Vienna, Australia

Right, so we left Interlaken thinking that there was no way we were going to top the good times and the good friends.

Not to diminish the people we met there, but holy hell, it got better.

Salzburg was great, I mean, the hotel was great. And that's where we spent most of our time. We had a bit of trouble finding the place, but what else is new. We came to the corner of where our supposed hostel should be, but all we saw was a 4 star hotel. We looked at our hostelworld.com print out and saw that it was in fact where we were going to be staying for the next 3 nights. Unfreakingbelievable.

It had a huge cozy bed, clean linens, a private shower... a tv!! Since the tour was expensive and Dermot had never even seen the Sound of Music anyway, we saw downtown Salzburg in half a day. Beautiful city, but tiny in comparison. There was a festival going on downtown which was a real treat to see the people of Salzburg out in force and celebrating their culture. We ate some of the local goodies. And Dermot won me a banana moon in one of the carnival games.

Dermot and I were sick anyway, we were both fighting colds. So the rest was well needed. We ate at some local Salzburg restuarants, in particular the first night with some American ladies. We talked about politics and we exchanged travel tips. But after the meal and one beer each we headed back to the hotel to watch Austrian television and eat some Austrian pastries in that big cozy bed.

And so on for the next two nights. So thank goodness for Salzberg. I really enjoyed the luxury of clean towels and tv and leaving my bag unpacked the entire time.

Off to Vienna!

We arrived and found our hostel with little hassle. When we checked in and went up to our rooms it began. Ashlea from Melbourne, Australia was in the room already and we said we'd all head out together to get our first impression of Vienna. We strolled around this expansive, gorgeous city. The weather was perfect, hot even. We found the tourist information center and booked walking tours for the following day. And rest assured in that fact, we headed to the pub. Our first Australian pub in Vienna, Crossfields. We ordered at the bar the local brew while Ashlea ordered a Fosters. Then we noticed some seats had cleared in the corner of the pub. We asked the lads sitting there where these seats free and they said no. Haha, joking. Way to break the ice Ben. So that's how we met brothers Ben and Sam from Noosa, Australia. We found out that by chance we we're all staying in the same hostel, West End. Ben and Sam wanted to go back to the hostel to freshen up because they had been in the pub all day, so me, Dermot, and Ashlea downed our beers and we headed across Vienna in the dark to our hostel. Ben tried to join a pub crawl, but we think it was a funeral. Sam led the way and was our tour guide. He showed us Van Gogh's cathedral where Mozart won his first music competition. Eventually Ashlea asked a local where we could get a train back to our hostel, and we were officially on our way.

The second pub that night was Wombat's hostel bar called the Wombar. Don't really remember much else of that night, the pitchers of beer were so cheap, we met a stationed army man from the US named Fred who tried to get with Ashlea, but she was afraid of his... hahaha...

We ended up in KFC anyway. Like Sam said, every man must know where the nearest KFC is. We devoured a party bucket like starved cannibals. And so began the cult of KFC. We exchanged numbers and said we'd meet up tomorrow afternoon sometime. Dermot and I were going on the walking tour while all the Australians were getting up at half 5 in the morning to watch the Footy... or the equivalent to the super bowl.

Dermot and I paid for the most lackluster of walking tours. Plus we were the youngest people on the tour by 20 years. We got some good pictures, heard about Mozart, visited some places that made crisp apple strudel, but that was about it.

I'm going back to Vienna to do it proper, it's second in history and beauty only to Rome. You know, go see a symphony or something...

Anyway, we met up with Ashlea and our new KFC cult inductee Vinod from Alaska. Cue the Sarah Palin jokes and we were off to meet up with Ben and Sam at another Australian pub The Travel Shack. Carol from Perth, Australia, another girl in our room who looks like Nicole Kidman came along as well. Waggawagga (another girl from Australia, it's not her name, it's where she's from but we all forgot her name and decided to call her Waggawagga for the rest of the trip) said she'd meet us there.

There are no kangaroos in Austria but there sure were alot of Australians.

I fucking love Australians.

We got sloppy at the Travel Shack. Extra strong Australian wine and steins full of strong German beer helped. We all got along like long lost friends. We crawled back to our hostel in each others drunken arms, but not until we got some KFC.

The next morning we said we'd all get together again and try to see some sights. Sam said it was the second time in 24 hours that he'd woken up hungover. Waggawagga led the way, she was studying history in Austria. So for a good hour or so we were the proper tourists.

We lost Waggawagga around the statue of Maria Theresia, so we made up some stories ourselves. Maria Theresia the Kebabslayer. Her one hand rules the world, the second is outstretched saying you there, go get me a kebab, with extra garlic sauce. The cult of KFC then began kebabs for Christ. It was hysterical, trust me.

Around half 11 we decided that we'd had enough of sightseeing so we went back to Crossfields we were had met and ate and drank for a few hours. Then Vinod wanted to go see some more sights, so we let him. Ben and Vinod left for Beethoven's grave while Sam, Dermot, Carol, Ashlea, and myself headed to Flanagan's Irish pub where we sat outside in the sun. Some very colorful conversations later Ben and Vinod came back, we headed inside the pub and ate some dinner.

Then we headed to Wombar again for the funnest night ever. We took full advantage of the two happy hours and the barman pouring shots of Jägermeister into our mouths. We danced ourselves into oblivion. The Wombar had the best music ever. The guys behind the bar playing the music knew that the majority of the customers drinking there tonight were Australian so he fed into it. AcDc ruled the airways. We all screamed TNT OI! OI! OI!

We managed to crawl home, but not together. We were all leaving the next day at different hours of the morning. We hugged like little girls and said we'll all meet up again someday. I hope that's true. Dermot and I could really use some of that free room and board promised to us at so many occasions during that weekend.

Best. weekend. ever.

All the pictures have been updated. We've been in Slovenia for the last 3 days. Beautiful, peaceful, and cheap. We were told not to go to the main city, so we've been around Lake Bled in a wonderful hostel... full of Australians.

And for the record, here is our new, improved Itinerary

Slovenia
Lake Bled

Croatia
Zagreb

Serbia
Belgrade

Bulgaria
Sofia

Romania
Bucharest
Transylvania

Hungary
Budapest

Slovakia
Bratislava

Czech Republic
Prague

Poland
Krakow
Warsaw

Germany
Berlin

Then fly to New Zealand.

Tomorrow, we head to Zagreb, Croatia.

No worries!