The day's events from Prague to Vienna

Like a good Southern California mall rat, that's what I did this afternoon in Prague. I perused the English shelves of the bookstore, and it was an interesting selection. I've never seen more Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ian McEwen, and John Irving in one place, much less all the authors I have never heard of. Far be it from be (ahem) to be a literature snob, but I was none too impressed by the selection. I finally settled on "The World is Flat" and a Holocaust-related novel called "The Reader" (on discount) to help use up my Czech crown cash.

Then I had lunch at the 3rd floor (is this an international mall phenomonen?) food court at Emporio Cafe, which did remind me slightly of the Emporio Armani Cafe at South Coast Plaza. Something about the wanna-be-posh type atmosphere and music. There were also these cracked glass floorboards that I couldn't decide if they were cracked intentionally or on accident. I leisurely made my way to the train station but didn't see my train on the board. I *thought* I remembered it was departing at 1440, but I had given the schedule to some other hostelers. The last train on the board was scheduled for 1436, so I go to the information desk to confirm. Turns out, of course, that I was at the wrong train station! Yikes. Fortunately the fast Prague metro got me to the other station with 8 minutes to spare (hehe). I spent the train ride napping and reading, showing up in Vienna hungry but with a list of admin tasks such as getting Euros and buying my ticket to Salzburg.

It turns out that the overnight trip to Rome is 135 Euros! I thought I would save money and time, but apparently not. So I will have to think of an alternate plan. So far, I am loving Vienna. I went around the corner to get yummy pizza and a large beer for 4 Euros and then came back to the hostel (which has it's own bar :) and had another large beer and chatted with/met new friends! This is what traveling is supposed to be about. It was great, there was one guy playing the piano and another strumming along on guitar, and we all had beers and conversations going. One of the guitar guys is from the OC (represent! Dana Point) and there was this other guy playing who is from San Diego and went to UC Irvine. The group I was talking to was a Canadian guy (Vancouver) and a Aussie girl (Brisbane, soon to move to London).

I signed up for a wine tour tomorrow (this involves taking a bus, riding bicycles (lol) and tasting wine - should be interesting. It was a bit pricey (more than my three nights at the hostel combined!) but that's why I'm saving on the accommodation front, so I can do outings like this. There is some sort of outdoor film on Friday nights in Vienna, and on Saturday AM I may go to the outdoor markets with the Aussie girl...so I'm starting to think that after Salzburg I may just come back to Vienna to do the actual sightseeing, and then head down to Venice for just a day and one night before flying back to London.