Vienna

Vienna-a surprise! 
So we ended up going to Vienna on a overnight train from Poland. When we left Poland we met some new friends (4 guys from Northern Ireland) on the train and stayed up late exchanging traveling stories and laughs. We had a great time and they were on their way to Budapest but had the day in Vienna as well. So we stored our bags at the train station in lockers and joined groups with them. We had pretend tours where we took turns pretending like we knew what we were talking about. We saw the opera house and an old church remodeled into the gothic style from Baroque. Discussing imagery and religion we moseyed through the streets stopping in shops along the way. We also snuck in to a museum to find some bathrooms. After a Mcflurry and a Starbucks we made our way to an amusement park. We had a wonderful view as we went up on giant swings! It was so much fun. We got some drinks and relaxed for a bit and then went to the river and some of us jumped in (some didn't)...it started raining so we all got wet anyway. Vienna was beautiful. 
When we left we said goodbye to our new friends and made our way through the gathering football fans (Germany v. Austria that night) and on to the next overnight train from a different station. After a bit of confusion we made it to the right place and we shared our car with two boys who just finished high school from Germany. The view was too good to just sit in our cabin so we took advantage of it and stood outside where the big windows were. The country in Austria was just breathtaking, reminding one of the landscapes in The Sound of Music. There were rolling green hills and far away mountains, it was raining and you could see the wisps of clouds and the pleasant release of the rain into the depths. There were magnificent tall churches bravely competing with the views of the mountains. There were valleys and cottages with a chimneys and smoke coming out of them. The mountains called to be climbed, the valleys and small towns called to be explored, but alas all we were allowed was about an hour of sunlight to drink in the view and  allow or imaginations the rest. After a pleasant long night sleep we made our way to Milan, Italy.