Last week in Vienna and hitting the road

My last week in Vienna went by far too quickly. On Monday after returning from Paris pretty late,we had our final meeting with Piotr and Jan to debrief and work on our next steps. We spent a good amount of time playing the game one last time, in order to develop a sort of benchmark for comparison purposes. We assumed that our knowledge of the game, including mechanics and goals, would allow us to maximize outcomes for all players. Indeed, this time around we were all winners.
After a lengthy discussion of what our next steps might be, and not getting to far, we headed off for one last beer with the group at a local micro-brewery. Piotr brought chocolate truffels, which apparently I have never had before. They were amazing. After eating too many truffels I headed back towards the Happy Hostel with Marie and Shelli. We stumbled upon an "upcycle" boutique, where everything is made from re-used goods. I bought some earrings made out of pop can tabs, and I may go back for other goodies on the 16th.

I spent most of the rest of my week planning my trip to Italy, which was less stressful than I thought. It was annoying, however, to be kicked out of our rooms when Hostel management decided the windows needed to be replaced. Hannah and I spent an entire day at a cafe working (and spending too much money on food). But I planned my trip (at the very least booked tickets and accommodation, I don't actually know what to do in each place yet!).

On Saturday I walked around Vienna for a few hours, and finally bought shoe inserts that will hopefully help my feet in Italy. I went to really nice places in Vienna that I hadn't even seen yet, and it made me realize I really was just a tourist in this city. That's probably why I was not a huge fan of the place, the whole time I acted like and was treated like a tourist. But this last day felt somehow different, perhaps it was because I was alone, or maybe it was something in the Fall air. Who knows. Even though my feet were sore I felt a little more in place.

Finally got to the Naschmarkt with Hannah and Ilonka.

We went with some paintings on our faces for Halloween and got
way too much attention from the people running the stands. Apparently
Halloween is not celebrated by adults in Austria...

Fall in Austria. Beautiful! And the kids play in leaves here, too.

One of my last views of Imperial Vienna.

Now I'm sitting in my (awesome) AirBNB apartment writing this blog. I packed up my stuff and put it in storage this morning before heading to the train station. I spent about 5 hours on the train, but it went by surprisingly fast. Once in town (Innsbruck, Austria) I headed for the apartment, all the while being in awe of the Alps surrounding this town. My plan for the day was to take cable cars up to the peak of Hafelekar Mountain, and I was reslly excited because the weather was holding up great. Unfortunately, I didn't make it.

Here are the reasons I didn't get to the top of the mountain: 1) train was about 15min late, 2) got a little confused walking to the apartment, 3) host was too nice and offered me tea, 4) dilly dallied, 5) missed the last cable car up the mountain by merr minutes. BUT, I was a little lucky because I at least got to ride the new Nordkeller (not the name, but close enough), which is in fact closing, along with all the cable cars, for 3 weeks starting tomorrow. I did have a nice view of the city and mountains at sunset, since the fog miraculously cleared just before dark. So, it was still fun and now I have an excuse to come back.

This is the view I was rewarded with once the fog cleared.

Innsbruck was really pretty and felt very much like Austria should feel.

A street lining the river with the Alps in the background.

After my trip part way up on the "Nordkeller" I went to find something to eat. I found a great, not super packed, restaurant where I managed to consume my first meal alone without too much anxiety (just a little anxiety). Unfortunatey I will probably be doing that a lot on this trip and will have to get used to it! At least the soup was delicious and the wine took the edge off.

Now I am going to hit the hay so I can be ready to hit the town tomorrow, then head to Verona, Italy!