I will have to keep this post short, both because I have little to say and for the oddest reason yet: while this hostel has spectacular Wi-Fi, there is nowhere comfortable to sit! This shortcoming seems specific to this particular hostel: comfortable seating has been a staple of basically every hostel that I have visited, as it should be, most hostels have had fairly average Wi-Fi access; it is odd for a hostel to have something unusual and special, yet lack something basic that one can find anywhere.
I composed a grandiloquent speech (or, rather, piece of writing) in my head as I inched towards the Tulln train station. My plan was to state that my arrival in Vienna was not a highlight, as there are no highlights to a bike trip along the Danube; I was going to state that finishing such a trip is like finishing a bowl of unflavored oatmeal while being punched in the face; and I was going to make some other complaint that I cannot remember, yet I am ashamed to admit - for I now associate any admission of enjoyment of anything having to do with biking with shame - that getting to my hostel was a little fun, like a treasure hunt. I arrived at the Tulln train station, aided by a local's spot-on directions, at around 2:30. I figured that it would be almost as easy to bike into Vienna as to take the train, as I knew that the trailer would make things difficult, but I had my heart set on taking the train and spiting the remainder of the bike path. I bought a train ticket from a supercilious ticket seller, who, to my good fortune, gave me a map of Vienna's subway lines that included a very detailed map of the city. As I rode into the train station at the edge of Vienna (for trains from Tulln do not go to the main train station), I met a middle-aged couple from the Netherlands, another piece of good fortune - they convinced me (with little effort, for I was already mostly convinced) that trying to take my bike and my luggage trailer onto the Vienna subway would be insane (or, as they put it, more difficult than just biking the rest of the way). The train was taking us most of the way to the city center anyway, and one could bike through the city along a canal branching off from the Danube. I opened up my city map, located my hostel, and decided that a few more kilometers of biking would not kill me. (I remembered the crowds in the Munich subway. I did not want to take my bike and trailer into such a place.)
The rest of the bike trip does not warrant much description. I found my hostel without much difficulty, as I stopped frequently to locate my position on my map, and I enjoyed seeing Vienna in a different line from that in which I had seen it last year. The bike path along the Danube abutted buildings covered all over with graffiti. Young people relaxed by the water and smoked cigarettes; the edge of the river was lined by trendy cafes; and one did not really get the idea that one was in a city of massive historic interest. It was only when I penetrated into the city center that I again felt Vienna's magical cultural pull. Vienna is a city in which one could spend weeks without getting bored - it is like Linz to two greater orders of magnitude. I enjoyed biking along the same streets along which I walked, watching bikers course past me, last year, and I liked walking through a local market before getting dinner, which is something that I did not find time to do last year. I have ditched my bike and all of the pain that went with it, and I am set to begin a three-day adventure through Hungary - I call it that because I do not speak a word of Hungarian (although I have a photocopy of two pages of a phrasebook) and do not expect it to have nearly the infrastructure of Germany or Berlin. While I have no doubt that every country in Western Europe, and many countries to the south and south-east (and in Asia), have much more cultural wealth than Hungary, I also expect that my trip will be worth it, as I should enjoy Budapest, see some pretty cool caves near Eger, and enjoy the experience of riding Hungarian trains and buses (which might not run at all - who knows?). I expect to have more to say about today over the next few days as my impressions have more time to crystallize; in the meantime, I am going to write down the names of the next few hostels that I plan to visit, as my Google maps only have their addresses, and start working on my course syllabi for next year. While I have no passion whatsoever for teaching, I also do not want to have a hellish start to the school year as I try to prepare for my lasses only a few days before they begin. My visit to Vienna has solidified my lack of regret about not having seen all of Salzburg's environs, as Vienna is also a city, like Linz, to which I could happily return; I still plan to make that winter visit here in four or five years. Goodbye for now!
I composed a grandiloquent speech (or, rather, piece of writing) in my head as I inched towards the Tulln train station. My plan was to state that my arrival in Vienna was not a highlight, as there are no highlights to a bike trip along the Danube; I was going to state that finishing such a trip is like finishing a bowl of unflavored oatmeal while being punched in the face; and I was going to make some other complaint that I cannot remember, yet I am ashamed to admit - for I now associate any admission of enjoyment of anything having to do with biking with shame - that getting to my hostel was a little fun, like a treasure hunt. I arrived at the Tulln train station, aided by a local's spot-on directions, at around 2:30. I figured that it would be almost as easy to bike into Vienna as to take the train, as I knew that the trailer would make things difficult, but I had my heart set on taking the train and spiting the remainder of the bike path. I bought a train ticket from a supercilious ticket seller, who, to my good fortune, gave me a map of Vienna's subway lines that included a very detailed map of the city. As I rode into the train station at the edge of Vienna (for trains from Tulln do not go to the main train station), I met a middle-aged couple from the Netherlands, another piece of good fortune - they convinced me (with little effort, for I was already mostly convinced) that trying to take my bike and my luggage trailer onto the Vienna subway would be insane (or, as they put it, more difficult than just biking the rest of the way). The train was taking us most of the way to the city center anyway, and one could bike through the city along a canal branching off from the Danube. I opened up my city map, located my hostel, and decided that a few more kilometers of biking would not kill me. (I remembered the crowds in the Munich subway. I did not want to take my bike and trailer into such a place.)
The rest of the bike trip does not warrant much description. I found my hostel without much difficulty, as I stopped frequently to locate my position on my map, and I enjoyed seeing Vienna in a different line from that in which I had seen it last year. The bike path along the Danube abutted buildings covered all over with graffiti. Young people relaxed by the water and smoked cigarettes; the edge of the river was lined by trendy cafes; and one did not really get the idea that one was in a city of massive historic interest. It was only when I penetrated into the city center that I again felt Vienna's magical cultural pull. Vienna is a city in which one could spend weeks without getting bored - it is like Linz to two greater orders of magnitude. I enjoyed biking along the same streets along which I walked, watching bikers course past me, last year, and I liked walking through a local market before getting dinner, which is something that I did not find time to do last year. I have ditched my bike and all of the pain that went with it, and I am set to begin a three-day adventure through Hungary - I call it that because I do not speak a word of Hungarian (although I have a photocopy of two pages of a phrasebook) and do not expect it to have nearly the infrastructure of Germany or Berlin. While I have no doubt that every country in Western Europe, and many countries to the south and south-east (and in Asia), have much more cultural wealth than Hungary, I also expect that my trip will be worth it, as I should enjoy Budapest, see some pretty cool caves near Eger, and enjoy the experience of riding Hungarian trains and buses (which might not run at all - who knows?). I expect to have more to say about today over the next few days as my impressions have more time to crystallize; in the meantime, I am going to write down the names of the next few hostels that I plan to visit, as my Google maps only have their addresses, and start working on my course syllabi for next year. While I have no passion whatsoever for teaching, I also do not want to have a hellish start to the school year as I try to prepare for my lasses only a few days before they begin. My visit to Vienna has solidified my lack of regret about not having seen all of Salzburg's environs, as Vienna is also a city, like Linz, to which I could happily return; I still plan to make that winter visit here in four or five years. Goodbye for now!
Even signs have existential crises.
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