180308: Dahab

Hobart had a lousy night. Terrible diarrhea. Food poisoning I think. Worry if he can go for the dive.

I was pretty excited about the dive. The instructor brought us to the lighthouse, which is one of Dahab’s famed spot for diving. I must say my virgin dive is nothing short of breathtaking. It’s one-to-one, so I get to rest and sun-tan while Hobart gets his kick. Then comes my virgin dive. I hadn’t had much to do, my instructor was in charge of helping me adjust my buoyancy and checking time and depth of dive. And the corals – pure amazement. I barely had time to think about taking pictures, though I had a couple taken by the instructor on a coral reef. I was disappointed it all took so little time, though I was starting to feel a little chilly in the waters. Should truly contemplate taking a diving course. But the Red Sea will always be memorable, at least for me.

For lunch, we decided against taking main courses. Instead, we had an assortment of sandwiches – pitta bread filled with different vegetarian fillings. Mosaka is a personal favourite of mine, a mix of aubergine, tomatoes, sweet potatoes and cucumber.

Hobart couldn’t continue any activity after lunch, I get he’s too tired from the diarrhea. I went on myself to the post office to buy some decent postcards, the ones along the beach were just too bleached. Oh, and I got a bargain for a sweatshirt as well. Embroidered with ‘Red Sea Divers, Dahab’, some bastard tried to charge me 110LE for it. A young chap priced it at 80LE, and I offered 50LE haha. Final price was at 70LE, and the dude looked freaking pissed, heh. I’m beginning to enjoy pissing Egyptians like what I did to Turks.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel restaurant by the sea, enjoying calm sea waters and cool breeze. And I was soon accompanied by a pot of nice Egyptian tea and chocolate pancakes, a good relaxing break from the hustle-bustle we had from the past few days.

ZQ and Eve took damn long to return from Sharm El Sheikh. I almost drifted into deep sleep just when they came back. Dinner was at this restaurant along a road on the outskirts of the bazaar, and that’s probably why it’s cheap, filling and comprehensive in selection. The kebab is expensive though, but the mutton stewed with lady’s fingers is absolutely a delicacy.

We stopped at a pastry bakery to get some lunch for tomorrow. And coincidentally, it’s owned by a couple from China. Our ability to speak Mandarin made it so easy to converse with them, and we soon became very friendly. I guess when you’re in foreign lands, you do look for people of the same race, regardless of nationality. All the more better if there’s a common mother tongue language. She not only gave us discounts, she gave us some breadsticks for snacks and other pastries to sample.

170308: St Catherine, Mount Sinai

Dahab is an unknown place to me, at least till I came on this trip. Today was planned to go to St Catherine’s, for we need 12 to 18 hours’ rest at sea level after diving before climbing which is not acceptable. There just wasn’t enough time. Stayed at a resort actually, and we thought breakfast was included but it wasn’t. Paid 7 euros more for the Sinai trip just so we could watch sunset, we can’t make it for the sunrise trip anyway. We might even pay more than 7 euros for rented blankets and notoriously disgusting coffee (according to Anthony).

At first, me and Hobart were supposed to do snorkelling while Eve and ZQ dive in Ras Mohamed. But in the end, we decided to do diving instead, and stay behind in Dahab. Cheaper, more time to relax, and more exciting than just snorkelling.

The journey to St Catherine, again it seems, is filled with bribery. The driver bribed the tourism police “to register foreigners on road”, and I suspect all the checkpoint guards along the way. And when we reached, St Catherine’s Monastery is closed. Maybe tourists usually spent more time on Mount Sinai than in the monastery. We had a guide, and he gave us the option of either taking the more hazardous climb up Mount Sinai, or walk the gentle camel trail. He did warn us that the climb is tough, and we can’t descend by that route after sunset. We chose the climb to ascend, of course, since we would take the camel route to descend anyway. And the climb is challenging indeed. Up till Elijah’s Basin where both the climb and the slope converge, the altitude stands at 450m. Multiply that by 5 steps a metre (20cm a step is tiring, I assure you), the extra 2,250 steps is strenuous. We had to rest a few times along the way to the Basin. But the view gets more and more amazing as we ascend, especially in the glaring sun and cooler-than-expected air. Temperature drops as we ascend, partly because of the altitude and partly the setting sun.

