Innsbruck = Awesomebruck!

We got up this morning, ate some (nearly) stale bread with a load of nutella on it (people eat a lot of nutella here) and that saved it, somewhat. Then we checked out of our hostel and headed to the train station. We had reserved seats for this ride, which was a change, so we knew once we sat down we wouldn't have to change seats during the ride (if the seat owners showed up, which has happened before).

The train ride was long, nearly five hours but the last hour or so made it worth it as we arrived to the alps!! Wow, they sure were something to look at from the train and got us more excited to arrive to Innsbruck.

We were not disappointed when we got out of the train station and a peak of the Nordkette surprised us! Absolutely stunning. It took our breath away... Jeff thinks it's awesome.

We arrived to our hotel and happily checked in. Our room is substantially bigger than the last place and there aren't any holes in the sheets or the duvet cover (yay). The only weird thing about the room is that the toilet is in one little room and the bathtub/shower and sink are in another one beside it; I haven't seen that before.

Jeff and I were super hungry by the time we lugged our stuff up to our room so we went to find cheap and easy food... Pizza and fries not far from the hotel. We took a little walk and found a mini-Billa store and picked up breakfast ingredients for the next couple of days as we have a mini fridge in our room.

Once we got back we found flipflops and bathrobes in a closet, so we wandered down to the pool area. We were the only ones there which was nice :) We went for a dip, sat in the sauna and then had a shower that played bird noises while the water ran (it felt like rain) and thunderstorms when the mist was on (so much fun and actually relaxing). We then lay on a couple of chairs and relaxed while we dried off.

Afterward, I did some wash in the sink (I will never complain about doing laundry at home again! I think I have said this before) and then dressed to go find something for dinner. We weren't interested in sitting down and Jeff wasn't sure he wanted to risk something 'funky' so, if you can believe it, we got McDonalds (hangs head in shame). We were not having more pizza or kebabs or pasta. No more, I say! And the only thing vastly different than those things was McDs.

We then found a proper supermarket, with better prices, and picked up some snacks and headed home to eat dinner and chill out.

We're excited to be here and are glad we came here instead of Budapest, even though I've heard good things about Budapest! The mountains are gorgeous and are a refreshing change of scenery. We're going to hike on the Nordkette tomorrow! It should be quite the experience. I have to remember to wear everything I've brought with me as it most likely will be very cold (if I remember correctly from climbing the volcano in Ecaudor, Cotopaxi... I was freezing!)

Although I am not trying to rush this part of our trip, as I am excited about the next few days, I am acutely aware that Italy is just around the corner and I'm very excited for that as well!

Anyway, time to rest up for our big day tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a great weekend,
Much love,
Amanda

Schonbrunn Palace

Hello hello,

Today was a much better day for us after taking it easy yesterday. We headed off to Billa, the grocery store, for breakfast and picked up some yogurt (Jeff didn't get the smarties yogurt like yesterday, lol), some cookie cereal, fruit and a sandwich for lunch. We had trouble looking at all the yogurt because there were a few people filming something and they kept doing different shots and interviews. They eventually asked me if I wanted to be interviewed for Chinese t.v. and I said, sure, why not? lol. They asked me two questions about my views on organic food and I gave them my honest answer - if it wasn't so expensive we'd buy more of it. Jeff said I did a good job. Too bad they didn't ask my name and now I'll be some random person they interviewed... A Canadian in Austria being interviewed for Chinese television... Too funny.

Then we headed off to Schonbrunn Palace. It took about half an hour or so to get there (walking) and we took some back alleyway that kind of creeped us out a little bit. It was definitely off the beaten path and so we took different route on the way back.

The palace was so busy! Who knew it would be jammed with people at noon on a Thursday? We made it through though and picked up our English audio pieces - similar to the ones in The Fascination and Horror exhibit in Germany where you hold it to your ear. We went through 20+ rooms of the palace which was pretty neat! Quite elaborate stuff for sure. I still don't quite understand who all lived there and when (I'm hopeless) but I do remember that the last person who was born there died at 86 years old in 1916. It was a neat experience to see part of a palace and the place was so huge!

