A less productive day than I had hoped, I woke up somewhat later than I wanted to, but not past 10:00. I then made the very necessary and luxurious decision of taking a shower, which was pleasant and otherwise refreshing getting ready. I finished and was able to leave by 11:00, unfortunately missing my chance to get my complimentary breakfast at the hostel. I did leave and found my way to a U-bahn (subway) and bought another 72 hour pass for €12.00, which seemed like a much better deal than in Venice. I then proceeded to go to the Schönbrunn Palace gardens (which is where the emperor Franz Josef lived). At first I just walked around the gardens, which were quite immense, and rather entertaining as well. They were just so serene and peaceful, that in many ways I wanted to remain there forever, on my journey, I took many pictures of the exterior of the palace, as well as the building that was across and up the hill from it. I also walked by the Tier Garten (zoo) as well as what appeared to be an aviary and some Roman Ruins, they were all splendid, and the cut of all the trees was rather amazing. Being there in the Autumn certainly seemed to add to the splendour of it as well, because the foliage was simply dancing with my sight, and the smell was simply lovely and refreshing to fragrances of nature. This was all in the heart of the City of Musicians or whatnot. I then felt myself getting hungry, due in part to the lack of breakfast I ought to have picked up earlier, so I walked down the road later on, and hoped to stop in some random café or something, but to little avail.
As I walked around trying to find something to eat, I noticed something quite disturbing really, and that was nothing really, or at least not much was open. I was wondering why this was, and thought perhaps the capitol of Austria had fallen on hard times, but instead I came to the quick realisation of a point that I only faced at Kentucky Fried Chicken in the States before, and that of course is that today was Sunday, and I was standing in a very Catholic country. I then remembered that I had seen a little grocery store in the train station that I was staying near, so I decided to go back there, pick up some food and go back to the hostel and eat, to return soon to the Schönbrunn Palace, to actually explore the interior of this fine establishment. I did get some food, and then ate it at home, and there I found one of my roommates, Mark, still in bed, though it was 15:00 in the afternoon. I soon discovered that he was fairly ill, and I felt rather badly for him, because he was to be going to Switzerland tomorrow (I think Zürich). He and I chatted for a while, and he happened to have the Simpsons on DVD, so we watched that for a while, and I had actually seen an episode I had not yet seen, from an earlier season, strangely. After this, I was resolved to either take a nap or go back to the Schönbrunn Palace, and thought it better to go early to the palace, and catch up on sleep when I returned.
I made my way back to the palace to discover it was a little later than I should have liked, but I resolved to go into the palace if I could, and I finally did make it there near 17:00, where the palace was to shut down in roughly 30 minutes. So, I made my way in, and stupidly did not get an audio guide, though I wish I would have. Anyway, I wandered through this, and was again amazed by the luxury and beauty that the Austrian emperors lived in, I was happy just to be there, and resolved to definitely come back to this city again, and give at least a full day’s attention to just this palace in Vienna, and hopefully in future with someone to bring with me. Because I have noticed that as liberating as it is to travel freely by oneself, it really is hard on the soul to do, because I see couples everywhere, and people enjoying the comfort and security of others, a luxury I sorely miss and often am not afforded here. That being said, I am also happy to know my total independence, being in a completely foreign city with no ties, and yet nothing to lose really, there is no responsibility but to myself, and it is quite nice to know that I can do it, it makes me feel as though I can do absolutely anything, and I know I can. Anyway, after this brief tour, I came back to the Westbahnhof, and tried to buy a ticket to go to Prague, but the reservations booth was closed, so I thought again to do it tomorrow.
I then headed home, to still find Mark asleep in bed, though it was nearly 18:00 by this point, so I figured he must be fairly ill, but I did convince him to come with me to a little restaurant down the street, where I got a Cordon Bleu (though I wanted to get some Wiener Schnitzel, after all it does have the word Vienna in the name [Wien is German for Vienna]) and a coke. We ate, and talked about many things, especially about the States, and specifically Texas for a while, and such like that. We then came back to the hostel, where his friend Bo, was in the shower and we basically split up to do our own things, well, moreover Bo, watched a film, Alexander, I watched the first half of Amadeus (taking place in Vienna it seemed very appropriate), and knackered, Marcus went to sleep. At the end of the film I wrote this, and frustrated because my assignment papers are not with me, I thought I would write my Roman entries finally, but felt too tired to do so, so hopefully on the train to Prague I’ll start, or perhaps tomorrow evening... hopefully also I can write a basic outline of what I want to say in my papers, but something tells me it will not be so easy to get the word counts I need until I return, and there it will be hard to write so much in so short a time, oh well, a test for my might intellect I suppose.