We got to the summit an hour before sunset, the entire climb took us 2 whole hours. Breathtaking scenery, coupled with amazing sunlight and our photographic creativity makes the hour super enjoyable. The short sunset can’t be described with words, it’s just so different to watch from Mount Sinai. Special indeed, like the sunset I had on the Bodrum Bay.

We couldn’t really stay since we had no torches, hence we descended just as the last ray of sun disappeared. The slope is very easy to traverse after experiencing the 2 hour climb. We barely had 30 minutes of twilight before it gets really hard to walk. Luckily for us, the moon was shining so bright tonight, it would have all the werewolves jealous of our fortune. Sometimes, the shadows cast by the moon on stones are really hard to differentiate from camel poo, I’m afraid. Almost broke my ankles and knees several times while trying to avoid ‘camel poo’ and end up step on nothingness or another rock. Can’t help but notice that night sky in the desert is beautiful as ever, when the moon shines brightly and stars illuminate in the absence of city lights.

Dinner was at this fish and seafood restaurant. Its owner was so keen on our business that he offered soup, bread, salad, rice and chips free with every main course. Guess he must have been really desperate, we were his only customers. Prices are pretty decent, with a total of 122LE inclusive of fresh mango juice made from iced mangoes. Pretty exotic, cheaper and nice compared to the sahlab Eve and Hobart had before.

ZQ and eve left by 2300h for Sharm El Sheikh for their dive, while we and Hobart enjoyed a lasagne like supper for a ridiculously cheap 5LE.

160308: Cairo, Giza, Saqqara

Pyramid day. Itinerary: Giza Complex and Saqqara. We got a driver to ferry us around for 200 LE. We thought he was honest, till he sent us to camel traps. Got very disappointed with him, and insisted on going without camels. Bet he got pissed.

The sphinx is not a big as I thought it would be, maybe photos tend to exaggerate the size too much. There’re only walls and pillars left in the Sphinx Temple, the ceilings are pretty much gone. There were tonnes of tourists on the ramp beside the sphinx towards the pyramids. Took a couple of pictures but didn’t really stay long there, I hate crowds. The ramp to pyramids was sealed off for a big portion, so we had to make a roundabout to reach the pyramids. As we entered one of the tombs, the guard made it look like we are sneaky thieves trying to sneak a photo or 2. In the end still ask for baksheesh. I pulled out 1 LE for him, and he dare grumble about it. Expected much more I think. I refused to give a damn about it, it sucks to know you’re bribing an official. Breach of integrity and principles, damn it. No wonder PAP pays civil servants highly. I can’t imagine my fellow colleagues behaving in this way, totally despicable.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is gigantic. Great indeed. Tall and grand. But having seen and imagined the size of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, the Great Pyramid seems a tad smaller. No wonder the Temple is said to be the biggest and most impressive Ancient Wonder, I would vouch for it. We couldn’t enter Khufu’s tomb, there’re only 300 tickets available a day. Thought Khafre will be a good substitute instead, and for only 20% of Khufu’s price. Khafre is hot, humid, narrow, small, poorly ventilated and virtually empty except for the burial sarcophagus. I wonder if it’s really worth going in, except to declare ‘I’ve been in a pyramid, and I’m not gonna do it again’.

Saqqara is an hour’s drive from Cairo. The Step Pyramid is world famous for being special, though it’s resemblance to its Latin American cousin is scary. We asked the driver to send us to Giza station, which he gladly did and helped us with buying of tickets. But sleeper trains are now full, no tickets available. Damnit. We bought 1st class cabin tickets instead which is ¾ cheaper than sleeper trains. After all the traffic jams, we finally managed to get back to the hostel barely an hour before the coach’s departure. Hobart’s luggage hasn’t arrived. So much for Egyptian efficiency.

Along the way to the bus station, we were dying with hunger. Hit a food place, and bought koshary (a mix of rice, macaroni, spaghetti, yellow peas and a bean paste with a clear yellow syrup and a tomato paste that looks spicy but isn’t). For 5 LE, it’s a gigantic portion. Getting a big eater like me full is not an easy task, tsk tsk.

