Day Twenty-Four
Venice
31 August 2007 - 21:54

With our shoes mostly dried from the day before, we headed out in the direction of the San Marco church, considered the “must see” in Venice, besides the water.

The line was incredibly long for San Marco and when a lady approached us and offered for 10€ to give us (and others) a tour and to skip the line, we agreed. The lady gave us an interesting history of Venice and decent tour of the church. Even though we have seen plenty this one is very different. The entire roof is lined with mosaic glass and gold leaf, and took 300 years to decorate. The sight is extremely impressive, but they ban photos (I took a couple anyway; another lady beside me whose flash fired was asked to stop).

While we were inside the church the rain began to fall again. The church actually floods and today was no exception. They are well prepared though, and have wooden boards for people to walk on.

Outside of the church, the whole plaza was flooded. People were weaving along the thin dry parts, and when we saw the line for the tower we decided just to get lost again.

With our map once again proving useless, we walked around looking at the masquerade masks, glass shops, and other Venetian things. As we looked in one glass shop, we saw the man inside making a blue glass cat. When he was finished we entered and bought the very same cat. It was still quite warm!

Later, Justine bought a papier mache mask and I bought a small (fake) bronze winged lion, which is a Venetian symbol.

We bought some packet pasta at a market along with a bag of mixed dry herbs and porcini mushrooms which seem to be the Italian equivalent of a jar of sauce. You fry the herbs and mix with the cooked pasta. Again Justine cooked; we mixed a jar of chunky tomatoes with it all too. Not bad.

Day Twenty-Three
Venice
30 August 2007 - 21:03

I had a reasonable night’s sleep on the train again — I highly recommend it unless you are scrimping and saving and can sleep in loud environments. Breakfast on this train was a tad better than the previous overnight train’s meat spread, though it was just yoghurt and juice for me.

As we had booked our tickets in Prague the tickets actually terminated the station before you cross over to Venice itself but the stewardess was kind enough to let us stay on until Venice.

The directions I had written to get us to the office to get our apartment’s keys were good, though we had to wait 20 minutes for the owner to show up (9:20am). Since our apartment was in another place, we still had to get there. They say that getting lost is all part of the experience in Venice, and it’s easy to see why you get lost. Numerous dead ends only a long jumper could cross, street names that change, street names that are all the same except for one small prefix and maps that are pathetically inaccurate. On every street people have large maps open. It’s fun wandering unless you want to go somewhere specific. The it’s maddening.

Still, we managed to find San Marco, even though it had closed before our arrival. In the large square there are literally thousands of pigeons being fed by people. They climb all over people, on their heads, arms, hands. We don’t get why people like it, pigeons are like flying rats!

Lunch was a single slice of pizza larger than our heads (seriously); Justine had margherita and I had salami and mushroom. Both were followed with gelati.

Dinner was bought from a supermarket — fresh gnocchi from a deli with a jar of sauce, which was much better than at home.

The best thing about Venice though, is the lack of cars. It’s so quiet here, even with all the tourists and boat motors rumbling.

Earlier in the morning, as we’d left our apartment, a massive thunderstorm quickly started. Lightning was so loud and so close, and sounded so crackly that we both jumped. The rain came down hard and even though we both had umbrellas our feet were both drenched.

It’s warm (and humid) here though, and I was wearing shorts. When the rain stopped, he waterways were so flooded shops closed, streets were flooding, people were in chairs outside restaurants holding their feet up out of the water. The rain was on and off for the rest of the day.

We approached a few guys about getting gondola rides. The most expensive wanted 200€, which is close the the cost of three nights accommodation in Rome!

There are heaps of mostly black people and Indian people selling knockoff bags, belts, sunglasses and more. Gucci, Armani, Fendi; you name it. In some areas there are so many it is actually difficult to walk.

Day Twenty-Two
Linz Train Station
29 August 2007 - 22:49

This morning we slept in rather than eating breakfast. The place we stayed in Vienna is a dorm — or at least seems be to — and we were right next to the kitchen for that floor… that they used at 2am.

