One nice thing about hostels, at least in some European cities, is that they provide maps/guides specifically for young hip budget travelers. Now I may not be in the intended audience, since- (A) Don't have any tattoos, and (B) Don't have any piercings in strange places, or anywhere for that matter and (C) Am not that young-but these maps are still helpful-they are often written by locals-so they feature stuff the normal tourist info maps don't have. One tip for instance is on a summer palace in town by a former emperor. The palace is referred to often as a "mini-Versailles", as it has extensive grounds, a zoo, a Botanical Garden, etc, and various entry fees, ranging from 10 Euros on up, it seems. One thing these guides don't mention is that if you would like to simply walk through the Gardens, and on up a hill to a beautiful Gloriette (looks like a Roman Monument), with an observation deck-entrance is free. So that is what I did yesterday-took the metro yesterday morning, and walked around the gardens.
What I was looking forward to,all day, however, was a walking tour, scheduled at 2:00 yesterday. I enjoy city walking tours-they (A) Provide exercise (B) allow me to see the city with an experienced guide, who I can ask questions and (C) Provide a venue for meeting fellow travelers. I have met nice people I have hung out with afterwards on these tours. So I was at the downtown Tourist Information Center anxiously awaiting this walking tour at 2:00. At 2:15 (or so ), I was still waiting, and I asked at the desk. The Tourist Information Center mentioned that she didn't know if the person doing the walking tour was there or not. So I wasn't happy because I was looking forward to the tour (yeah I know-the struggle is real).
So I just went out and walked around again myself, and went to the Museum Quarter, which is a set of beautiful Museums in Greek Roman architectural styles, and bought a ticket to the hop-on hop-off bus. I don't particularly like these buses-rather then any real interaction with a guide and other travelers, the buses just involve sitting lazily and listening to a recorded voice (your choice of 8 languages or so) talk about what the bus was passing by. But I wanted insight into Vienna, and if this was the way to get it-so be it (I don't have the discipline to read about it). So I took the bus around, and after 40 minutes, or so, got off the bus and went to another part of town.
The aforementioned hip tourist map also mentioned a part of town with cheap foods-a market so to speak that is tailored to locals, so I decided to check it out. I can always eat. I didn't find much in the way of food I was interested in (except a 99 cent bag of sunflower seeds)-I did, however, find some cheap places for junky clothes/sneakers. Which is good, because, I still wanted to run in the morning, and haven't done so since the trip began. I found some sneakers for 15 Euros, a bathing suit/shorts for 5 Euros and tee shirt for 1 Euro. I actually found a second pair of shorts for 2 Euros so I bought that as well.
Now the bathing suit/shorts we're size L-and we're way too tight-i couldn't even put them on. The second pair of shorts we're an extra large-and I was BARELY able to put them on. But I bought a tee-shirt that was a small-and able to fit into it quite easily.
(BTW, my size 34 Khaki shorts from home still fit comfortably, and I need a belt to wear them).
Later on, I walked around downtown, it was in the 60''s, and it started raining once again.
