Thursday, September 16, 2010
Beer nose
Ozbussers in the street
lAURA DANCING ON THE ROCKS
uS
The square in Plovdiv
Plovdiv and the road to Turkey
Plovdiv and the road to Turkey.
Quote from Famil Fortunes-
Name something you take to the beach? – Turkey
Something you wear? - Turkey
Something associated with Christmas? Turkey!!!!
Its not totally correct, but its close enough!
Right what can I say about Plovdiv? Its a tiny place with quaint little streets, cobblestones, painted buildings and great views from the top of the hill. But its also in the middle of the town/city of Plovdiv, which is like any normal eastern European city, with a main shopping street and a square with a fountain and cafés and bars. Then around a corner you will walk past an old Roman amphitheatre or see another one under the main shopping street itself. Its a really great place though – We sat on a tiny and quiet square for an hour, just watching the world go by and the dogs sleep – unaware that the main street of bustling crowds and shops was just 50 yards behind us.
As for the Ozbussers, we arrived mid afternoon after a short journey from Sofia and everyone immediately liked the place – apart from the walk up the cobbled hill to the Hostel!! It was a bit of a trek, but worth the effort as the Hostel is located right in the middle of the old town, just a short walk from the hustle and bustle. After settling in and checking the net, everyone had a quick wander round in the sunshine. It is now starting to get hotter – probably about 30c this afternoon, which was why me and the ladies sat in the square for a while just chilling out in the shade – whilst some of the others had a much odder experience, such as finding a woman in the street – doing a 'number 2!!'
At 4pm, we met back at the Hostel for our official walking tour of the town, led by a local guide called Angelina. She was lovely and as well as telling us about the history and legends surrounding the town, she also told us a bit about what the vandalism and graffiti that spoils it a little for the visitors. She was a really good host though, even when she was asked some awkward questions.
The tour ended about 6ish and a few of us decided to sit in a local bar and enjoy the sunshine with a drink – The prices were outrageous – a large beer cost the equivalent of 80p!! I liked Plovdiv even more!! The drinks ended up turning into dinner, which was also really cheap and rather good – Then discussions turned to the toilets, which had automatic lights – but they went off if you didn’t move, so everyone had to wave their hands or dance whilst using them to prevent ending up in the dark.
We sat there a while just chatting, drinking and eating, with great service from the waiter, who seemed to be running the place on his own. He was very humble when we left him a large tip for his hard work. I think Lana may bring her next set of bussers to the same place for dinner.
It was only a short walk back to the Hostel, but we still had some Levs (Bulgarian money) left, so we decided to put it all in the pot and sat at another bar until the money had gone.
It was then off to bed for us all after yet another nice pleasant evening out.
The next morning – Thursday, we all managed to make it back down the cobbled hill and to the bus in one piece – even though a few of the girls were a bit worse for wear – Some hadn’t slept because of noise, while others had been out clubbing in town till the wee hours. We all clambered aboard the fun bus and headed off towards the next country – Today is Turkey and the start of a 3 day stop in Istanbul – We are all excited as the scenery is beginning to change from the normal green grass and modern building of western Europe to browner dry grass and older, eastern buildings – the people are more Mediterranean and the roads are getting worse! But even with all the excitement it didn’t stop most of the bus from getting their heads down before we even left town.
After a while people started to wake up and chat. It also became apparent that we were lost – again! The new road to the border was not yet open but all the signs were already up and telling us to go that way. The satnav kept telling us to turn around and we were following a country lane with the new road temptingly running alongside. After overtaking a few horses and carts it became obvious that we had to finally turn around, so after getting directions from a local, Dennis, turned the bus about and headed towards the town of Harmanli. When we got back there we immediately spotted a sign pointing us in the correct direction and started that way. We all needed a little break, so Dennis pulled up in a truck stop to use the facilities. However, most people just stood and stared at the locals who in turn stared back at us. This was a proper eastern European truck stop, with dogs lying around, rubbish all about and broken windows. There was a restaurant with 30-40 year old furniture and other shops that hadn’t seen a customer in years. It was a great opportunity for the camera buffs to get some authentic pictures of the people and the place as well as old shoes littering the ground. Everyone eventually braved getting off the bus – even Laura who was still in her Pj's!! After a short break we were back on the bus – sweets, crisps and biscuits were passed around as we headed towards the border at Svelingrad.
