Vienna and the World's best chocolate cake

We arrived from Prague with high hopes for Austria. There were two reasons for this. The first was that it apparently had the world's most amazing chocolate cake. The second was that we would be able to eat more schnitzel. We hopped off the train and made our way to the hostel, got ourselves checked in and then ventured out to explore the city. Vienna had a great buzz about it. People were walking around everywhere, shopping, going into little cafes and we generally got the feel that Vienna was a busy city. Our first stop was Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), one of Vienna's most treasured symbols. This cathedral was amazing from the outside with its Gothic architecture. What was striking was the mosaic tiles on the roof which stood out from the rest of the cathedral exterior. The interior was just as jaw-dropping as the exterior. The stained glass was definitely some of the best we have seen by far, and definitely one of the most amazing cathedrals we've seen on this trip. We tried to locate Mozart's house, which was supposedly behind the cathedral. However, unfortunately we were not able to find it so we decided to continue on with the other sights. After visiting the cathedral we decided to go have a look at the Hofburg Palace. The imperial palace spans over 800 years and currently contains both the President's office and residences. It was getting late so we decided to go grab some dinner (yes, schnitzel!) and then head back to the hostel to get some sleep.

The next day we woke up and decided to take things slow. There were a few things still left to do here but we did not want to run out of things to do completely for the following day. The first stop was Karlskirche (the Church of St. Borromeo). We just had a look at this Church from the exterior. It incorporated various architectural elements from the outside, including Baroque and Neo-Classical styles. The church had an entrance fee and because we are indeed on a budget, we decided to give the interior a miss. We continued walking around Ringstrasse, one of the main roads and found that again, the city was buzzing. The atmosphere was incredible, the way Viennese people went about their day to day life was interesting. We then went right by the Stadpark (City park) which was quite a pretty sight. Our next stop was to go to try the World's best chocolate cake, the so-called Sacher Torte. There is one place which apparently has 'the original' Sacher Torte, where even the recipe is kept secret. The place that has this original version is called Sacher Eck which is a cafe inside the Hotel Sacher. I know what you're thinking... Just how good can chocolate cake really be? Well, this thing was amazing. It was hard to believe at first, but it really is the best chocolate cake in the World. Nothing else even comes close to being this good. Sacher Torte combined with some coffee in Vienna, an awesome combination. They give you some whipped cream on the side and even the whipped cream is like the best whipped cream you will ever taste. After eating the Sacher Torte, there was a party inside both our stomachs. It was that good.

The final day in Vienna started off smoothly but ended in chaos. We had reserved our seats for the train trip to Venice. We decided that we would be better off taking a night train to Venice. We still had some time to do a few more things during the day. We decided to go take a look at the Kirche am Hof (Church of the Nine Choirs of Angels). This was where Mozart gave his first performance. It took a while to find this Church and it was a bit of a walk to get there. Once we finally found it, we realised it was closed. We decided to just head back and chill out a bit at the hostel. Before going to the hostel, we got some pasta and sauce from the supermarket since the hostel had a kitchen. When we reached the hostel, we sat down in the main common room area watching some TV with other guests. It was about 6pm and our train to Venice was at about 9pm. I had a few things to write up so I got cracking on that whilst Chris went to use the internet. After about an hour, I quickly went to go ask Chris something (who was in the room next door). 30 seconds later, I had returned only to find that my wallet was stolen. It sucked because I was literally gone for 30 seconds, if that. I asked around the room and the girls who were there said they did not see anything or anyone else in the room. I quickly informed Chris and we tried to retrace our steps just in case I had left it somewhere by mistake. We could not find anything and I am pretty sure it was stolen. This really put a damper on things. I informed the hostel staff and quickly gave my parents a call. Because I had various forms of identification, including my drivers license, I had to notify the police. So I went to the police station whilst Chris cooked dinner. This was a mission in itself. Austrian police are scary. They hardly spoke a word of English and because I hardly knew a word of German, they just ended up shouting and screaming. Eventually, they managed to file a report and I ran back to the hostel to cancel all my cards. After cancelling all my cards, we then managed to transfer money into Chris's account. I was not so much annoyed at losing the cards or the money, but mainly annoyed at losing my Student cards. Student cards guaranteed a discount at most sights and we generally saved a lot of money as a result of having our Student cards with us. The other thing is that since we are only withdrawing money from Chris's card now, we would have to be extra careful since if something happened to Chris's wallet, we would probably be stranded. The hostel was really helpful with everything and luckily allowed me to use their phone to make free international calls back home and to my bank. Who knows... I might clear out my bag and randomly find my wallet underneath a pile of smelly clothes... Either way, it was more just an annoyance factor than anything else really. By this time it was almost 9pm and we quickly made our way to the train station to gear up for Venice.

Rishi