Old markets and young faces

Well, Bratislava is a beautiful city. That we knew for sure. We also knew that there isn't a whole lot to do there, so it was a one-night stay.

So we threw the packs on our backs and headed to the train station, past the presidential palace and gardens,

intent on hoofing it to Vienna. We found our way back to the train station from whence we came not 20 hours prior. While waiting for our train to arrive, I did find a tasty little morsel that would become a staple for the trip, fried cheese. Imagine a mozzarella stick, but in the shape of a burger patty, on a bun with mayonnaise and ketchup, and you found my lunch for the day, as well as several meals later on in the trip.

Upon getting to Vienna, we quickly discovered that the Wombat's City Hostel in immense. It has the feel of a hotel to it, with a bar downstairs, 5 floors with hundreds of rooms, and tons of young travelers milling about.

Well, this was day 12 of the trip. We were all pretty wiped out and decided that, once again, that afternoon staple of our ramblings, the three-hour nap, was in order.

When we emerged from our haze, we stumbled upon the Naschmarkt for the first time.

It's a cool little outdoor market right outside the hostel, with tons of stalls with everything from fresh food to cheap sunglasses, soccer (sorry, football) unis to fine dining. We settled down for a nice meal at a Vietnamese restaurant, as the Naschmarkt is apparently in a fairly predominantly Asian neighborhood of Vienna. Some delicious phở later, we descended on the WomBar, the quaint little drinking establishment off the lobby of the hostel, for a free beer with a bunch of kids that seriously made us feel like the old crowd in town. No big deal. Drinking age is 16. Rock on, Vienna.