Austria, time to reunite with friends
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2008
1
37
65
Trip End
Dec 08, 2008
Vienna,
Vienna,
Austria
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I boarded my train to Vienna and arrived at about 2:00pm. I was instanly greeted by a few old friends from Cesky Krumlov. We had hung out for about 5 days and I was really sad to say good bye when I left Cesky. It was really nice to see a familiar face for sure. We headed directly to the Palace to check it out. When I arrived it immedialy took me back to my Grade 12 trip to Austria. The stairs where we had a group shot. The gardens where we toured for a good part of the afternoon, it was all coming back. The two of them headed into the Palace to take a look at the staterooms but I on the other hand was not interested. Myself and another guy that had joined us, walked the grounds of the Palace until they were done checking out the beds inside the Palace. I had seen enough by this time in my trip and felt I would be dissapointed. After we took a walk we headed back to the hostel and got ready to go out for a bite to eat.
We headed to this little resaurant on the other side of town. We noticed that to the right of us this very large American guy had this huge feast of meat in front of him. We asked what it was and Travis and I decided that that is what we were going to dine on. Things got really weird from there, well not weird but interesting. When we all ordered a beer the waitress told us that they were not serving beer anymore. It was 8:00pm and we had no idea. We clairified that we heard right, but there was no way she was going to bring us a beer. So we all ordered water. Sitting in the middle of Austria and we couldn't have a beer. As we sat and waited for our meals to come out we noticed that everyone in the resaurant was getting beer. We figured that hey just got last call and we were just a little too late. After a half and hour went by the waitress brought out another round of beers for 2 other tables. We were getting pissed at this point and not the good kind of pissed (drunk for you slow ones). We asked again and she told us no beer. It was so weird. For the rest of the evening all we saw was beer after beer after beer coming from the bar.
When our food came, I knew I had made a mistake. The plate was about 2 feets by 2 feet and about 8 inches high in meat. It was disgusting on all aspects. We started to go through the feast of meat. It had Chicken, Pork, Sausage, Steak, all schnitzeled and the mystery meat which we later found out was Beef Liver. After I heard that I was done. I had eaten about 10 percent of the meal and I couldn't even think about putting another bite into my mouth. Very dissapointing but a good food experince for sure.
The next day I chilled out all day of the hostel. Did some laundry, chatted and socialized and just hung around. Oh, I also went for a run. I had run 5 day in a row now tring to keep slightly fit with the amount of crappy food I have been consuming. That night we had the most entertaining night. This Spanish girl dragged me out of my room at about 11:00pm to join her and 4 of her Spanish friends playing drinking games. They tried to teach me but I was a complete failure due to the language barier but it was a ton of fun. Seeing I didn't understand the game, I was drinking a lot. After a while 2 German guys joined in and the group was growing. When I was sitting there I heard from across the room all these guys screaming Mike. I turned around and saw these 4 french guys that I had met in Cesky Krumlov. We chatted for a bit and they joined the party. We were pretty much becoming the United Nations. An hour later we had added 2 Danish guys and a Turk. After we got kicked out of the Hostel bar we headed down the street where the party continued. The cool thing for me was the fact that the only thing that they all had in common was they all spoke english. They communitcated within their groups in their native tounge but when talking to each other it was all English. I was the only guy from the Western World so that was pretty awesome. Hard to ditch the Canadians, Americans and Austalians. Got to bed around 5:00am but over all a good night.
The next day I was to meet Tilly, the girl that gave me a ride to Zwickau and I crashed on her couch. She was visitng Vienna because her parents live in the city. We met around 11:00am and we started the 6 hour walking tour of Vienna. She had a big plan to show me everything and I was really happy I decided not to do it the day before and just chill out. We hit all the big sites. The Churches, The Parliment Buildings, The Shopping District, The Palaces and of course the Cafes. I wanted to show her my apprecaiton for helping me out for the day so I told her I would love to take her to this cafe we had heard about. A little up scale but suppose to be really nice. 2 authentic Austrian Coffees and 2 peices of cake I was feeling pretty good until the bill came. Over $30.00 Canadian but well worth every last dime to spend the day with a good friend.
My 3rd and final day was going to be the laziest of all days. I don't want to say I am loosing the appreciation for things but I am loosing the motivation a little. It might be the fact that I have been looking forward to Croatia for about a month now and it was only 2 days away. I got up early and went for a run in the Palace Gardens before all the tourist showed up. I got back, had a shower, had breakfast and settled down to do one final load of laundry and finish my book. The day was filled with talking to random people doing the exactly same thing that I was doing. Tonight I am being totally anti-social. Not wanting to chat with people I headed to the internet cafe and that is where I am right now. I fly to Croatia tomorrow afternoon to meet with a couple friends from Cesky Krumlov, Anthony and Tamara. I am looking forward to just chill out in the sun and water for a few days. No plans just yet and that is the way I like it. Keep the calendar open, its easier that way. I'll let you know just how blue the water really is....................