We spent a couple of hours afterward wandering through the gardens, where we had lunch, and to some other sights on the palace property. Jeff wanted to go to the zoo but due to time constraints and the price we decided not too. Oh well. We wandered through a labrynth (maze) instead that was terribly overpriced, but we didn't know that until we got in. We entertained ourselves though.

It was pretty chilly out all day and only in the late afternoon did the sun begin to shine. I'm sick of the cold, wet and dreary weather!

We grabbed some more groceries from Billa for dinner, which turned out great - spicy sausage, mushrooms, green pepper, tomato and Uncle Ben's mediterranean 2-minute rice. It was really good and we were really glad to have some vegetables!

We've nearly figured out the rest of our trip as well, which feels really good. I feel more relaxed now that we have more of a plan and some places are booked. I'm excited!

We're heading to Innsbruck tomorrow to a nice hotel for three nights, then spending an extra night in a hostel.
Then we'll be heading to Venice for three nights before heading to the Cinque Terre for three nights.
After that it shoud be a week in Rome, the last hostel we have to book :) I feel more energized and enthused knowing that we're still on budget and may even have a little bit more to play with. Our planning has really helped that way.

Tomorrow is a long ride to Innsbruck but Jeff and I are just so excited to see the Alps! We have some hiking in mind over the weekend and seeing as it's supposed to be sunny and 19 for the next few days, our hopes are high.

I'll update from the mountains,

Amanda

100th Post!

It's kind of funny that today should be my 100th post since starting this Eurotrip adventure, because we didn't do anything today! Nothing! lol Okay, well, we slept in, went to the grocery store to pick up breakfast, had breakfast in the kitchen area, I piddled around on the ipad for a long time researching hostels and towns we are planning to see while Jeff attempted to have a nap (he was unsuccessful - he had slept poorly last night), then we went and bought train tickets and then went for a short walk in the pouring rain. Now Jeff's napping, but probably not for much longer and I'm trying to plan a route through the Cinque Terre ("chinkwa tare") in Italy when we get there in a week or so. So, it's been a pretty relaxing and easy day today. Since the weather has been crummy for the last five days or so, we thought we'd just hangout. Tomorrow it is supposed to be better (fingers crossed) and so we have plans to explore some huge palace and possibly the oldest zoo in Europe :)

So, not much to write about really!

Doing all the research constantly is getting a little tiring though, it really is mentally draining. Both Jeff and I cringe a little bit at the thought of continuing to look at hostels and prices and locations to the train and the sights and blah blah blah... If we hadn't bounced so much from place to place (mainly because of the Rhine cruise and Oktoberfest) we probably wouldn't be so ugly about the hostel hunt now. Oh well! Live and learn.

When Jeff gets up and brings our dinner ingredients from our room over (pasta with uncle ben's sauce [with pork in the fridge from the grocery store]) we'll start on that and then have a quiet evening probably. Jeff's off beer right now after being sick (I know, I'm shocked too, lol) so no pubs for us right now! We've got a potentially busy day tomorrow and then a long train ride to Innsbruck on Friday. Still lots to look forward to - I mentioned to Jeff that I think all of the 'awesomeness' is tiring us out, lol We just don't know how to handle all of the excitement. :)

Hope you're having a super day!

Amanda

Vienna, Austria

Yesterday was cold and wet. We wandered around for over five hours with all of our bags, which are getting heavier (I already chucked a pair of shorts and I have a feeling other things are going to be chucked to make room for souvenirs). We spent two hours in an Italian restaurant where we had pizza and some soup and a hot chocolate - it was our Thanksgiving meal and it was nothing compared to mom's traditional turkey spread! We were trying to keep and stay dry and warm. We sat undercover outside, did a little shopping and generally widdled away the time.

