Moscow to Ulaanbataar (or: The Very Long Train Ride - Part 1)

Just a quick hello from Ulaanbataar, Mongolia!!



We arrived this morning at 7.30am after 5 days on the train from Moscow. The journey was quite amazing and definitely a great experience. The scenery gradually changed from spruce and pine forests in central Russia to rolling grassy hills and frozen lakes in Mongolia. The view was dotted at regular intervals with muddy wooden villages and wide icy rivers. Luckily we could open some of the windows and i was able to take a couple of photos - capturing the experience however was impossible.



the train itself was no less exciting. i was sharing my 4 berth cabin with a young Belgian ecologist named Maarten but we were the only english speaking passengers in our half of the train! it seemed nearly everyone else on board was a mongolian trades-person carrying dubiously large quantities of leather goods or clothing. most cabins were completely packed full of goods, with mongolian women and children perched on top while their husbands were all in the next cabin drinking vodka and arguing.



although none spoke english they were all very friendly and more than willing to wander into your cabin uninvited to recount tales of Genghis Khan and the mighty mongolian empire (in Mongolian) or to share some vodka (at like 9am in the morning). Or more usually just to see if you were in need of a genuine leather jacket or boots.



at dinner the first night we discovered that we weren't the only tourists on board as we passed through a carriage (which became known as the netherlands) on the way to dinner containing 16 dutch tourists (the carriage, not the dinner). we also discovered a young english journalist way down the other end of the train perched amongst several mongolian women and a lot of new leather handbags.



so we spent the journey swapping guide books to siberia, playing cards, learning dutch and buying 2 minute noodles off the locals at station platforms. about 30min before every stop there was a mass movement of goods throughout the train as the mongolians prepared to move their entire stock onto the platform. and at every station there was inevitably several hundred locals awaiting teh arrival of our train. what proceeded during the 10min stops was like a local market in fast forward! if we were lucky we could push our way through and stretch our legs for a couple of mins before resuming our journey.



so there will be more detail and hopefully some photos later but that's all for now!

Moskva!!

РУДДЩ АКЩЬ ЬЩЫСЩЦ!!! Or equivalently 'Hello from Moscow!!!' when written on an english keyboard (if you can only see boxes don't worry, the real text doesn't look much different). it may look funny to you but try finding your way around when every street sign (when there is one) is written like that, as well as every metro (sorry, METPO) station, AND as well as my only map. i think there is a logic to the language somewhere but it's buried beneath a tonne of unpronouncable symbols. actually i think i'm doing alright - i recognise some of the greek characters and so PI (п) gives a P sound and so on. ie Photo becomes фото.



Even so, my train station is called Partizanskaya but in Russian that's ПАРТИЗАНСКАЯ... (Pi_A_P_T_back-to-front-N_3_A_H_C_K_A_back-to-front-R, for those with squares) and i had to find it at 1am in the rain after i landed at one of Moscow's 4 international airports. Not so hard i hear you say.. well it is when you understand that Moscow has something like 200 train stations and about 15 different lines (and that's just the metro), AND, you have to catch some private airport (which isn't even on the map) train to connect with the public lines... plus no-one speaks english.

anyway i did make it, only due to the directions i got from some considerate pimp (i had to decline his offer of entertainment for the remainder of the evening). unfortunately i hadn't been very successful in extending my accommodation to include sunday night over the phone - mainly due to the language barrier, but probably also due to the limited mental capacity of the staff member. so when i rocked up at 1am looking for a room i was informed that my booking was for monday and tuesday nights only. luckily the staff member (from phone conversation fame) called her manager over who told me that the hotel's day started at 2am and so my room for the following night would be available at 2am!! so i had to wait around in the lobby for an hour but in the end scored 3 nights for the price of 2 :) i think i was the only person in the lobby who didn't charge by the minute.



so this is all very interesting but doesn't really tell you anything about moscow except that it's full of dodgey people. Second only to the number of dodgey men and women are the number of police officers, although it's a close race between them and the stray dogs - at least the dogs aren't corrupt. however, other than all this moscow is quite a beautiful city - much like prague on a larger scale. this unfortunately means it's impossible to walk around and see everything. i did try a walking tour from my hotel (which is 4 metro stations from red square, well actually 5 but one is closed for some reason) but after walking for 2.5 hours in a state of semi-knowledge of where i was (the big landmarks like rivers and above ground train lines were where they should have been but the smaller land marks like roads and walking paths didn't correlate with what was on the map) i eventually stumbled into a station (i'll come back to this) to discover i had only advanced 2 stations down the line in 2.5 hours! i promptly jumped on the first train that came by and arrived at red square 10 min later.



now, about stumbling into the station: metro stations (ie the underground lines) are impossible to find. and i'm not joking, even ignoring the language barrier. every 2nd building in moscow looks the same. it's either a brick/concrete box or a gold encrusted church. the stations are some of the boxes but they're tucked away down back streets, miles apart and there's no signs. the only way i found this station was by walking in whichever direction there was more people.



