Austria - Vienna

Hey-low, it's just me again.

Like the previous few blogs, it's taken me ages to finish. I apologise profusely for the delay. As much as I would like to make up an excuse for my lack of contact, I can only put it down to laziness.

As mentioned in the previous blog - We go now onwards to Vienna.

Although that was our path, the plan wasn't to go straight there. Luckily for us, we managed to be able to stop for some grub in a quaint city full of lovely people known as Bratislava, situated in the beautiful country of Slovakia. This is the first of many countries that remind us that we are no longer in Eastern Europe. One of the biggest hints were the schnitzels that cost about AUD$20, rather than the more cheaper meals (Around $5) we were smashing down in countries like Turkey and Macedonia. Because of this, a couple of the chaps and myself settled for some cheap pizza sold to us by our first experience of Slovakian people. The owners of this little pizza shop were insanely friendly and had the lady who served us had the most warming smile I'd seen on the trip. Tara told us of the strange statues you can find in Bratislava, and I loved them! In the most bizarre places, shapes and sizes, they were everywhere throughout the city. Here are some examples:

Somehow, Andy and myself managed to lose everyone, and so we took to the streets outside the central city walls which enclosed the tourist traps. Outside the city walls, the city was a different place, but still just as awesome. After buying some strawbs off a champion old Slovakian woman who didn't speak a word of English, but had a conversation with us anyway, we set off for a walk through the unknown. After an aimless stroll through some awesome garden, we came across a group of about 40 Slovakian students, each no older than 21 years old. They were making a massive amount of noise and if they weren't so colourful and happy, it would have been annoying. Screaming and yelling, playing trumpets, kazoo's and drums and carrying around a massive board with pictures of themselves with big colourful words in their language, it was rather hard to miss them and we had to ask what the go was. On closer inspection, we noticed in their hands a little top hat full of coins and at first I was mistaken they were having a massive busk session, involving everyone. We arrived to the scene close enough for them to notice us, and we must have fit into their culture pretty well, because they spoke to us for a couple minutes before they realised the blank look on our faces. Moments later, I could have sworn they were Australian. They had all mastered English perfectly, slang and all and had even managed to match our accents beyond belief. It turns out they were a class of uni students who had just finished exams and were looking for funds to support their piss-up that evening. Who could say no! Andy threw them a couple euro, which all Contiki travellers will know, goes a BLOODY long way in terms of getting drunk.

Just before leaving, we found Jodie, Kylie and Kate, a troublesome trio. They'd managed to find a cheap kite and didn't waste any time in snatching it up. After some Slovakian ice cream, we took to the bus and were well on our to Vienna once again. Like almost all of Europe, the landscape was gorgeous, and after a morning spent sleeping on the aisle floor, I was well and truly awake to appreciate all Slovakia had to offer. It was long though before we reached Austria, and you could definitely tell we'd changed countries at our service stop. It seems that all German-speaking countries have this little system with their service station toilets. You shove 70 cents into the machine, and it lets you pass through to the toilet. You have to remember to take the little ticket it gives you though. All I could understand on the ticket was "50". After you're finished your business, you take this little 50 ticket to the counter of the food place, and you get 50 cents off your purchase, so in theory, your toilet usage was only 20 cents...but in the end, you're still at least 70 cents shorter. Bloody bastards make you think that you've saved money by using the toilet...

Every time we used a public toilet in Europe, we had to squeeze more out than just liquid. You had to make the money that you spent worth it. You'd be surprised what you can get rid of when you've paid for it.

Before we got into the campsite, we stopped in at Venice and had a little look around at some place that had a zoo, a massive garden, heaps of little tourist shops and heaps of those shops that sell them creepy little porcelain or wooden puppets. I think there was a big castle or something too, but I didn’t quite get there. A small group of us managed to find a hedge maze! It was brilliant, I can’t remember ever going into one of them. It was actually a good one too, you couldn’t see over the hedges and it took us ages to get out. Once we did get out, we found another one, a bigger one and so we decided to finish that one too before we left. Halfway through the maze, it started to rain…Like REALLY rain, smashing down. The drops in Vienna are HUGE, they’re like little water bombs. If you look up and they hit your eye, it bloody hurts! Anyway, in the end I realised that the only thing more exciting than hedge mazes, are hedge mazes in the cold rain. The struggle to get out is so much more desperate.