The shuttle arrived on time and the ride was shared with a family of five. It was all pretty uneventful. Had I not known we were in Czech/Austria it would have looked just like home. It took about three hours to get to our hostel.

The hostel room is small (but not Amsterdam boat smal!) but still a little cramped. The sheets are questionable and there are holes... We're not thoroughly impressed.

We found some dinner at a doner place (surprised?) as it was cheap and easy for after 8pm. The kitchen had been WAY too busy to attempt to make our own food like we had planned. How does a huge hostel only have one sink and one stove top for all these people to share? It's kind of ridiculous.

We have a t.v. in our room but I'd rather have better sheets. I even put the pillowcase I brought ontop of the pillowcase they provided. We watched CNN in English which was nice for a change although rather depressing as CNN tends to be.

I got up and showered in a tiny stall and then walked to the grocery store to get breakfast and a few things (yogurt, nutella, granola bars, water, apples). Jeff and I walked to the centre of the old town and saw the catherdral, a gorgeous old Baroque church, a memorial to the 65 000 Austrian Jews that were killed by the Nazis (very sad), and about half a dozen McDonalds' and H&Ms (okay, at least three of each and on the same street!). It was six hours of walking.

We're finding that a lot of places are starting to blur together and are starting to all look the same, which is draining and not so much fun. We're beginning to get tired of the hustle and bustle, the getting lost, oriented and then having to do it over and over again. So, we are changing our plans and are going to take a 'break' from our traveling (if you can believe it). We booked three nights at this spectacular sounding resort in Innsbruck, Austria, in the alps. It's expensive but we still got a deal (42% off the regular price). It has a pool and saunas and relaxing areas. I think Jeff is really in need of a break after being sick and we're both getting tired. We're going to skip Budapest and after Innsbruck head to Venice, Cinque Terre and then Rome (maybe for a week with some day trips). It'll be, hopefully, less chaotic that way and each place will be quite different than the others, which should inspire some excitement.

We'll see how it goes. We're already looking forward to this place in Innsbruck and we just booked it this evening.

We made dinner before the mad rush of other hostelers and we were lucky enough to get the extra of someone else's meal shared with us - homemade bolognese pasta sauce with meat (which was probably a lot better than our Uncle Ben's 'out-of-a-jar' stuff).

Jeff just came back from the store with some apple juice and now we're going to head back to our room - which is outside of this building about eight seconds away (but a pain nonetheless because we don't have internet in our room and it's only in this building... Urgh).

Time to do a little research for tomorrow's adventure.

Hope you're having a super day,

Amanda

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at home!

Our day doesn't look too inviting at this point. We're checking out of our place at 11am (15 min) and then don't catch our shuttle to Vienna until 4:45pm... And it's cold and wet outside and we'll have all our luggage with us. So, we'll have to get creative with things to do today with our stuff as well as how to keep warm. I'm not thrilled about it. We both may need to buy hats and gloves!

Anyway, better put this away and get ready to bundle up... Maybe I should put just one more layer on, that'll make it five with two jackets... Maybe not, four should be good with a backpack on either side of me as well. Urgh...

Will update from Vienna!

Amanda

Why did I do that?

For those of you who don't know, I'm not a big fan of puppets... I think they're creepy. What if they come alive? Pinnochio was cute when he turned into a real boy but what if he had been evil? I know, cartoon, but still. Anyway, there seem to be a lot of puppets and marionette dolls here and I don't like it. There is even a puppet museum! Now, while I was out wandering on my own for a bit this afternoon I came across a wax museum and thought it may be entertaining to wander through. What I realized about 2 seconds after entering the exhibit is that wax figures are like giant life-size puppets!! This was not a good idea. I freaked myself out on more than one occasion as I walked through, alone, listening to eeire music play in dark rooms with GIANT PUPPETS! Needless to say, I was uncomfortable and at one point had to take a picture with my flash just to see if I was supposed to go into a room because it was so dark, but I could see something (a female witch or something dressed in white with an owl that faded in and out). I was supposed to look but not go in, so when I hit the partition rope with my legs I nearly screamed.