but again, i digress. my hotel is located near the old olympic village, right next to a large park and a market area so the area is 'quite nice' (very relatively speaking). the area around revolution (red) square in central moscow is also very nice, with many beautiful buildings and parks right next to the river. i had a look inside the kremlin walls one afternoon (for 300 rubles ~ US$15) and i'm really glad i did. visitors are tightly restricted to a small area inside the walls but this area includes many small chapels, palaces and cathedrals. inside there are many tombs of kings from the middle ages plus some of the most decorated interiors i've seen, rivaling the raphael rooms in the vatican museum. the exteriors are no less impressive - gold capped onion domes ahoy.



there was also the tsar cannon and tsar bell. the cannon has a caliber of about 1m and each shot must weight a *&^$load. the cannon itself weights something like 40t and is about 3m high and 6m long but unfortunately i don't think it was ever fired (although the descriptive plaque was in russian so not 100% sure). the bell is even more ridiculous.. over 200t and 6m high. i don't think it was ever used either tho. apparently it was used as a chapel at some stage tho (i'm not joking, that's how big it is).



so moscow is very beautiful although it would probably be more so during winter when all the rubbish and concrete is covered with snow. tonight i'm getting on the train and heading towards beijing, therefore i'm not sure how much net i'll have until i arrive in china (2nd May). so that's why i've tried to update the posts if you're wondering why the sudden spurt in news. i'm in a 4-berth cabin but i don't know who else will be in there so that could be exciting. the first stop is at Ulaanbataar in Mongolia in just over 4 (!!) days. hopefully the windows are clear enough to get some decent photos. so that's all for now, hope everyone is well and keeping up with the posts. i'm off to the market to stock up on biscuits and vodka.

The end of the world

Well I think Sarah can do a more thorough post on our stay with her family in Rodalben but since i've got command of a computer i put one up for the time being (still not photos tho folks - i know, i know, blame the russians).

In all we spent about a week and a half in Rodalben with Sarah's family. This was definitely not enough. Although Rodalben is not a well known tourist destination (in fact it's not a known tourist destination at all, or even a tourist destination) being in Germany it was well endowed with castles, ruins and forests. Rodalben (for those of you who haven't visited before, ok all of you), is very close to the french border and i think we spent almost as much time in france as we did in germany. we also ducked across to luxembourg one day to check out the capital (ie. luxembourg - they obviously weren't very inventive with names).



Sarah's cousins only speak halting english and their parents not at all so our stay was punctuated with hand gestures, novice german and schnapps (spelling unknown). our stay got off to a flying start when i rocked up with a black eye. the 'beat a polish bar owner in a vodka drinking competition' story went down a treat when translated. the most memorable aspect to our stay was the food. sarah's cousin frank is a professional chef and happened to be on holiday during our stay so he spent a considerable amount of time in the kitchen. including on one occaision to prepare my 'ideal animal' - a meal composed of chicken breast, bacon, cheese and ham. being a chef he went all creative and threw in some egg, beef and bratwurst as well. the meal received fairly positive reviews.



despite waking up after breakfast most mornings we were basically force fed traditional german meals for dinner (accompanied by considerable amounts of alcohol) with the result of both of us putting on about 100kg. one of the other german activities we participated in was going to a soccer (fussball) match. we saw kaiserslautern flog some other team 2-0 which apparently is a very rare event indeed so we were very privilaged. it was a home game for K which obviously held special meaning for us aussies. i came home with a scarf and sarah came home with a cold chest (you figure it out).



anyway i have 28sec left on net so gotta go!!!

Poland

We spent Saturday / Sunday nights in Berlin and then we ducked over to Poznan in west Poland to catch up with Will on Monday night and then we headed back to Berlin Tuesday / Wednesday nights. So we didn't have all that long in Poland. The drive from Berlin to Poznan took about 3 and a half hours and was remarkable only for the rain and the extraordinary number of trucks and potholes on the polish roads.

We'd agreed to meet Will at the main square in Poznan so we headed in what we thought was that direction. Unsurprisingly neither Sarah nor I speak Polish and we didn't have a town map so our first two attempts were somewhat unsuccessful. Eventually we found a servo, admitted defeat and bought a map. After one more lap of Poznan (just to make sure we'd really seen the sights) we found the main square. Not much to it really, nor Poznan for that matter. Couple of nice looking churches and a lot of roadworks really.. the rain probably didn't help :)

After a short while we also found Will and his room-mate and set about finding the nearest watering hole. Will assured us he knew just the one and we headed that way. Apparently the barmaid was a friend and so we had a couple of beers. I might remind our readers at this point that 'a beer' in Europe refers to 500ml and not, as one might assume, a measly 275ml. So we were getting along alright and decided to grab some food (which wasn't bad) and hit up the local Aussie bar.