Justine had a dull ache in her bottom teeth which had not subsided since the night before so we hunted via Google for a laser dentist in the suburb near us. We found a few so after checking out and putting our bags in a locker at the train station we went out in search of the first on the list.

Doctor “Toth” was the first on the list. We found what seemed to be the right building so entered. From the inside we had no idea what sort of building we were in or whether it was even one we were supposed to be in. There were no markings anywhere. We ascended two flights of stairs and at the top found an optometrist. They pointed us in the direction of the dentist. Once we found the office we entered after some initial confusion over having to buzz ourselves in.

After a bit more confusion over what we actually wanted we were asked to present an “E-card”, whatever that is. We explained our situation and were advised we would have to pay up front (at least after seeing the doctor) and follow up with our insurance later.

A long wait, followed by a short consultation where the dentist flicked a small store (or seed) out of Justine’s mouth. He told us to “have a good holiday” and we went out to pay. As I got my credit card out of my wallet the receptionist didn’t want us to pay! Obviously we lucked out and must have saved a few hundred euro in consulting fees.

Feeling somehow richer we returned to the centre of town and as we strolled around found a cake shop which has been in Vienna since 1786, “Demel”. We grabbed some of their cheapest stuff and went to a cheaper (and much crappier) place for lunch. We returned to Demel so Justine could have an apple strudel with cream. I had a little but don’t care for it that much. Justine loved it, though.

Since we had some time to kill before our train to Venice we strolled through the park; we bought Justine a gerbera, which was huge compared to the ones back home.

Our train to Venice is again two bunk beds in a private room. It’s a bit older than the last one but also a little quieter.

Tomorrow, Italy and Venice!

Day Twenty-One
Vienna
28 August 2007 22:06

This morning we took an underground train, with most of our souvenirs in tow, to the central Vienna post office. We spent the next hour and a half there. After packing our souvenirs tighthly into a box we approached the desk to find the clerk didn’t speak any English.

We filled out part of a customs form but couldn’t understand much of it. The man pointed to another clerk and told us he spoke English. As we approached his desk he walked off. It took him 15 minutes to return and when he did he was rather grumpy. Eventually we were able to fill out the forms and send our packages back home (hopefully!).

Since we had all day public transport tickets we took a train to Schloß Schönbrunn where we checked out the outside of the castle and it’s expansive grounds. There is a large fountain with a large column filled with heiroglyphs but apparently they are meaningless. Not wanting to tour the innards of yet another castle we left and took more trains to what seem to be persistent fairgrounds.

There is a ferris wheel which was created in 1897 so we rode the very large wheel. Each large cabin rocks back and forth when people move to one side or another and feels quite unstable which is rather a funny feeling.

It took three trains to get back to our hotel, we went out and got some Chinese take away — chicken, vegetables and rice — which had heaps of chicken and tasted like it also had a large dose of MSG.

Day Twenty
Vienna
27 August 2007 22:47

Since our hotel serves the breakfast earlier than our last two (they serve it 7:30 to 9:30) we got up a bit earlier than we have recently. Pretty standard continental breakfast.

Vienna does not seem to be as easy to get around as Prague, though the public transport system seems fine enough. The outer suburbs (compare to say, St Kilda) are not very picturesque and didn’t provide a great first impression. The inner city is quite nice though.

Today we saw many of Vienna’s most impressive buildings in the inner ring; many old museum buildings, universities, churches. One church we entered — the church of St Charles Borromeo — has a massive and very nice mural on the roof. Unfortunately (for us) the entire place is being restored which means there is a large scaffold in the centre of the church. However, there is an elevator you can catch to see the roof close up. At the top there was also a scaffold leading right up to the top. We both ascended but Justine went back quickly as it didn’t feel too stable.

As we decided to head back I turned and saw the Sacher Hotel. A famous cake (Sacher Torte) was invented by the owner so it’s a touristy thing to do to eat the cake there. So we did. We ordered one to share (a slice, not a cake!) and were given two. To be honest, I didn’t think it was that good, and Justine said it was “disgusting”. Justine made a Sacher Torte at school but says hers was different (more layers of cream and instead of apricot it had strawberry). Luckily for us they had only charged us for one slice so it sort of evened out.

