For the next month I will be traveling around Europe with Busabout. Busabout has a bunch of different trips you can do from sailing around the Greek islands to touring around Eastern Europe, but the one I'm doing is their hop-on, hop-off pass. Starting wherever I want I can travel all over their North, South and West loops.
Today I hopped on my first Busabout bus leaving from Prague to Vienna, with a quick stop in Česky Krumlov. Vienna is one of the mandatory overnight stops, otherwise I probably would have skipped over it.
Because it was the first bus of the season leaving Prague (Busabout only runs during the summer months) our bus was pretty empty. There were a total of three passengers and four crew members. At first I was worried that it would be weird to be in such a small group, but it ended up being a great day of travel.
The guide and driver are so helpful. Before coming into a new city they give you a quick history lesson and tell you what there is to do around the city - this is perfect for a girl who knows nothing.
The more I learned about Vienna, the more excited I was to spend some time here. I booked a walking tour for my first night so that I could get familiar with the city before having two days to explore.
At 5:40 I started walking to the meeting spot, without a map. Not my best idea. But my guide had said that it was about 400 meters down the street on my right. How hard could it be?
It turns out it can be very hard. I can't even estimate standard measurement and here I was trying to guess how far 400 meters is.
I turned right at what I thought had been 400 meters at a place that looked like it could be the opera house and just started wandering. The meeting time came and went, and still I couldn't find the opera house. Eventually I found a map at the bus station, but after staring at it for 5 minutes, I couldn't even find where I was, let alone the opera house. Finally, some guys on bikes helped me find my location, and from there I found the opera house. It was about 100 meters north of me. (Probably. Like I said, I don't do estimates, especially metric ones.)
I finally made it to the meeting point 15 minutes late, but of course the group had already left. I walked around the opera house hoping to run into them, but I didn't even know who or what I was looking for, so it was a wasted effort.
I sat down on a fountain outside the opera house and tried to keep myself from crying. This probably seems really embarrassing, but you need to know two things. 1) I had already paid for this walking tour and 2) The price included dinner. Dinner of schnitzel and apple strudel. Now, I don't know what schnitzel is, but I know it's one of Maria's favorite things, so it must be good. And I'm fairly certain apple strudel is just apple pie - which I do not like - but I wanted it anyway. I felt like a five year old who didn't get a pony for Christmas. I wanted to sit on the side of the road and throw a temper tantrum until someone bought me schnitzel and apple strudel.
But I didn't. Instead I started making my way back to the hostel so I could spend my night in misery. On the way I was stopped by a man dressed in a costume who was selling something. My first instinct was to ignore him and walk away, but something stopped me and I decided to hear him out. He was selling tickets to the opera. Now, I like the opera about as much as I like apple pie, but I was in Vienna, and going to the opera is mandatory.
I bought a ticket and then wandered for an hour before the show started. As I started making my way to the opera - still without a map - I got lost, again. Luckily, I ran into the guy who had sold me the ticket. I told him I was lost, he laughed at me, and pointed me in the right direction. I started walking that way, but somehow managed to miss it. As I started turning in circles, trying to figure out where to go, I heard a whistle and looked over to see the guy laughing at me and once again pointing me in the right direction. He ended up walking me all the way to the door to make sure I didn't get lost, and finally I was at the opera.
The opera was amazing. I didn't go to the real Opera House, just a little side palace, and the orchestra was only made of six people, but they were all so talented. I even got to hear Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in the room where he had first performed it. Vienna turned me into a fan of the opera. It was even worth missing schnitzel and strudel.
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