Vienna, Amsterdam & Zurich

I know I'm a whole week behind, but......What a weekend! 

Saturday, February 15:

         We were picked up at 5am, and driven directly to the airport.  We arrived by 6:30, grabbed some breakfast, went through security and waited patiently at our gate.  At 9:30am, we boarded our flight to Vienna.  I was unlucky and sat next to an ape of a man; he was a very large man and didn’t have space comprehension.  He had his knees in my space, his elbow on my armrest, poking me with his elbow and just a bother to sit next to; somehow I managed to fall asleep, and slept most of the almost two hour flight. 

         We arrived in Vienna, bought train tickets, ran to catch the train/shuttle and headed into the city.  From the city, we caught a different train/metro and headed in the direction of the hostel.  We got lost a little bit trying to find our hostel, eventually found it, it was the wrong location, and so back on the train we went, back to the starting location and back on a different metro to the hostel.  The station we got off at was located in a flea market/farmers market/hoarders fest.  The streets were packed with tents and tables of crap, food, and other stuff, the mix of stolen and homemade crap.  Walking through the masses of people with our suitcases was rather difficult.  But eventually we found it, and guess what, it’s located in china town…Awesome!

         We checked in, unloaded our stuff, and grabbed a bite to eat, made our beds and set off to check out the city.  Mallory and I went outside to check out the market.  We each bought a back to city center.  We walked around, grabbed some Baumkucken (a German dessert made of dough) – cinnamon coated, saw some interesting tents some filled with tie dye sheets, others filled with interesting trinkets or knick knacks, Then we hopped on the train back to city center and went to explore.  We came across an amusement park, and even though half of the rides were closed due to the season, many were up and running.  Mallory rode on a chaos looking ride, spinning sideways, upside down, twisting and turning, I didn’t ride, the upside down freaked me out.  The amusement park also have an old fashioned Ferris wheel, but it was 9 euros, so we didn’t ride.  We also found the planetarium, but it too was expensive to enter, so we kept walking.  

         We got back on the train, went a few stops further to see some sights, Mallory got some dinner and we to head back to our hostel.  I had a headache and lay down for a bit, and Mallory ate her food in the lobby area.  Then we joined back up and went to the bar in the hostel, she got some drinks, and just kept her company.  Nine-thirty approached and it was time for me to go to bed, so we headed upstairs, we each got ready for bed. 

Sunday, February 16:

         This morning we woke up bright and early to catch our flight to Amsterdam.  I woke up very itchy, and come to realize I have itchy blotches all over my body, some type of allergic reaction.  We all got dressed, checked out and walked back to the train station, caught the train to city center and then the shuttle train to the airport.  Check in for our flight, made it through security, however my first time ever getting patted down in security.  Walked to our gate and boarded our plane.  Two hours later we arrived in Amsterdam. 

         First stop, our hostel.  It was much easier to find than the one in Vienna.  Found the hostel, located in the red light district, surrounded with sex shops, coffee shops (of course), many restaurants and bars, a great location!  It was too early to check in, but we dropped our bags off.  Mallory and I went out for breakfast, I wanted pancakes; we found a café down the street that had pancakes, and was very busy, a good sign when you’re visiting a new area. Sat down, ordered, and waited patiently.  Food arrived and it was delicious.  

We had wanted to catch a tour of the city at 11am, but it was now 11:30 and we of course missed it.  We decided to wander around and check out the city while we waited for the later tour at 1pm.  Amsterdam is beautiful city, filled with canals, museums, hundreds of bikes, and the scent of marijuana with every turn in the city.  We walked over many bridges overtop of the many canals throughout the city, almost got hit by bikes zooming past, and found the lovely bars where you can smoke and drink.  It was coming up to 12:30pm, and we decided to start heading back so we could catch the next tour.  However we had no idea where we were, we had crisscrossed so many different streets; we didn’t even know the correct direction to head back to our hostel (the meeting place for the tour was up the street from our hostel at the city center.  Mallory and I make a terrible match because between the two of us we don’t even equal one directionally savvy person.  We wandered the streets, up and down, for hours; by the time we made it back to the hostel it was 3:30pm, way past our potential meeting time. 

