We took the #1 bus to the train station, but somewhere en route it turned into a #4 bus. Ah, language barriers. We ended up going pretty far out of the way and turning around before we realized what was going on and could get off at a stop to change buses. But we made it eventually.
After buying our tickets to Vienna, we went into the Spar at the station and bought pre-made pimiento and cheese and salami and cheese sandwiches for lunch on the train. Spar was a good friend to us on the trip. The stores were always conveniently located, and their pre made stuff was always pretty fresh, as if it had been made earlier that day rather than the week before. I also bought a macaroni salad with spicy chicken that didn't fail me.
We ended up on Jet Rail train, which was more of a high speed train than the local trains we'd been used to. 2 tickets = 108 euros. More expensive, but faster, and more comfortable seats.
When we left the train station in Vienna, we walked out onto Mariahilfer Stausse, a busy shopping street filled with a lot of familiar stores. The shopping, combined with the architecture, reminded me of San Francisco, and I was a little worried I wasn't going to like Vienna as much as I hoped. Not that I don't like San Francisco, but you don't go to Vienna to feel like San Francisco.
My fears were quickly eased as we turned off the bustling street and headed down some quiet, more residential streets towards our hotel. Everything started to feel much more Parisian and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Pension Kraml, the hotel we stayed at in Vienna, ended up being the perfect base camp. I would stay there again in a hot minute and recommend it to anyone going to Vienna. It was close to the subway, walking distance to Mariahilfer, the train station (15 min. walk), St. Charles Church, and the Naschmarkt, which you will be eating at if you go to Vienna. It was also a ten minute walk to a laundromat, which we were in desperate need of. The beautiful room was spacious with high ceilings.
There was no TV or wi-fi in the room, if that sort of thing concerns you. There is a separate TV/game room on the ground floor if you need wi-fi. Pension Kraml is popular and there aren't many rooms with private bathrooms. We ended up only able to get a room with a private shower, no toilet. But there were two bathrooms on our floor, and I don't think I even saw anyone else in the bathroom during our entire trip. So don't let the shared bathroom thing scare you (we were a little nervous). There are enough toilets to go around.
This place was a bargain at 66 euro/night. And that included breakfast in their adorable, cozy breakfast room. I don't think there's a better deal in Vienna, and the same man was there everyday, it's clearly family run. Okay, enough about the hotel. Obviously, I was excited and blessed to have found this perfect place. It doesn't always happen.
And now...Vienna!
After checking in, we needed a pick me up. Time for some famous Viennese coffee. We had made a list of potential coffee shops to visit, figuring if we were were in the neighborhood and in the mood for coffee, we'd stop in. The one on the way to the St. Charles Church happened to be Cafe Sperl.
Ah, just look at it. Above was the view from my seat. It's so beautiful. I did some journaling here. How could I not? If I lived in Vienna, I would be a regular here. The perfect place to read and write. And so romantic.
This is where they shot the scene in BEFORE SUNRISE where Ethan and Julie are having pretend phone conversations with their loved ones describing each other. I love that movie. I love the sequel even more.
Oh, yeah, and there's coffee. And it isn't an afterthought. It's damn good.
Even a non-coffee drinker couldn't resist this. Rested and caffeinated, we walked over to the St. Charles Church and sat at the pond in front of it, admiring its beauty, its reflection in the near-smooth water.
Kids were scootering around the shallow rim of the pond and managing to stay mostly dry, whizzing right by us.
Another little girl was wading in the pond, picking anything that might be of value from the bottom.
After the church, we were hungry. Eating is not cheap in Vienna. We walked around near St. Charles trying to look for something appetizing at the right price and weren't finding anything. We ended up back at Naschmarkt, which is an awesome market filled with stall after stall of food vendors. Some are more full-fledged restaurants than others. But whatever you're hungry for, and whatever your price point, there is a stall for you. We walked around for a bit. I think I was too hungry, to the point where I was just crabby and nothing looked good, when at any other time everything we passed would have looked amazing. That's always the worst time to be trying to find food. Poor Hubs.
A Mediterranean restaurant named Neni was hopping. There was one open table, so we took it. Honestly, I wasn't sure about my choice at first. It looked newer and brighter than many of the other restaurants with its turquoise walls and light wood, I thought the food might be lacking and it was packed because of the fun atmosphere and rainy weather. Um, no. How about some amazing hummus with mushrooms and cumin sauce?
I am picky, picky, picky about hummus. My neighborhood Mediterranean restaurant, Carnival, has the most amazing hummus and it's cheap, cheap, cheap. I can't eat anything else when it comes to hummus, but Hubs wanted hummus and I obliged. Lucky for me, it was awesome. Perfectly balanced, not too garlicky, not too lemony. And the mushrooms were divine with the cumin sauce, and I'm normally not a cumin fan. I love being pleasantly surprised. The rest of our meal was good, too. We had sweet potato loaves, which were like a sweet potato falafel over a well dressed salad. Delicious.
And, lastly, we had fried chicken and fries.
The fries were really good. The chicken was nothing special but it became a good hummus delivery system when we ran out of bread. Add in two Ottakringer Rots and we finished off our much-better-than-expected meal. 2 beers + hummus + sweet potato loaves + chicken and fries + tip = 35 euros.
We've since tried a mushroom hummus from our beloved Carnival. It wasn't as good as Neni's. Something special in that cumin sauce. I tried to make something like it myself, but it can't be replicated. At least not by someone with my cooking talent.
After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and it began to rain and continued to pour all night.
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