From Hungary we launched ourselves into Vienna by train. We got straight into it and headed to a museum of contemporary art to check out the Hippies Use the Side Door exhibition. The signs for it confused a bunch of us as we searched for the said side door. Then Frosty the genius opened the normal door and that it the story of how we entered the museum.
It was pretty cool with headphones playing sweet beats, big fluffy toys on atomic bombs, cone of silence style music speakers and swirling lights. After stuffing ourselves full of culture we moved on to stuffing ourselves full of cake! Not just any cake but the Sacher Torte from the original Sacher cafe made to the original Sacher recipe. Well la-di-da! We were pretty under dressed for the swank setting but it was pretty cool being served by ladies in maid outfits and offering to take our coats aka hoodies. Our delicious cake was served with an equally delicious espresso with cream mmmmmm yum yum yum! Our new favourite!
Because my new favourite thing to do is go on food tours we chose to do that the next day. Because Vienna is expensive I designed our own food tour and it was possibly the best day of our entire lives! That's how good a tour guide I am. We started in the food markets perusing the delightful treats and sampling a few before heading to old Cafe Sperl for a breakfast of champions (apple strudel and Vienna coffee). Our day had us sampling delectable sandwiches with wine, chocolates, pickles, grass cheese, beer (not as good as Budapest!) And my all time favourites sausage and schnitzel (Frosty had my salad) Oh and I also got a knödel whooaaaah baby! Great day! The beer was pretty average in Vienna but we found a pretty cosy little wine bar we visited a few times. a guy with white gloves served us! He was a bit of a snob (and another word that rhymes with that) but the owner was pretty lovely and liked to answer our questions about wine e.g. what's your cheapest.
That evening we watched The Third Man as we were planning to go on the famous Ferris wheel. This thing was pretty impressive. It was made in the late 1800s and only the cabins were new-ish as the old ones had been burned down during WW2. The rest of the theme park was like a horror movie because it was the quiet season and it was almost all closed.
It was pretty cool with headphones playing sweet beats, big fluffy toys on atomic bombs, cone of silence style music speakers and swirling lights. After stuffing ourselves full of culture we moved on to stuffing ourselves full of cake! Not just any cake but the Sacher Torte from the original Sacher cafe made to the original Sacher recipe. Well la-di-da! We were pretty under dressed for the swank setting but it was pretty cool being served by ladies in maid outfits and offering to take our coats aka hoodies. Our delicious cake was served with an equally delicious espresso with cream mmmmmm yum yum yum! Our new favourite!
Because my new favourite thing to do is go on food tours we chose to do that the next day. Because Vienna is expensive I designed our own food tour and it was possibly the best day of our entire lives! That's how good a tour guide I am. We started in the food markets perusing the delightful treats and sampling a few before heading to old Cafe Sperl for a breakfast of champions (apple strudel and Vienna coffee). Our day had us sampling delectable sandwiches with wine, chocolates, pickles, grass cheese, beer (not as good as Budapest!) And my all time favourites sausage and schnitzel (Frosty had my salad) Oh and I also got a knödel whooaaaah baby! Great day! The beer was pretty average in Vienna but we found a pretty cosy little wine bar we visited a few times. a guy with white gloves served us! He was a bit of a snob (and another word that rhymes with that) but the owner was pretty lovely and liked to answer our questions about wine e.g. what's your cheapest.
That evening we watched The Third Man as we were planning to go on the famous Ferris wheel. This thing was pretty impressive. It was made in the late 1800s and only the cabins were new-ish as the old ones had been burned down during WW2. The rest of the theme park was like a horror movie because it was the quiet season and it was almost all closed.
Enough chit chat! It was time to head to the mountains! Another train ride later we eventually arrived in Studeny Potok. A quiet little mountain town where we had swank accommodation. It was lovely here. We spent our days roaming the mountain side and admiring the impressive cable car runs. unfortunately they were all closed for a month but we didn't even want to go on them anyway! We didn't even walk for an hour to get to them. We just felt like the walk! Anyway! We also visited fancy hotels for fancy coffee and tasted the local specialties; garlic soup and noodles with sheep's cream and bacon. Mmm. It's nice, it's different, it's unusual. Our evenings were spent in spas and saunas and sampling the best weiner schnitzel alongside the worst red wine ever.