We eventually arrived at the border about 1115ish. It didn’t take long for us to get off the bus and through customs to leave Bulgaria, but then there was a 20 minute wait on the bus before we could get off and use the toilets in the food hall in no man's land. It didn’t last long however as it was a 'pay to pee' and nobody had yet got Turkish lira – so we all about turned and wandered disconsolately back to the bus. Then we waited again for about 40 minutes to queue for the visa cash office, which had no one inside. A bit of dancing, a little bit of singing and a lot of sitting down later, we all finally had our visas – even the Irish contingent who had been told at first that they didn’t need visas.
It was then back on the bus and we moved about 5 feet, before the Turkish border guards started to go through the baggage in the hold of the bus and they even checked the toilet. This was the first time its been checked, so its a good job we weren’t smuggling any Chinamen in there. Its now 1251 and we are still sitting on the bus, discussing the ever increasing hot weather, tans, fizzy water and going straight to Koh Samui, instead of all the travelling between now and then. Lets hope we are off soon!!
More about the trip to follow tomorrow!!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
And more pics
Guess what day I took this??
Wednesday - in the hotel lift
David having a picture taken of his arse - ;-)Here's some more piccies of the last day - We left Belgrade and went to Sofia, where the hotel was great! I don't think anything has changed since 1963, but it was comfy, had hot water and was very warm - A little too warm ,but good all the same.
After the night watching the footy, it was off to bed and then a walking tour of the town centre this morning. It was a pretty nice place , around the churches. and basilica that we looked at - as as well as the Presidents workplace and various really good statues, which replaced old cold war statues that had been removed.
We were led by two local tourist students who told us all we needed to know as well as lead us through a subway where I managed to get yesterdays Daily Star - Its not the sun, but its close enough!!
After the tour it was back onto the biscuit tin and all the little biscuits headed off to Plovdiv, where we are now. It looks like a lovely place, with cobbled streets, nice looking really cheap cafes and bars and squares with people sitting and children playing - as well as dogs sleeping and cats scrounging for food. Later we are off out for a walking tour of the area, so Ill add more piccies later pr tomorrow. There are 9 blokes together again sharing a toilet, shower and sink that are all in one small room - Its gonna be an interesting night!! Good job I have my training to rely on!! haahaahaa!!!
The stylish hotel phone in Sofia!!
Local dog hunting for food on the way to Sofia
Trendy arse hanging out - brrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaapppppppp word!
Leader the lana with her massive burger!
Trying out a headscarf for Iran - Even though Im not goingBisuits in a tin
Today’s story I all about a biscuit – This little biscuit is currently travelling to Australia in a tin, with lots of other, different biscuits. Some of the biscuits are plain and nice for dipping in your tea and some of the other biscuits have fancy names and come from exotic destinations in Biscuit world.
There are a few new biscuits, whilst others are older biscuits that have been around and seen lots of other biscuits come and go.
Anyway as I have said, this little biscuit is travelling in a tin with the others. He has enjoyed his travels so far, even though sometimes the tin gets shaken and can be little hot and uncomfortable. The biscuits get out of the tin often, when they dip themselves into the different cups of tea. Today though, this little biscuit is a little moody. He has been shaken around too much and maybe been dipped into too many cups of tea. He is feeling a little soggy and probably needs to be put back into a nice cool, dry cupboard for a while away from all the other biscuits, so that he can rest and recover from all the tea dipping!! That’s the story of our little biscuit. He is happier now that he has shared his story knowing that some of the other biscuits will read it and understand.
