Vienna - quick stop over in the city of museums and butterflies

One of the churches in Vienna

Austria, Vienna. Well, I was supposed to spend 2 nights here. But alas Europe is not all that small and I needed to get an overnight train to Vienna. An interesting trip considering I’ve never done an overnight train before. I chose to get a bed in a 4 bed room. Until about 1:30am I was alone. Then there was a banging on the door as I had to let someone else in. All in all, I think I had about 4 hours sleep that night. Oh well, maybe next time will be better.  I’ve got 2 more overnight trains to go while I’m in Europe. Long travel days…

Vienna library and some museums

The final night in Vienna I ended up cancelling due to a phone call from a good friend from primary school. Ashley, the friend I have known for the longest time. (I tried not to use the term “old friend” Ash!). She was in Budapest for 1 night – the one I was supposed to be in Vienna for. So at last minute organising trains and accommodation and cancelling everything, I spent a whole 7 hours in Vienna before moving onto Budapest (pronounced Budapesht by the locals).

A clue to the olden days

Vienna was interesting to walk around – beautiful stately buildings and lots of museums!

I only ended up going into the butterfly museum with a number of pre-schoolers. It was a nice change from gold and opulence and paintings and statues! The pre-schoolers were rather entertaining to watch. From the boys that wanted to chase the insects (teachers warning looks followed them and stopped them in their tracks), to little girls sticking out their fingers for the butterflies to land on them like in the Disney movies (not that any of them would) to other little girls squealing when a butterfly came too close with a look of terror on their faces. There was one little girl in particular that I think will be permanently scarred from her visit, she was so scared! Shampies…

And after that breath of fresh air – it was back on the train to Budapest.