I'm not sure what about this bar distinguished it as the Aussie bar because as far as I could make out the owner and all the customers were (very) polish. In fact I think when Will and Martin first visited the establishment they were the first australians to do so. Anyway after a couple more drinks someone suggested shots. My recollection gets slightly hazy at this point but i remember tequila and vodka, lots of vodka, and something blue (which may have also been vodka). For some reason (which was obviously important but which now escapes me) i challenged the bar owner to an arm wrestle. This was probably my first mistake. Apparently 'arm wrestle' translates to Polish as 'vodka drinking competition'.

At this point I'll make a quick diversion to Sarah's memory. On returning from the toilet she found a disturbingly long line of empty shot glasses on the bar and the polish bar owner collapsed on the floor.

Back to my memory: I woke up at midday with a sore head. Apparently I had remained strong right up until the point where I had to walk somewhere. Also apparent (from my forehead) was the fact that I'd fallen over at some stage.



So.. Will's residence was located in a nice old (and large) building, now being used for a school about 30min out of town and we had lunch the next day in town at an interesting little place which served savory pancakes from around the world. The drive back to Berlin was surprisingly a lot better than the drive into Poland, probably because i slept for a large percentage of it.



Result: I don't actually remember a whole lot of Poznan and the only photos we've got are of a pretty decent sunset on the road back to Berlin.

Berlin (Part 3)

Just thought I'd add a couple a things to the main Berlin post..

Travelling on the autobahns with a new peugot at some stage we were going to have to test out how fast it would go. Usually in the unlimited areas we'd been sitting on about 150 and the car was doing this pretty easy at about 4000rpm. I think it was on a quite bit of road on the way to Berlin from Prague we got it up to about 196 before we hit a 120km/h speed zone so thought we'd better ease back a bit :) wouldn't have got much quicker tho - the speedo only goes up to 210.. there's video evidence too.

The drive from Berlin to Sarah's family in Rodalben (south west of frankfurt right near the french border) took us about 7 hours for those playing at home. In other news I forgot to read the ODO when we dropped the car back but it would've been about 4600km. Anyway, I'd better leave this post here before i confuse you with more time jumps..

PS. I'm in mockva and sarah's probably just touching down in aus!

Berlin (Part 1 & 2)

It's currently 12.29am Sunday morning - Sarah is flying home and i'm flying to Moscow later today!!

Back to the point... our time in Berlin was split between two short visits - we ducked over to Poland inbetween, but more about that later. We arrived Saturday evening and, due having obtained a map before entering the city limits, we arrived at our accommodation in record time. We were staying at another Wombats - the one in Munich was good and had a sister hostel - and so knew the drill. To obtain your room key you have to hand over some form of photo ID as insurance, our ID of choice was my MET concession card. To the uninitiated this may not seem out of the ordinary but if you've seen it before you'll understand when I say it scored us 8 free drinks in the house bar.



Since it was Saturday night and we'd heard Berliners liked to partay we decided to head out. Scouring the 'suggested night spots' we settled on a funky little bar with a swimming pool. No joke. To our great disappointment the pool was nowhere to be seen and is apparently closed during winter but the club was going off anyway and we got home about 5am. Sunday we arose slightly after breakfast closed and decided to head out and check out the sights. There were several markets setup and plenty of people about, a surprising percentage of whom were wearing inline skates. The reason for which turned out to be some sort of organised endurance event (complete with crowds, collapsing skaters and inappropriately worn bike shorts).



Our tour of Berlin's sights by foot led us to the Reichstag, which you can enter for free and climb the large dome on the roof - which apparently gives good views of the city. Being a sunday arvo the queue was phenomenal and being early spring in Germany it was raining and being still slightly drunk upon departing our residence that morning we had come out in light (un-waterproof) clothing. After a not so lengthy second glance at the queue we caught the train back to our hostel.



Sunday also happened to by our 1 year anniversary so we (read: Sarah) decided we'd better do something (or else..). Something turned out to be straightening Sarah's hair for what seemed like about 3 hours while Richard had a nap. By the time both parties were awake and ready to party it was approaching dinner time. However, we had 8 free drinks at the bar to make use of and being students it would have been rude of us not to do so. 3 romantic games of pool followed (in which Sarah was very unromantically flogged) before we realised it had approached dinner time quite some time before and was fast approaching not dinner time.



We were both pretty hungry and so settled upon the first open place we happened across. This turned out to be some sort of brauhaus, which also may have been in some sort of shopping centre. Some may claim this is not the most romantic setting by I'll take this opportunity to point out that we were having dinner in a traditional German restaurant in Berlin, which ought to be worth more than a couple of flowers.



So the next morning we headed to Poland to meet up with Will (Richard's cousin) and we returned to Berlin on Tuesday. We spent a day checking out the sights we'd missed on the weekend (including the Reichstag dome and Checkpoint Charlie). The most memorable aspect to the dome was the inordinately time consuming security check on the way in. The checkpoint Charlie museum was quite good but surprisingly huge and packed full of exhibits and information. It was a mix of personal stories, genuine and mock artifacts, artwork and a detailed history of the whole affair. The museum opened in 1962 and bits and pieces had been added ever since so it was a bit confusing at some times but worth a look.