If you have been affected by any of the issues discussed in today’s blog, please call our biscuit help-lana. You have her number and she is on call 2-4 hours a day at the front of the biscuit tin.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Todays bits - Hungover!! :-(
My mind is playing games with me – Nothing to do with Beer, Slivovic and wine though – Honest!! Did I write about the car coming down the road on the wrong side towards us yesterday? Or about me trying on the Iranian headscarf – even though I’m not going there – and I’m not a woman so don’t need to wear one anyway? How about the fact that Liv thinks we are already in Plovdiv and Bev thinks we are now on our way to Slovdiv!? Or that last nights Hostel was called 1001nights and looked like it had a brothel in the garden, which turned out to be a woman’s accessory shop!? I cant remember if I did or not!! Anyway, some of that was yesterday – Its now Tuesday I think and we are on the bus heading for Sofia in Bulgaria... Here’s an update from last night.........
Most of the group had gone into Belgrade to look around the main tourist attraction – The Fortress- Personally I was a bit knackered and so had a walk around the centre of town with Barry and Chris looking for somewhere to eat, before we headed back for a shower and to report to Lana on what we had found. It turned out that she had already found a good bar/restaurant while shopping for breakfast and so after getting a message that most of the bussers were staying in town for dinner, myself, Lana, Chris, Barry and Mark took the short walk down a hill to eat.
The bar was really good, with nice seating in the street and a waiter who couldn’t do enough to help us. He served us some decent local beer and wine as well as more Slivovic for Barry. We ordered gourmet burgers and Cepacivic and hoped it would be edible. When the food was ready he called us inside to a table and we were very pleasantly surprised by the biggest burgers you have ever seen and more Cepacivic than one person should really eat! The food was eaten after the obligatory pictures of it were taken and then we headed back outside for a couple more drinks.
Soon after we were joined by more bussers and had a laugh telling daft ghost stories.
Just before midnight we paid the very reasonable bill, with a good tip this time and headed back up the road. I hung back with Lana as her knee was still sore and decided to get all trendy and down wit da kidz, by getting my pants out!
Back at the hostel most of the fellas were getting ready for bed, but I did the gentlemanly thing by staying up with Lana for a glass of wine on the balcony/smoking area – Then it was gone 2am and the wine was finished. I was going to my bed, but didn’t want to wake up the 8 sleepers crammed into the small dorm, so Lana kindly offered my the spare bed in her room, which I took and had a great nights kip. Then this morning I asked Lana the time and she said it was 6,30am, but the lads were already up, so when I checked my watch, we discovered that Lana’s phone clock was still on UK time and we only had 25 minutes to get ready. So it was a quick wash and brush of teeth and quickly over the road to get on the bus by 8am.
My head was a little sore from last night so I was glad of a bit of a kip before we stopped just outside Belgrade for a pit stop, some red bull type energy drink and a play with the local dog!! We are now getting to the 'dirty' end of Europe. The roads are getting bumpy, the buildings scruffier – and we have just seen our first squat toilet – Some of the girls decided to use the bus loo instead!
After that we stopped at both sides of the Hungarian/Bulgarian border before finally arriving in Sofia about tea time. The first thing I saw – and this is no bollocks – was a man with his hands behind his back and his mouth taped shut being led down a back street – No one seemed to believe me, but its the gods honest! This place may be a bit dodgy!!
The hotel is nice enough – we are in twin rooms for the first time, which is great as it means we have a bit of room and not too much snoring! I’m sharing with Chris, which is cool!
After a little walk around to the shop and a bit of dinner in a local restaurant, which was very cheap and acceptable, we headed to a local bar found by Jim, where the Man United v Rangers champions league game is on and also it has sheewee, so we are also following the Spurs game on the tinterweb – I’m still hanging from last night, so its gonna be a quiet night followed by a good sleep in 1973 – I’m not going back in time, just back to the hotel, which is nice but in a bit of a time warp – Sorry for the boring blog today – but I’m suffering!! haahaa!! Serves me right!
Photos will be posted tomorrow if I get time!!
Monday, September 13, 2010
More piccys
If you want to see more photos, click the picasaweb link on the left.....
This is a cool photo, done using a panorama - You can see Becky and Frankie 4 times as they ran around the square!!
