Gosh, I'm losing track of what day it is and this may have something to do with the fact we had our overnight train trip last night, but more about that later.
Tuesday was our last day in Romania, with Tuesday night being the night of our overnight train. We slept pretty well in our little pension in Sibiu and woke up feeling fresh and ready for our next adventure.
It was my Mum's bday Tuesday, so I gave her a quick call on FaceTime before checking out of the pension at 11.00am, it was lovely to say hello. Amazing technology!
Once we checked out we went for a coffee and watched as black clouds rolled in, however, luckily they did not turn to rain and we headed off to see Sibiu and capture some photos. Unbeknowns to us there is a big festival on in Sibiu and sadly this ruined a lot of photo port unities as there was a lot of scaffolding around for stages etc where people were performing. It was like a heap of buskers had come to town. Not being a hug fan of busker type acts, this did not add any value to our stay.
Still, we got off the beaten track and enjoyed seeing the sights, again, it's quite a unique little town with amazing terracotta roves and pretty flowers everywhere, not quite as fairytale like as Sighisoara though.
Our train did not leave until 7:25pm, so we had quite a day to fill, now not wanting to have a day that dragged like our overnight train day to Belgrade, we planned the day out quite well and planned on having a few drinks and then a bigger lunch. This worked well for us as we found a nice little Barto sit at for a few drinks, now when I say nice bar, I mean cute furnishing etc, not much could be said for the staff, they certainly did not seem too happy, but alas that did not stop us enjoying ourselves.
After drinks it was nearing 3pm, so we decided to find somewhere for lunch, after a few attempts of sitting in restaurants waiting to be served, (I really feel like an alien here!), we finally found a little place that had a menu out the front and seemed happy to serve us. It really is weird here, and maybe I'm not explaining it right, but often its a case of walking into a place, then grabbing a table and they will then come over to serve you, but more often than not, they are too busy smooching with the other staff or playing on their phones to even notice you are there!
Anyway, back to the task at hand. We decided on pizza for lunch as we figured this would fill us up for the train trip, we also had a Greek salad, all very nice and certainly did do the job. Following lunch we did go for one more drink at a bar with a really lovely waitress, yes, lovely people do exist in Romania. By the time we finished our drink it was 6pm, so we headed back to the hotel to get our bags and visited the supermarket on the way to buy some snacks for the train.
It had started to rain by now and our walk to station saw us having to use our trusty brollies! Thank god again for buying them! I love you Sarajevo umbrella!
At the station, the usual dodgy characters were having around, making us all the more glad we'd paid extra for our own compartment! The train arrived on time and soon enough we were on board and tucked up in our little cabin! So nice and comfy.
We enjoyed watching the scanty from the train until it got dark, and then had a sleep before being woken at 1:30am for boarder contro. Yes, this is the first time I've had my passport checked when I was in my sleeping attire, luckily I had pants on! We then crossed into Hungary where we had another passport check with Hungarian boarder guards, finally we were on our way at around 2:30am.
There was a change of time at the Hungarian boarder so clocks went back 1 hr, from there on in, we both slept really well and I woke up as the train arrived in Budapest at 4:50, then back to sleep until 6:00am.
Our train arrived into Vienna around 20 mins late at 8:35, (Wednesday morning, 17 June)not bad given such a long journey. It was a good trip, the train was a lot better than other Romanian trains we had been on.
The nicest thing about arriving in Vienna was that feeling of being back in Westen society, just little things like seeing a wide variety of sandwiches in a cafe, it made me feel happy. Not that I don't love travelling in Easten Europe, I really do love it, but it's nice to arrive back in Westen Europe for a change.
Check in for our apartment was not until 12:30, but we'd made arrangements to drop our bags off at 10:45 whilst the cleaner cleaned the apartment. We walked from the station to our street, and I knew I had to look out for an intercom system with Top 26 written on it, at number 18 Gumpendorfer Strasse. Well sure enough, walking along we saw the intercom and we buzzed, but got no answer, the main door was open, so we walked up the stairs and knocked on the apartment door, still no answer.
I was a little annoyed as I figured the cleaner was slacking off, so we decided to go for a beer (what else does one do!) and wait till 12:30 for offical check in.
We came back at 12:30, still nothing, I was getting quite annoyed by now and sent a message to the Airbnb host asking where the cleaner was. Alsmost as soon as I pressed send, I realised we were at 28 Gumpendorfer Strasse, not 18! What an idiot! So promptly we went to number 18, where the lovely cleaner let us in without any issues!
With that drama over, it was time to do some washing and spend the day chilling out as despite our decent sleep on the train we both felt a little delirious!
We headed to the Naschmarket for a leberkasse semel and took a bit of a stroll around the local area. We decided to eat in tonight given we have an apartment, so did some groceries before heading back to the apartment.
Dinner has now been cooked and eaten, and we are kicking back enjoying a glass of wine.
Tomorrow we will do some exploring around Vienna, there is lots to see here, so I think we will have plenty to do. Friday we are planning a day trip to Bratislava also, so that will be fun.
But for now folks, it's time for me to say good night as you are alla out to start saying good morning. Enjoy your Thursday :-)
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