6. On to Vienna!

After a sleepless night worrying about train platforms and eurail passes, I woke up early to pack and head out. Alessandro met up with us and told us which metro lines to take to get to the train station, but the Friend Family walks everywhere. So we clipped on our backpacks, tightened our hiking shoes and started the march toward the train station. A little over 30 minutes later, we were there.

Step one was to find a ticket booth to validate our passes. Instead we found a tourist office where Dad announced that we hadn't used our passes yet, and didn't know exactly what to do with them (I knew exactly what to do with them). I might as well have spent the entire month of January watching reruns of How I Met Your Mother instead of laboriously researching these passes. We were directed to the “Eurail VIP lounge” where the lady at the front desk validated our passes and then the security guard promptly kicked us out because we didn't pay to sit in their seats during our wait for the train.

The most direct travel route I had found through multiple recommended traveling websites had three trains and one 8 minute layover where we had to walk to a transfer station to catch the next train (this was the only one that made me nervous). However the guy at the ticket booth gave us a little slip of paper that told us to take an entirely different route. Three weeks of planning RUINED! Obviously all trust was lost in me, and my routes for the rest of the trip have been thrown out the window.

We have been traveling for almost a week now and if there is one thing I've learned. it is the true meaning of "Mom’s way or the highway." It doesn't matter if your way works just as well, Mom’s way is always the better option. She has taken over the planning of transportation and I am going to spend my extra time reading Diana Gabaldon books and watching One Direction YouTube videos.

Dad and I lead the way through the subway station and somehow we made it to our new apartment with a beautiful view. The sun was out and the weather was perfect. I just hope it stays like this all week. We quickly found our favorite grocery store, Spar, where there were people outside handing out Valentine’s Day flowers! So Austria is now in the lead for the nicest country award. Brody also beat me in rock paper scissors to pick the cereal and I’m pretty sure it was the highlight of this trip given his reaction.