We spent one more night in Berlin before heading across Germany to Sarah's relatives.

Postcript to Prague

Hi,

Sorry I just have to add two small things that were quite amusing that Richard realised he had forgot to put in.

On our drive out of Czech Republic we were pulled over by the police. This made us both a little nervous as we were thinking about the visa that we did not have. We had to show our passports which were conveniently in the boot of the car, locked in our packs and somewhat buried. Then we had to show our drivers license which were in the glove box! Then we were asked for our car papers!! What??? We had no idea what he was talking about. Lucky for us we are Australian as this did seem to please the officer who called out to his mate "skippy" and pointed at us. He was looking at my passport and it seemed he recognised that I have a German surname, so he asked me in German do I speak German. I thought about what response I should give as I know a number of random sentences and decided that I would go with "we are having fun"!! I thought it would ease the nervousness I was feeling and everyone always laughs when I say it! Well it worked a treat! He laughed handed us back our stuff and did not worry about the car papers and we were on our way again

Not ten mins down the road from this there was a house on the side of the road with big windows. Richard was driving so I noticed it and he did not. I thought it was strange because before we got right in front of it I thought I could see what looked like a leg wearing stockings and a high heel in the window. I found this strange and was wondering if it was a real leg. Well it was!!! And it was attached to a prostitute who was displaying her wares in the window!!! I was so suprised and shocked that I let out some sort of cry which startled Richard! I almost wanted him to turn back so he could see because it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen (as well as a little shocking).

So we must go again. We will write more later.

Love us

Prague

On the way to Prague we stopped by a German town by the name of Regensburg because we'd been reliably informed that it was a medieval town worth checking out. First impressions were to the contrary but after having a bit of a look around we found the old town centre which was nice and included a spectactular cathedral - why is it that all the massive churches are dedicated to St. Peter??



After Regensburg we continued towards the Czech Rep. and we had a quick read through the reading material we had whilst on the way. Unfortunately the only reading material material we possessed contained little information on Prague and the only information it provided for the C.R. was that Australian visitors required a visa. Well we didn't have one so we presumed (somewhat optimistically) that the C.R. had joined the EU since publication of this particular volume. We presumed correctly and cruised through yet another border gate without troubling our passports.



We had decided to make Berlin by the weekend so we only had 1 and 1/2 days in Prague. The first evening we ate and drank at our hostel - which, by the way we have decided was queer. It was called something inauspicious but their motto was 'for people like us' and the guys behing the front desk were wearing pink polo shirts. To cap it off, some of the TV's in the dining room were continuously playing 'GayTV'. BUT, the rooms were cheap, they had an indoor swimming pool, and there was an attached bar/restaurant with good pizza and cheap beer. Hence we ate and drank at our hostel the 2nd night as well.



We did, however, venture out into the city to check out the sights which included the impressive St. Vitus's Cathedral complex and the old bridge / town. On the Friday night we hit the town after dinner. It was pretty busy but we found a couple of nice places. One of which was advertising the opportunity to fire genuine AK47's, uzi's, pump action shotguns and high power rifles. Unfortunately we had to leave early the next morning.



So I found Prague a nice, old, cheap European city - worth spending longer in than we did. Sarah however found the locals decidedly unfriendly and dodgey (which is hard to argue with) and was unswayed by the beauty of the skyline.

Saturday morning we made extensive use of the free internet at our hostel then headed for Berlin!!

Munich

After dropping Mick off at the station in Salzburg we made tracks for Munich. It was a ripping day and a pity to be wasting it in the car but it made the drive more relaxing than previous experiences..

We arrived in Munich in mid-afternoon. By arrived I mean the first time we exited the motorway. By the fourth time we exited the motorway it was more like late afternoon. Eventually we temporarily abandoned the car and continued on foot in search of some sort of map or tourist information. We had actually been told of a good place to stay in central Munich and had booked accom. (a relatively new experience for us which we starting to get used to). This however was a two sided coin because it meant we had to find a specific hostel in Munich rather than any of the countless hostels and hotels we were passing. Eventually we happened upon a detailed road map for $4.50 (can't find the cursed euro symbol) and discovered that our hostel was indeed in prime position over the road from the central station. We proceeded there (almost) directly.



The Wombats Hostel (some tenuous Australian connection tho none of the staff are aussies) was actually pretty flash and good value for money. One of the best things was the town map and suggestions for things to do / see / eat / drink / etc which you got given after checking in. That evening we headed to one of the suggested dining locations and dined heartily on the closest thing to a parma we've come across in Europe. After tea we decided to head for Ned Kelly's aussie bar. On the way we walked down the main drag - Munich is a very pretty town (it doesn't seem like a city at all). The centre of town is dotted with churches and cathedrals and the Rathaus is a large intricately decorated gothic building. The aussie bar was almost as tacky as expected and they weren't even playing afl on the big screen so we had the requisite couple of Fosters and headed home.