Budapest to Belgrade
It was an early start and after everyone boarded the bus we left for Belgrade. I was a bit disappointed because I really like Budapest, plus where the bus was parked I picked up free internet for the first time in 2 days!! haahaa! We did have time to get the F1 result and all the football scores from the weekend, so that was a bonus.
We stopped after only 20 minutes, so we could get road tax for bus and to get rid of all our Hungarian money – Most people bought drinks, crisps and chocolate, while others had a quick McDonalds and got some fags – But there was still money left over after we all put together our change – So we discussed buying a torch or spray paint to do the bus s different colour, but eventually got more crisps and sweets to pass around. I also got a kinder egg – which turned out not to be an egg, but looked like 2 tiny meatballs, in custard!! It did have a toy though, so after 2 hard worked minutes of engineering I had the worst little cardboard plane I have ever seen – To add to the disappointment, it didn’t bloody fly either!! Dagnabbit! We got back onto the bus and headed out of Hungary towards Serbia.
Passports and probs with USA and one Aussie passport at Hungary border – then at Serbian border Dannis the driver had to collect them all to take to the Serbian border guards. I had a great time on the bus with Liv, messing around with my camera phone and playing with al the little features, so that I ended up with a fat face or doing picture in picture. The journey flew by and we were quickly on the outskirts of Belgrade, where after a car crash at a set of lights (Smashed bumpers and air bags going off!) We headed through the city, then again, then again – as the map we had was in English and the street names not, it was difficult to find where we were. We passed a few building showing bomb damage from the NATO bombings of 1999, before passing them again!! Finally we picked up the guy from the Hostel who took us on another route around town and finally to the Hostel where we quickly unloaded the bags, checked into our 9 man room. (The ladies are in a separate building down the road) the WIFI (SHEWEE) was good so while some of the group went into town, others mellowed out with a Slivovic from the Hostel receptionist and caught up with the internet and the outside world!!
Horses head at Heroes Square
Heroes square at night
Becky having a rest
Frankie and Barry taking in the square
Frankie checking out Tescos!!End of week 1 - Budapest
It doesn’t seem like just 7 days – After spending so much time with a group of strangers we are now, mostly good mates. It feels like we have known each other a lot longer than a week, but we still have 12 weeks left –
If week one is anything to go by, it going to be a great trip!!
Sunday -
After a good nights kip, I was up at 8.30 to take a run around Budapest. It was a lovely sunny morning and I took my phone with me as I ran towards Heroes Square – It only took 15 minutes to reach it and it was worth the effort – Its really spectacular and I should really find out what it is all about, but for now I took some photos and headed back towards the Hostel for breakfast and then a day touring the city.
Breakfast was a bit poo to be honest – The rolls and jam were OK, but the orange juice was watered down as was the coffee and the milk was a bit off too. It wasn’t a good start to the day, but everything was OK later on when myself, Becky, Frankie and Matt and Allen (From now on to be called by their nicknames - Awal and Hicky) all met up and had a walk up to the citadel – This is a monument overlooking the city, left over from the communist days. It was possible to get bus but we wanted to experience the walk up the hill, which was quite cheeky to say the least! There was also a lot of rubbish and mud to walk past too as well as stops at viewpoints to take pics. It took us a while but was worth it when we saw the monument and statues. We took a few piccies and rested for a while, generally vegging out, chatting, watching flying ants have a fight and throwing sprite bottles at people – Becky!
Next it was back down the hill and up the next one to see the 'Castle'. This had lovely walls,gardens, and a few photo opportunities so we spent a while wandering around before another rest and a chat about tomorrow and our next destination – Belgrade.
It was then into town across the famous chain bridge, where the Budapest Triathlon was taking place, so we watched at the Olympic champion and world champion crossed the finish line to win the women’s event, before heading off to look at the parliament building. This was absolutely massive and because of the triathlon we had to walk halfway around the square to get across the road to see it up close.It was very impressive though and I even managed to take some pictures of the statues and monuments reflected in puddles – who says I can't take a good picture!