The bus journey isn’t nice. Seats are alright, with a nice back-cline adjustment for easy sleeping. But there are so many security checks that we cant really sleep well. Practically wake up every hour to show our passport and visa, plain stupid. And I don’t even know if they’re police. Young men dressed in fancy casual clothes are not convincing as policemen, I’m sorry.

150308: Cairo

Hobart was supposed to reach at 1300h today. We decided to go to Islamic Cairo instead, so he doesn’t miss much of the prime sights. Great Pyramids can wait till Sunday.

Cairo traffic is reminiscent of Bangkok, all captured in one word: chaos. We gotta cross roads like you never care about cars ever. Our walk to Islamic Cairo took an hour, and it’s characteristically different from other places by the abundance of souvenir shops and people calling out “Japanese? Korean? Chinese?” and blah blah blah. A boring place I think, and we don’t even know our exact location. At least we got police to help us locate ourselves though they hardly know English.

Took another walk to the citadel, burned 2 hours on that. We stopped along the way at a pastry bakery, and the pastries are dirt cheap and pretty good. Sugar rush like mad, and got to skipped lunch. Got on the wrong side of the citadel, and had to walk roundabout real bad to reach the entrance. Most of the citadel is destroyed, with nothing much left except the mosque. Pretty much like the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, only smaller and very un-blue. Eve was made to wear a green cloak, I supposed they think she wore too little haha. Weather is burning hot, and she had her woollen scarf on as well. Lucky I’m not a girl.

Out of citadel, we took a cab back to our hostel. We left a note for Hobart saying that we’ll be back to meet him at 1530h. And the cab took damn long. The distance is short, but jams dragged it out to half an hour. Damn traffic.

Hobart said his luggage gonna be arriving at 1500h on Sunday. Our coach is scheduled at 1730h, so there’s a chance he’ll be without his luggage should it be late. Walking to the bus station is a tough 30 minutes, not to mention it’s very hard to find. Even asking policeman doesn’t really help, he knows nuts about English and we don’t know Arabic. Sign language barely got us there, and surprisingly the bus station is very modern and new.

Next was the train station, which is easier to find. But hell, there wasn’t any sleeper train available from Ramses station so we gotta change our plans. And the price got inflated as well, 5 USD more. Guess we may be able to get the right tickets from Giza instead.

We got hungry as we arrived in night time Islamic Cairo. Had some food at a café (?) sandwich bar (?) whatever. A lot of sandwiches using pitta bread, and all vegetarian too. Fed all of us for only 15 LE, that’s about 1.50 GBP! Next we passed by a fish place, and so dinner II. Calamari @ 48 LE a kg, fish @ 28 LE a kg, that’s dirt cheap. Somehow feels like we over-ordered when we asked for a kg of each. Damn filling.

140308: Cairo

Flight delayed. It’s our 1st time on a full service flight for vacations and travels, pretty excited about the inflight entertainment and airline food, haha. But hell, I can’t believe our bad luck. The entertainment system broke down, and barely restored after 2 hours with only audio and video broadcast. Got to watch Juno though, the American humour is so ticklish I got a Brit annoyed, tsk tsk.

BA food is pretty good, Eve and Zhenqiang (ZQ) don’t think so. Maybe it’s just me liking airline food, heh. Had a gin tonic to down with dinner.

Cairo is a very strange city. So surprised to see chauffeurs and travel agents allowed in customs area. Banks (ie money changers) are located before customs, and we had to buy visas in USD from a bank (?). The visa is actually just a flashy sticker, and I still wonder why we pay banks for it. Once out of airport, the touting is just pure madness. Lucky we know the price range for getting to city centre, otherwise would have been leeched like mad. Got a deal for 45 LE in the end, though the middleman/agent seemed to fool the driver into ferrying us for 45 LE. Kinda realised that in Egypt, it’s a dog-eat-dog world. Networking and multilinguistic ability are more important than any other skill I think. Sounds like China =X

Cairo nightlife is vibrant. Even past midnight, shops are still opened and lotsa people walking about. Armed police presence is everywhere, probably due to the 2005 bombings in Sharm El Sheikh. Our hostel is next to a Jewish Synagogue, so full of police guarding. Should be very safe, tsk tsk. But our hostel is on the 6th storey! Worse still, there was an old man guarding the lift and stingy as we are, we refuse to engage the lift so as not to pay baksheesh (tips) to the old man. Climbed the stairs for all the time we were there, what a joke.

