The thing about Vienna is, well it’s boring. There isn't a lot to see, and what there is isn't particularly interesting. So I think a couple of days are more than sufficient - unless of course you are there for the shopping. We naturally hit up some art galleries and museums, only thing of note is that we saw was: 'The Kiss' By Klimt.

Later we strolled around the food market, some flee markets, and grabbed some local food (beer and a hotdog) before making our way to Schonbrunn Palace. The former royal palace and grounds. There isn't much to say about the palace, but the grounds were very impressive - including mazes, a zoo, great views of the city, flower gardens etc etc.

The train ride from Budapest to Vienna took about 3.5 hours all up, and is so much simpler than flying. No queue, no waiting, leaves and arrives on time, and no security searches. It was pretty nice journey, nice way to see the countryside and even catch up on some sleep. After the horror stories you hear of people having their teeth fillings being stolen while they sleep on these journeys I wasn't expecting much.

Vienna is a pretty city, very new and rebuilt after being pretty much destroyed after WW2. Walking the streets, you could tell it was the shopping Mecca for the region, shops lined every street and it felt like I was back on Oxford St with the large amount of people strolling around shopping. We were staying at Wombats Hostel - again highly recommended. Vienna is the home of Mozart, and they will not let you forget it. It happened to be the 250-year anniversary of his birth so every theatre, opera house and outdoor space was showing, replaying or performing a Mozart composition.

The next day, we decided the best way to see everything the city had to offer, get our bearings and meet some people to go out with that night was to hit up a bike tour of the city. The tour was fantastic, and not only would I do it again, I have decided that given the time and the opportunity I will do one at every city I go to. For a pittance you get to see everything (so you can pick what you actually want to go back to), get a wealth of history and meet some cool people.

That night we (Couple of people from the bike tour, Marie and I) went to an outdoor international food festival and sat at a free concert production of some opera I couldn't understand. I could get the gist, poor boy likes girl, girl engaged to rich military guy, poor boy gets girl in the end. Shame it had to go on screaming like strangled cats for 3 hours. I am so cultured!

The Tyrol area in Austria was stunning and reminded me of Queenstown a lot (yes it did make me a little bit homesick). First stop was Kitzbuhel, the town where ski-ing was invented. It now has over 150km of ski runs - pity we were there in the summer. This was definitely a town of money - the shops that were open all looked very expensive, and the houses and chalets were amazing. While the rest of the crowd went up the gondola for a 3 course meal (yup, just like Queenstown, but red gondolas), Aaron and I and a few others went for a stroll around town and a leisurely lunch in the sun.

Next it was off to St Johann for a summer toboggan run, enduring about three or four 3-point-turns on the way. Now, our bus driver and guides were pretty cool, but we did seem to manage to get lost a lot of times, resulting in many insults from the bus-load of travellers. Good thing our bus driver was a pro when it came to stopping traffic going in both directions in order to pull a U-ey.

The toboggan was great fun and a lot bigger than I expected, but I think I got more entertainment out of watching the fellow passengers get far too brave and wipe out on the way, and then have to walk the rest of the way down the hill. Dangerous Dave from our bus even got really brave and decided that clothes should be optional for the ride - not a pretty sight, but one that was to be repeated on the bus-ride home after the party that night...

PP Travel arranged a BBQ for that evening in a marque just out of St Johann. Upon arrival, Aaron got out the frisbee, and we managed to get a good group of us out there chilling out outside - even managed to invent a new game frisbee/soccer/netball. Everyone was pretty shattered after 3 late nights already and being on the go all day, but as the night progressed, everyone had a few more drinks - we had a fantastic time. Then on the way home, the bus was a definite pary atmosphere.

Austrian Chalet
Our bus trip took us from London to Dover (White cliffs of Dove photo), on the ferry to France, across France, through Belgium, through Germany, and finally 20 hours later we were at our chalet in Austria. Although the place was a little run down, it was at a perfect location, on the outskirts of a small skiing village, on a glacial feed lake. The other chalets in the valley looked very flash. Every morning there was a heavy mist which would hang over the lake until about 9-10am when the sun would burn it off. The breakfast was simple, consisting of rolls, with cheese and ham slices. The country side was covered in plump cows with bi cow bells, ringing as they walked and eat.


Party Bus
The bus had an on board bar, which turned the confined aisles into a bit of a dance floor. This was of course a nightly event.

Munich
On a day trip around Munich, we went the Haufbrau Haus (house), it is the only permanent Beer Hall, serving steins all year round. What it is most famous for is being the starting place of the Nazi party. Hitler and his party members started planning the party in this building in the 1920's before he came to power. As all tourists do, we also had a look at the Glockenspiel, an old clock which have little puppets doings a play when it goes off.