Getting Lost in Vienna: My First Day

It wasn't part of the planto get lost in Vienna my vey first night there. In fact, it was VERY MUCH not part of the plan. In my preparations for the trip I had decided (arrogantly) not to schedule a stay at a hostel or anything along those lines. I was just going to get there and figure it all out. After taking the CAT to Wien Mitte from the airport, I chose a direction and just walked. My rationale was as follows: the train station in named "Vienna Center". It is in the center. I can walk in any direction and find one of the sights I had read so much about.

So I walked... and walked... and then I walked some more until I came to a park with two huge cement structures. (It turns out that these were the Flakturm that we would visit in our bus tour about a week later.) I pulled out my map and found out that I had gone in completely the opposite direction of the city center.. That awkward. In the spirit of adventure I decided to walk back a different way I came just to take in the sights a bit. The area was mostly residential. It seemed nice, but I didnt have a good frame of reference for what "nice" housing is in Vienna at that time. Anyway, I enjoyed it. It was a slightly overcast day -- warm, but not stifling.

One of the Flakturm

I eventually got to the Ring and could see Stephansdom's south tower looming above me in the distance. I followed it until it was directly in front of me. I took a minute to marvel, but then decided to be on my way, because I still had to find a place to stay for the night, and it was getting dark by this time. I eventually pulled out my Lonely Planet guide to look up hostels in the city and I walked to one. It was full. I walked to another one. Reception was closed. I walked to yet another, they were full. The story repeats like this for a couple hours. In that time I had found one decent looking place with a free bed: a small luxury hotel called Das Tyrol for 125 Euro a night. Ouch. That was like four days worth of my budget. After looking around a bit more, it was past 11 PM. I was unsucessful, tired, and already homesick. Resigned, I returned to Das Tyrol and emptied my wallet for a half-decent night's sleep.