Missing

I've been too busy (read: lazy) to log my travels, in particular Prague, Kutna Hora and Bavarian Alps.

I've since moved on to Egypt, next post.

211207: Prague

The train to Prague departs from Sudbahnhof. Quite a hassle actually, considering we are located at Westbahnhof. It’s like, ‘shouldn’t there a train to Prague from Westbahnhof?’ kind of exclamation, but the fact is that given the ‘free’ metro, we shouldn’t be complaining too much.

I don’t know why, but somehow we are always almost late for our trains. The one from Salzburg is so, the one to Bratislava is so, even this one to Prague. Boarding the train and getting a compartment some 3 minutes from departure is a frightening experience, especially in the lands where we don’t speak their native language well enough to request for bread and water or even shelter over our heads.

I like train rides, especially in the day. You might think I’m bonkers, but as a urban kid who stayed in cities all his life, traversing the countryside admiring the scenery while coup up in the comfort of a train seat is an amazing experience. You see, countryside to me only exist very much in the books I read. Of course, my experiences of countryside travel is likely to be distributed geometrically: there’s no memory effect and previous experiences don’t diminish my utility. Haha, the last sentence sounds how statistically a freak economics student I am, despite the fact that I’m not a economics major. Perhaps that’s the very telling symptom that I’m from LSE.

Arriving in Prague started with a big joke. I thought we arrived in a place called Vychod, only to realise that name occurs in every single stop we passed through since entering Czech Republic. It didn’t take long for Jordan to tell me that it most likely says ‘exit’. Seriously, that tickled me so much I can’t forget how stupid I must have sounded. But the joke evolved into a nightmare, when we realised we got off at the wrong station. Prague, it seems, has 2 stations that’s within 1 hour’s walk of each other. We’re supposed to end up at the main station, not the other one. Can’t remember the name though. But the horror lies in the fact that we did not have any Czech korunas with us. All of us came in the mentality that we would find money changers with good rates here, and brought our pounds only while saving our euros for Salzburg. Everything adds up to walking, without a map of Prague.

After walking some 15 minutes in a presumably southwards direction, we ended up at Inter-Continental. This place is where we were salvaged. Nope, we didn’t stay there. Or rather, we requested for a map, only to be provided graciously. And it took us another half an hour before we reached our hostel, freezing in the cold sunset of -7 degC. Yes! -7, can you believe it? And that’s only sunset. The Czechs have got this electronic speeding signboard along one of the roads and it displays a figure resembling -7 with some gibberish language which none of us can decipher. What else can relate to -7, other than the current temperature?

Anyway, the hostel offered us temporary relief from the freezing cold. And it’s cheap. At 8 pounds 50 a night, they offered us a free night for every 4th night we stay there. Of course, that’s only available in the low season which in this case refers to Christmas and winters.

Walking in Prague in the dark isn’t very fun a task. Besides the cold, we gotta contend with a language barrier with the majority of people out there. Along the way though, we encountered something interesting that you wouldn’t see anywhere in London, but possibly in Malaysia. Alongside the main roads, there would be these push carts accompanied by big barrels. And guess what’s in there? The traditional dish of Czechs for Christmas: black carps. And mind you, it’s not anything like the beautiful looking fishes that we see in Japanese ponds. Big, fat, ugly and looking like bloated catfish, it certainty doesn’t look like a delicacy to me. However, we witnessed something that animal welfare groups will scream about. The monger held on to a live carp that he fished from the barrel with a piece of cloth. Then holding on to a club on the other hand, he bashed the head right smack on the forehead! To worsen the experience, he whacked it a few more times to ensure that the fish is rightfully stunned and dead. Talk about animal abuse, huh.

Dinner was at a pub after a search that was suggested by Janice. Guess what, she suggested that cheap local pubs should be located in the small roads feeding of the main roads and not the main roads themselves. Rent would be cheaper, and they have no need for tourists to fund their operations for the locals would know where to look. And true enough, we found one indeed. Not before mocking its name and the street where its found, V Cipu. Sounds like very cheapo to us. The menu ranges around 100Kc, though sides like chips will set you back another 30Kc more. And there is something else I must comment on, that enticed my attention. Sure, the waitress is one hot babe that really changed my impression of how Czech girls look, but beer is at a cheap price of 23Kc!!! Ok, between beer and women, I can’t really place a particular preference for or against either. But seriously, who can resist a beer that costs under a pound for a pint? Maybe only Janice, and all those losers who think that beers are not as nice as cocktails. Come to Prague and drink and get amazed by how cheap doesn’t mean it tastes like piss.