Once the scarier wax figures and dark scenes were over and it got brighter, I was less afraid, until I entered a room with a dozen or so figures. My imagintion was getting the better of me as I imagined Albert Einstein and the pope coming alive to get me... But then I came across Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Louis Armstrong and the best of all, Harry Potter (!!!!!) and I felt better. I'm glad it ended on a high note or those few euros it cost me would nearly have been a waste! Note to self, don't go into those types od things alone. No wonder I could never go into a Haunted House as a kid.

After that slightly terrifying experience, I meandered through the streets of Cesky Krumlov at a very leisurely pace. I took in the adorable views, the many tourist groups swarming the streets, ate a delicious traditional Czech bread – cylinder bread roasted then coated in sugar and cinnamon (yum) and window shopped. I was surprised how busy the town was for a Sunday afternoon as most places we've gone, Sundays are pretty quiet days.

Jeff and I then went to the castle and wandered around. We got to see bears! There were two of them outside the castle walls, in a "bear moat". Long story short, the "Cesky Krumlov Český Castle is decorated with ostentatious coats-of-arms of the lords of Rosenberg bearing the sign of the five-petalled rose in a silver field and bears as the shield-bearers. The Rosenberg family legend held that the Rosenbergs were related to the noble Italian family of Orsini. "Orsa" means 'she-bear' in Italian, and it is this animal motif which especially the last Rosenberg rulers used to demonstrate their relationship with the house of Orsini. They used the motif in their coat-of-arms, in which two bears are shown as shield-bearers. This alleged relationship was to support the antiquity of the house of Rosenberg, leading its roots to as early as ancient Rome." (http://www.castle.ckrumlov.cz/docs/en/zamek_1nadvori_mhisto.xml). So, they keep bears at the castle! I didn't know that until I got back to our room and googled it! We sure were surprised to see them.

I climbed to the top of the tower (that is decorted with pinks and turquoise) for some spectacular views of the town and a birds-eye view into the bear moat :) Needless to say, I took lots of pictures of both.

I'm not sure what the plan for dinner will be as Jeff's got a bit of a stomachache so I may get something on my own. No plain, boiled noodles for me thank you! :). I'm definitely missing turkey dinner and all the fixings at home.

I'm going to do some research about Venice so we can stay a couple of days or so without going broke... :) It'll be herre before we know it.

Until next time,

Amanda

***

Went out to find dinner and enjoyed garlic bread and cheese soup, fried cheese and a beer... A dinner of champions! I am now garlicy and cheesey... It was delicious though. :)

Eggenberg Brewery Tour

Hello hello!

So, after an interesting night's sleep in a blood red room that was at least 100 degrees, lying in bed surrounded by pervocative paintings and listening to something 'click' oniniously throughout the night, we got up and headed to the Eggenberg brewery tour at 11am. They only do one tour a day for people who just show up, so it was 11am or bust. We made it though. Jeff bought a ticket that included two half litres of beer for tasting after the tour and a four beer 'gift set' (akak 'will drink later' set) and I got a ticket for the tour and tastings.