The next day we repeated our tour of the main drag and checked inside a couple of the churches and the townhall (Rathaus) before heading to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and Mass beers (1L). That arvo we checked out the Deutches Museum which is meant to be one of the best (and biggest) technology museums in the world. It was Sarah's idea, obviously. Well all I can say is that when they offer multi-day passes at the entrance, they mean it. The place was huge. It was packed full of genuine pieces of technology ranging from windmills, to mining equipment, to laser cutters, production lines, cars, aeroplanes, space ships, rockets, submarines, diving equipment, boats, bridges, etc, etc. Sarah had a ball. We decided we'd better leave at closing time after nearly being locked in the toilets.



That night we met up with our local contact (Alister - a friend of Richard's) and got a bit of a guided tour around part of the city we hadn't seen and a great meal. We mustn't have disgraced ourselves to much because we scored the use of Alister and his girlfriend's bikes for the next day. We arose early at the indecent hour of 10am and proceeded to pick up the bikes from the agreed location. Munich is very flat so it's difficult to get an idea for the size of the city from street level so we cycled over to Munich's olympic park where there's a man made hill (from post WW2 rubble). The view was pretty decent but Sarah discovered on the way down that her bike was devoid of any form of braking equipment. We therefore proceeded at a fair clip to the English gardens - which are the biggest city gardens in Europe I think. The gardens surround a central lake, biergartens and nude bathing area. We checked out 2 of the 3 (to the great disappoinment of one of our party).



The most memorable bit about the gardens was the surfing area, no joking. Where one of the rivers flows into the gardens under a bridge a permanent wave has been created. The water was bloody freezing but there was about half a dozen well insulated surfers giving it a crack. It was pretty hilarious and unexpected.



The next day we decided to check out some of the castles surrounding Munich. Turns out the weather didn't agree and it was raining pretty solidly. We'd both seen Neuschwanstein before so Sarah decided to take me to her favourite castle from her previous trip. Linderhof is a pretty small castle compared to others but it the only one of Ludwig's castles to be completed and it was amazing inside. Packed with gold, silver, mirrors, chandeliers, and even a dinner table which rose up through the floor. In the surrounding gardens there was even a man made cave with a lake in which the king held concerts!



We'd decided to head to Berlin via Prague so we left Munich there and made tracks for the Czech Republic.

Austria

Hi again!!!

We currently have free internet so we are trying to get as much updated as we can! Feel free to take your time to read them, one a day or all at once whatever you prefer!

After Unterwasser we headed into Austria. We decided that we would spend a night in Insbruck then head to Salzburg where we were to meet up with Richards old housemate form Hawthorn, Mick. We arrived not to late for a change! Still though with no accm organised and no town map! We parked the car (on the side walk!!!) and went to see if we could find a tourist info. We could not so we thought we better go move the car before heading for a longer search for the tourist info. We were lucky I think that we moved the car because we noticed later that all the cars parked there were taxis, so it was probably a taxi zone.



Parking the car was extremely funny. We found a spot easy enough but Richard had to reverse parallel park!!! I had to get out of the car to help guide (even though the car has reverse censors!!! It took many attempts to get it in right and a lot of laughter form both of us (and the people passing by on the street). I will just mentioned I am sure at home Richard can park with no problems, but it is extremely hard when you are on the wrong side of the car. It messes everything up.

After that, we managed to find the tourist info and get us a map and some accom info. I am not sure if we mentioned it before but for some strange reason you cannot book in anywhere between about 10am and 4pm because they close reception! So you have to wait til late in the day to see if you can get a room which is not a really comfortable thing. You will have no idea if everything is booked out or not and by time you do it is so late you really need somewhere! Most have a message bank that tells you though if they have rooms avaliable for that night which is helpful, they jsut dont say how much space they have.

So to waste time while we waited to get some accom we decided to do some touristy things. There was a crystal museum/cave thing that looked cool so we decided to head there. Well do you think we could find it??? Nooooo!!! So we changed plans again. We were sort odf in the direction of the olympic bobsledge stadium so we thought we would go check it out. It was late in the day when we got there but the gates were open so we drove up anyway. The first stop we made was at one of the bobsledge runs, but it did not really have any ice in it. It did have a shed underneath though so we got to check out some sleds. We then decided to drive up at bit higher.



Here it was compeletly unsecured and there was no one around. We walked on the track and all around the place. It was pretty cool. Richard nearly feel over when he stepped onto on of the tracks which was funny. He then founf a block of wood to try and ride it down but sadly it was too heavy. It was cold and as much as a free run of the place we had there was not a whole lot to do. We headed to where we parked the car where Richard got his brillant idea!!! There was a patch of snow in a largish area next to the tracks. He wanted to do some doughies in the car. I tried to advise against this and warned him if he got bogged I was not helping him get out!!!