201207: Bratislava

Today is Bratislava day. Seriously, I would never have expected 2 capitals of different countries be that close to each other, especially when they composed of differing races. Austrians are generally Germanic, while Slovakians are as their name suggests, Slovaks or Slavic if you trace it further back into the past. Capitals are usually the seats of governments, and are in most need of protection should there be foreign invasion. Hence they are located in the middle of the country rather than at its borders, or near its border only if there is port related influence. However, both Vienna and Bratislava are inland and not near any seas, with exception of the river that runs through them. An intriguing idea would be that Europe after the 2nd world war is too peaceful such that intra-continental warfare is of almost zero possibility.

Stepping into Bratislava after a boring train ride was a nice change of environment. The 1st evidence of its cheap prices was the low hot dog prices in the train station. In fact, we only bothered to change some 15 pounds per person for an entire day’s expenses, lunch and dinner and whatsoever. Initially we thought we might take a bus into the city, but seems like it’s only a short walk. The fact is there is only a castle cum fortress with an old town square. Walking up the castle is quite a mess; we keep walking round the hill to the top. If only they had a short and more direct way, but that was what we found out later.

Anyway, Slavic people aren’t exactly as friendly as Austrians are. Other than a kind lady curator of a very small museum, the rest are grouchy people who are not hospitable to foreigners at all. Maybe they do not understand English, but there’s no need to give a black face at all times. The castle museums are nothing worthy of time, and we got bored too soon after. It was lunch time anyway, and our tummies are ordering us back to the old town. We kinda screwed up on finding the short way back into the old town, took us some 1 hour I think.

The 1st thing we realised after reaching the town square is that we need not go to any restaurant for lunch: the town square vendors are selling hot and fragrant food for cheap prices! Not to mention hot chocolate that essentially is melted chocolate fondue, creamy hot chocolate true to its name! The strudels and crepes are good desserts, but the highlights are the grilled burgers that offer mixed pork and chicken grills accompanied by sweet smelling onions. That’s heaven, I swear to you.

Another heavenly discovery was a pastry store where we had some desserts. And on top of that, me and Jordan get to satisfy our cola addiction together with those sweet pies and cakes! Seriously, other than food itself, Bratislava is hardly any place worth much attention, and 1 day is more than enough.

191207: Vienna

We initially planned to go Bratislava today, but put it off to tomorrow because we simply did not check out the buses and trains. I guess it’s more accurate to say that we may just be more interested in Schonbrunn. Schonbrunn is the imperial palace in Austria, said to be modeled after the Versailles in France for the Queen wished for similar residence. And they have very extravagant lifestyle as well. Based on hearsay, there is a zoo (the family keeps exotic animals for pets), labyrinth garden, a desert climate greenhouse, top of the hill coffee place etc. Sounds way cool, and curious to know what it is like.

We got the map location for the palace, and attempted to walk there. And the funny thing is, it is this attempt that we experienced for the 3rd time the hospitality of Austrians. This time round, it nearly shocked us.

At a traffic junction not far from our hostel, on our way to Schonbrunn, we met a smartly dressed man. He offered his help for we looked totally unlike locals, fortunately. We told him our intent to visit Schonbrunn, and ask him for directions. He advised us to take the tram, that some people (or most) take it for free. And the conductor seldom checks. Not used to such a system, we decided against testing our luck on a foreign transport system and take up the hardly enjoyable activity of walking there. Perhaps it was pity on us, or just out of pure kindness, or both, he actually offered to CHAUFFEUR us there!!! It’s just so fairy tale like, we simply can’t believe it. He said there’s just enough space in his vehicle for the 4 of us, and he’s passing by Schonbrunn as well. I think this special kindness of Austrians amazes me more than any monument or majestic architecture in Austria. We hardly had enough courteous conscience to even ask for his name, but I remembered his car plate number 77884. Whoever you may be, we sincerely thank you for your help, and that you gave us the best impression of Austrians.

