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Day 548
We didn't have a lot of time so we packed quickly and put our things in storage before heading out for breakfast. We went to a bagel place that we had found the day before. I miss bagels. They are just so good in NYC.
It was really sad saying goodbye, but at least I know that it won't be long until I am in London. I was re ally surprised at how fast the weekend had gone.
When Edward got in the cab I walked to the train station. It took 30 minutes for my number to be called and I became worried that I would miss my train. When I finally had a ticket I bought some food and then changed the rest of the money. I slept most of the way to Vienna. Once in Vienna I bought an onward ticket to Ljubljana, Slovenia.
The first train was about 5 hours long and I had to stay awake to get off at Saltzburg. It was freezing, even inside when I was waiting for my next train. Almost a soon as I sat down I fell into a restless sleep. Sitting is never comfortable. About two hours before the train arrived I got the compartment to myself and could stretch out. For unknown reasons I never managed to fall asleep.
Day 254
Christine and I were up rather early and went to the same place for lunch as we had the day before. As I didn't really have anything pressing to visit in Vienna I decided to spend the day wandering the area with Christine and chatting.
We walked to the river and checked out the view from a few different bridges. When we found a pharmacy Christine helped me to stock up on some of the things that had begun to run low. Around this time she got a phone alarm reminding her about and appointment and had to run off pretty quickly. I went back to her apartment and packed my things before heading out.
I just my my bus to the Bratislava airport. I was finally cashing in on the special thing I bought for myself back in Prague, I was headed to London. The bus ride was fine, the chaos didn't begin until it was time to check in. When my bag was scanned they security guy made me pull out my deck of UNO cards and inspected them thoroughly. That was pretty weird. When it was time to go through immigration the first guy couldn't get my passport to do whatever it needed to do. The second person who tried had problems as well, but did eventually stamp it. I've sorta overstayed my welcome in the Schengen
area and this was worrying me quite a bit.
During the flight I slept and really forgot all about the whole visa thing. I guess that this is why I wasn't prepared for the immigration woman at Stansted to start asking so many questions. I hadn't bothered to come up with half truth answers and was at a loss. I think she figured out that I had been in Schengen
for too long, however, that is quite different from the UK. After about 15 minutes of questions she stamped me in. I ran down to the train, but was disappointed to see that I had missed it by three minutes.
I gave Katherine a call to tell her when I would be arriving. After finally getting on the train and getting to London just walking around the city was a treat. I love it here so much. I luckily managed to find Katherines flat with little effort and we chatted for a bit before calling it a night.
Day 253
I slept for a really long time. I guess that I needed it. The room was also super quiet, so that helped. When Christine and I both woke up we headed to a local place for lunch or breakfast, whatever. We ended up chatting for quite a long time. It is so nice to meet someone through something like couchsurfing and hit it off so well.
When I did get to the downtown area I had a few definite places that I wanted to visit. The first stop was St. Michaels Church. I wanted to see the crypts that were closed on my last visit to Vienna. Big surprise, they were closed again this time. I then wandered a bit and decided to go and check out the Holy Grail. I think this would make number 3 for the trip. When I got to the entrance I realized that it was a museum that I had already visited. I had really thought that I had quite a lot of Vienna left to do, I guess I was wrong. I ended up just wandering for some time. When it was a bit darker I did pop into St. Stephens Church. The lighting is reliant on the sun and as it had set for the day the place was very dark and really rather spooky.
After grabbing some food I headed back to Christine's place. She was just finishing up some repairs on her kitchen with a friend. It wasn't long before the three of us headed out to watch a salsa class. As I have no talent I didn't join in. After stopping by a wine bar we found a place that served American food quite by accident. We had thought it was an English pub. The table next to us was full of American students. They were so loud that we couldn't speak to one another. People really need to keep their voices down.
On the way back to the flat Catherine told me a story about a butcher with a poisoned well. He gave men the incentive to figure out the problem by offering his daughter. His apprentice watched as several men died trying to fix the problem. Eventually he spoke up and fixed it himself. He had been in love with the butchers daughter for some time and would have done anything to gain her favor.
Back at the apartment we watched a youtube cartoon called Charlie the Unicorn. Watch it, it's funny. It's the only way you would get the title anyway.
Day 252
I woke up and laid in bed for a bit. At one point I heard someone coming up the steps and assumed that it was the guy from the night before. He then knocked on my door. I decided to pretend to not hear it. After a few knocks he tried to open the door. Creepy. It was locked and he went away.
After breakfast I got my act together and went to the castle. It wasn't opened but I was able to check out the birds that guarded it. With nothing really to do I just headed back to the hostel and worked on my blog for some time.
When it was finally time to go I had a bit of a panic attack. The bus station was rather large and no one seemed to know where the bus to Vienna was. It even took me some time to figure out where I could actually ask. Eventually I found it and after a short bus ride and a train ride I was in Vienna.
After waiting a few minutes I was greeted by couchsurfer Christine. She was kind enough to allow me to crash at her place for the evening. Christine was about to embark on her own big trip and was having a going away dinner that night. After dumping my stuff at her place we headed there.
The dinner was at an Indian place that was all you can eat and pay what you wish. It was really quite good. When the party was over we headed back to her place and chatted for some time before calling it a night.
