Travel plan 🚌
Leaving Bratislava, Slovakia at 8:30am (+02:00) on Monday the 15th of April 2019 and arriving in Vienna, Austria at 9:55am (+02:00) on Monday the 15th of April 2019
Bus from Bratislava to Vienna (Regiojet)
vienna (6 out of 6)
- Wandered around Vienna a bit; worked from a few cafes and the library, but it's pretty darn expensive.
- Continued loading and reloading datasets into the new and improved OCCRP Data Portal.
- Messed with Celery Flower for queue monitoring so I can actually see what I'm doing when I'm loading datasets.
- Ran and hiked.
- Took a train from Vienna to Brno, then a bus from Brno to Hustopece, to stay with my Vipassana friend in the countryside.
- Wandered around the area. Did yoga. Resumed meditating.
Vegan in Vienna 2
Part one of Vegan in Vienna earlier this year.
I passed a few hours in Vienna this afternoon, between buses. It's a Sunday, so not a lot of food options. I walked (about an hour) from Stadion bus terminal to Vegetasia, an all-vegan Chinese buffet. The food was really good, from fried stuff, to fresh stuff, to rice, noodles, soups, and sushi. Ooh and savoury bao! There were desserts too, but I didn't have space. All-you-can-eat is €10.90, and by Vienna standards this is damn good value. I also had a 'cocktail' of aloe vera, lychee and lime, for €6.50, which was generously sized (though too sweet for me really, I've gotta stop ordering lychee things).
The interior is well-lit and spacious too, and there are also tables outside (I'd had enough of sun by then). The staff are friendly, and there's wifi. Main drawback is they close between 1500 and 1700, so I couldn't stay there longer.
Then I walked, about 35 minutes, to Erdberg bus station.
Bouncing around Europe
The plan was to visit every country in the EU (before March 2019 for reasons). The plan was to spend at least a month in each one, ideally in one place, and just kind of absorb the surroundings. I alternate remote laptop work with city wandering, rural hiking, chilling out with the kindle in parks, coffeeshops, and vegan cafes.
Things haven't gone quite to plan so far though. I've been pulled around by people and events, in no logical order. Not complaining, but I really need to slow down for a while.
My stay in Budapest was cut short on both ends, as at the beginning of March I had the opportunity to stay with Elizabeth and her family in Ljubljana for a long weekend. On the 21st of March, began a Vipassana meditation course in Mariazelle, Austria. I'd applied to sit, then agreed to serve when they emailed to say they were short-handed.
Dreading the complicated and lengthy public transport options to the Austrian mountains, at the last minute I managed to catch a ride with another meditation student from Budapest. I made no onward travel plans, guessing I could wing it at the end of the course; I wanted to be in Bratislava, but was confident I'd get a lift at least to Vienna.
I did. I slept almost the whole way and was surprised to find myself deposited in a random suburb around 11am. I metro'd to Erdberg bus station, which is not particularly well located. Oh also it was Easter Sunday. Nothing was functioning. No coffee, no food. The bus station was open, but their internet was down. Which meant... they couldn't sell any tickets. I was told to hang about half an hour, then buy a ticket from the driver on the next bus to Bratislava. The bus was full. Next bus in an hour. I went back into the station and it seemed that the internet was back on, and they were frantically selling tickets to frantic people. I joined a line. By the time I got to the front of the line, the internet was broken again. I asked after the nearest wifi hotspot, and was told to go to MacDonald's two subway stops away. That seemed like a hassle, so I wandered into the main bus pickup area, and hopped onto a FlixBus network for just long enough to buy a ticket for the next Bratislava bus with the Flix app, which I'd had the great foresight to download and hook up to my paypal right before I left the meditation center. Onwards.
Bratislava was a stop-gap. My next 'pull' was to meet my sister in Vienna. We hadn't seen each other for about three years, and she was over from the US for a conference. Her AirBnB was covered, so she agreed to let me sleep on the couch. Vienna is expensive, and spending a full two weeks there wasn't hugely appealing; hence Bratislava.
Good choice! I loved that city.
Vienna airport is about half way between Vienna and Bratislava in fact, so my sister caught a late bus after her flight landed and stayed in my AirBnBs for two nights in Bratislava. I packed a majority of my touristing in during the last two days of her visit.
We took a dead cheap and great quality Regiojet bus back to Vienna. We left our luggage in the FREE!!! lockers in the main Bratislava bus station for the first half of the day. I spent the week in Vienna working, indispersed with a little wandering and my first ~ ever ~ visit to a hair salon. There are plenty of vegan food options, including a bakery right in Stefansplatz metro station, though I mostly cooked in the flat. On my sister's free day, we hiked through vinyards to the eastern most foothill of the Alps (or something).
I caught an exceptionally good value Regiojet train to Brno, next. On the Vipassana retreat in Mariazelle I shared a room with P, who subsequently invited me to visit her in South Moravia any time. Since my next 'pull', a week after Vienna, was to Lyon for TheWebConf, and there are good Prague-Lyon bus connections, this is where I went next.
I spent a delightful week staying with P, her sister and parents in Hustopece. We synchronised our work hours, and when we were both free she took me to visit attractions in local villages, and for long walks in nature. We meditated together mornings and evenings almost every day. P is a yoga teacher; I joined her classes when there was space.
