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Day 21: Vienna

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While walking around, the first thing we noticed about Vienna was the cleanliness. The other European cities we had seen so far had a lot of litter, and a distinct "human" smell. Like a constant crop-dusting. Munich wasn't as bad as the others, but their's something pristine about Vienna. It's almost as if they wash the buildings. No litter. No beggars. No smell. It was also less of a tourist town than we expected. There just weren't as many people here.


When we first arrived in Vienna, the receptionist told us about a music contest festival thing that was going on. Apparently it was going to be a pretty big deal, so we decided to walk by. It wasn't as big of a deal as we were expecting. We got there around noon, and there were maybe 100 people walking around. There was live music, but it was only one stage. We were in and out in about 20 minutes. Being from Austin, Kaylea was disappointed. We bought some ice cream, and decided to make our way to a park bench. Shortly before we left, we were stopped by a news woman who wanted to ask us a few questions. "Did you come here for the music contest?!" she asked enthusiastically. It was hard to tell how big of a question she was asking. We had just heard about the music thing that day. We certainly didn't plan for 6 months to see a small stage in Vienna. So we simply responded "Umm... Yeah." She then informed us that it was going to be raining the next few days in Vienna, and asked how we felt about it. We really didn't have any strong feelings one way or the other. It wasn't a very interesting interview, but we're extremely good looking, so we're pretty sure we made it on to Austrian television.



Our main goal for the day was another escape room. We had enjoyed the one in Prague so much that we immediately Googled for one in Vienna. We found one called Exitthink. It was owned by the nicest Hungarian guy. Unlike the room in Prague, this one had 2 rooms, and they were a lot more difficult. The first one we did was supposed to be scary. It was kind of a cross between a haunted house and a puzzle. It started out in a pitch black room. There were a lot of jump scares, but we saw them coming, so it wasn't that big of a deal. We were more focused on solving the puzzle. While working our way through, we couldn't open this large old cabinet. We had the right key, but the lock was broken. The guy had to come in and fix it. We made it out of the room in around 55 minutes, but the guy felt bad about the broken lock, so he knocked 5 minutes off our time and let us try the other room for free. This room was Indiana Jones themed, and much more fun. It was also very difficult to do with 2 people. We must have looked ridiculous during certain parts of it. As a final challenge, there was a bottle of wine locked in a puzzle. If we could get it out, he would let us keep the wine. We had 5 minutes. After our 5 minutes were up, we asked for the answer. He told us how to open it, then said "Oh. There was something wrong with my timer. You won the wine!" He gave us the wine for free. He was the nicest guy. If any of you are ever in Vienna, you have to check this place out.


Back at the hostel, we cooked some mac and cheese and beef, or at least the Vienna equivalent. We couldn't find any mac-and-cheese, so we had to settle for something a bit weirder. It still tasted amazing. We met this old guy from California who was on his way to Prague. We exchanged the last of our Czech Crowns with him since we wouldn't be needing them anymore. Then we got into another long conversation about Texas and guns. Every time someone hears that we're from Texas, we end up talking about guns. He was nice though. Kaylea pointed out that we always end up talking to old people. It had been a while since we talked to anyone our own age, so we made our way to the bar inside the hostel, and got to socialize with some younger travelers. It was another great night.

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