Halloween in Vienna

Vienna, Austria

Happy Halloween to everyone. Today in Vienna, Josh and I wandered around as we often do. Everywhere was quiet and empty, except for the shopping areas. It was very, very cold so I became sleepy and lethargic, despite being bundled in all my warmest clothes, minus my windbreaker. It didn't help that I was carrying around the large piece of driftwood that I found in Cinque Terre that I've been meaning to ship and hadn't yet had the opportunity. So I thought I could ship it today from here. Unfortunately, it is too large to ship from the Post Office, so I will have to use a shipping service like FedEx or UPS. Our Couchsurfing host Stephanie met up with us in the middle of the day to show us a couple sights. Later, we ate sausages for lunch from a little stand. We bought postcards and sat for awhile in the only large, near-free and most importantly warm place we could find, Starbucks. I however, held strong to my integrity and did not purchase anything. Before coming to Europe, I decided I would not buy anything from McDonald's or Starbucks and so far I have kept my word. For dinner, our host prepared a pumpkin risotto and pumpkin salad. They were delicious and festive. Awhile later, for my costume, I applied some red eyeliner that belonged to the roommate of our host, and we were ready to head out to a Halloween party. We arrived at a place that Stephanie decided within minutes was not working for her. So we left and walked for a bit to the metro. We had just missed the last train of the evening so we walked all the way back to the first party. I was a little disappointed at first because I had wanted to leave earlier in the evening, thus not having that problem. However, I just accepted that I was where I was meant to be. On the way back to the party, we stopped at a grocery store. Josh bought a beer and I bought a raspberry-flavored chocolate bar. I mean, it isn't Halloween without candy. Back at the party, we slowly worked our way into dancing to the classic American songs that apparently play all over the world. I shot a little video to document an Austrian Halloween. We continued dancing for awhile as Josh continued to buy beers. I had a good time. In two hours, our train leaves for our return to Italy. Josh is off to Rome and I to Naples. Our little travel adventure has come to an end. It has been really fun travelling with Josh and getting to know him. We have so many great inside jokes. And we've had so many deep, meaningful conversations. It's really amazing to have met someone that I have so much in common with and with whom I could spend over two weeks straight, with only the very infrequent little argument that ended in laughing and joking. And now the solo adventure continues.