paraphernalia

After a huge breakfast which included a mocha (finally!), we headed off to do some last-minute sightseeing around Wien.

Our first stop was Stephensplatz and the Dom. I think we've been spoilt, having visited 3 of the 4 'best' Baroque cathedrals in the world: Notre Dame, Köln, and Praha. The statues on the outside of the church were amazing, however.

The next stop was the Hamburg Palace - home to the Hapsburgs during their reign over the Austro-Hungarian Empire till 1918. We saw their Silver Collection (which is HUGE), their State Apartments (equipped with the latest in modern furnishings, like bathrooms!), and the Sisi Museum. Sisi is the nickname for Empress Elizabeth, who became obsessed with her own death after the suicide of her husband, and was assassinated. For more info, read the official site. I particularly enjoyed the commentary on the imperial court stove stokers. Who needs that many staff!?! Sound like senior pillow plumpers anyone??!

After the Palace, I had limited time, so we quickly walked past the Opera House (nothing has been on since we arrived as it is summer), the Parliament and the Burgtheater (National Theatre).

I made it to the bus station for 5pm, and met up with two Irish guys who had joined us on the journey from Praha to Wien three days before. The bus wasn't full, so I had a seat to myself, which was nice, but due to roadworks or an accident on the motorway, or something, we didn't arrive in Praha till 11:30pm.

Thus my only choice for dinner was Maccas, which for €5 was a rip-off. Nice fries though - again with mayo.

I think I'll leave it there for now, as news on Hostel Centrum requires a post on its own

Ciao,

Tris.

PS: For photos of Wien, click here.

Had an awesome breakfast at Wombat's (the hostel we're staying at in Vienna) this morning. It's all-you-can-eat for €3.50 so we had hot chocolate, fruit, muesli, cheese, ham and bread. We even made some rolls for lunch.

Without such a good breakfast I think I would've gone insane as the rest of the morning was spent in various queues trying to sort out our onward travel plans.

Mine was (so I thought) fairly simple): back to Praha for a flight on the 23rd. This meant either an overnight train or a late bus and staying at a hostel for one night. As the hostel would inevitably be Centrum again I would have preferred the overnight train. That is, until I was told how much it would be: €70 incl. reservation! That's just ridiculous for 5hrs on a train!!

So I picked the last bus of the day (€20) and booked Centrum again. At least this time I'll have a printed reservation sheet and I'm arriving around 9:30pm, so it should all be OK.

Bec and Nicky's plans were far more complicated. They intended to use their Eurail passes to the max (and why not) and were thus heading to Barcelona on trains. They had not counted on two things: 1) the timtables changing slightly, making a 3-change trip into a 5-change trip and 2) the Spanish railways charging upwards of €70 to reserve couchettes on night trains.

So we spent an hour or so going back and forth trying different options and seeing the various prices. The option they went for saved them €100 each in reservation fees, but requires 6 changes I think, and takes 30 hours. Not something I'd want to do, but at least they have each other for company.

After that ordeal, we headed for the KunstHausWien - the museum associated with the architect Hundertwesser (of whom I spoke yesterday) - which was fascinating! Really really great art, and amazing models of planned day-care centres and entire communities without straight lines. The HR Giger exhibition, however, that took up the top two levels was, in equal measures disturbing, confronting and creepy. This guy did the set design for Alien, and his art follows similar lines. He seems to have blended mechanics and erotica however, creating some trully strange art.

From there we headed straight across the road to use the net for 2.5hrs! So we're nerds, you're the ones reading our work!

Dinner was had at Mozart Stube (I think I spelt that right), which is this awesome tiny family-run restaurant around the corner from Westbahnhof. Awesome food, although for some reason I ordered chicken liver, and so it was not so nice. Why did I do that to myself?!?

We finally went to bed after more card games - this time without Victor.

(Monkey = direct translation of snot in Portuguese slang apparently)

This morning it was time to say bye to Praha (sad) and Hostel Centrum II (happy). At the ungodly hour of 6am we were up and by 7 we were out of the hostel eating our pre-bought chocolate croissants. Mmm...pre packaged breakfast!

After double-passport control (no Schenegen agreement yet for CZ), we arrived in Wien (Vienna) on time.

Wien is beautiful - one of the many European cities with a built-in ring road (was the city wall - clever forward thinking huh?!), trams and cycleways. And to make it even better, they call the ringroad a 'gürtel' (belt). So Katherine, it was useful!!

Almost on arrival Wien showed its nice side, with the hostel being clean, central, and just light years ahead of Centrum. We even received a guided tour on the tram by a very nice elderly lady! Talk about lucky! Oh, and the tram stop at Volkstheater has amazing kebab sandwiches! Ohhh...soo good

By the time we had gotten over everything being more expensive but just nicer than in Praha it was getting quite late and so we ended up at Hundertwasser House (Officially: the Residential Building of the City Vienna). This place is fascinating. The architect, Hundertwasser detests straight lines, and so the entire hosue is devoid of any. This includes the walls and floors, none of which are straight.

We had dinner at a fairly ordinary Chinese restaurant near our hostel. Nice duck though, in 'special sauce' (read: soy and oyster).

After cards with our room-mate Victor (from Madrid), Bec opened her luggage (no mean feat given how tightly we packed it) and a small Czech refugee escaped... nah seriously, not quite that bad, but we worked out why it was so packed - Bec has bought tshirts aplenty during her travels! She'd just forgotten about them because they were so far down in her pack.

Although the weather was shite today, nothing could dampen my sprits! (No pun intended). I was going to the ALPS!!! Soo exciting, and it definitely lived up to expectations.

We started, after passing through non-existent border controls, at Berchetsgarden, the home of Hitler's 'summer-residence'. The residence, more widely known as the 'Eagle's Nest' actually contains a huge labyrithine series of tunnels, which you can explore. The highlight of my visit though (as the rain and clouds made going to the peak a waste of time), was the extensive Dokumentation (Visitor's Centre).

This place was completely unexpected and managed successfully to detail the entire history of National Socialism (Nazism) and it's many facets. Instead of spending a planned 30mins there, we ended up being there for 2 and a half hours! Visiting the bunkers underground was also a chilling experience, not least because it is actually damned cold down there.

The town of Berchetsgarden itself is really quaint, and Bianca and I took the opportunity to travel along the lake to the Chuch (whose name escapes me). The weather actually made it more atmospheric then it would have otherwise been. Nifty huh?!

Our last stop for the day was Salzburg, in Austria. Now I definitely did NOT expect to be visiting yet another country, but as I've said often so far, 'when in Rome...'

Salzburg is amazing, especially at dusk/the evening. The castle stands glowing above the the town, and strategic lighting illuminate most of the important buildings throughout the Aldstadt. It's also quite small. All this meant that in the few hours we spent there we went up to the castle to walk around (and I got to finally ride on a furnicular railway! Simple things amuse simple minds I guess), walked around the entire Aldstadt, visited Mozart's birthplace and had an excellent Italian dinner. Mmmm...pizza

I was so tired that I fell asleep in the car home. I don't think I was much company on that car trip - I kept on fading in and out of consciousness! It was definitely the sign of a day well spent.

PS: For photos of Berchetsgarden, click here.

PPS: For photos of Salzburg, click here.