Der österreichisch Teil meiner Reise

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Hello!
And so now I'm at the end of the third day of my trip. I'll give a little outline of where I've been so far.

Day 1:Bratislava

On Monday I headed out from Luton airport to the capital of Slovakia - Bratislava. Although the country itself is one of the poorest in Europe (the 17th poorest EU country), the capital isn't lacking money. I thought perhaps this was thanks to to the tourism, and it's true that Bratislava has it's share of international tourists, but that alone would not result in such a vibrant and successful public transport system, upon which you hardly hear a word of English or German spoken.

Overall, central Bratislava was really lovely, with the the typical Bohemian and communist architecture typical of of those countries who once found themselves on the other side of the Iron Curtain (sorry if this is too deep for some of you reading, but I find it interesting :P). There is some modern architecture, but it is limited to the out of town shopping centres - on the bus from the airport, I wasn't able to count the number of Tesco shops on one hand!

My hotel was very posh - I was on the forth floor with a double bed, toilet, shower, bath, radio, alarm clock and TV - but then again, it was €50!! Bratislava basically accepts the Euro anywhere, and it's expected they will adopt it shortly after the Czech Republic.

Overall the weather on the first day couldn't have been much better, but I didn't really speak to anyone.

Day 2: Vienna (Wien)

I awoke in Bratislava to find the sun still shining, but that was followed by me struggling to buy a bus ticket from a lady who spoke no english and no german. She got the right ticket on the third attempt and I got to the station nice and early for my pleasant train journey to Vienna.

Vienna was much more cosmopolitan, and not just thanks to the tourists. There was also a great mix of Modern and Old architecture in the centre - most noteably in Saint Stephen's Platz. The greatest thing about being in Austria at last was that I can understand the signs, and understand what people are saying.

In Vienna, I experienced a Frankfurter thanks to a downpoar of rain sending me running for the nearest café, and I can say for certain that the mustart (Senf) in England, is far better than the Austrian stuff!

The Youth Hostel was a long way outside the the centre in a northern suburb, but was easily accesible (when I realised it was on the other side of the road!!) I had a room with one other chap from Romania - I didn't catch his name but he was in his 40s and snored terribly the whole night! Oh, and he muttered constantly in a mix of Romanian and German.

Day 3: Salzburg

And now to today! I awoke this morning to the terrible snoring, had a shower and breakfast, and then stepped outside into the rainy streets of northern Vienna to get the UBahn to the Westbahnhof. I was there 40 minutes earlz, but my train was already waiting, so I hopped on, and found myself a carriage with free seats. Thankfully that wasn't hard.

The scenery of Lower and Upper austria really is something, and on a train you are probably going too fast to appreciate it all.

By lunchtime I'd arrived in Salzburg to a downpoar of rain - I jumped into the nearest bus and followed a hoarde of Austrian kids to the Youth hostel. I dumped my stuff in the room (for 8 people) and went for a walk around the town.

It wasn't the best idea in the world to go up the small mountain to the Monastry (Kloster), as the path was rather muddy, and my feet got cold and wet. That's right, Linden is going round Europe in his sandals!!!

Still, the actual town was nice and I took some nice photos. I got myself a burger, watched a game of chess on one of those big chess boards in the square, and then came back to the Youth Hostel.

I've met four of the guys in my room - there's 2 South Koreans, one's called Djon-something-something, but I'll call him Jon 😉, an Austrian guy, and then a Canadian called James.

I'm now sitting in the Youth Hostel on 40 minutes of internet (for €3) and have just managed to write the whole of this!!! No photos yet, but they should follow on Saturday... hopefully.

Stay tuned.

Linden.

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Comments

[Bazzz]

Behind the curtain
Linden - thanks for the update. Would love you to visit CZ with me some day. Hope the rain stops...