It was getting late so we headed off back towards the hostel for a rest before dinner, stopping on the way to take photos of lampposts and buy a Hungary fridge magnet...eventually!! :-) The girls stopped for a bit of shopping in Tesco and we all had a look around to find some Hungarian 'Tesco Value', food, which ended up being 'Tej', which is Hungarian for milk. All in all its been a pretty good day and once again we haven’t even seen half of what looks like a great city. It has its dark bits, like the homeless people and dank dirty streets, but its also quite a cool happening city and somewhere to visit again.
It was then back for a shower before an evening out later on.
We met up again about half six and also met with Barry, who came along with us for an evening out. It was a short walk and then an underground ride to Heroes Square. The underground here in Budapest is great – Its really old, but seems fast and the rickety doors and funny tunes that play every time it stops and starts adds to the charm of travelling on it. Its almost like going back in time.
We reached Heroes square and noticed big black clouds looming overhead and so we expected rain any minute, so we quickly had a look around and had a little climb onto the monument – Everyone else was doing the same, so we presumed it to be the norm. Then when we climbed down, we realised the floodlights had been switched on and it was now all lit up. It looked brilliant with the dark skies and floodlights, so Barry took a few quick photos of us all and we got loads of good shots. I then tried an experiment – I have a panoramic setting on my camera and so Becky and Frankie, started on the left of the monument and quickly ran across the middle and to the right, pulling poses when I shouted – I took a panorama and hey ho, it worked!! There are 4 Becky's and 4 Frankie s in the photo!! That’s more than enough for anyone!! ;-) The photo will be posted in the next blog, in a few minutes, you may already have seen it!!
We decided to leave before the rain started, so risked death crossing another Budapest road and took the underground back to town and some dinner. We found a great little street café in a lovely square, put all our Hungarian money together and had a pizza each – followed by some blooming lovely Ice cream – After 8 , Belgian Chocolate, Orange and other tasty flavours made a great end to another nice evening out. It was then a slow wander back to the Hostel, with a pit stop at the Internet café on the way to catch up on a few emails and facebook messages. We had a good laugh looking at all the other Ozbussers posts and photos, before leaving and having an early night. Tomorrow we head for Serbia and The City of Belgrade.
Frankie, Rick Hicky, Awal - at the Citadel over Budapest
Photo of a monument taken in a puddle!! - Nice!!
Tesco value Tej!!
The gang on Budapest Castle
Two flying ants having a good time!! Happy ending!!?More updates
We arrived in Budapest after a good trip and to get to the hostel had to cross busy main street. Now, the zebra crossings in Budapest aren’t like those in UK. When the green man is on, you get about 12 seconds to cross a road about 50 metres wide – but while some traffic stops, other cars, buses and trucks just continue as normal. I used to play frogger as a kid and this is the closest I have come to it in real life! But its all part of the fun.
We got our rooms in the hostel sorted and took the stairs to the 5th floor- We would discover over the next two days, that these steps are killers. They are quite small easy steps to take, but because they are really small, perhaps only 3-4 inches high, because of this there are a lot more of them, so after 5 flights they are quite knackering! Once we all got our rooms a few of the girls moved due to a strange 'cat pissy' type smell in theirs– I cant blame them really, cos it did pong. Me and Becky asked the receptionist for directions to sports bar to watch the Man Utd v Everton game and were joined by Mark, Jim and Debbie, while others went to a spa for a relaxing afternoon.
After the football and a bit of inter-netting we returned to find a list of attendees for a traditional Hungarian meal this evening – our names went down and then we actually had a couple of hours off before the evening out.
We all met downstairs and headed out for a meal down by the river. It was a pleasant walk down and after about 20 minutes we arrived at a very nice restaurant just by Budapests famous Chain Bridge. There were too many of us for just one table so we split up into a table of ten and three smaller ones. This wasn’t a problem as we all had a good chat and waited to be served – but after 40 minutes the large table still hadn’t had drinks, while other tables had their food! It was quite frustrating, but luckily there was a very good 3 piece band, playing violin, double bass and a piano of sorts, to keep us in a good mood. We finally got served, but while the food was pretty good, a few of us still weren’t happy with the service – especially Frankie who was constantly ignored and then to top the lot, was there was no chocolate cake left! The waiter offered an alternative which turned out to be a 'bit shit'. :-( She did however manage to get some apple cake from one of the other bussers, which made her a little bit happier.
