Vienna

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Well we have now finished with Vienna and are off to Budapest. Vienna is a beautiful city with so much culture. The buildings are really pretty and there are heaps of parks so its nice and green. And the food is great too! We have had schnitzels 2 out of 3 nights here - they are so good. Pete is also kicking himself as we are staying on the longest shopping street in Vienna!! So we have to walk past the shops to go anywhere! He hates it.

Today we walked around the grounds of Belvadere Palace, saw the Anchor clock chime at midday (really sweet - 12 important historical Viennese figures all parade past), saw Stephensplatz and went to the museum of Fine Arts. Yes - you heard correctly! There are so many museums it was hard to choose one so we chose this as its apparantly one of the most highly regarded in the world. The building itself is gorgeous - marble floors and walls and paintings on the ceilings in the main areas. We saw some paintings by Ruben and also some interesting Egyptian artifacts. It was nice just wandering around.

So we are off to Budapest now.

Hi again, in Budapest now. We have arrived a day before St Stephens day and there are lots of festivals going on including the red bull air race and a big fireworks show. there is even a holy procession of st stephens mummified hand tomorrow. so we have arrived at the right time! the hostel we are staying in is right on the river with aweome views from the shared areas. unfortunately our room is a private room and in the basement. oh well.....

budapest is a nice city and has a great feel about it. other than the guy trying to lead us astray when we arrived at the railway station we are having a great time. we ignored him and asked an old lady the way instead and she set us straight! we tried goulash soup for lunch too and I *Sarah* actually didnt mind it.

we are going up to the castle tomorrow and to a few of the festivals and maybe to a thermal bath.

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