After escaping the rain, we finally made our way to the campsite, which was cool enough. On arrival, Benjamin and myself were the last to get off the coach, and therefore there was only one spot for a tent left...The one where a half-decomposed rat and a broken glass bottle were making their home. It was winy too. Bloody windy. Now I understood why Jodie had bought the kite. Like always, we were in a rush and had to set up the tents as quickly as possible. 10 minutes allowance afterwards to have a shower and get changed. For a guy? Piss easy. In, out, half dry and rip the clothes on. The girls struggled and brought half their clothes on the bus and had to apply make up on the way. On the way to where you ask? It was time to turn back to our children years and forget all responsibilities - We were on our way to Vienna’s famous amusement park.

On arrival, we decided to start off with something a bit slower, and ease ourselves into the park. It was just a reeeeeaaaally tall pole with a heap of chairs on chains attached that spun around. Simple and not that extravagant, but it was still rather lovely and it gave us an impressive view over the city.



Next ride, which was BY FAR the highlight of the park were the go karts. Watching while we were waiting, it looked bloody difficult and we all thought for sure we were going to stack it or kill someone. There were smashings all over the place and the chaps attached to the pedals were going awfully fast. Standing in line, I had sweaty palms and a heart pulsating at an unhealthy rate, and before I knew it, someone had shoved a sweaty helmet on my head and I was second in line to start. The flag went and off we went. Looking from the side, I didn’t even take notice of the track. Some of the corners were 180 degree turns which at first bewildered me, and I was terrified. After the first two or so, my back wheels were skidding around the corners, and by the fourth corner, I’m sure the back wheels weren’t even touching the ground. Over taking was the coolest thing on the track, but took it a heap of concentration to not run into them and blow up. It seemed a lot faster than when I was watching and took a lot of concentration, but this was one of the most fun experiences of my life.



As I’m sure most of you would agree, going to a theme park without trying a roller coaster is close to a mortal sin, so the first one was called the ‘Boomerang’. As most of the Contiki folk have now found out, I’m not a huge roller coaster person. Just typing about it now is making my hands sweaty. When everyone else throws their arms up in the air and screams, I give whatever I’m holding onto a death grip, every muscle in my body tightens, my face goes red, and I let out an ongoing grunt for the duration of the ride.



Our next roller coaster involved standing up in this little box type thing, which tipped on it’s side while you were waiting, so you were going face first. It was great fun at the start and went quite fast, but everyone’s neck was almost put out of place on the first corner. Rather than easing us into the corner, it was a sharp and smashing crunch with no warning. There’s was a considerable amount of room to move around, so when we hit this corner our neck’s were nearly put out. A couple times throughout the ride we went upside down, and when this happened, it felt like we were going to fall out, given the amount of room in this little box. We made it alive in the end though.

Returning to the campsite, we met a couple chaps from a 36 day camper that we were to spend the next 5 nights with. They were absolute dicks and I’m very glad they weren’t on our tour.

Up and early the next day, we smashed up the city of Vienna. To kick off our day, we had a driving tour of the city on the coach. It’s a gorgeous city and I would very much like to return. Dropping us off outside a truly majestic art museum, we noticed how crappy the weather was looking. Overhead were excruciatingly dark clouds that look monstrously dangerous to our dry-bring. Five minutes after getting off the coach, it started to absolutely piss down with rain. Everyone got hammered by it.


Do take note of the clouds behind the museum.

Tara gave us a very wet walk to the centre of the city where we were taken to the Swarovski Crystal jeweller. I began to wonder why the hell they would take 30 smelly Contiki Campers to a jeweller when we clearly had NO money until I decided to use the toilet. With any chance of a free toilet in the middle of the city, I’ll use it! An ambition burnt deep within me as well. I wanted to see if rich people had to take bogs and apparently they do. While I was in there, I took one, because the toilet paper looked really soft. When I came out, I found half the Contiki chaps all crowded around the taps. The taps have all these coloured lights set up around them. They’re blue when the water is cold, and as the water gets warmer, the more red it become and so it would go through a stage of being purple too. It was really trippy and was the most exciting thing about the entire shop.



I found three other chaps, and after buying some cheap strawbs, we got the hell out of there. It was sunny outside, and it looked as though the clouds were gone. While the boys were off buying some friendship bracelets in the colour of the flag, I decided to hook into a Bratwurst. This bastard was massive and after the first bite, I knew I would be farting like a champion at some point in the day. It was brilliant and I felt like a man eating it. After spending a huge amount of time walking around the city, checking out all the cool stuff, we decided to stop for a Schnitzel at a small family owned pub. Our waitress was an absolute legend. Based on the people I’d met so far in Vienna, I feel as if I could safely say that I really enjoy the company of Austrians. Our Schnitzels were large and shaped like Australia, and the beer served with it was probably the best I’d had on the tour up to this point. I used the facilities and was amazed and enthralled by the porcelain on the wall. Set up in the urinal was a little soccer goal with a little soccer ball attached by a piece of string. If you pee on the ball right, you can score a goal. It was definitely one of my more exciting experiences in a pub toilet.



