I left Budapest on a remarkably advanced “Railjet” train and ended up in Vienna a short while later. Vienna is a great city. In fact, it’s one of my favorite European cities. Vienna is a blend of advanced infrastructure, magnificent buildings, culture, and coffee.

When I got out of the train station, I walked toward Mariahilfer Strasse, Vienna’s main shopping street. The first thing I noticed was a crowd of Turks protesting something. Nobody seemed to know what they were upset about.

I continued walking down the street in search of WiFi and eventually found a municipal hotspot. I fired up Google Maps and saw that there were several hostels in the area. Based on ratings, I chose a place called Strawberry Hostel.

Once checked in at the hostel, I walked towards the center of the city. Overall, Vienna is very clean and modern. In the center of the city it’s still very clean, but the architecture is more grandiose. I spent a while wandering and ended up at Café Central. After ordering a pot of coffee (which means two cups in Vienna) and a chocolate truffle cake, I read the first six books of the Iliad while enjoying the live piano performance. One of the songs caught my attention in particular. I recognized it as part of the soundtrack from Waking Life, one of my favorite films.

I think the piece was originally by Chopin.

I walked for a couple more hours in the center of the city, and went back to the hostel. The next day I went to Prague.