It so happened that P also needed to be in Prague on the 21st of April. We took the bus from Brno the night before, and stayed with her friend. In the evening we took a touristy river cruise, and went to Loving Hut. The next morning we walked from the suburbs to Prague Castle, and ate a good breakfast together.
I bussed to Lyon via Munich. The latter half of the journey was full of frustrated people, constant interruptions by the Swiss police, and general chaos. I didn't sleep much.
I have been to Lyon twice before, with my high school French exchange program. I've done the tourist things, though I don't remember them. I stayed with a friend, and mostly my time was filled with TheWebConf and trying to work. It was a hot and sunny week. I got to see a few people I haven't seen for a while and whom I was very happy indeed to spend time with. I almost didn't come to WebConf. France is the wrong direction. But I'm glad I did.
The week wound down quietly. With a late bus on Saturday night I spent the day between the library (wifi sucks, ports blocked), the river bank, YAAFA (no wifi, good falafel) and Perrache bus station (excellent wifi, seats, power).
I arrived to Munich bright and early, left my bag in a bus station locker, and explored.
Next stop Krakow, via another night bus. This time I was headed for a hostel, so I got to sleep in a bed. I explored the town center, and ate some good stuff. After brunch the next day I took a train to Gdynia. This was five hours, and much more expensive than Rome2Rio had led me to believe it would be, but such is life. I could've for half the price taken a 10 hour bus or a night train, but I kind of just wanted to be on my way.
In Gdynia my new landlady picked me up from the train station, I signed a one month lease for a room in a shared flat, and thus begins, at long last, the slowing down.
Week in review: 9 - 15 April
Some stuff I did in Vienna
I didn't do a lot of touristy stuff in Vienna (I did eat of course), but here's a few things...
I went to the Central Library. It's pretty awesome, straddling a highway and a metro station, with lots of floors, a good view, and a restaurant at the very top.
The main library, in the museum quarter, is an architectural marvel in itself and costs 3eur to enter for a day. Since I was passing by late afternoon, I figured I'd come back when I had a full day to spend, but I never did.
I went for a run with H along the river. There are tons of good places to run. We also hiked through some vinyards, to the Alps. We found a lookout tower, but it was closed until May. There were some great views of the city on the way down.
Vegan in Vienna
There are quite a lot of options in Vienna, but everything is expensive, so I mostly bought groceries and cooked. But not always..
Vegan Anker
Anker is a bakery chain that's everywhere in the city. Regular branches have a few vegan things, but there's an entirely vegan Anker right in Stefansplatz Metro station. There are a couple of tables, and it's around a corner away from the bustle of the main station, so a nice place to hide away and pass the time. It's also really cheap by Vienna standards. They have a huge array of cakes and pastries of course, as well as sandwiches and other savouries. My sister (who's not vegan) got a sandwich from there for her conference lunch one day and raved about it for the whole evening afterwards. I only tried a great sticky pastry, plus an espresso, and read my kindle for a couple of hours.
Elmira
I went to this place cos it was relatively close to where I was staying. It's a small biomarket with a vegan cafe added on, only a couple of tables. The food is super fresh and homemade; they have a couple of salad options and a hot main dish each day, on a changing menu. I tried goulash, and a big fluffy latte. It was all good. She tried to upsell me a salad, but I wasn't hungry enough.
It was hard to find somehow.. but I can't recall exactly why now. The street of the address is not actually where the entrance is, or something.
Veganista
An ice cream chain, these are everywhere. Great flavours, generous scoops, good prices. I tried black forest and poppyseed.
Pita Box
They have a big kebab-shaped lump of seitan rotating in the same way normal kebab places have meat! Wild. An extensive mostly-vegan menu, including different kebab combos and falafel. I had seitan in a pita and was able to load it with toppings from the counter myself. They have a bunch of interesting hummus flavours, including peanut (which obviously is what I had). The guy told me which things in the counter weren't vegan, which I think was just the tzatziki.
HappyCow lists this as non-veg, but I'm 99% sure everything was vegetarian.
Voodies
A junkfood stop near Karlsplatz with a wide range of burgers and toppings. I had a Mexican hotdog, fries and homemade lemonade. Cheap and tasty.
Veggiezz
A wide and varied menu, mostly consisting of meat-substitute oriented dishes, the form of bowls, plates and burgers. I went with a couple of omnivores and they were both happy. It was super busy and there seemed to be only two staff, so it was a while before we got served. There are seats downstairs, too. I ate pepper steak. Most dishes are very customisable in terms of sides, sauces and add-ons. Pricey, and not huge portions, but average by Vienna standards I think. There are a few branches around the city.
Harvest Cafe
A super nice cosy place, my sister and I collapsed here after a long day of walking to recouperate so we wouldn't start fighting as soon as we got home. She had a hot chocolate and I had a veganised Viennese coffee, and we shared apple strudel. We were spoilt for choice on the cake front, they all looked great, but we weren't hungry enough for two.
It's all vegetarian, and vegan stuff is labelled.
Denn's Biomart
If all else fails, there are Denn's everywhere. They usually have a cafe counter with sandwiches, pastries and cakes, as well as good coffee and smoothie options.
Things I did in Vienna that weren't eating.
Update: Return in June.
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