Time to check into the hostel.  We grabbed the keys, hiked up two steep staircases.   We unloaded, freshened up and I took a nap.  I had a headache was also very itchy.  Two hours later, I woke up, and we got ready to go.  It was time to check out Anne Franks House (Huis in German), the one place I had to go while in Amsterdam.  On the way, I stopped and got some gelato, coffee and salted caramel.  The task should have been easy, however again we are directionally challenged people, and even though we had saved directions on our phone, we again got lost.  In the process we found an amazing sorbet/ice cream shop, and Mallory ordered caramelized banana & strawberry sorbet.  We asked the gentleman at the shop for directions to Anne Frank, and on the way we found a vegan & organic shop, and of course we had to go in and check it out.  After all that and walking aimlessly down many different streets and over different canals, we finally found it.  The line was short, we got right it, and the ticket was 9 euros.  It was 6pm and we had one hour until the doors closed, or so we thought.  At 7pm they kicked us out before we were able to see the entire museum.  It was packed so we made a single file line to walk through the house, taking longer than normally expected.  We were kicked out before finishing three rooms, including the room where the original diary is on display.  Even with getting kicked out before fully finishing and taking in all the memories, it was the highlight of my trip to Europe.  I am so thankful to have been able to visit and realize how thankful I am to be Jewish and to be able to experience the awfulness that was WWII.  Mallory thinks I could be related to Anne Frank!  I am proud to be Jewish.  

After the visit, we went back to the hostel (and made it back without getting lost, success), relaxed for a bit before going to grab food.  I was really craving a burger.  We had seen French fry shops all over town throughout the day I knew I wanted some, so we went down the street, and found one called “Mannequin Pis – Voted No 1 Holland’s Fries”.  We shared a medium and garnished with ketchup, as true American’s do.  We ended up walking through the red light district, seeing the woman behind windows, the sex stores open and of course the red lights lighting up the streets.  Interesting experience. 

I didn’t get a burger, and just went to bed, as I was tired, super

uncomfortable and had a headache again.

Monday, February 17:

         We wake up just as early this morning to catch the train for our plane to Zurich.  We make it to the airport; I grabbed my boarding pass, went through security and waited at our gate for the plane.  We boarded our plane, and it was an hour flight to Zurich. 

         We arrived in Zurich.  We each bought a bus pass, caught the bus to the center of the city and began our exploration of Zurich.  First stop food.  We ended up finding a café and I bought a sandwich and pasta salad.  I scarfed it down.  Then we found Mallory food at a local grocery store that had prepared vegetarian/vegan food options.  Also utilized the Wi-Fi to figure out what to see or explore in Zurich for free.

         Next we checked out the gorgeous canal and the largest clock in Europe.  We continued walking and I bought a giant pretzel, almost the size of my head, walked through the expensive district of stores and caught a random bus.  We got off at a stop that looked interesting, found a park and took a nap in the gorgeous sunlight.  About thirty minutes later, we woke up and decided to venture to see more of Zurich.  We caught a bus to somewhere, and rode it just checking out the sites from the bus.  After about forty-five minutes, we decided we would go back to the airport, we knew it was early, but Zurich is expensive to do anything.  

         We arrived at the airport, printed our boarding passes.  Mallory checked out H&M and other stores inside the airport.  I was just happy to be sitting and trying to ignore my itchiness.  We had a little less than an hour and a half left before our plane would arrive.  Our gate was posted; we went, sat and waited. 

         It was finally time to board our plane.  We had to take a bus to the plane.  We climbed the stairs to the plane, found our seats; I got a window and took a nap.  An hour later we arrived in Lyon.  We thought we could go directly to the train station, but one of our group mates was asked to check her bag due to a full flight, so we had to wait for her bag, which added extra time to our rather tight timetable.  About twenty minutes later, the bag arrived; we rushed to the shuttle to take us to the train station.  Hopped on the shuttle, and thirty minutes later we arrived at Lyon Station.  We luckily had one last train that we could take to Firminy.  Unfortunately, due to the baggage issue, we missed the last bus that would take us from Firminy to Retournac where a cab would be picking us up.  Instead we had to get a cab from Firminy to our apartment, which cost us 70 euros split four ways.

         Either way, we had a great weekend, beautiful places and wonderful experiences.