Aboard the Night Train to Vienna

So we thought, lets save some money and get a night train from Frankfurt to Vienna - it's a 10 hour train journey so do it over night, sleep and arrive early morning to begin exploring - we would save money too by not having to spend money on a nights accommodation.

We "checked out" of our hostel, but as with everything else they were fantastic and said we could stick around and use the communal facilities for as long as we needed. So after more cheap BBQ at the hostel we grabbed out backpacks and walked the 5 minuets (dodging the prostitutes and drug users who are not surprisingly more active at this time!).

As with everything else on this trip we are trying to save money where we can, so when we found train tickets for only €98 for both us in a standard compartment we jumped at them. To upgrade to a sleeper cabin was close to €100 extra. We found our compartment easily and were disappointed to see there 4 others already inside - also going all the way to Vienna.

The compartment was baking as the AC was broken (only in our compartment though typically!) and it was tight with 6 grown adults (2 of whom were stereotypical German men if you get my meaning!) - it was going to be a long night!

What was more annoying was there were other compartments with only one or two people in, but they had completely taken them over sprawling over all of the seats meaning you had no chance of getting them to move.

An hour and half in and we stopped at a station for an hour for no apparent reason, but we piled off the train to get some fresh air and tried to cool down not caring that we were wandering around on the platform in bare feet!

Back on the train and we both attempted to get some sleep. Nick nodded off but it was only for about 30 mins before he was up and wandering the corridors again before being told off and told to go back to his compartment by the conductor!

Another couple of hours later and we realised that the seats actually moved slightly so you could make them into a couchette. No one else in ours was doing this - presumably because they did not know each other, but we thought sod it! We pulled them down as far as they would go allowing us to almost lie flat, both squished in and now completely blocking the door to the compartment, but we did not care! By this time it was around 04.00 and we both exhausted. We somehow managed to get to sleep and both woke up about 07.30.

We arrived in Vienna at 09.00 and spent a very sleepy day exploring, but more of that next time!