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