Vienna – Part 2

We had nowhere to be on the next day in Vienna and everyone seemed to really take advantage of that. Slowly many people made their way down to the free breakfast. We sat around and shared stories of different things and places we had all done the day before and what people wanted to try to do before we headed to the airport later in the day. A group of us decided to head to the Schönbrunn Palace, which is a bit outside the city center. Drew and Elliott had gone out there on Saturday, but the rest of us had yet to be.

We made our way out to the palace via the train system. The train system in Vienna is very interesting. You do not actually show a ticket or scan in with an app. People just get on and off at any place. We all did buy a 72-hour pass, but we never had to display it to anyone at any time. It keeps everyone flowing very nicely but is just very interesting. The other thing we all noticed about the city in general and the train stations specifically is how clean every place is. People just general seem to keep the city very clean and then there are many people working to clean things up.

Once at the palace some decided to pay and tour part of the palace, and a few others decided to just walk around the grounds. It was a very cold, windy and rainy day out so those who decided to walk outside were a bit chilled to the bones. Becky and I split up. She decided to walk the grounds, and I toured inside. The building was spectacular, the opulence, and size of everything inside was stunning. The sheer number of rooms in the building and the size of each one was shocking. It was hard to comprehend living in a place so large. The royal ballroom was the most shocking. Just the amount of gold throughout the building was also stunning. Everything was guilted with gold and many items were made out of pure gold.

After all our tours we decided to head out and find something to eat near the palace for lunch. Nothing looked great so we decided to head back to The Social Hub and grab something there. We had already checked out of our rooms and The Social Hub stored our bags while we traveled around. We all got lunch and retrieved our bags. One student had a bit of trouble getting back to The Social Hub as her phone ran out of battery, but she was able to figure everything out and get back. She was a bit shaken, but I was so proud of her for staying calm and working it out.

We then loaded up and headed back to the airport to fly back to Heathrow. One student twisted her ankle on the train station stairs and once again part of our group made the first train and some of us stayed behind to help out. It was no big problem, we just had to wait an extra 30 minutes and the student was fine, but a bit slower getting around.

The flight home was very turbulent. Becky sat next to a woman who was very scared the whole flight, but then Becky got moved two thirds through the flight as another passenger got very ill and need to sit in her seat. The whole flight was fine just full of little items along the way, especially the landing, which was a bit bumpy, but we made it. Finally, we arrived at the Danile House after 10:30, but everyone seemed to have a really enjoyable time, and we all got to see another part of the world none of us had been to before.