Big capital city but small town charm. I loved wandering the streets as the architecture was really nice to look at. I was really debating for a while about staying for longer and flying to Croatia, but when the flight cost doubled overnight, my decision was easy and I was on a train to Slovenia the next day.