Day 17

Today was again, mostly a drive day. We started off a bit later – loading the bus at 8:45 and heading out towards Vienna. We did 2 stops along the way, a 15 min toilet stop and a half hour lunch stop. Matt and I did lunch at the gas station because the restaurant was very pricy. We got into Vienna around 4:30 and had until 6:30 to shower and organize our things before dinner. Dinner was not originally included, but head office ended up calling the hostel and getting us a free dinner. It wasn’t very good, but I couldn’t really complain because it was free. Cold pickled potatoes, schnitzel and salad which a lot of people (myself included) put yoghurt on instead of salad dressing because we can’t read German. 

After dinner was our walking tour of Vienna. Our guide was a funny man with a LOT of knowledge about everything in Austria. We passed churches, monuments, government buildings and a shopping street, stopping to hear the history of each place in lots of detail. 

The tour ended at about 8:50pm and we had some free time to explore. I would have loved to see the Freud museum, chocolate museum and a few other interesting places, but unfortunately everything was closed. Instead we went for a walk, picked up a magnet (I can’t remember if I mentioned before that Matt and I are getting a magnet from every country we visit), had a snack at McDonalds and made our way back to the hostel which is where I am typing from now. It is already past time to go to sleep because we load the bus at 7:15 in the morning.

Day 16

WOW! That is still all that comes to mind when I think about Switzerland but sadly we had to leave so off to Munich we went.  We left around 7:30 in the morning and in a couple hours we arrived for an early lunch stop in the small country of Lichtenstein.  Small country, large prices like Switzerland for food but we ate something nonetheless and got back on the road to Munich.

Since we had gotten off early enough and traffic wasn’t too bad there was an additional stop on the way; the former Nazi concentration camp Dachau.  We had an hour to visit the camp which sadly wasn’t nearly enough time to see and read everything but it was an extremely sobering experience.  To see first hand the conditions the prisoners were exposed to day after day and the tragic efficiency of the extermination process really shed more light on this horrible part of human history.  Certainly depressing but these reminders of our past are still important to inspire future generations to hopefully avoid making the same mistakes.

On a more lighthearted note we then descended upon Munich to drink their beer!  Well we stopped at the hostel first but soon left with the group for an included dinner at a local beer keller where we were treated to a plate of mashed potatoes, three different kinds of sausage and sourcraut (did not appreciate the sourcraut fully but wasn’t too bad).  All received a small 250ml glass of beer and then several of us indulged in some more traditional 1L steins of beer.  Tracey instead had a drink of something called Camprini which the menu we thought described it as orange flavoured soda but there was nothing orange about it.  It was the most bitter, revolting thing that either Tracey or I had ever drank.  Tracey tried to make it bearable by adding sugar to it but it was no use.  The dark side was far too strong with the drink.

After dinner we did some sightseeing but most things were closed being the evening.  We did make it to the Hard Rock Cafe and on the way back to the hostel stumbled upon a fireworks display.  It wasn’t as large as the Freedom Festival fireworks but several of the munitions were of that size.  Still slightly affected by the drinking of earlier and generally sleepy from the consistent early morning starts we turned in for the night.

Tomorrow we greet Vienna!

Day 15

Yesterday was our day to take the train to the Top of Europe- Jungfraujoch. As usual, we were up bright and early to start- this time we were all lined up for breakfast before it even opened. The train ride was nice, it was foggy so we didn’t see too much until we got to the very top. The top though... was absolutely amazing!!!  There were “snow fun” activities going on – handgliding, tubing, skiing, a few other things but they all cost extra. We decided we could do any of those things another time and decided to spend our time enjoying the mountain. 

We took some pictures outside, visit the “sphinx” (a glass done at the highest point), saw some ice sculptures and did a hike. Hiking through the mountains without any equipment was quite an interesting feat. There were steep inclines and the snow just seemed to go on and on. Matt and I were on a mission to see everything, so we did the climb as quickly as we could (of course making stops to catch our breath at that altitude) and we even ended up passing by a couple of people with proper hiking sticks. The views were amazing! All there was in sight were mountains and snow and occasionally another couple of hiker.  We really made the most of our time, spending a lot of it just staring out in complete amazement.

