At first glance Vienna looks like any other big European city but once I went into the centre I discovered that it is the most visually beautiful city I've been to since Paris. Its buildings and parks really are very impressive and its an easy place to navigate around. The food here is pretty good as well (Weiner schnitzel is from Vienna - Wein is what the Austrians call Vienna. This means that technically all "Weiner schnitzel" you eat outside of Vienna is actually schnitzel Vienna style, just like all "champagne" you drink that comes from outside the Champagne district in France is sparkling white wine...there's my useless fact for the day).
[pic: in Vienna they have Indiana Jones on the street signs...]
Despite living in such a nice city the Viennese all seem to walk around with a chip on their shoulder. Everyone seems grumpy for some reason that I haven't been able to work out. The guys in particular seem to come across as grumpy and gay - its really quite funny.
[pics: a collection of the pictures showing Vienna in all its glory]
The hostel I stayed at here was really good. After being landed with families and old people in every hostel I went to in Switzerland I decided that it was time to go to a few party hostels. This hostel had its own bar with 2 Euro beers so met my requirements well! Met a few cool people here as well, including a group of English and Irish girls who were really hard case. One girl in their group is quite staunch looking with blonde hair whereas the others are smaller and have dark hair. Apparently after they visited the Jewish museum in Berlin they thought it would be funny to draw a joke "propaganda" poster in their travel diary depicting the blonde girl as an Ayrian and her friends as Jewish. This is pretty bad form and I don't condone it at all, but what's funny is they showed the poster to their American room mates without realising that the Americans were Jewish!
...pick your audience girls.
I also met a few other English guys who were going to the music festival in Budapest to see Muse and Kasabian in a few days. Apparently its one of Europes best festivals and they suggested that I join them. As I think Muse is the best live band in the world I didn't need much convincing! So I've changed my plans a bit and after Nuremberg I will have to make my way to Berlin to fly to Budapest for a few nights to catch the festival. Its a bit out of my way but then again when am I ever going to have the chance to go to a music festival in Budapest?! I'm really looking forward to it.
I arrived in Nuremberg earlier on today. I decided that I need a break from the hostels and have checked into a hotel, so Im looking forward to a few decent nights sleep! I haven`t yet had a chance to explore Nuremberg but I can say already that its got the most confusing metro system in the world. Its one of those silly ones where you have to change trains about 4 times even though your stop is on the same track. Of course I didn´t know this when I first got here so jumped on the train that was going my direction. The train then set of on the wrong direction (ie, when it arrived it arrived travelling left to right, but then it set off travelling right to left). So I went a stop in the opposite direction. Not to worry, I thought, I´d been travelling for about 7 hours so I´d probably just got my platforms mixed up. So when the next train arrived I double checked the line and direction: I was definitely on the right one. It took me a stop in the right direction then took me back to the stop that I´d come from! By this stage I´m getting pretty frustrated, but I perservered once more and realised that you had to go a stop in one direction, then change trains and go for another stop, then change trains again etc...
Why they do it like this is beyond me, maybe just to confuse the tourists!
Anyway I must fly.
Anthony
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