We were taken on an English speaking tour through this very old brewery (1560). It was named Eggenberg after a family who had owned it for 100 years. At some points in time it was closed because they couldn't get supplies to make the beer during the war or owned by the country during the communist regime and at another time taken over by the nazis. We were shown how the sweet beer water (before fermentation) was created with the hops and all sifted through. Then shown where the yeast was added to the vats where the beer sits for awhile before the brewmaster tastes it and decides if it's ready to bottle or keg (10-12 days or so). We learned that the worker who cleans out the vat is called the mole, lol. We got to see how the bottles and kegs are filled by conveyor, even though it was quite old looking! The beer used to be kept cold in summer months by putting ice in the attic above the fermentation tanks and sometimes it would go bad. We also learned the difference between 10% and 12% beer, and it's not the alcohol but the percentage of malt and hops to water which means the higher the percentage the stronger the taste. The 10% beer has 4% alcohol, a light beer, and 12% is 5% alcohol. In the communist era, beer was brewed at 7 or 8% (so 3-4% alcohol) so the workers wouldn't get drunk but could still have a beer during their break. Eggenberg beer is only exported to a few countries (not ours!) but mostly stays in the Czech. It was an interesting tour but the best part was afterward!

We sat with a number of people from our tour group and chatted for nearly two hours, enjoying a litre of beer each. We talked a lot about language and our countries and beer. It was really enjoyable and the best part of the day.

As it has been rainy and cold today (10 degrees! It hurts to think it's 24 and sunny at home right now) we walked for a bit after our tour through the town but eventually headed back to our place to warm up and get dry. We did some research for our next place and what our plan will be for the next few weeks. We're heading to the Horror Bar (it should be entertaining as it's Halloween themed all year) for a drink tonight and then will head out to find something to eat.

Jeff read somewhere that there isn't any bad place to eat in Cesky Krumlov so hopefully we stumble across something delicious! Some hot comfort food in this dreary weather would be nice!

Have a fabulous day today and chat soon!

Amanda

***

So, while we were getting dressed to head out I heard a number of voices outside our door and I guessed that one of them had to be Maty's. Maty's business card self-describes as:

"eccentric transmasculine FtM (female to male)
performance artist cabaret actor
drag king contemporary painter
photo-pirate avant-garde writer
modern poet transqueer
androgynous genderfluid
introverted half
of Drag Addicts duet
pseudo-intellectual diettante &
genderplay illusionst"

Maty was so helpful to us! We got loads of inside information about places to go (and not go!) that had great food or quirky atmosphere's. We learned about a gypsy restaurant that had great food and a very closeby bar that is mostly full of locals (the owner opened up so he could serve his friends cheap beer, essentially). We also learned of a supposedly really delicious deli/bakery in town as well.

So, we headed out to the gypsy restaurant and although it was really quite difficult to find, as the front door looked like a back door, we found it. It was awkward as we stepped in, everyone staring but we sat found a seat and sat down. The owner (we presume as we were told it is a family owned and run business) got us drinks and we thankfully could read the menu because it had English. I got potato pancakes with boiled cabbage (saurkraut) and ham and Jeff got a spicy pork mix with fries. While we waited at a table for six, three women joined us because the small place was busy. Both of our meals were delicious and a lot of food for the price.

We then headed out to the Horror Bar and although Maty said it's touristy, there wasn't any English or other recognizable language (other than Czech) in the place and it was busy too. We were again greeted by stares and no idea where to go to sit as everything was full. So, we followed some stairs and found an eerie room with a coffin, turned over piano, and eeire lights (from the 70s! AH! lol). It was in some sort of cellar and with no natural light it would be creepy all the time. We had passed a see-through coffin that was used as a table and there were skeleton things hanging from the ceiling and scary looking candles. We ended up ordering from a flustered bar woman and sat by ourselves in a back room. There was no music so we just sat and talked over a drink.

Then we headed out to the Gorrila Bar, the one that is mostly locals. We entered again with trepidation but just sat down and got a drink when the owner came by. There were a lot of men and a number of them were watching a tennis match on a big t.v. There was music playing too. The walls were covered in torn out magazine posters of rock groups and they were framed. There was also a giant poster of Homer Simpson that said, "To alcohol" that was also framed. The place was pretty easy-going but the smoking inside waw getting to me. I am thankful that there is no smoking indoors in Canada anymore!

We didn't stay long before climbing up our 80 stairs and then eventually hitting the hay.