Viennese Woods

This may be one of my last few weekends left in the program for me to explore Vienna. Next weekend, Kate is coming down from Poland (Woo!!), then I might go to Croatia, then its Cinque Terra, then Prague, then I might go to Innsbrook, then Salzburg and then Voila! Done! like that!

So I did what I've been wanting to do for a while. EXPLORED the Viennese Woods. 

So, I packed my lunch (unfortunately, my cheese had gone bad....but since cheese IS mold, is eating the mold on it safe?), some snacks, filled my water bottle and I was off! The only information I had was which metro line to take and then, after that, I had to rely on

 my sense of direction, intuition and trees with

 green and white paint on them. They're surprisingly easy to figure out and, while I might not have gone the way I had originally planned, it all worked out in the end. I also took a few adventurous "wrong" turns... but ultimately ended up in the same spot and found my path back to the green & white paint... which said they led to Hütteldorf. I recognized the name so I figured I couldn't go wrong with that. 

After wandering around, I came to a clearing, which later turned into ... a parking lot. Ooh ya.. TOTALLY natur-y. But really, it was pretty awesome. 

There's a wicked high tower

 you can walk up and get this gorgeous view of...everything.

This isn't everything but it is a cute, little village that I could see. It was great to be so high and.. "far" from the city noise and concrete. Fresh air! I then fell asleep in a meadow and found a random water fountain... which an old German man informed me was "the best water.. it comes from the mountains!" It was pretty freaking good water. The Viennese. LOVE. their freakin water.  Then, I followed the trail markings to Hütteldorf until I found a tram that would bring me back into town. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the day. I felt incredibly self-reliant and... although I didn't wander far... if AT ALL off the beaten track, I felt proud of myself that I figured it out all my own. It was also great to just get out and about and spontaneously wander around in an area that isn't full of people, cars, noise, etc. I'm hoping to go back. Maybe head up again after class sometime.