Our breakfast was a buffet but the only thing that really looked appetizing was a roll and jam. Their buffets are usually meats and cheeses. Which is fine, just not for breakfast. I drank some juice and coffee too. It wasn't much, but it was fine. We left to walk to the train station and took two trains. It was about a 2.5 hour train ride to Vienna. The train rides today seemed extra long. The views were great though. Austria is GORGEOUS. The fall colors, green rolling hills, MOUNTAINS. No biggie. When we got to Vienna, we grabbed some lunch. I got some orange chicken and rice. Not very good, but I was starving. We then had to take a metro to a location closer to the middle of the city. We went on a short tour of the city. We found the opera house that we would be going to later. We then went to a Mozart statue and a Goethe statue. Our next stop was St. Stephen’s Cathedral. We went inside and my mouth dropped open. It was so intricate in all the ways. In order to wander the whole place, you had to pay extra money so I didn't get to see more details. It was definitely Gothic. It has a super tall tower and we decided to climb the hundreds of stairs in a tiny spiraling staircase to go up in it. The view wasn’t that impressive, just city scape. I was kind of expecting some mountains. After the tower we went into some souvenir shops and just walked around the city. We found a park with a lot of roses and other flowers. There were a lot of rose bushes lined up and I think they were bought by different people as memorials for their loved ones. It was beautiful. We just sat and enjoyed the peaceful scene for awhile. Finally, we searched for dinner. That always takes us forever and today was no exception. We finally settled on subway and then met the group at 5:30 to get our standing tickets for the opera. We went to the Wiener Staatsoper opera house. We were seeing Don Giovanni, an opera by Mozart. We waited in line for a bit and there was this lady checking what people were wearing inside the door. She wouldn’t let anyone with holes in their jeans inside. We were not aware of this, and a few of our groups members were not allowed in. Kind of ridiculous because it wasn’t that fancy of an opera. You reserve your standing spot with a scarf tied around the railing in front of you and the tickets only cost about 3 euros. We were in the gallery so we were at the very top but we looked right down on the orchestra and stage. Since the music was Mozart, I enjoyed listening to them play the whole time. The story of the opera was not totally my taste, but we left about 45 minutes in, so we didn’t get to see how it ended. We had to leave to catch our train back, but I wanted to stay at the opera longer to listen some more. I was a bit tired from standing though so it was probably for the best. The opera was in German, but they had little screens with subtitles so that was helpful. The workers at the opera house were also a bit snooty. They kept telling people where they could or could not stand but in a forceful rude way. “Not there. No. Move. You are not a wheelchair. I hope not. Please Leave. Now.” We heard that probably a thousand times. It was nutty. We took the train back to Salzburg. It was the 2.5 hour ride again. I was exhausted and I wanted to sleep, but trains are just not comfortable. One of the connecting trains also got cancelled so we ended up waiting at a cold station for like 40 minutes. I was pretty sleepy and grumpy. I was ready for a warm shower and bed. Except, I took a cold shower. I did get to sleep in a bed though. That’s a win.

Fun Facts: Vienna has one of the oldest zoos. Thanks to Ryan Weaver for that fun fact. A lot of the James Bond movies were filmed in Vienna. Thanks to Kristin Lilly for that fun fact. The part of the city we were in was just full of expensive name brand stores, men dressed in old styled costumes with information brochures, gardens, and old buildings. I’m a nature girl. Not a city girl. I could do without the cities honestly.

Shoutout: My parents for introducing me to travel at a young age and encouraging it throughout my life. I am blessed to have seen so many things in our beautiful nation and now I get to see more of this beautiful world. Although I am traveling Europe for the first time, I am not new to nature. Thank you for the opportunity to fall in love with the great outdoors and natural earth. Because of that, I recognize patterns throughout creation and smile when new places still feel like home