Vienna

Vienna! (Adam): Thu 10/08/2006 6:14 PM

Hey again everyone,

Hope all is goin well back home. Prague was excellent, in the last few days there we took a trip to the castle (where I learned to fire a crossbow, it's harder than it looks, god only knows how they used to hit anything on horseback) and found our way through the mirror maze at the top of themountain. We went to a bar with seven different rooms all hidden underground - I got lost in all of them trying to find the toilets. We also went for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around town - very Jane Austen. We ate at The DogŽs Bollocks and went to the Palace (where I was surprised to find that guns are not allowed - I wonder if this means they are allowed at all the places where there isn't a 'no guns allowed' sign?).

Now we are in sunny Vienna and it is sunny. Here it seems to be the law to make all buildings as ornate looking as possible so every single one seems to be decorated with statues. We are only here for 3 days so we are trying to see everything quickly. Yesterday we walked around the centre and saw all the sights, today we went to the theatre museum (so I'll have something to say when I return to king's for that theatre course next year) then walked around the parks. Played a bit of frisbee with a crazy local which was interesting coz he kept trying all these fancy throws and launching it in the wrong direction.

i am disappointed that no one here resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger in any way whatsoever although he is Austrian. Austrian people do not even sound like him so who knows where he got that ridiculous accent.

Other than this, I have a vest mark in my tan that refuses to go away and we are off to Bratislava on Saturday. Anyone who knows where that is must be wiser than me. I'll email u again from there to let u know where it is coz honestly I have never heard of it in my life!

catch ya later

Adam

Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest (Carly): Tue 15/08/2006 8:13 PM

Hi guys

Ready for your next installment of our adventures?

Was planning to write from Bratislava but we didn't manage to find an internet cafe - oh the shock and horror of being disconnected!

Still we managed to survive it and despite not having easy internet, Bratislava is lovely and well worth a visit if anyone is ever in the area! We bought a brill guide book with 5 walks in it, it was a bit like being on a tour as it told us lots of stories and legends about the places! My favourite was probably the coronation walk, we traced the steps of the newly crowned king/queen which is helpfully marked by little golden circles with crowns inside on the floor! The other great thing about Bratislava is that there are bronze statues everywhere so that there is always something interesting to spot if you keep your eyes peeled! Need to be a bit careful though as one is of a man peering out of a drain cover and I nearly fell over him one night!

Weirdly bumped into a girl I knew from St Anne's who was with a guy in Scott's year! Funny as my friends say I see someone I know everywhere I go and just the day before I had said to Adam that I hadn't seen anyone yet! even more random they are now staying in the same hostel as us in Budapest!

Vienna was lovely, lots of classical architecture and gardens kept in perfect order! But as Adam said "it all looked lovely but there wasn't really that much to do"! I guess it just shows what a difference a good guide book makes!

We've just arrived in Budapest and it all looks very nice so far, they have a festival on at the moment, it finishes today but it means that the weekly English guide we picked up mainly focuses on that!

We are also not sure what the time is, it might be gmt+1 or gmt+2, guess I'll have to look it up on the internet, don't want to miss the overnight train on Friday!

Adam will be glad on Saturday when we are in Venice as then the rest of the trip is in Italy with the euro, he has been having difficulties with all the different currencies we've been using and seems to amass change in pointless little coins as if it was going out of fashion - when we left Vienna he had over 22 euros in coins!

Hard to believe that we are half way through this mini adventure already and so far (touch wood) without any disasters, even if I do say so myself I'm pretty impressed!

Think that should do it for now! Until next time lots of love to all

Carly xxxx