He decided to do it anyway, saying that I approved!!! I filmed him on my camera while he acted soooo cool!!! hahahaha. Well he did some laps, rather slow if I must say so. Then he decided to head back in and guess what??? Thats right he got bogged. he stuck his head out the window while I was still filming and told me to come help him. It kinda makes the video! I was not going to help but it wwas cold and I did want to get going. It took a lot of pushing and back tracking but we finally made it out!

We then got ourselves a bed for the night and headed into town foe dinner. We had learnt that parking is quite hard in these big towns so we walked in. However we did not realise what a long walk it actually was into town and it was raining! We kept going anyway and had dinner at nice greek resturant. The food was great and we got given this shot of something rather! We were not actually sure what we were supposed to do with it, do you shot it all at once or sip it, was it for before or after dinner? So many questions and you done want to offend! We went with sipping band before dinner!

As the weather was crap and it was such a long walk home we did not go out and just headed back to our room. On the way I must add (Richard will kill me when he reads this hahahahaha) Richard needed to go to the toilet and could not wait so he went in someones front yard! Now if you are drunk this is probably a normal thing to do but he was not!

The next morning we headed to the highest zoo in Europe! Well for a zoo it was a little interesting. It had farm animals!! Richard nearly got attacked my some geese while trying to get a close up photo. It was rather funny as there was one particular geese that kept going after him. we got some great photos of that. Also after he stirred up the geese one of the keepers came and shut this gate so we could not get near them anymore! I dont think he was impressed with us. The zoo was smallish and did not have a great deal of animals. Lots of birds but I think they are boring! There was also the problem of animals and snakes being in hibernation! The zoo had a number of otter exhbits but there were no otters as they were hibernating. There were some sort of large cats (more medium size) that lived in trees. They were quite active so that was cool. The funny thing was I was taking a photo of one in a tree but with the glare from the sun I could not quite see my screen that well. I took the photo then had a better look at it only to realise I took a photo of the knob in the tree and no cat at all in the shot!!





After the zoo we went to visit a castle. It had a museum in it and cost to get in so we jsut walked in the parks and gardens around it (free and beautiful). It was really a very nice walk and we walked for about an hour. We then headed off to Salzburg. We stopped for lunch at a petrol sation/rest stop. It was huge and really nice. I got spag bol for lunch and it was massive! Richard had a curry sausage, he enjoyed it and my leftovers because it was so big.



For once we actually had our accm booked before we got into town but no map!! Neither of us can currently remember how we scored a map but we did! We had to pull over to ring our accom to find out where it was and it turned out we were two mins away. It was quit a good location as we could park our car and walk into town and anywhere else in a short time. There was a great view from the window of a castle of the hill. We set up our beds and headed in for a walk around. Salzburg was really beautiful. I liked it much better than Insbruck. It had such a nice feel. We walked around the old town and it was beautful. Some pretty fancy shops too. We had a drink at an Irish pub then dinner at an Italian Resturant. The funny thing about Europe is you can take your dog anywhere. The resturant was upstairs and some people came in with a dog!!!! Funny.



I had seen at the Irish pub earlier that they have live music ecerynight so we headed back there. it was getting full and we got some seats at the bar. We had a few quite drinks, beer, wine, jager bombs! The music started and it got fuller!! After a few (many) drinks we decided to hit the dance floor! Oh and we rocked!!! We also made some friends witht the locals. One of them was celebrating his 25th birthday so we joined the party!! What a great night. We decide to call it quits at around three am and head home. We were being silly though and walked a different way to richard thinking he would follow but in the state he was in he did not!!! So we then were both lost in Austria drunk as scunks and seperated!!! Oh dear! We had our phones with us so we kept in contact. Richard also had the map but appparently he was unable to read it?! I somehow (with my brillant sense of direction) stumbled across home first.



I have to admit this though because otherwise Richard will tell anyway, I was busting for the toilet, could not move, walk, go any further if I did not have a wee! Well there was nowhere to go sadly for me, so I did what any busting girl would do and went on the road!! It was a alley more like it and it was sort of dark and there was noone around. I had to!!! I then discovered (which Richard has not let me forget and teased me constantly about) is if I kept walking jsut a 20m further the was a park and some bushes I could have hid in to go!

We both eventually made it home after much time in the cold. We crashed!! We woke in the morning just in time for breaky, but Richard was looking very worse for wear. I was not great either but compared to him 100 times better! We were planning on doing some things before Mick came. this never happen we had to get some more sleep. We woke up when the phone rang, it was Mick he was at the staion and wanted us to come get him!!! Oh dear. It took us awhile to find the staion because we were given the wrong directions! We met up eventually.



