I liked the Austrian way better

On my last night in Vienna I decided to go out for schnitzel (again) and went to a restaurant that specialised in it and had several different kinds on the menu. I ordered something called "hamburger schnitzel", which I assumed just meant schnitzel served with chips from what I could understand of the menu.
In fact, it turned out to be a huge slab of schnitzel wedged in between.... two more huge slabs of schnitzel! Hamburger schnitzel! Turned out I'd made an excellent choice.
Some Austrian guys I was sharing the table with laughed at me for eating it all. It was great. I've concluded that I pretty much have a limitless stomach when it comes to schnitzel!

After that I completed my missions of going on the Riesenrad, albeit without cellist, and going to see The Third Man which was doubly good now that I've seen some of the town.
In between these I had one more final night plan which was to go to a coffee shop and get strudel. I had to just pick one close to the cinema and ended up in a fancy place which the menu told me had been around since 1861. The waiter brought me coffee but promptly forgot my strudel. I hope they haven't been doing that since 1861. Danke schön! (that's my attempt at Austrian sarcasm)

Vienna seemed to be full of guys in wide-brimmed hats and big coats, who all looked like they belonged in an old-fashioned spy movie. All up, I liked Vienna a lot!

I'm now in Prague where I haven't done too much except see a bit of town and go to the opera. I saw Rusalka, which I considered was the best choice being Czech! I didn't know anything else about it but it turns out it's basically just The Little Mermaid as an opera. My favourite aria was "Under the Sea". Haha, humour.
During intermission I drank champagne and an American with a bow tie and very square arm movements told me how much he misses the Reagan days. He made me think of a real-life Jack Donaghy!

This morning I booked up the rest of my accomodation until I meet up with Jenny in just under two weeks! I'm now all locked in for Eastern Europe, with my next stop being Bratislava in two days time. I am excited.

I've been watching a lot of Big Bang Theory, namely the second half of season 3 which I hadn't gotten up to watching yet. So good, but it's possible this is making me even more introverted than normal! Or maybe it's just that there are a lot of Australians staying at my hostel in Prague who aren't really the kind of people I would normally hang out with. That said, I'm intending to be sociable tonight as I'm going on some kind of Beer Tour, which seems to be more down my alley than the numerous European pub crawls that are run everywhere, particularly in Prague. I would much rather be plied with good Czech beer than plied with shots!

I've also uploaded my Vienna photos, which you can see starting from here!



Me, a big palace and a Star Wars shirt

Oh, Vienna fail

Today I donned my smartest outfit* and went to the Hotel Sacher to eat Sacher-Torte in their fancy cafe, whereupon I fancily ate some cake and then promptly elbowed a waitress in the butt (accidentally).

She was well professional about it, as she was serving the table behind me at the time and didn't break pace in talking to them at all - but it was a solid nudge and just at the right time for it to be plausible to be intentional (she'd just taken my money for the bill, and I did it whilst putting my wallet back in my pocket).

Vienna: you're doing it wrong!

But in good news, my apartment had a cancellation for my third night in Vienna so now I get to stay here instead of moving hostels! Worth losing my 3.50 euro deposit on the other place for? Definitely.

Also, I didn't end up re-buying the shirt that got damaged on its way to me (I took that as a sign) but I did get a Chunk Star Wars shirt, something I've been wanting for a while!

Time for me to attempt being fancy: take two. Booking my tickets for the opera in Prague!

*meaning a jumper

I'm the one they frame

This afternoon I left Salzburg and got into Vienna. The place I'm staying at is completely, undoubtedly, the best hostel ever and I've only been here a few hours! All the reviews for it online practically unanimously said "best hostel ever" and I figured I had to check this out for myself!
I'm staying in a converted apartment, only 2 dorm rooms and then a shared living room, kitchen and bathroom. I imagined that "converted apartment" would mean "pretty standard place with some Ikea bunk beds", but in actual fact it is a mega-nice apartment. The beds are built into alcoves in the wall and in my room some of the beds are raised with a mini-wooden spiral staircase leading up to them. On top of all of this, the place is filled with free stuff! Laundry is free, everything in the kitchen is free (tea, coffee, pasta, milk, cordial, wine!), there's free stuff all through the bathrooms, free towels. There are no words for how great this place is after staying in all-up pretty similar hostels for the past 2 months. Plus, I'm living in an apartment in Vienna!
Sadly this place was booked out for my third night in the city, but I at least get two nights here living the good life.

I went for a walk around the neighbourhood after getting here and discovered I'm in a part of town that's completely filled with trendy t-shirt shops. I found one place that pretty much just re-sells shirts from the internet, all from sites I go to, with an emphasis on Star Wars shirts?! They even had the shirt I ordered that got destroyed in the mail and which I couldn't get again! Going to investigate this place further later on, so that I don't straight away blow all my money on t-shirts.

After this I went to an Indian restaurant and ate a conspicously huge amount of Indian, which I'd been hanging out for. When I got the bill they gave me some kind of complimentary, delicious schnapps. Vienna is the greatest!




In Salzburg I did indeed watch Sound of Music as mentioned and then went out and saw some sights. It had been ages since I last saw it, but you know what is my current vote on the best scene in the movie? It's only lasts for about a second, but it's when Captain Von Trapp is about to step in and dance with Maria at his ball, and he pulls the biggest pimping face whilst adjusting his gloves (this is the best description of it that I can think of). Check it out. It's great stuff!

I've uploaded my Salzburg photos and you can check them out: here!

In other news I've now finished all the books I brought with me. I enjoyed Great Expectations but it seemed more like "Great Coincidences", right? I also read Robinson Crusoe which I thought was pretty awesomely readable for something written in 1719 and surprisingly relatable, up to that bit where he has to fight off 300 wolves.
I'm now starting to make the most of hostel book exchanges and have already fortuitously stumbled across Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Graveyard Book, both of which I consider to be pretty great scores!

I have a few missions for Vienna. One is to go and watch The Third Man at the movies on Friday and the other is to go on the ferris wheel and possibly before that, to find a classically trained cellist to go on the ferris wheel with. I also intend to listen to plenty of "Where Has Everybody Gone" on my iPod, but I don't plan on strangling anyone with my headphones.

Surprise! I'm doing the Bond references tour of Europe.

Grey Cell Green

So, apparently in Slovenia they like to play "Let's Get Physical" all the time?

This is the impression I got from the few trips I did outside of my hostel during my time in Ljubljana. I did indeed brave the rain on my second day there and wandered for a small bit around town. Then, the next day, I went on a trip to Lake Bled where I heard there were very nice views of a church on an island in a lake under the Alps, which was exactly true. In fact, in many ways I found the views on the other side of the path, of all the autumn trees, even better!



I didn't end up getting to try horse burgers as the Hot Horse branch I'd tried to find had shut down, but I did try something called "Human Fish Beer" which is actually one of the best beers I've had on my trip so far!

My down-time in Slovenia was spent struggling with the beginnings of a cold, which I've gotten over the worst of now but am still coughing around the place like crazy.
I also spent my time around my hostel watching Sherlock, which really was as good as I'd hoped! So many things I like.... all in one show! Now I'm doubly glad they're splitting the Who season next year to (presumably) make more.

Photos of Slovenia: here!

Today I've made it to Salzburg, where I'm spending two nights before heading to Vienna. As far as I can tell, everyone here (except for the locals) has Sound of Music madness! My hostel shows the movie every day, and I think I'll sit around and watch it tomorrow. It feels like a long time since I've gotten to watch a DVD! Then I'm going to go out and have some good Austrian coffee. Sounds like a plan!