Schonbrunn looks like a super big mansion, yellow and rectangular. It’s front courtyard is flanked by walls and within lies 2 fountains. It’s winter time, so all the fountains are frozen solid. In the middle of the courtyard, another Christmas market was set up. We hardly had time for that, and were more interested in the gardens than imperial interiors of the palace. And we started off our exploration with the rose archway. However, it’s just a barren structure of creepers in the cold winter; I don’t blame them for not blooming in the temperatures of -5 degC. We came to a pond next, water still flowing apparently with the help of warmers and inhabited with ducks that fly. Yes, it is here that we finally see ducks fly, unless those that appear on our dinner plates.

Beyond this pond is some garden, all barren and brown that makes us uninterested at all. Next comes a gigantic fountain, the biggest inhabited fountain be have seen in Austria up till now and its inhabitants consist of ducks, mandarin and brown, with pigeons for neighbours. And we seriously had a lot of fun trying to stealthily catch the ducks on the pretext of having them for dinner (just joking). We didn’t try to enter the desert greenhouse, it requires an admission fee which we supposed would not be something we are interested in. Passing it by, we walked along the zoo. And how do we know it’s the zoo? The first presence of deers. Yes, we saw deers through the fence. Not to mention they were cohabitating with rhinoceros. Checking out the entrance to the zoo, I realised that they had piranhas as well, with destinated days for feeding shows as well! That could be the highlight of our trip here, but alas! We are there on the wrong day.

Should you look at the entire garden and compound of the palace, you can actually realize how extravagant the imperial family is. I don’t think I’m wrong to say the entire compound area actually can rival the compound of Home Team Academy back home. The surface area of the various places, coupled with the amount of resources needed to keep and maintain them, could be used to bring thousands begging in the streets out of the poverty circle, even at the very least feed them. I wonder, truly, if that represents the spending power of royal families around the world. And how royal can they be, if they can’t even solve the plague inflicted upon every single nation in the world, poverty?

The first outlawed thing done on this trip happened after Schonbrunn. After hearing Mr Nice Guy 77884 (I don’t know what else to call him, hehe), we’ve decided to take the Underground to Stadt Park. The experience is very unfamiliar, for we are all used to the ticket gates of Singapore’s MRT and London’s Tube. However, here in Vienna, their Underground is marked by railings and a simple card slot machine on one of the railings. People walked in and out without seeming to pay for anything. And to act as if we know the system, we walked through those gates as well trying to hold our anticipation. Nothing happened, no alarm or conductor to stop us. I guess they assumed we have the Vienna Tourist Card or whatever you call it, which allows 72 hours of unlimited travel on local transport. Seems like we’ve chanced upon a deal, a cheapskate one no doubt.

Stadt Park is nothing grand and impressive, I’m afraid. Maybe London’s Hyde Park formed an expectation unknowingly, but we weren’t anymore entertained here and anywhere else. Perhaps the only touristy thing we ever saw is the golden statue of Johann Strauss, which I think most tourists will take pictures of. After that, we tried walking to the mosaic museum that the hostel reception introduced us to. However, we ended up walking to an art museum after some 1 hour of walking. Wrong direction and mistaken location, I believe. The only lucky thing is that our location is so close to Sudbahnhof that we’ve decided to ask about tickets to Bratislava and timetable for trains to Prague. That’s about the most efficient thing we’ve done since our visit to Schonbrunn.

The train to Bratislava is 14e, but with Vorteilcard that we bought for the use of moving between cities, we can get some 15% discount. That brings to 12e. Subsequent checks that the bus station proves that buses are longer and more expensive than trains. Beyond that, we are effectively exhausted and hungry enough to think of going back to Radatz for lunch. So being cheapos again, we took the free (?) Underground to Radatz and of course, the people recognized us I guess. We can’t speak German and ended up pointing and using sign language but still had a great meal of meat, cheap too.