We did some more sight seeing with Mick and had a hearty lunch to help combat the hangover. It helped pick us up. We still all had an afternoon nap though! We were jsut going to lay down for a min but we all crashed and woke three hours later! We headed out to dinner at a nice little place with great pizzas! Then back to the Irish pub. Mick and Richard had a few drinks but compared to the night before it was a relativly quite night. The only thing was Mick taught Richard how to say bow job in German! The barmaid came to take the order so in German for two blowjobs please!!!! She said what and then in english he order two beers!!! I was embarssed but it was pretty funny. Mick and Richard found it highly amusing. He wanted to do it again but I said no!



The next morning we got up in time for breakfast just! Headed down and it was all closed up and finished! Slightly confusing. So we packed up to head into town for some food. On the way out I noticed there was a sign at reception saying daylight savings had started and to change yours clocks! That explains why we missed breaky. We went to this nice little place for some food. We order drinks first, had those but the waiter did not come back for our food order. We called him over but he did not speak English, Mick was doing ok with his German though. We asked about food and said ten mins. He then went and made a phone call. It seems that the chef must have forgot to change his clock and was running late! We got some great food though and the Chef spoke english.

We then dropped Mick off at the station (hope you made the train Mick!) and we headed to Munich.

I will leave it here as this is very long!!

Love sarah

Interlaken

So we'd had a pretty good run with the weather in Zermatt, and then it'd been pretty shit really on the way to Interlaken, but, we'd made it and we checked into our place. this was actually harder than it sounds because by the time we got into town it was dark and raining/snowing, the streets are windy and full of impossible-to-tell-who-has-right-of-way intersections and, as usual, we didn't have a map. Despite these minor inconveniences and one incorrectly rung doorbell we found our place. The hostel was above a seedy looking restaurant but it did have a decent (and free) internet connection!!

The next morning (Easter Saturday) we awoke early, well alright.. earlier, because we didn't have any accom for that night and had to find some quick smart. Luckily the tourist office was open (almost our first experience with such an occurrence) and one of the first places we tried had room. the place was called Heidi's Hostel and presumably it was Heidi i spoke with on the phone. Heidi was a charming old bird although obviously deranged. She must of been 100 if she was a day and repeatedly informed us that 'she tells us the true, only the not-so-good room is available!'.



Well that was good enough for us, after a quick inspection of the 'not-so-good' room well checked in. So the shower was in a tin box in the corner of the room, the toilet was in a cupboard and there was something living in the roof, but the room was clean, Heidi was an old dear and there was kitchen facilities so I don't know what Sarah was whingeing about. We stayed 4 nights.



Unfortunately the weather continued to be cold and snowy so we were confined to low altitude walking, chocolate eating and reading for most of the easter weekend. After the fun and total enjoyment of skiing the previous week this suited Sarah just fine thankyou.



We had planned to go para-gliding in Interlaken but the weather defeated us, so we left (it was still snowing) and set course for Austria. We did manage to pick up some music cd's for the car and some awesome raspberry white chocolate before we left tho. We'd read somewhere that the town of Chur in East Switzerland was worth a look so we swung by there for lunch. hmmm, bum steer. The weather had picked up tho and it was a beautiful drive. it was getting to that time of day when we started wondering where we were going to sleep so we dug through our books and started ringing around. closed, fully booked, no answer.. usual story. we eventually found a cheapish place just off our route in a quaint little town called Unterwasser. Small ski resort is probably an overstatement but technically correct. There was a really nice sunset, a good view and I think we were the only ones in the hostel - and the whole town as it turned out. We hit the local bar (star bar??) to find that they were pumping out tina turner, accadacca, and a whole lot of other old school stuff. this was pretty funny cos the barmaid (and everyone else for that matter - which admittedly was about 3 blokes) didn't speak a word of english, but was singing along anyway.



we ate dinner that night alone in a fairly decently sized restaurant then headed to Innsbruck the next morning. While i was checking out, the owner asked if he could 'make picture of me' because I was carrying my pack and backpack and i think i was the first real backpacker looking guest they'd had (they only opened their hostel this winter).

My version of Skiing!!

Hi All!!

Sorry to write about Zermatt again but I feel that you need to hear the truth about skiing. Richard was very brief and did not quite cover how bad it actually was for me. So let me tell it how it really went. Please note this first photo was a before shot!! I had not started yet.



On the first day of skiing I was very excited as we went and hired our skis. They lady had to ask what ability you had (I guess this varies what type of skis you get), I told her never been before. She wished me luck but I think she was actually laughing at me! We then headed up to catch the train up to the slopes. We had been told by the lady would sold us our ski passes that this particular run was a good start for beginners, what a liar!!! We got to the top and it was just straight down. There was nowhere at all for me to have a bit of a practice and get used to the skis. I was scared and am not ashamed to admit it!!!!

