Vienna and the coldest day of my life!

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Well if you had of told me a couple of years ago I’d be in Vienna on my 31st birthday and it was going to be the coldest day of my life thus far… I wouldn’t have believed you. In fact it was so cold it made our previous five days in Prague feel like a tropical island.

In fact hoping off the train after arriving in Vienna a few days earlier it hit us right away. So much so that we had to dive into our bags and grab some extra layers to put on straight away as the train had been very civilised and warm.

So after figuring out where we were and how to get the part of town we were staying in (which has all become second nature to me now) we decided that waiting inside the warm train station was a much better option than waiting outside for the tram in the wind and cold.

Oohh and we were a little naughty too now that I think about it. We had planned to buy a ticket when we got on the tram but they have these really weird train carriage style trams in Vienna that don’t connect up. So if you get on in the back one you can’t actually get to the front one to buy a ticket without getting off and then on again.

Well I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to move quickly on and off a busy tram full of people with 25kgs strapped to your back in sub minus arctic temperatures but trust me it’s not that easy. So we had a quick mini conference between us and talked about the merits of getting off at the next station, buying tickets and then getting back on the next tram…

But instead as each tram stop approached us and the doors sprung open, no one was prepared to make the big call and suggest we get actually get off the tram back into the cold… this went on for about 6 stops until it became such a fun game of bluff we ended up going the whole way (about 13 stops too I might add) with no tickets. Now I know this doesn’t sound that crazy now but it was certainly amusing for us at the time. Some cities are deadly with that sort of thing and pick of the tourists a mile out and then make you pay bribes etc to get out of trouble. We simply figured it was too cold for ticket inspectors to be working that day!!

Well that was a Monday and my upcoming birthday wasn’t until the Wednesday so we had a couple of days to settle in to our new city. In hindsight we probably hit it a bit hard that night and probably had one too many bottles of wine which made for a very relaxed and slow Tuesday which at the time didn’t worry us either ,as it was so wet and cold outside anyway.

But birthdays are our special days and one must put on a brave face even if the elements against you on the day.. So waking up the next morning I looked out the window.. took a deep breath and put on a brave face. I then proceeded to wake Jono and Jules up and told them to get ready for a big day out. I told them to dress warm and dress up as we may not be back till late! The look on their face was priceless as they didn’t have a choice, it was kinda like a deer in the headlights knowing it’s about to be run over and there’s nothing they could do to stop it…. I wasn’t serious but they didn’t know that at the time.

Oh and I better say a quick thank you to everyone for all the nice birthday wishes and a very big thank you to those who were clever enough to plan ahead and send a card with the JJ’s… very impressive! PS. Mum, the glitter inside the card really wasn’t necessary though was it??? It went everywhere… haha. So we set off for the day with no real plans after a nice late start and had a blast. As I mentioned earlier it was seriously the coldest day of my life bit we all put on brave faces and decided to enjoy it none the less.

We saw some amazing sites too. We spent the first few hours out at the huge Shconbrunn Palace and its amazing gardens. Most of the pictures outside in this blog are from there. Then we headed back into central Vienna and gave our self a whirlwind tour through what really is a beautiful city.. well at least from what I could see racing from one awning to the next in between the rain showers that keep coming and going all afternoon.

Then after we’d decided we were all cold and hungry enough we went back to where we were staying and I whipped up one of my now famous ‘International Aussie Rocket Salads’. And before you ask, yes I know it was my birthday, but I really wanted it for dinner and I didn’t trust the others to make it properly so I did! Which I might add was amazing.

Anyway the night ended up well and although it wasn’t the craziest one we’ve had, it was a great day overall. We stayed a couple more nights in town but the weather didn’t really improve that much so unfortunately we didn’t get to see much more of Vienna. The good news is I did see enough to make me want to go back again one day, perhaps next time for a little longer…

But next I’ll be sure to check to weather forecast first. Cheers. TD.

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