Wien (Vienna)

Hello there!
 
It seems like I´m doing well as far as getting to the internet to update you all.  (Hopefully it stays this way!)  The average cost per hour is 2 to 3 euros, but in my mind, that´s money well spent.  Luckily today my hostel has free internet at one particular computer.  Other than rambling on about my adventures, I´ve also been booking hostels for the next city at each internet stop.  So far I´ve chosen nice ones, the only downside of this second hostel is that a lot of middle school aged groups use it.  The average age here seems to be 14!  Right now there are about a dozen kids running and screaming here in the lobby. 
 
Last night was an interesting time on the night train.  I know I got a little bit of sleep, but it was very broken up.  This lady also shoved me out one station too early, so I ended up missing meeting up with a friend who I was supposed to meet at the station.  I ended sharing a "couchette" compartment with this older German man who kept making fun of me and didn´t speak a word of English.  By the way, a couchette is just enough room to lie down, but not private enough to change or wear PJs.  Anyways... trying to tell some one in an unfamiliar language to stop laughing at you is hard!  After some intense looks and a lot of gestures, he got the point.
 
Nothing was open until 7, so I spent the first hour just wandering around the station and the neighbouring streets.  Once I was able to get a "Vienna Card"  I travelled out to the hostel (which is in the burbs of Vienna... the very end of U-Bahn 4) and checked in.  Most places have a locked room that you can leave your luggage in, so today I left mine here.  The rest of the day was spent dodging the rain spells and wandering around old Wien.  During one of the intense rain spells, I "geeked it up" and went to a music museum.  Not only did it feature the great 4 Viennian composers, but the philharmonic and digital music as well.  (Hayden, Mozart, Strauss and Beethoven). I even bought a music theory game because it looked cool and might be useful for that grade 6 band class I´ll have to teach.
 
I´m here in Vienna for one more day and after that I´ll probably head to Salzburg.  After today I´m a little museum/churched out, so I might travel to a small town near Salzburg and go hiking or something instead.  I´m not sure what I´m doing tomorrow, but they don´t have a lot here besides museums and more churches, so I´m hoping to find a concert to go to or at least something different to shake things up a bit.
 
Anyways, I should go now and plan what I´m up to tomorrow!
Love,
Andrea
 
 

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