While walking back to our hotel, we decided to try and rent bikes since they are free for the first hour after paying a registration fee. Unfortunately, my credit card wouldn’t work at all and though Justine’s worked at the final payment stage we got an “External Payment Refused” message. Weird.

Walking further we tried another bike rental machine (same company/service, but different location) with the same results. We also read just after you can only rent one bike per credit card.

It’s been really hot the past few days and today was no exception. You’d think this might mean things would be open late but supermarkets all over the city close at 7:00pm. In fact, most shops close at 7 sharp. Justine was even refused entry into one at 5 minutes to 7.

Most places in Europe run on 24-hour time also, which is different.

Day Nineteen
Vienna
26 August 2007 - 22:34

Bucking the recent trend we got out of bed a bit earlier than we had recently; I booked our Venice accommodation and after breakfast we headed for Hlavni Nadrazi train station to catch our train to Vienna.

After trying to first make our reservations for the International trip at the domestic counter, I managed to book our train but was advised that the train leaves from Holesovice station instead.

Rushing to the metro, we used the underground train for the first time in Prague. In fact, bsides the train trips in and out of the country, it was the only time we used public transport at all in Prague. We got off at Holesovice and boarded the train but on the wrong carriage — easily corrected.

These trains manage a measly 160km/h and are extremely uncomfortable. Luckily it was only a four hour trip. I passed the time by catching a short nap, taking some photos and doing some reading.

Finally we arrived at Vienna with another two passport stamps (they were a lot less menacing and more friendly this time around) and as usual got lost. I went into a furniture store and asked for help, the guy spoke no English and I speak no German, but together we figured out that we’d walked too far in one direction.

A little backtracking and we realised that streets in Vienna change name just for the hell of it I guess, and having no map made it tough. I got our “Let’s Go” book out with a basic map and we figured out where we were, so grabbed a metro train (two lines, six stops) and still had more walking. We walked past our hotel but only realised when the street name again changed. Another multi-lingual conversation, this time with a pizzeria guy, and we finally found the place, two hours after setting foot in Vienna. Phew.

Exhausted, we rested for a few moments before heading out to grab some food. We were both surprised at how dirty the place is but glad we’ve seen few beggars thus far in the city. Since it’s a Sunday, Vienna — like Munich — had shut down, we managed to find a place to eat, “Centimeter”, which sells bread by the cm.

We forewent the bread, I had a massive plate of chili and Justine had a spinach pancake. It seemed awful (chili was fine) in which I expect will be a pretty normal trend for a non-meat eater around these parts.

Day Eighteen
Prague
25 August 2007 23:43

We got up a little earlier than the past couple of days and after breakfast headed to the giant metronome which sits atop a large hill overlooking the city. Why it’s there is hard to guess, but it is considered a “sculpture”. The site on which it stands used to be the site of a massive Stalin statue and the Czech people tore it down so perhaps in some way it’s a reminder.

Now on the other side of the river, we tried to look for the church of St Nicholas but after looking for a while couldn’t find it.

We decided to kill some time by taking a cruise along the river that separates the city but we just missed the departure time by a few minutes. Instead, the tour operator asked another guy nearby to give us the same tour but on his small catamaran; it ended up being a private tour with just the two of us (and the boat’s owner)! It was nice to cruise in the sun, relaxing, taking in the sights. The owner even took photos of us and let me drive for a while.

It seems that the “old city” of Prague (the “old city” is over 1,000 years old and the “new city” is only 650) encourages wandering as this is what we did again. We found a small market so we did some souvenir shopping then did a little more shopping. I bought a pair of shorts and three t-shirts for under $45 (Justine bought a pair of shorts yesterday for around $55) before we did more walking.

We headed back to the hotel, with me snapping photos all the while, and went to a small restaurant two doors down for dinner.