I’m ready early so I can use the last 15 minutes’ validity of yesterday’s 24-hour ticket to get to the station, which is handy since I only have tuppence ha’penny left in Czech currency.
It also means I get the chance to go upstairs and see the old part of the station, which is well worth a look.
The art nouveau café Fantova Kavárna up here is lovely, even if there was a bit of confusion over my order. This raspberry drink isn’t the lemonade I ordered, but it’s very nice, as long as you avoid the seeds.
My second-class seat was fine (see how down-to-earth I am?) and it was nice to sit on my bohekia for a few hours after all the walking over the last couple of days. With no effort on my part, I left Bavaria, transversed Moravia and ended up in Austria. I could even see Slovakia from the window at one point, although I won’t be going there until Friday.
Things were a bit more complicated once I reached Vienna. Because of some works on the train lines, the flat I booked is a lot less convenient for the station than it was when I originally chose it. I had to take a local train, then the U-bahn (underground), then the S-Bahn, always with the risk of taking them in the wrong direction. I tended to ask people to be sure. I did the classic thing of slipping into my second language by accident a couple of times, and then tried to explain to a teenager, who really couldn’t care less, that I had accidentally spoken Albanian. Smile, nod, back away slowly from the strange foreigner saying something incomprehensible about Albanians.
I checked in at the office where the apartment owner gave me a sheaf of information about the area (Hernals – or at least that’s what the nearest station is called) and what to do in Vienna. He had at least three cats who watched me disapprovingly during the process. Then I went to my own wee apartment, which seems perfectly nice so far, except I think I can smell my neighbour’s dinner, and there’s a clock quite nearby with bells. I have earplugs if need be.
Perhaps because I was uncharacteristically outgoing yesterday, I don’t feel like much human interaction tonight, so after stocking up on snacks (including the lovely peanut Wotsits they fed me at the absintherie), wine and breakfast foods at Lidl, I just got a takeaway.
Tomorrow is to be the good day of weather, with rain on Thursday, so I will probably leave the Kunsthistorisches Museum for Thursday and try to do some outdoor sightseeing tomorrow. There’s also a swimming baths nearby, but I’ll probably struggle to fit that in – especially if if takes a hour to get in or out of the city!
Not many photos today, but I expect I’ll make up for that tomorrow. Gute Nacht!
K C Murdarasi 
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