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Published: September 16th 2008
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Guten tag Neuseeland und dem Vereinigten Königreich
We have arrived in Ingolstadt, Germany where we are staying with Manfred and Vanessa for the week leading up to beerfest - in Munich on Saturday! We have not made an entry on our travel blog since Croatia and have done quite a bit since then so here is the low down.
Firstly I would like to say that the Croatians are very clean people who obviously have heard of and use deodourant regularly...bless!
We left Hvar with fingers crossed that we would be able to take a connecting bus to Mostar, Bosnia and what do ya know, no problem at all. Kibby purchased the somewhat exorbitantly priced tickets and we ran to the bus station, only to find that if you wnat to put luggage on the bus this comes at an extra cost...small tantrums ensued , the driver (pretending not to speak any english) just stood there, hand out so needless to say we paid. The windy roads, no air conditioning and bad mood made for a really enjoyable trip (as I am sure you can imagine).... we arrived in Mostar only to be told that our room had
been double booked...up side... we were told we would have to spend the night in the apartment...nice one! Mostar was quite touristy but when you first set eyes on the famous Old Bridge you can understand why people take the time to stop here - people can jump from this 20 something metre bridge to the water below and the impact was made clearer when I relaised that the gunshot like sound was actually someone hitting the water after the huge drop...I thought it wize to promptly pass moment to Kibby that I assume he would not even be comsdiering making the jump with his bad back...and a gutted look confimred that ;o)
Sarajevo was our next stop. Of all the places we have been it seemed appropriate to take a small tour group around the sights to ensure that we got the real feeling of the town and we did! The town still has buildings that are blatant reminders of the war that ended so recently you almost feel like you have just arrived to see the aftermath. We took a trio down Snipers Alley and it truly has an eerie feeling about it, as does the tunnel
which was used to smuggle food, drink and animals from one town to another. We met an amazing guide who advised that he would like to say that it was his pleasure to have been our guide, but to be honest he would rather not have anything to show us at all. People were constantly thanking us for taking the time to come to the town and you really felt like your time there made a difference for them and gave them hope for the future of the country and tourism.
We took the overnight train to Zagreb and much to our excitement this coincided wih the England v Croatia footy match...heavily armed police lined the streets but unfortunately everyone seemed to be rather well behaved. No point staying here we thought so we were off to where the hills are alive with the sound of music...Austria. Ah, Portschach, our lovely little getaway by the lakeside...accommodation proved remarkedly hard to fine but all was revealed on our arrival...yip, they were hosting the internation gay and lesbian festival, or Pink Wave...music is not all the hills are alive with in Austria! Went swimming only to find that the lake is
inhabited by snakes...excellent work on keeping that one a secret Austra (no Kangaroos in Austria for any Americans who may read this - just in case you forget t´shirts, postcards etc are everywhere as a reminder)
After hanging with the batty boys and carpet lickers (Kibby has taken over the story writing in case you are wondering) we headed off to the home of Mozart (Salzburg). A very beautiful city but a bit OTT with the tourists and the exorbatant prices to do anything. Thankfully our hotel was just out of the main tourist trap area and on Saturday there was a street market which was very much a local affair so we hung out with the locals drinking beer and eating bratwurst (pork sausages). I was in food heaven and the locals seemed to appreciate having a couple of Kiwis in their mix. By now though Lysh was starting to feel the effects of a high protein diet so we decided to have a couple very traditional Austrian meals at Lin´s Garden. Okay it was chinese but good to have some vegetables as we knew that so more meat eating was waiting for us across the border in
Germany! My final experience in Austria was using thre toilet at the train station. We were use to paying for public toilets throughout Europe but had not experienced one in Austria. Accordingly I took no coins with me and after doing my business I discovered I only had a €50 note in my pocket. I apologised and said to the man I would go and get some coins, and he waved me off in an angry fashion and with my back turned called me in perfect english a lying fcuken arsehole. Naturally I was incensed by this so went back to Lysh got some coins and headed back to pay the guy. I slammed the 50 cents down on his desk and he smiled and said thank you, to which I replied dont you ever call me a lying fcuken arsehole you ignorant fat fcuken c*nt! Wih that out of my system we boarded the train and headed for Germany 😊
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