Vienna, OR: What Shall We Do With A Drunken Swedish?

Song of the Day: Barenaked Ladies - It's All Been Done

For me, Vienna came and went in the blink of an eye. Where I last left off, I was on my 5:49am train to Vienna, where I was to meet up with a good friend from back home. The train ride was okay – I had to switch in Nuremburg, and from there out the train was filled wall to wall with drunken Germans who were traveling to Austria for the big game that night. As I’d mentioned earlier, Austria hadn’t beaten Germany in soccer in 22 years, so if they won tonight, there would be absolute mayhem. Since Ryan and I weren’t able to find a hostel for the first night, we planned on riding the wave of energy from the game all night long, then heading to our hostel the next morning so that we could sleep all day. Luckily, we didn’t have to do that, as the hostel we’d booked for the second day somehow now had beds available. We booked two up quick and were relieved that we had a place to sleep.

Once in Vienna, it was great being with someone from home again. I hadn’t seen many familiar faces at all on my trip, but Ryan is a good friend of mine from my fraternity. Although he’s just now going into his sophomore year, we’ve had the opportunity to hang out quite a bit in the last year or so. We went on a trip to the University of Virginia together, as well as a trip to North Carolina. He’s been traveling around Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, and a few other places for about a month, so we had both planned on meeting here for a day or two.

After showering up and getting dinner, we decided to walk around the town a bit. One nice thing about Vienna (and many other European cities) is that you’re allowed to drink alcohol on the streets, so we picked up a few Stiegls and started walking in the direction of the main square. In the square is a giant outdoor viewing area they’ve set up for the soccer games, called FanZone. It has a huge TV screen, bars, etc. When we first got there, it was already filled with people, and the entire square itself was also filled. The game was about to start.

We were pretty far from the screen, and couldn’t really tell what was going on, but the first half was uneventful, with neither team scoring. At halftime, we met two girls from the states, and hung out with them for a bit until they decided to get food at some Irish pub that was way overpriced. Instead of paying an arm and a leg there, Ryan and I left the girls and went to a convenience store in order to replenish our supplies.

We watched the rest of the game at Fanzone, hoping that somehow Austria would pull off a win. In the end, they ended up losing, and the crowd dispersed shortly after. It’s a good thing we had a place to stay, because there was no “wave of energy” for us to ride through the night, as we had planned on earlier. We walked home, got some kebabs and currywurst, and called it a night.

June 17 – After sleeping in, Ryan and I decided we would go out and see the sights in Vienna. The center of the town is actually really beautiful, and we spent most of the day just walking through. Among other things, we saw Mozart’s house and a pretty cool church. We were thinking about walking 300-some steps up the south tower of the church, but we decided that a nap would be a better idea. We kind of went in the exact opposite direction on that one.

Back at the hostel, I was able to sleep for about an hour, but Ryan was kept awake by some of our noisy roommates – two Swedish girls named Sara and Tessa. We had met them the day before, and we’d gotten off to a bad start after one of them said something obnoxious. However, we wrote it off as cultural differences, and were willing to give them a second chance. We awoke to the two Swedish girls sitting at the table, drinking beer and wine. “Come drink with us!” they shout. Always willing to foster international relations, Ryan and I sit down for a beer or two.

In the beginning of the night, the two girls made many claims about how the Swedish had a high tolerance for alcohol, but I guess these two broke the mold, as they were completely obliterated after about 45 minutes. The previously quiet one (but only quiet because she didn’t speak English well) became really loud and obnoxious, performing such antics as:

• Throwing wine boxes off the fire escape
• Addressing our 31-year-old roommate as “Old Guy"
• Going to other people’s rooms via the fire escape
• Attempting to climb onto the roof
• Having all of the roommates sign her with a ballpoint pen

Those were only the funny ones that I can remember, but you get the idea. After a while, the girls decided to venture downstairs to the bar, so Ryan and I took some time to relax and play guitar. We played a bunch of songs, along with our roommate Hank, who was formerly in the US Navy. I got some good video footage of the star in action, so hopefully I’ll get a clip uploaded soon. After a few hours of that, and finishing our laundry, we went to sleep, the Swedish girls nowhere to be found. But they did come back eventually, although not together. The first came back with a Swedish guy that she had met, and the other came back at like 7 in the morning. I awoke shortly thereafter to her screaming “YOU MUST GO NOW!” and things similar. I look up and it takes me a minute to realize what’s happening. The Swedish guy that the first girl had brought back was now passed out in the second girl’s bed… completely naked. I couldn’t help but laugh, and after about 10 minutes of those two yelling back and forth, the guy gets up and leaves. I’m not sure what happened after that, as I fell right back to sleep after all the commotion stopped. Those two Swedes were definitely out of their minds, but they were pretty funny (and another good story, of course).

Ryan had a plane to Greece that day, and I was headed in the opposite direction, up north to Poland. He left about an hour before I did, and just like that, my trip to Vienna was over. It would’ve been great to spend a few more days together, but the two days we had there were a lot of fun. I checked out of the hostel, got some lunch, and headed to the train station for my 2:30 train to Krakow. So long, Vienna...