We all paid our bills, but decided between us that the service didn’t warrant a large tip- (between me Becky and Frankie we gave about 30p). The bill was paid, but the waiter refused to take our minuscule tip as it wasn’t enough! Cheeky bugar!! It took them a lot longer to bring the bloody bill, than it did for the damn food!! Anyway, Bev decided that the tip should be given to the band, who had been really good all night – but there were minor disagreements between a couple of Ozbussers, before we all left the restaurant – all having a good moan about the poor service!
We decided to try a Turkish place that we had passed on the way- It was a Turkish bar that had the weird smoke/water/ bubbly things that you see in the movie's- Basically you suck a pipe (Wahey!) that draws flavoured smoke through water and into your mouth – There are no drugs in it – its all about the taste and the relaxation.
We got a table and watched the belly dancer for a while, before finally being served drinks and ordering the smoke thing (I cant remember what its called!) - but Frankie once again was forgotten and had to ask twice or more for her drink -It was one of those nights! The waiter brought over the smoke thing and we all took turns to try it. It was surprisingly nice – Really smooth and no flavour on the way in, but when you breathe the smoke out you could taste the flavour – we had cherry flavour, which was lovely.
It was passed around for an hour or so and even after a couple of burnt fingers from the metal tongues, everyone enjoyed it. Everyone also enjoyed watching the belly dancer and Bev even joined in with her for a dance – while 'bad boy' was left on the table smoking!!
It was getting late and tomorrow most people are planning a tour of the city, so we headed off home, slightly nauseous and tired after too much smoke.
That was the end of week 1!!
Photos from 3 days ago
Opera on the big screen - this is the bloke we thought was a ghost!!
Local in Budapest wearing an Eric Cantona Man Utd top
Smoking the Shish pipe - its not drugs!!
Belly dancer in the shish pipe bar!Updates
If you want to see even more photos, click on the picasaweb link on the left hand side of the page........
Added bits from Vienna -
I forgot to write about the strangest part of the last night in Vienna - I have added the photos, including one from where I took a photo of the big screen showing the Opera. When I looked to see how it had turned out, there on the photo was an unknown man staring directly at the lens! I immediately looked around and there was no one in front of us. I butted into the girls conversation and showed them the photo – they too got the heebie jeebies as there wasn’t anybody near us and no one had walked in front of us for a minute or two. We all started to believe in ghosts and got shivers down our spines. Then, with a hint of irony the girls looked back at the big screen showing the opera and the unknown ghost from the photo was there staring back at us.....It made us all laugh – I had taken a photo of the opera!!
Then next morning you could see the difference in everybody. We had mellowed out for the evening, most people had had a good nights sleep and we were all bright and raring to go for the trip to Budapest. Well, nearly everyone, a few wide eyed people had been up late, but still managed to make the bus just in time, even though there was a bit of walking with bags involved.
The journey to Budapest was quite quick. By now we are used to the bus journeys, so the swapping of seats, wandering up and down to chat to other people and the passing of sweets, biscuits and crisps between seats and up and down rows has become the norm.
