We’ve been planning a short trip to Vienna for a while already. I’ve been there a couple of times already and totally loved it. Especially all those bookstores, in which I spent the most of time on my last visit. I’ve been wanting so much to return there ever since and my wish finally came true a couple of weeks ago.

So we boarded the train in Ljubljana that would take us (with several stops) all the way to Vienna in 6 hours more or less. The excitement was gone after finding out in Maribor (where we were supposed to switch train) that the connections with Austria were cut due to some electricity blackouts around the border, caused by the snow from the day before.

They put us in a bus that would go to Graz, a town on the Austrian side. There we would board the train that should have come for us in Maribor. But no… driver decided to make a favor to one of the train employees and drop her in a nearby village. Conclusion… we arrived late and that train didn’t wait for us. So we were again left to ourselves, in the icy, snowy Graz railway station. Luckily again, there was another train heading for Vienna an hour later and the ticket inspector didn’t complain, so after 8 hours or so we finally reached our hotel.

Our trip was more of a shopping than touristic nature: you see, buying electronics (his interest), books (our interest) and many other things in Slovenia can be a very painful experience in a lot of different levels, and we’ve seen the typical touristic attractions already, anyway.
So we were staying near Mariahilferstrasse – Vienna’s longest shopping street. Not only you have a lot of shops within walking distance, even most of the main sights and the city center can be reached on foot.

Also if you come to Vienna for books, Mariahilferstrasse is the right place for you. Although they are to be found mostly in German, you can definitely spot a nice amount of books in English, too. I got an impression that the reading culture among the Austrians is enjoying a pretty high level. In most of the bookstores you can find seats, in some places even  sofas where you can read chosen books as long as you feel like. I noticed, there were people of all ages buying books, which is quite surprising nowadays, in the Internet era. By my estimation, the prices of books were 30-40% lower than the ones in my country. So, it is no surprise that I saw people with shopping baskets, full of books.

When I’m abroad, checking the local supermarkets and market places is a must. Being particularly keen on organic products, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that in Austria organic food is not considered such a luxury; there was relatively few difference in prices of organic vs. non-organic products. If I lived there, I’d spent significantly less on food than I do now in Slovenia.

One afternoon we also made a walk to the Naschmarkt, Vienna’s most famous and popular market place where you can find fresh produce and spices from all over the world. Normally packed with tourists, that day this market place seemed rather abandoned, which was no wonder at all given the unpleasant weather conditions. One day I certainly have to come back to explore it (in spring or summer, that is).

However, we had bad luck with the weather most of the time, so upon our return I had to admit that the photos we took were really pitiful. Honestly, it was a real torture to take the photo camera out of the bag while it was snowing/raining all the time, not to mention the icy cold – I couldn’t feel my fingers most of the time. But I’d still like to share with you a few pics:

Days passed by too fast and soon we had to say good-bye to the charming Vienna. Hoping that this time there would be no problems with trains, we actually had more of adventure on the way back to Slovenia, too. Namely, only a couple of minutes before reaching Maribor (where another train for Ljubljana was waiting for us), the train suddenly broke down. No one came to inform us what was wrong, we were practically locked inside with no chance of opening doors neither windows. After an hour and a half of waiting, the train began to move again. At least we met some nice people
Fortunately, the other train had been waiting for us (full of raged fellows ), if not we would have to spend a night in Maribor. Finally we reached home close to midnight. What an adventure! Next time I will really have to reconsider some other means of transport. I’m very fond of trains but I think paying so much for such a service was excessive. (If only they put this train… keep dreaming, Maji)