The long and winding road that leads to your door

Friday was my last day in Wien. I couldn't decide what I wanted more- a couple more days at the Tagung, or a whole lot of sleep.
After the closing meeting, we had to say our farewells. Saying goodbye is always an unpleasant affair, especially when you don't know if you'll ever see your friends again. I also had to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. My train back to Hannover didn't leave until midnight-ish, so I had waaaay too much time on my hands. I had originally planned on staying with Felicia and seeing a bit more of the city, but her flight left four hours before my train, and I wasn't particularly found of being alone in a foreign city on a Friday night. Luckily I ran into Kerstin, who lives in Wien. She said I could stay with her and she'd show me more of the city. Score! Life just improved about a thousand times :)
So I went to Kerstin's apartment. Kerstin, her friend Miriam, and I ate lunch and chilled. We were all super worn-out. Then they decided to go to Tichy. It's apparently the best Eiscafe (ice cream shop) in all of Wien. And the Eis really was delicious! I had strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut. Four scoops is the smallest size you can get. And it was pretty cheap too!
On the way back to the city center, we found these guys on the bus. You can imagine my excitement when we got on the bus and there were five guys wearing Lederhosen at the front of the bus.

From there, we went to see Schloß Belvedere. It's really beautiful, but lacks the view of Wien that one can enjoy from Schönbrunn. 

We went to the Naschmarkt. During the day, merchants sell their goods, and a lot of them offer samples (hence the Nasch (nibble) part). We got there rather late, and so there wasn't a whole lot of naschen going on.

We also went to see the Hundertwasser Haus. Hundertwasser was this artist who had some really interesting ideas. For example, he made sure that the tenants were allowed to paint the exterior walls around their windows as far as they could reach. 

After that, we all went back to the apartment to eat and relax. We watched some tv show while we waited. Then the hour came, and we took the U-bahn to the Hauptbahnhof. I was so sad that I had to leave that wonderful, beautiful city! My train was also kinda sketch... I think it came from Romania or somewhere in that part of Europe. It had a little cabin for each six people, kinda like the Hogwarts Express, but creepy. Oh well. At least the people in my cabin weren't creepy.

Around 6:00 I had to change trains in Munich. I wish I could've seen the city, but I guess I'll have to go to Bayern some other time... Then onwards to Hannover. Twelve hours of traveling. Talk about a long and winding road... I stayed for a couple days with Felicia there. More blog to come!