With time ticking away until we had to get back to the coach, we hurried off through the city gardens as a short cut. In the gardens is a rather large monument dedicated to Mozart, as he spent most of his life in Vienna. This was the only thing Benjamin and myself set out to do, but because we enjoyed out schnitzels too much for too long, we were in a rush and didn’t get around to it. Blast!


This isn't even my photo, and it's not a particularly great one, I assume it was taken from inside the bus, but this is the statue of Mozart we were hoping to see.

Back on the coach, we headed off down the road to the Schnapps museum. After being introduced to the owner, we fell in love with schnapps without even having tasted any. The owner of the place had an incredible sense of humour and was just a legend all around. He walked us through his old shop and explained to us the history of his company and how schnapps is made etc. Schnapps in Austria and Germany is much different to what I perceived it to be. When spoken to of schnapps, I thought of butterscotch, strawberry, vanilla etc. All those pretty girly tasting flavours. Although somewhat accurate of some kinds, there is a much broader and vast range of schnapps available. One of my favourites was a chilli one he called rocket fuel. At 56%, it tasted like it would blow your head off. He had sooooo many things to show us and once he got all of them out of the way, he sent the females upstairs and showed us one of his sparkling wines he makes in rather bulk quantities. With a name like Rene Pogel, we had the impression that this was a pretty swanky and classy wine…He then told us to read it backwards and buy a couple bottles for the girls. He gave us a heap of tastings upstairs of the schnapps he talked about and we all walked out a little happier.




Rene Pogel - Go on, spell it backwards ;)

Time to head back to camp.

As I mentioned before, the campsite was bloody windy, and that I now understood why Jodie and the girls bought the kite. I decided to go and watch them have a crack at getting the thing in the air, and it wasn’t pretty. After she and a few other girls had a crack, they let the master take over. The last time I’d flown a kite, I was probably about 6 and probably sucked too, this time around though, yes this was different. After a shaky start and almost taking out a couple eyes and some small children, I had that bad boy up in the air introducing himself to the clouds. Two chubby little Austrian chaps no more than 4 years old were running around shooting at the kite with their ’hand’ guns trying to make it crash and yelling at it in some German jargon. This gave me a chance to show off and sent it higher into the air. Harlie then turned up and showed us his kite flying style which involved running around really fast in a big circle. Although 10 times more effort with worse results, it was so much more fun, and so I spent the remainder of the afternoon running around with my mouth open and sweating profusely. Unfortunately no pictures.

This evening’s activities included heading out to see a classical concert. This was definitely one of the activities Benjamin and myself were more looking forward too. We arrived and on show was dancing, singing and a mini orchestra. Every time I looked at Ben, he had his fly catching face on and I swear I saw a spillage of drool trail down to his chin. They were all brilliant performers and were dressed in gorgeous attire. At half time, we were given a little tour of the building we were in. A room we happened to be standing and sipping some (probably cheap) sparkling wine in, had been host to a very young Mozart at one stage. Here he played a very important concert to a very important woman which proved to be a very important part of his life and was one of the first steps to his long and very successful career. After the wine and the second half of the show, we all hit up the night life of Vienna.

The room

Caitlin - my date for the evening.

After finding a bar that sold tequila shots for 1 euro, we thought we had it all. After 4 or 5, I realised that it didn’t taste as nearly as bad as it should have, and I could still function quite well, so I called it quits there, this tequila was probably 5% and not worth my time. Our night progressed and we met several interesting characters along our way. One of my dreads caught on fire as a result of Andy wondering what my hair looks like next to the candlelight...

On the first day of Contiki, everyone is issued with a “Get Lost Sheet” which you carry around in your wallet. This sheet has the address and phone number of every campsite we stay at, so at the end of the night when we can barely walk and definitely not talk, we can just point to the address and the taxi driver takes us there. This worked every time without fail until Vienna. We were dropped off in the middle of nowhere and managed to stumble across another group who tried to get home in the same predicament. Our taxi driver found the real campsite and off we went again, we traded Ben for another chap that was about to be bashed by his taxi group. This fellow was filthy drunk. Pulling up outside the campsite gates, he managed to spew outside the door, but the driver still wasn’t impressed, so he took our money, kicked us out and sped off. The results:





I'm pleased to report that I was never in such a state.

And so that was Vienna, the only stop over in Austria. Moving into beer country and terrible music, we go next to Czech Republic. I assure you that the next post won’t take nearly as long, and I apologise again for the delay on this one.

See you soon!