Its only been a week, but we are becoming travellers:-
No more do we require our own beds and home comforts. To us, life has become a bunk bed in a strange room, wearing clothes at least twice before washing and passing food, stories and banter between each other as Europe passes by through the windows. But for now as I say, we are just travellers – soon we will become adventurers , and god knows what will be normal then!!!!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
11 sep - vienna - see saws and opera
ViennaWe all decided to have a meal out together for the first night in Vienna. As there are so many of us, its good to do it when there is room and as Lana knew a nice restaurant a short walk from the hostel, we took the opportunity.It turned out to be a good night as everyone enjoyed a few drinks, including some kind of coconut flavoured shot poured by Lana. Food was good especially the sausage dumplings which were absolutely massive – so big that even Matt couldn’t help finish them and as you know by now he IS an American!! I also decided to teach a few people how to pop drinking straws, which kept everyone amused for a while, but not the waitress!!Towards the end of the meal the ladies of the group were interested to see why the men kept going to the toilets and coming back with big wide grins and staring at cameras – It turned out that the gents toilets had a special 'Black light', in the cubicle, that meant when it was used your pee glowed green while everything was lit up in the eerie luminous light – The men had even been taking photos of the spectacle!! One or two of the girls headed into the gents to check them out but obviously weren’t as overcome as the fellas as they looked disappointed on their return.
After the meal we all paid and left a healthy tip for the great waitress who had served us all so well and then we headed off to a nearby pub, which turned out to have big painting of Ayers Rock on the wall. We posed for a photo underneath it and promised we would try to re-create the pose when we visit the real thing in 11 and a half weeks time.
Beer and shots flowed for the next few hours and one by one people drifted home to their beds – Some after lighting fire to sambuca in their mouths trying to be dragons and others to be accosted by the local 'ladies of the night' on their way home. Nobody took up any of their offers!
The next morning as we sat in breakfast you could see that everyone was suffering – It wasn’t however due to the booze from the previous night, but to the walking around Prague, travelling, changing beds and snoring and noises from other Ozbussers. We are now beginning to see that we have to take some time off sometimes. We have been up early every morning and eager to see everything before hitting the road and starting again at the next destination. I predict that over the coming days and weeks, there will be times when people are more than happy just to mellow out.
Anyway, back to today and the group all went their separate ways – some went to watch the Lippizaner? horse show, others took a bus tour of the city, while Becky, Laura Frankie and myself took a gentle wander into town, stopping for a bit of shopping on the way and also commenting on what must have been the smelliest tube train ever – To put it mildly it smelt of shit! We got into town and wandered around the volks park, looking at the Parliament building with its Mermen fountain and tall lampposts. We came across the Film Festival arena with its big screen and seating, behind which was a line of top class food stalls with everything from Australian mangos to Mexican and Thai food. Frankie was the only one to buy food – If you can call 'Ben and Jerrys Ice cream', food!! We continued around the park looking at some beautiful roses in the rose garden and stopping off for a few minutes to all have a play on the most uncomfortable see saw we had ever been on. We were all knackered and a little bit underwhelmed – as nice as Vienna is, it wasn’t a good as Prague, especially as there seemed to be marquees and portaloos in front of or next to all the buildings of any note. We stopped for a bit of lunch, where the smallest of our group had the biggest bit of cake – which was so fresh and nice, even though it came from a bakers in an underground station!
The RosegardenAfter lunch we took a ride to see the Danube and take a few photos. When we headed back toward town we were only 20 metres short of getting straight on a train, but we were all so tired we couldn’t be bothered to run, so just waited for the next one.
Laura Becky Me and Frankie by the Danube
In the evening a few of us got together and decided to head back to the volks park to get a bit of food from one of the stalls in the Volks park and see what was happening. It was a great decision as the food was cheap and really really amazing. The city hall was all lit up too and an opera was showing on the massive screen. People were just milling around listening or watching the opera whilst enjoying good food and drink. It was a really great relaxed, atmosphere and not at all how I had imagined my first experience of opera to be. We all agreed that this is how Vienna would be remembered by us. None of us are opera buffs, but it was a really great experience to spend a couple of hours in such a great setting, even though we didn’t understand what was going on with the story!!
A Vienna statue
We finally headed off back to the Hostel as it started to get chilly, but not before we visited the Parliament again to get a few pictures of the mermen fountain all lit up at night.
Straws after popping them at dinner
It was then a reasonably early night for most of the bussers, before we leave Vienna tomorrow and head towards another new country – This time tomorrow we will be in Budapest, Hungary. That’s good for me cos I like Goulash!!
