We were making our way to Kim's dad's friend house the night before from Salzburg. The instructions were rather clear but i guess Kim was pretty tired by all the traveling and she took the wrong route. We went right into a neighbourhood where construction was in progress and there was this huge grass patch nearby! Indeed we were lost. We had made a big round and if we were to trace back our original route and restart, it will probably take another 20 minutes. So we decided to take the risk and cut through the grass patch. God knows it was fenced. Luckily, we still managed to find a small path where we squeeze our way and get back to the main road and finally at our destination.
That was my 2nd time experiencing the feeling of "lost". 1st was Manchester. :)
Anyway, description about who we stayed with. It was an Indian family, Kim's dad's friend who used to live in Singapore but work and live in Vienna now. They were really nice. Two kids, a girl & a boy and honestly, I really enjoyed my stay with them. Imagine me, mixing around with Indians? haha.. Despite Singapore being a multi-racial society, I don't have much Indian friends except Jaya? This was a beyond description experience for me. I ate Indian cuisine and they are vegetarians so dinner was simple, tomato soup with Indian rice which apparently I no longer remember the name. There was also this fried potato puffs which I give TWO thumbs UP!
The kids were cute! I think I am just too BOYISH. Kim was mixing with the daughter all the time while I had a great time playing swords and fighting with the little son! haha.. He liked me so much that on the 2nd night, he waited for me to play with him again but because we were back late & in a rush to catch the night bus, I couldn't. I could sense his disappointment though.
Yet another cultural exchange that I've undergone during this trip :)
Sunny Day.Alfresco Dining for you?
Back to the itinerary for the day.
We first had to settle our bus to either Brussels or Berlin.
Bus to brussels then to Berlin would mean we would get proper rest since we will be putting up at a hostel in Berlin on Sunday night. In order not to screw things up, we decided to call up the Brussels' office to book our Brussels-Berlin connection. Hilarious! We used an international call booth and we started with 1 EUR. God knows it used up within like 3 minutes when I was halfway through the booking! It's as though we were fighting a battle following it because Kim had her coins in her hands and whenever the level went low, she had to quickly insert new coins!
Luck wasn't on our side because Brussels-Berlin connection was full on Saturday so we had to do the most CRAZIEST thing! Our connection became: Vienna-Berlin.Berlin-Brussels.Brussels-Berlin before we flew back to Stockholm. That simply means we will go without proper lodging for 3 nights. The seats on the bus became our beds :( For me, it would have been something do-able but definitely not Kim. She isn't really used to such hectic traveling and she fell sick on the 9th day of our 12-days trip, which is 2nd day on Vienna. I asked her if she could withstand the long bus journeys once again and she insisted she could. So we went ahead.
We spent almost the entire day at the Schonbrunn Palace, the winter palace of the Austrian royalties. Trust me, the Austrians have the BEST Palaces in all the nations that I've been to so far! It's amazing! This one was a bit out of the city centre and it's INSANELY HUGE. Yet there's another Summer Palace in the city centre whose size is no smaller than this.
Entrance of Schonbrunn Palace
Spastic Shot inside the garden terraces
Garden Terrace View
From the Balcony of the Palace
In order to fully experience the palace, we bought the classic pass which included our entrance into the state apartments, the apple strudel show (Austria is famous for strudels?), the Labyrinth Maze, rooftop terrace in the gardens, & the paranomic view tower. 14 EUR for all that, it's worth it I'd say. There's even a zoo in the palace. Initially we thought it was just a normal zoo so we skipped it. Who knows actually it was a zoo meant for the royalties! WTH? They build a zoo in the palace!
I like this. That's the paranomic view terrace in the background.
Close-up View
Paranomic view from the terrace.
Stairway to Heaven?
Once again, the photos are replacing my words.The Labyrinth Maze
Where am I?
Lost.
Playing with the mirrors
Stupid Jump Shot! haha..
Prater Amusement Park
In the evening, we went to Prater, the amusement park in Vienna. There it stood, the oldest Ferris Wheel in Europe which has been standing for almost a 100 years if I remember correctly. Anyway, prater will be where the 2008 Euro Cup will be held. I couldn't see the stadium though because you have to walk quite a fair bit and we weren't sure of the directions. However, come June 2008, the metro will be ready to take you right to where the stadium is.
The ride which I've yet to try.
That's really for kids!
I've been on London Eye so ferris wheels no longer arouse my interest much. You need the right person on a Ferris Wheel. haha....
Before the sky darkened, we hurried to the supermarket to grab snacks though it was near dinner time! Woohoo~ But we gotta be back b4 1930 so we skipped our shopping plans...We met this really F***_up sales woman at the supermarket. Just because we couldn't speak German, she totally ignored us. She was sweeping the floor when we asked her if she could come by so we can check out.
1st attempt: Ignored us.
2nd attempt: Took a glance at us and continued her work
3rd attempt: Speak a string of German words which she didn't understand
The bill came up to 5.55 EUR. So we asked if we could give her 0.55 EUR. We said that at least 4 times but she completely IGNORED us and just gave us back our change of 4.45 EUR without muttering a word. What the hell is wrong with these people? There wasn't any smiles, not even a Danke! How rude can these people be!
Euro 2008!
Football for LIFE! ~
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