Once an Austrian went yodeling...

We scored a free train ticket to Vienna off the hostel in Bratislava, so we only needed to buy one at the station. The next train to Vienna departed at 12:46pm and we arrived at the platform just in time to see it roll off... Son of a bitch! The first thing I noticed about Austria is the greenness. Lots of trees around the place. Our hostel was west of the city, so we had a wander round the west side of the city. I needed to get some cash out, which turned out to be a semi-nightmare. Everything on a Sunday is closed. I found more cigarette vending machines than ATMs. After and hour, I finally found one and got my first €100 note. Looks pretty sweet in the wallet, but is a massive bane when you try to buy anything... Once I had my cash, first priority was an authentic wiener schnitzel. Found a joint nearby that did an authentic veal wiener schnitzel. it was alright, pretty damn expensive tho - definitely lock it the ribs next time, they looked EPIC! After dinner, we hit the local travel bar for the footy and watched England play like England and lose to the Italians. Even though it went to penalties, England didn't deserve to win.

The weather was shithouse the next morning - first shit house day we've had so far, but we manned up and went sightseeing anyways. By the time we got into town, the weather had cleared up a bit anyways. We spent most that day just aimlessly wandering round the centre. We managed to stumble upon statues and impressive building everywhere. When we checked later, it turned out that we'd pretty much nailed all the sights round the centre! We had dinner at a local restaurant nearby the hostel. It's been owned by this Austrian lady and her American husband for ages. The feeds there are decent and the guy is hard case. I can't explain what he's like, but he's a real beauty. After the feed, we hit up the travel bar again... No footy, but didn't hav anything else to do, so why not? After an hour or so, a contiki bus crew rocked in, so that Monday night turned out to be pretty messy.

I woke up feeling a little seedy, but after an ice coffee (probs best ice coffee I've had since leaving NZ), and a feed, I started to come right. While we were waiting for our feed, this guy on another table got pickpocketed by this kid. The kid bolted and the dude chased after him. Was pretty buzzy and happened so quick. The kid actually ditched the wallet in a garden next to the cafe, so must've just taken the cash and run. Was a pretty eye-opening experience. Def look after my wallet a bit more now!

A kiwi pair in our hostel told us bout this palace and gardens, where the royal family used to live, so that afternoon we went and had a look. The gardens were awesome, massive area, flowers, fountains, statues. There was a hill that you could walk up and get a view out over the whole grounds and Vienna. Wasn't real keen to tackle it, but glad I did. Didn't hit up the zoo that was there, but did hit up the mazes. They were pretty sweet, not too hard - although I made some pretty bad decisions and prob hit every dead end...


Next morning, we trained it to Salzburg. The train was a booster, highest speed I remember seeing was 180km/h. My reading had taken a backseat since I lost my book on Topdeck, so I picked one up written by an author with a particularly entertaining name: Patrick Woodhead. We got in round 2pm and checked into our hotel. No hostels had vacancy, so we had to splash out for two nights in a semi-hotel. Was pretty swt tho, got our own room with air-con, tv, bathroom. Best part was no bunk beds! We dumped our packs and went for a wander into old town. Old town is across the river from the main part of Salzburg, but all the boutique places are in old town, so if you want to shop, that's the place to go. We didn't want to shop, but there were still some sweet buildings and statues to see. We grabbed a late lunch, round 5pm to tie us over til the euro semifinal that night. Portugal put up a decent effort, pushing Spain to penalties, but ultimately stoked Spain won it. Especially cos Ronaldo is a crying sook.

We didn't cover the whole of old town the day before, so the next day we checked out the rest of it and tools the tram up the hill to the castle. The castle at the top of the hill is pretty much the symbol of Salzburg. It's pretty sweet. Awesome views out over Salzburg and to the south. The wait to get up the tower was over half an hour, too long, so we boosted. The Mirrabell gardens were pretty good. We perched up there for most of the afternoon... Well pretty much the whole afternoon. Tuffy moi-perched most of it. We met these Aussie chicks there who were tryna recreate a scene from sound of music... They looked like beauties, but I filmed whatever they were tryna do for them. I don't think I've seen sound of music, so can't tell u what scene they were doing... Germany played Italy in the other semi of the euro. If they won, it would've meant a good night and an epic final for us, especially cos we would be in Germany for the final! BUT they blew out BIG time. The Italians to their credit deserved it. There was a pretty sombre mood after the game. We didn't end up heading out, so got one of the morning trains to Munich.

We're in Stuttgart now, just checked out the Mercedes-Benz museum. Pretty choice, but i'll fill you in on Germany soon.