One day we decided to go on a walk to see a beautiful lake. We trudged up a mountain and through pine forests to get to the crystal clear lake nestled in a valley. It was beautiful! On our way back we took the easy path to make sure we got the last train to town. I saw a sign that said 'recent bear sightings in this area' that helped us pick up the pace a bit! our train was due in about 45 minutes and we reckon we could get there in 40 with this Olympic pace we kept. As we got closer we could see the tracks and knew we were close. Then we could see the train coming down the mountain and had to leg it! We ran like the wind and I was grateful that it was downhill! We dashed across the tracks before the train and sprinted toward the station which turned out to be a wooden platform with nothing around. The train track curved around so everyone on board would have had a perfect and drawn out view of two puffballs (in our winter jackets) running to the train. We made it. A few people even stood up to shake our hand and one guy was an Olympic trainer and asked us if we wanted to go to the Olympics. Sorry mate! We're on holidays. No one gave up their seats for us though so we had to take the two dickie seats left and huffed and puffed as quietly as possible so we didn't disturb the others.
One day we decided to go on a walk to see a beautiful lake. We trudged up a mountain and through pine forests to get to the crystal clear lake nestled in a valley. It was beautiful! On our way back we took the easy path to make sure we got the last train to town. I saw a sign that said 'recent bear sightings in this area' that helped us pick up the pace a bit! our train was due in about 45 minutes and we reckon we could get there in 40 with this Olympic pace we kept. As we got closer we could see the tracks and knew we were close. Then we could see the train coming down the mountain and had to leg it! We ran like the wind and I was grateful that it was downhill! We dashed across the tracks before the train and sprinted toward the station which turned out to be a wooden platform with nothing around. The train track curved around so everyone on board would have had a perfect and drawn out view of two puffballs (in our winter jackets) running to the train. We made it. A few people even stood up to shake our hand and one guy was an Olympic trainer and asked us if we wanted to go to the Olympics. Sorry mate! We're on holidays. No one gave up their seats for us though so we had to take the two dickie seats left and huffed and puffed as quietly as possible so we didn't disturb the others.
Out of the mountains and back to the city! We stopped in to Bratislava, the capital city, where they sold shirts that said "where the hell is Bratislava?" Well wherever it was, we were in it. It was a quiet and small city with not much going on. We cruised the streets looking in antique shops trying to find the perfect house warming present for Mouse and Marty. We found it in a dusty old antique shop. They were hand drawn prints cut out from old newspapers and framed. They were so cool and well priced that frosty and I thought that we would buy our very first souvenirs to take home for the trip! I wrote a cheeky message in Marty and Mouse's and we carried them everywhere so they wouldn't get crushed. Some lucky person at a London airport had the best day ever after finding them on top of an ATM and taking them home to hang on their wall. All the while wondering who Mouse, Marty,Kat and Frosty were. We didn't even realise until hours later when we were pulling in to Bristol. Mouse and Marty would have to make do with our beautiful selves instead.
And that brings us to Bristol! A cool, happening city where we stayed in an apartment on the very cool and happening Gloucester road. We even invited the very cool and happening Kieren around and had a raging weekend together. We drank beer, I cooked food, we danced, walked in lush autumny parks and went cruising in Kizz's outrageous monster truck. It was nice having friends again!
Our next stop was Iceland and oooooh baby it was gonna be great!!
And that brings us to Bristol! A cool, happening city where we stayed in an apartment on the very cool and happening Gloucester road. We even invited the very cool and happening Kieren around and had a raging weekend together. We drank beer, I cooked food, we danced, walked in lush autumny parks and went cruising in Kizz's outrageous monster truck. It was nice having friends again!
Our next stop was Iceland and oooooh baby it was gonna be great!!