Wandering Alone

The first park I found

Sometimes the best adventures can be found by wandering off alone, with google maps and a decent, yet limited, understanding of the train system to get you back to your hostel. This is what I decided to do a couple days ago in Vienna, and I am sure glad that I did. A group of us were exploring near the city center and I decided that I wanted to head back towards the hostel, so I set off in the general direction of the hostel. As I wandered down the streets alone I felt like I was better able to get a sense of how a local feels walking down the streets. I love exploring in groups of people and with my friends, however, by wandering alone I felt as though I was better able to take in everything around me. 

St. Charles Church

As I approached the train station I noticed a small park, and decided to take a slight detour to explore it. The park was made up of beautiful arches and old stone structures, with a small trail along a canal which ran through it. Once I felt as though I had seen everything in the park I hopped on the train and headed back towards the hostel. We came to the first stop of the two that it was going to take to get to the hostel, and as the doors opened the thought that I could get off the train and try to walk back from this station came across my mind. I told myself that this probably wouldn't be the greatest of ideas, as I did not know the way to walk back from here, but at the last minute I decided to get off. We had been through this station many times while we were in Vienna so as I went up from the platform I expected to recognize the station, however, I was very wrong. The side of the station that I found myself on was one that I had never seen before. Rather than turning back and finding the way that I knew, I decided to keep going. 

Brahms statue

I came out of the station and found myself near another park. This park was bigger than the last one and so once again into a park I ventured. As I walked through the park I was passed by people walking their dogs, small children running around each other, and their parents, in circles, and other people that seemed to also have no idea where they were. I walked along and noticed that a beautiful church stood in front of me. I was awestruck by the sight of the church with the sun setting behind it. I wandered over and noticed that it was possible to go into the church. I knew that it would be dark out soon and that I should probably start back to the hostel, but my curiosity to see what the inside of the church looked like encouraged me to continue inside it anyways. I took a few steps in and stopped, my jaw dropped, and my neck craned upwards. We visited many churches while in Vienna, all of which were very beautiful, however, the inside of this one was stood out from all of them. It had a beautiful painted dome, and because they were restoring the inside of the church, they had scaffolding up into the dome that you could climb up. After spending awhile taking in the beauty of the church I walked back outside, stopped to look at a statue of Brahms, and headed back towards the hostel.