72 hours in austria. by train.

shelby & i had just been in florence for a little over a week and were deciding between a weekend trip in lake como or through austria. hence the title, we obviously ended up in austria.

it was 72 hours—a mix of chaotic, wild, & beautiful. the views were amazing, the weinershnitzel was okay, and the people were great.

we hopped on our train from florence to vienna, but decided to make a stop in venice along the way. 2 hours, before our overnight trip; just enough time to eat some seafood and walk the floating city before sunset.

we hopped off the train, walked around, snapped a few shots here and there, met with a friend from socal to eat some expensive seafood & a canoli that tasted more like 0.99 walmart frosting than the glorious goodness we’d been prepped for. (later realized it was sicily that was known for their canolis, not venice).

hopped back on the train, 9 hours overnight. we’d reach austria by 8am—so we thought. somehow got clumped into a tiny car with two austrians, one girl a year or two older than us with decent english, and a middle aged austrian man, kind eyes, but with no ability to communicate to us without the girl there. they brought us tea, spent the night half awake/half asleep with us until we reached vienna at 10:30am, due to some overnight patrolling from the austrian and italian military…delaying our trip by 2 hours.

5 hours in vienna. enough time to walk the sights briefly, eat some strudel, (i prefer pop tarts), and try real wienershntizel, which tasted like fish sticks.. kinda?

back on the train, to salzburg, land of sound of music & apparently rain. it was so gloomy our entire time there, and pouring rain as we walked back to our hostel but i guess it fit the feeling as we visited the von trapp house, drank a beer in a beer graden with some study abroad students from new york & german men from the military, and checked into our very first hostel experience..nothing grand but at least we had a place to rest our heads.

morning! to innsbruck. one of my favorite cities by far. ever been to vail? a serene, stunning ski town, with mountain views and hole-in-the-wall kebab doner restaurants. not sure why we tried that, but ended up being the best kebab doner we’ve ever had. (no regrets!)

enough time for a quick spritz & glass of wine and back on the train! not enough time in the ski village, but exciting enough to travel the entirety of the country in less than 3 days…

guess that’s what they say about being young—do it all, see it all, right? an experience to say the least, and the first of many times abroad while studying in florence.