So we went to the side of the run so Richard could show me the basics, like how to stop and turn. Then we had to go. I tried to wait until there were not so many other people going down but this was hard cause it was quite busy. Then off we went for about 3m then CRASH!!! And that is how it went for the next two and a half hours!! I would try to go from one side to the other. If I made it without falling that was a bonus!! I crashed so many times I could not keep count. I even face planted into the the side wall!!! Lucky it had snowed the day before, it made the wall nice and soft. I had snow everywhere!! It went in my pants, up my jacket, in my beanie and up my arm sleves. I crashed so hard my skis went flying and trying to put skis back on when you are on a slope is very hard! Especially when I had enough trouble getting them on anyway!



I will say I did start to get better over the two and a half hours. I managed to even string a couple of turns together before crashing. The thing about getting better is Richard would go slightly ahead then bang! I was down again. I had many people ask me was I ok. I lied and said yes. I also have to say over this first run there were so very many tears. I would be going ok then we would stop at a hill (that was massive to me) and I would panic and start crying cause I was to scared to more. Every bone and muscle in my body was aching!

I was improving though and we finally made it to the bottom!! Not after having to go through this horrible tunnel that was really narrow and fast (I crawled down the side to get through) which was made of stone and would have hurt a lot to crash into. Then we headed back up. Just to prove I had improve the second time only took an hour to get down! Far less crashes, no less spectular though! Then we did it again. I still had moments of tears and could not get through the tunnel at the end without crawling down the side, but I had improved ten fold.

We then had lunch because I could bearly move anymore. After lunch I headed home cause my body could not take anymore punishment plus I wanted richard to be able to have a ski without having to stop every min for me. That night I could hardly sleep. My body was so sore. Getting in and out of bed was so painful. Turning in my sleep woke me cause it hurt so much and going to the toilet was even painful as my bum was so bruised.

When we woke up for day two I was no longer excited! I did not even want to go, I hurt too much. I said to Richard that I would bring my skis up but was going to sit out the morning and I would start after lunch. We tried a new set of runs and when we got up there I was happy (and a little mad cause I had to start of the hard run the day before!) to see a nice easy, mild baby run!!! It was wide and had a few straights with a few hills that were managable to get you going on the straights. Well I was so excited I think I may have only crashed a couple of times per run!! Thats fantastic. I had problems with my turns because of my legs not wanting to work due to their soreness. We did this run a number of times because I could mostly get through unscared. There was just one hill that was beating me!! I even had all these good skiers overtake me then stand at the bottom and watch me. I was doing it so well, I thought I was going to make it!!! Then CRASH!! Right in front of everyone, so horrible! I dont think anyone laughed though so that was nice.



We then decided to go to another run to give it ago. This was mostly ok except for where you get off the lift. There was an extremely steep slope. I dont even think I was the only one side stepping down this bit!! I did not crash though. Here we found a ski tow (well they are interesting to ride on) and went up to a run I did quite like. It was very wide and the slopes were not steep at all. The only tricky bit was you had to ski through the people going up the ski tow. I was nervous about that. I thought I would take someone out for sure! I did not though so thats good news. I managed to do this run a couple of times with no crashes!! Yay! Richard then caught the tow up higher while I did halfway. We then headed home together as it was late and cold.

The third day we went back to the afternoon before runs. This time I went all the way to the top with Richard. It was not actually to hard and I did not crash but it was so cold. The wind was horrible. We decided to head back to my baby run in the home it was more sheltered from the wind. It wasnt. I was very excited though because I made it through with no crashes, even conquered the hill that was beating me!!! It helped me not hate skiing so much.

Richard then tricked me!!!He said we could go down this easy run to get onto a lift to another one. So I said ok and went along. Well the run was ok for a bit, but then we got to the lift and it was going the wrong way and was not what we wanted!! Thats ok says Richard we can just go down here and get to it there its an easy run! Liar, liar pants on fire!!!! It was a hard run (well intermedite, but hard for a first timer). I managed fairly well for most of it, no crashes and all. Then we got to this horrible steep and long slope. It was also evry bumpy. I was terrified! I tried to side step for awhile but it was not going well. I then decided I had to rty and ski down or I was never going to get to the bottom which was what I wanted more than anything else! I started ok and Richard went ahead because he wanted to get a photo of me kicking ass!! Well while he did that I picked up a lot of speed, went out of control and crashed hard! I hit my knee and lost a ski! It hurt quite a bit so I just sat there crying!!! What a baby! A man came passed and asked me if I was ok, I told him yes and that I did not need any help but he would not believe me (maybe the tears were a give a way that I was not ok) and insisted on helping me down.

He was very nice and told me that we all were here once but I was probably on to hard of a run for a first timer. I told him we got here by accident! I did not want to tell him my boyfriend was mean and had tricked me!!! Richard denies this but then at the same time says but I thought you could handle it you were doing so well! In the end I made it alive. After that though my aches and pains said no more and I headed home. Richard went for a bit more of a run, so he could actually ski non stop and down somewhere I would not do.

So overall, I sucked and was a sook!! I kept telling Richard I hated skiing but really it was fun in between all the crashing. I would still do it again but bring on the baby runs! Oh and I got a great skiing tan line on my face too!!!

Love Sarah