Travelogue :  Backpacking (Central/Eastern) Europe

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We arrived to Vienna intact and ready to take on more new sights, foods, people, and adventures!

After eating some gemuse (I now remembered why I wrote this word down in my journal, whew!), we decided to explore a bit of the city that was near to where we were staying.

Adam and I thus made the pact that at every country we frequented, we had to partake in at least one pub crawl.

It became a great little tradition we looked forward to at every country.

Vienna is so cool!

After our walk back to the hostel, we grabbed a quick bite and decided to head to the Travel Shack for our much needed pub crawl! It was an amazing night, followed by us getting ditched by our tour guides, stranded 1 hour outside of Vienna, and the smarties (Adam and Laic) have the brilliant idea that we should walk it back to our hostel!

It was not a fun end to the evening, especially wearing sandals that hurt my feet

Homeboy does hook me up though...and, the rest of the pub crawl!

Later on...

Jesse (our sweet pub crawl guide): "Stay away from him {them}"
Me: "Why?"
Jesse: "They're bad people. Bad..."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Jesse: "They are dealers."
Me: "...Oh..really..I didn't know..."

So, we were introduced to a game called "Good Pants, Bad Pants". It's a British game where one must show the crowd whatever 'pants' they happen to have on at the moment. The crowd then yells 'Good Pants!' or 'Bad Pants!' depending on what's underneath (by the way, worth mentioning, I got 'Awesome Pants')!

I can bet that after playing this game, you'll never be caught dead with horrible 'pants' ever again!

Excuses given for victims of 'Bad Pants' that evening were:

"I just washed my other really nice pair, and these are my crappy in-between pair"

"You should see the ones I normally wear"
(LOL)

"What's wrong with these? These are nice!"

"I have no excuse."
(Always good to come clean)

"But... I bought these from Spain!"

LOL LOL LOL!

So, there was a bit of a debate between the Aussie and I about how beer came to be spilled on the both of us (mainly, on me!). Below is the picture to prove who did what to whom!

Make a lifelong pact with a stranger

Laic and I exchange name tags with the promise that we would keep them forever and ever, and always be reminded of each other whenever we see them. Awwww.

Friday, August 22, 2008:

We rented some bikes and rode the Viennese streets of death! No joke. We made sure to ride on the curbs and bike lanes as often as we could. After visiting the Schloss Brunn Palace, Adam and I lunched at the Mariahilferstrade Cafe where I ate a nice meal of gnocchi.

Earlier, I vowed to take the day off after our previous night's crawl. However, while waiting around at the Travel Shack to get our deposit back for the bike rentals, we began dabbling in a taste of Absinthe, then Wiener Blut, then more Absinthe, and playing a nails game with newfound Can-Asian friends, Kahn and Jon-Jon.

After awhile, Adam decides to leave the bar in favor of going back to the hostel to "file his nails" and "talk politics with a guy".

We shook our heads in bafflement, but continued having more absinthe at Travel Shack. While doing so, we met an Austrian couple that decided to buy us all a round of Wiener Blut (56% av).

Guy above: Looked and smiled and acted like Dana (Clam's ex-"DB"-bf found in picture below)

Guy below: What the guy above will look like in 20 years! LOL

After saying our goodbyes and grabbing a Doner sandwich to go, Kahn, Jon and I walked back towards our hostel. We exchanged facebook information, and decided to call it a night.

Saturday, August 23, 2008:

10:45am- Woke up earlier than yesterday
11:30am- At least we were up when the maid came in to clean this time.
11:40am- Walked down Mariahilferstrade. Ate at Quick Lee's with the racist packaging. Pretty decent bulgolgi with rice.
12:15pm- Stephan's Cathedral
2:30pm- Catacombs: Funny/wry tour guide. There were eerie bones and while Adam and I surveyed the skeletal figures, the group ran ahead of us, making Adam and I the 'last ones' of the group. We took turns scaring each other. When the guide asked if we had any questions, I asked him: "Have you ever opened the lid to see what the organs in the pot look like?" The guide laughs nervously, "No, but there was a leak once and the Cathedral was closed for a week due to the stench. It just looks like black glue." The group laughs when I brought up this question. It's obvious we all wondered the same thing.
1:35pm- Long line at McDonald's
2:45pm- Walk back to hostel. Did some shopping.
4:45pm- Meet new hostel bunkmates, some Italian, one Jamaican guy from San Francisco
6:00pm- Last meal of fried calamari and french fries with beer
7:30pm- Vienna Concert- Mozart, Johann Strauss, Opera, Ballet and Viennese Waltz. Did my best to keep my eyes open, but food coma and soothing sounds drifted me elsewhere...
10:30pm- Back to hostel
10:40pm- Phone booth to call our parents and (privileged) friends. Adam gets propositioned by women of the night
11:00pm-12:00am: Internet!
12:00am-12:15am: Chat with Franz about his Travel Shack business and the difference between Bavarians and Austrians (apparently there's a great divide). Also talks about how great our trip to Hungary will be.
12:45am: Finish writing in journal
12:47am-1:30am: Fellow Spanish hosteler grinds his teeth very loudly
1:31am: Fish in the dark for iPod
1:31 and 30 seconds: iPod plugged into ears
1:40am: Snoooooore.

St. Stephan's Cathedral (German: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the "Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP. Its current Romanesque and Gothic form seen today, situated at the heart of Vienna, Austria in the Stephansplatz, was largely initiated by Rudolf IV and stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first being a parish church consecrated in 1147. As the most important religious building in Austria's capital, the cathedral has born witness to many important events in that nation's history and has become one of the city's most recognizable symbols."
--Wikipedia

Brief History of The Crypt

"The basement of the cathedral also hosts the Bishops, Provosts and Ducal crypts. The most recent interment in this crypt completed in 1952 under the south choir was that of 98-year-old Cardinal Franz König in 2004. Provosts of the cathedral are buried here. Other members of the cathedral chapter are now buried in a special section at the Zentralfriedhof. The Ducal Crypt located under the chancel holds 78 bronze containers with the bodies, hearts, or viscera of 72 members of the Habsburg dynasty."-- Wikipedia

Finally, the concert arrives!

Before leaving Austria, I must have one last bite of...

Next: Hungary!