World Adventure

Gruss Gott

Still in Vienna.

Sunday. Not a good day to find out that all but 2 supermarkets were closed and those that were open were a long way from where we were staying. We could have spend 3.6 Euro each and been there in a couple of minutes but chose walk for hours to get there. I wanted to have a schnitzel in Vienna. Why not? The going rate was 9.9 Euro in town and looked pretty good but figured we could do better getting one from the supermarket and cooking it at the apartment. Well we walked and walked and walked and couldn´t find the supermarket. Eventually we found it in the train station and it was really busy. I had the urge just to leave but we needed food. The only schnitzel we could find was a cooked one it the hot food area and the way it crumbled when the assistant wrapped it was a sure sign that it was not going to be good. The cost was 6 Euro. Get the feeling that we should have gone to the restaurant? yes. We did as well? I put mine in a couple of slices of bread and some baby spinach. Not good. Well at least we had 6 cornettos to eat to follow up.It was more economical to purchase a box then an individual icecream so what choice did we have....oink oink oink.(Editor:we need to get calcium  from somewhere!!!)

We were quite tired after walking around and by the time we were near the apartment we realised that we only had 30 minutes before we needed to go and queue for the cheap opera tickets for the evening. The box office at the Vienna state opera sells cheap standing only tickets but you need to queue at least 90 minutes before the start of the opera. Tonight's opera was Don Carlo and was to go for 3.5hrs and add the 90 minutes and it was going to be a bit of a marathon standing effort. So we got dressed up. Vanessa in her normal long sleeve top and hiking pants and I in weather beaten red t-shirt and hiking pants (Editor:At least you changed your footwear from thong sandals to hiking boots) and got in line. Eventually were rewarded with our 4 Euro tickets and led in to wait in the inside the opera. Once inside there was a rush for positions and we got lucky in the shuffle getting some pretty central to the stage and almost as elevated at the first row box seats. The tradition is to tie a scarf along the lower rail of leaning posts to reserve position and we marked our space. Vanessa stood guard anyway and it was a good idea as queue jumpers were moving into reserved positions anyway. The were small LCD screens for language translation. In this case from Italian to English which were very useful. The opera was great. Everything we imagined it would be with superb opera singing, orchestra and dramatic theatre. The conductor jumping around enthusiastically was also entertaining. It was a little cramped until intermission when many left. It was hard work standing but we really were enjoying it and stuck it out to the end. which came about rather  abruptly and was a little  anticlimactic after the hours of build up  .....cries of bravo! bravo! bravo! were heard coming from the audience.  Rapturous applause a standing ovation and the curtain closes So there you go. Opera in Vienna for 8 Euros.

Vanessa decided that it was time for a haircut. Well she decided months ago but wasn´t brave enough to try with foreign language speaking hairdressers. There was a hairdressing salon with lots of hairdressers bearing  tattoos and piercings, a Go Go cages and even it´s own DJ this probably should have been the moment to leave but we tried to go in anyway.It was conservative  Vienna after all how bad could it really be and  this had to be the spot. It was going well the young man at the reception spoke English so Vanessa booked in for a haircut. I went an found a comfortable chair in the museum quarters nearby and looked up information on the Russian visa for an hour. When I got back someone was trying to sell Vanessa some hair product for 38Euro. Not likely. It turned out that the hairdresser barely spoke English and struggled to find  the words for towel and fringe so it was difficult for Vanessa to explain what she required. Flashbacks to Madrid where she last got the last haircut. The dream was to acquire a modern  asymmetric bob shorter in the back and longer at the front (totally out of character for a RTW traveller) but the reality was a  layered haircut cut with an integrated fringe. Oh well with the  haircut,deep conditioning ,blow drying and straightening at least it was neat for the remainder of the day. At least it wasn´t a number two crew cut, pink colouring and a nose ring thrown in for good measure.

We took it easy on our last day in Vienna as we were basically worn out. A short trip to a Gustav Klimt exhibition which was really a sales room for stereographic reproductions. They looked really good and I could imagine one on the wall of the house. We didn´t buy anything at the exhibit but got a Gustav Klimt postcard from a shop nearby. Near enough. We will have to get Vanessa´s sister to paint a copy for us. We found ourselves back at the markets for some more addictive wasabi coated peanuts and green olives with feta and parmesan cores.

Off to the train. Our first sleeper train for the trip. Only problem was that there were triple bunks and we were on the top and even worse were they were made for pygmies (5´10" or less) so I couldn´t lay down straight. Bugger. We were sharing with a conservative German woman who had just visited Vienna with her neat tick list. She was an accountant and she stayed within her allocated space (Editor:imagine excel spreadsheet cell) so at least we had the illusion of owning the rest of the space. Not that it matter as next door decided to penetrate our space with his snoring (editor:David was backing vocal at one point as well!!!). I´m sure that the noise pollution that infiltrated our eardrums   is an  all too   familiar scenario for some blog readers households!! (Editor:Yes I´m sure Fred could empathize with us !)  So we didn´t sleep well and were ready to get off when the train arrived at Frankfurt central station at 525am.

Next problem was the bus. No information open at that time of the morning. We knew that the bus left from the station but where? asked a bus driver who pointed us in the right direction and soon we were on the 6am bus headed for Franfurt Hahn airport. Now there is no way this airport should be called Frankfurt as it is at least 70km away and takes almost 2 hrs travel. It is a hub for budget carrier Ryanair which is quite convenient for them but not their customers. We at least the critical legs of our trip were over even if we arrived at the airport 6hrs early. We had the option of catching a later train but it would have been a critical path schedule so we decided on the former.

We left a box full of our camping equipment at Petras place. So we were quite surprised when we did a trial weigh in and found our packs were 16 and 18 kg and day packs 6 and 8.5 kg. Not good when our bag allowance was 15kg and 10kg for hand luggage. So we redistributed our gear between packs and used the old trick of wearing clothes and jackets then stripping them off once on the aircraft to come in under weight. Hate to think of our normal pack weights!

Checked in. So now we wait for our flight to Oslo at 210pm....

Ok. This entry is getting boring the more I write so it is time to stop.

Auf Wiedersehen,
David and Vanessa