This morning we slept in rather than eating breakfast. The place we stayed in Vienna is a dorm — or at least seems be to — and we were right next to the kitchen for that floor… that they used at 2am.

Justine had a dull ache in her bottom teeth which had not subsided since the night before so we hunted via Google for a laser dentist in the suburb near us. We found a few so after checking out and putting our bags in a locker at the train station we went out in search of the first on the list.

Doctor “Toth” was the first on the list. We found what seemed to be the right building so entered. From the inside we had no idea what sort of building we were in or whether it was even one we were supposed to be in. There were no markings anywhere. We ascended two flights of stairs and at the top found an optometrist. They pointed us in the direction of the dentist. Once we found the office we entered after some initial confusion over having to buzz ourselves in.

After a bit more confusion over what we actually wanted we were asked to present an “E-card”, whatever that is. We explained our situation and were advised we would have to pay up front (at least after seeing the doctor) and follow up with our insurance later.

A long wait, followed by a short consultation where the dentist flicked a small store (or seed) out of Justine’s mouth. He told us to “have a good holiday” and we went out to pay. As I got my credit card out of my wallet the receptionist didn’t want us to pay! Obviously we lucked out and must have saved a few hundred euro in consulting fees.

Feeling somehow richer we returned to the centre of town and as we strolled around found a cake shop which has been in Vienna since 1786, “Demel”. We grabbed some of their cheapest stuff and went to a cheaper (and much crappier) place for lunch. We returned to Demel so Justine could have an apple strudel with cream. I had a little but don’t care for it that much. Justine loved it, though.

Since we had some time to kill before our train to Venice we strolled through the park; we bought Justine a gerbera, which was huge compared to the ones back home.

Our train to Venice is again two bunk beds in a private room. It’s a bit older than the last one but also a little quieter.

Tomorrow, Italy and Venice!

This morning we took an underground train, with most of our souvenirs in tow, to the central Vienna post office. We spent the next hour and a half there. After packing our souvenirs tighthly into a box we approached the desk to find the clerk didn’t speak any English.

We filled out part of a customs form but couldn’t understand much of it. The man pointed to another clerk and told us he spoke English. As we approached his desk he walked off. It took him 15 minutes to return and when he did he was rather grumpy. Eventually we were able to fill out the forms and send our packages back home (hopefully!).

Since we had all day public transport tickets we took a train to Schloß Schönbrunn where we checked out the outside of the castle and it’s expansive grounds. There is a large fountain with a large column filled with heiroglyphs but apparently they are meaningless. Not wanting to tour the innards of yet another castle we left and took more trains to what seem to be persistent fairgrounds.

There is a ferris wheel which was created in 1897 so we rode the very large wheel. Each large cabin rocks back and forth when people move to one side or another and feels quite unstable which is rather a funny feeling.

It took three trains to get back to our hotel, we went out and got some Chinese take away — chicken, vegetables and rice — which had heaps of chicken and tasted like it also had a large dose of MSG.