Vienna - The Denouement

August 27-31, 2023

Hey friends and family,

I had a rough bus ride from Wrocław to Vienna, but I eventually arrived late at night on August 27. The bus didn’t make any stops at restaurants, so I was ravenous when I arrived. I dropped my stuff off at my room in the hostel and went to the nearby McDonald’s. I heard a group of (mostly) Aussies speaking English so I joined them and we ended up going to an Irish pub. They were a younger group, with several of them 19-20 years old, but they were outrageously funny and it was a great time joking around with them. We went to a cheap Irish pub and had a few drinks there before calling it a night around 2am. Sadly, they were leaving the next day, but it really brightened my spirits to meet some interesting and fun people after having a quieter time in Wrocław.

The next day I slept in and picked up groceries for breakfast before heading into town at noon. I walked around to different historical buildings and parks around the Hofburg Palace, which is the giant estate in the center of the city. I went into one museum with tons of artifacts from all around the world that were in the 1873 Vienna World Fair. It was a fascinating museum with lots of history about different peoples and countries all over the world.

I also enjoyed the gardens outside the museum in the palace before getting food from a grocery store for lunch. My last outing before going back to the hostel was the Sigmund Freud museum; it was interesting learning about Freud and his theories on psychoanalysis, but lots of the museum was dry and boring. I feel like they could’ve made it more interactive and exciting.

Back at the hostel I played trivia with some random people at the bar and became friends with them. I was in a group of six with a girl named Milda from Lithuania, guys from Switzerland, Spain, and Canada, and one other person. Ellie, a German girl Kip and I met in Tel Aviv on the walking tour, was in Vienna at the time so she came over to the hostel and joined our trivia team. Our team won second place in trivia and got a 25 Euro voucher for drinks at the pub, so we got two jugs for the group of us and drank together and talked. It was fun how quickly we came together and it reminded me of the good groups of people I met at the hostels in Israel. I think one common theme of good hostels is that they bring people together easily through their spaces and activities.

I stayed up late talking with the Lithuanian girl Milda, who had some really interesting thoughts on travel, how often we should try to record special moments as opposed to letting them pass, and much more. Hostels are usually bustling with activity, so it was really nice to have a more private conversation and connect on an individual level for a change. She was heading out of town the next day, but it was still really meaningful to talk for those few hours. There wasn’t any good story from the connection, but it was a little moment that ended up being quite memorable. I think the rain outside made things feel more cinematic and evocative, as it tends to do.

The next day I again bought breakfast from the grocery store and ate at the hostel before heading out for the day. I first went to the Belvedere botanic gardens and palace nearby. The gardens were pretty and it was pleasant to walk through and feel like I was in nature.

Then I went to Naschmarkt, a street market with lots of food and clothing, and bought a bratwurst for lunch from a really local guy who barely spoke English and only took cash. I feel like cash-only and speaking very little English are two tell-tale signs that the food is going to be cheaper and tastier than the average place in the area. My next stop was the Schonbrunn palace and botanic gardens, which were similar to Belvedere but much grander. The gardens took an hour to walk through and there were many more paths I didn’t even explore. By this point it was late afternoon so I went back to the hostel and read.

In the evening, I went to the hostel bar and drank with a big group from the hostel, and Ellie again came over and joined us. This one very friendly Dutch guy was hyping everyone up for my birthday, which was the next day, and we did some shots at the bar to celebrate. We went to a backpacker’s bar that stayed open late and hung out there. I met a couple of cool guys named Johnny (from America) and Shane (from Ireland) and we played pool for a few hours. We finally went back to the hostel around 3:30am.

The next day was officially my birthday. It was a little weird being in a foreign land where I didn’t know anyone for my birthday, but it was still a positive experience. I’d typically celebrate with my loved ones, but it was interesting to be on my own and be rather anonymous for the day instead. I slept in pretty late after the big night out and didn’t leave the hostel until early afternoon. I met up with Ellie in the downtown area to help her shoot a video for her media company. It was fascinating seeing the media personalities she worked with. None of them were famous by any stretch, but still, the people trying to make it big in that industry have to act, dress, and talk in ways that are pretty foreign to what I encounter in my day-to-day. I felt like a bit of an outcast in my “normal” clothes, compared to their flashy clothes and sneakers that were clearly intended to make statements. The people were outgoing and nice, though, and I made 50 Euros for helping them make their video, in which I just had to say a few phrases in German.

In the afternoon, I walked around the Hofburg Palace and MuseumsQuartier. I chilled in the park for a bit listening to this cool group that played music that was kind of electronic but also sounded African and tribal. It was really good and I tossed them some cash and asked for their name on Spotify. My last stop was Prater Park, an amusement park in the middle of a big grassy area. It was interesting how close the park was to the city and it felt out of place.

I had a quick dinner at the hostel and then went to rest a little bit before meeting Johnny and Shane in the hostel bar around 10:30. We were sitting at a table talking and drinking beer for a while before going to a club called PraterSauna to meet up with Ellie and her friend. The club was decent; there weren’t that many people but it was Wednesday, so that wasn’t surprising, and there was solid music with plenty of space to dance. Thankfully there was no cover that night and we had a fun time dancing and hanging in the more mellow patio area outside. Hanging out with Johnny and Shane was a blast and I felt like we became decent friends by the end of the night; I would happily host them in Hawai’i or hit them up if I visited Colorado or Ireland. We left the club around 3:15, which I was realizing, seems to be about the average time the night ends in European cities, where clubbing and partying starts and ends much later than it does in America.

I got less than three hours of sleep, waking up at 6:30am on August 31 to go to the train station and then the airport. I flew to Belgrade, Munich, and then Newark, so it was a long travel day. The first two flights to Belgrade and Munich did essentially zero work in getting me closer to the East Coast of the US. Thankfully I was able to sleep for lots of it. I made it into Bay Head, NJ, to see my brothers, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and dogs around 11pm, completing a nearly 24-hour travel day and wrapping up my travels in Europe and the Middle East.

Vienna was a solid end to the trip. Wrocław was lonelier than I had expected so I was happy to meet plenty of new, exciting people, and one old (though still relatively new) friend, Ellie. My main goal for these travels had been to connect with people more quickly, which was something I regretted not doing too much of during my earlier travels in the year. To be fair, traveling with a significant other is quite different from traveling with friends or solo, but I still thought it was a good goal and I was keen on making connections with people, even if they only lasted a couple days or even just a couple hours. I feel like I succeeded in this goal and made tons of friends around Europe and had days filled with excitement, even when I arrived in places not knowing anybody. I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity to travel and definitely want to do more of it in the future. This is likely the last post for a while as I don’t have any upcoming travel plans (aside from going home for the holidays and possibly some within the Hawaiian islands) and I’m again approaching the limit for how much content I can upload. Thanks for reading!