When we caught the train down, our original plan was going to be to take 2 more trains and a bus in order to check out a nice waterfall. We changed our mind before getting down the hill because of the cost and the time (we wouldn’t have had a lot of time to look at it before the area closed). Instead, we went back to the hostel so I could change my wet socks, got some information from the info booth and ended up catching a ride with someone working in the hostel to the city center. Our original plan was to see a different waterfall closer by, but busses didn’t run very often and we didn’t really want to wait half hour for the next one. Instead we wandered through the town of Grindavald just checking out what the area was like and running into and out of little shops. 

We headed back to the restaurant near the hostel for dinner (it ended up being cheaper than the places in Grindevald) and trying some traditional Swiss dishes- Rostas- which were hashbrowns with cheese and bacon on top, and 2 cheese fondu, served with a few veggies, little potatoes and tons of bread to dip in the hot cheese. It was pretty good!

We got back to the hostel and ended up in the lobby with some of the group.  We were looking through the games the hostel had to offer trying to figure out something to do. There was a set of cards with German words on them, which we spent a few minutes inventing rules to and laughing at, cards that went up to 104 and cards with people and places on them. For another few minutes, we were messing around with those cards. “I’d like to see you top a 78!” “Oh yeah well I have Sri Lanka! Hah!”. When this really wasn’t becoming a game, I grabbed my cards from my room and we had about 10 people playing together and teaching each other games from Canada, Ireland and Australia.  Afterwards was time for showers and sleep.

Day 14

Today was another travel day. We were up at 7:45, on the coach before 8:30 and driving most of the day. Once we got to Switzerland, the scenery started looking amazing!! Mountains, waterfalls, lakes, streams... Everything just glittered in the sun. The colours of the scenery didn’t even look real. It was like looking at an enhanced colour photoshop. 

We got to our hostel around 6 and took showers before dinner at 7. Dinner was great! Salads with a fantastic dressing, spaghetti with a different type of meat sauce and what looked like cheesecake, but was really made from yoghurt drizzled with chocolate. 

After dinner we went for a walk up the hills to near the base of the mountain. We passed by the neat little chalets all decorated and well kept with flowers and gardens all around. As we went up, we got to look down at the city and all the houses that had just started turning on it’s lights.

After the walk we headed back to the hostel, finished up some computer things including this blog and talking to everyone back home and soon it will be time to sleep.

Day 13

Today was a mostly relaxing day. We slept in and decided to save money on bussing back to Venice, paying attraction fees and transportation cost. Since we had already seen what there was to see yesterday, instead we stayed in and had a relaxing day. We made instant noodles, sorted through pictures and put them all in folders based on place, I caught up on the blog and posting some pictures –which took forever since the internet is horribly slow, but I wanted to get it in while it was free. I also organized my luggage which at this point, was in pretty bad shape. We did some laundry and hung it outside to dry. We got some dinner at the supermarket. Selection was very limited so we ended up with burgers to cook stovetop, spaghetti noodles and swiss cheese to up in the spaghetti noodles to give it flavour. It turned out the cheese didn’t actually have much taste to it, but it was edible. 

Afterwards was a masquerade ball. I wore a nice black flowing skirt, a fancy top and the mask I got in Venice. Matt wore his kilt and Guy Fawkes mask. Everyone absolutely loved it! He got to do his V for Vendetta speech a couple of times for different groups of people. We sat around in front of one of the chalets, had some drinks and just sat hanging out for most of the night. Eventually we got to the bar for the masquerade, but it was set up as more of a club. There were flashing lights all over the place, younger groups barely of drinking age and modern music rather than masquerade music and theme. I didn’t like it at all and it was getting late, so we just went back home to get some rest.