Activity after dinner was visiting the Museum Quartier again. This time round, we went in instead but ghianpng as we are, the free museums are the ones that took our eye. We ended up with the contemporary arts which is my favourite. Had a lot of fun with their interactive arts, of which I took a video of a sand-screen performance. The contemporary arts museum do warrant a visit, if you’re bored like us =)

181207: Vienna

We set off early for the train to Vienna. A 3 hour ride, it seems not too bad to have a single compartment to ourselves. That’s the crucial difference between British and European trains; British trains lack the privacy that European trains can provide. It’s here that we discovered for the 2nd time how friendly and helpful Austrians are. A man joined us in our compartment for the last hour stretch of the train ride. While we were discussing on how to get to our hostel towards the end of our journey, he volunteered in English to guide us to our hostel!

Actually, our hostel is so close to Westbahnhof that it’s easier walking there than to walk to Tesco from my house. However, the nightmare comes after we checked in. It seems that Westbahnhof and our hostel is quite far from the city centre where all the sightseeing is. In fact, we would have to walk some 45 minutes to an hour before we can cover the entire shopping street to the Museum Quartier. Absolutely crazy. You might think we walked the entire stretch to reach the attractions, but what we wanted was only lunch. Looking around for Austrian food isn’t as easy as you think, or rather cheap Austrian food. We had to endure our hunger for half an hour before we found the deal.

Radatz! That’s the place all of you going to Vienna should go. I would never forget the butchery. Yes, it’s a butchery selling largely pork. Grilled, fried, smoked, any style you can think of. More importantly, it’s very cheap. Cheap relative to the amount of meat we get, at least. We had some 4 big portion plates of pork and chicken, and all for the price of 3e per person!!! We stuffed ourselves so full of meat that the rest don’t matter much anymore, other than the sweet and sour appetizer of potato salad.

Museum Quartier was pretty much a gigantic complex of museums of different sorts, but the place that truly attracted our attention was the Christmas market at the centre of the Quartier. Yes, again! Here we found caramel and honey roasted nuts, and snacks of different sorts that makes you drool. We passed by the palace, took some pictures of monumental Vienna and headed straight for Stephanplatz. The famous St. Stephan Cathedral is located here, and it sure looked out of place in the middle of the shopping area. Much of it is under restoration now, and all the scaffolding is just pure ugliness. The interior is grand as any other catholic cathedrals and if you’ve seen St Peter’s of Vatican or any other ones, it’s ok to give it a miss. You haven’t miss any thing much.

We read about the Holocaust museum here, and planned to visit it after passing St Stephan’s. Searching around the area doesn’t help much, for we just couldn’t find the entrance no matter how we try to locate it on the map even street by street. Desperation drove us to ask one of the museums there, whose receptionist told us there’s no Holocaust museum here! What’s related to the second world war, is a Jewish memorial commemorating those who suffered in Austria under the Third Reich. The memorial itself is a rectangular block of grey stone, at the entrance door (or what looks like a door) is a Star of David and some lines stating the sacrifice of 65,000 Jews. Kinda feel cheated though.

Our next destination is the concert hall, since Jan said she was recommended to watch a opera, ballet or concert performance here. On our way, we passed the Opera House which was selling Nutcracker the ballet for 35e a tick, which is quite alright compared to London’s musicals. We gave that a miss, however, for Kiat wasn’t too interested in ballet dances. He doesn’t understand it, and I don’t either but I wouldn’t mind being more educated in such culture though.

At the concert hall, we were lucky enough to be available for 2 performances. A choir in one, a string ensemble with piano accompaniment in the other. We chose the ensemble in the end, though we weren’t quite prepared for what happened in the performance itself. A 20e ticket to allow us to view the performance, though we could have paid 5e for one without the view. Anyway, the ensemble started well till the first piece ended and the nightmare started. A well dressed man walked on the stage, and started to speak from a thick speech file on the stage. We are screwed. It’s in German, and we could understand nuts about what he said. And the thing is, he droned on and on for the next 15 minutes, as long as the ensemble piece itself. Kinda had the feeling that this will be repeated for the entire night. True enough, Kiat and Jordan (and me at times) managed to get some sleep while the man was speaking. All Jan could do was to keep laughing at us for sleeping, though she couldn’t understand German as well. It was the worst to happen, though the Beethoven pieces played sounded not bad with the violin, cello and the piano.

171207: Salzburg

No sleeping as usual, just so we can catch the early morning flight preceded by the super early Terravision coach to Stansted airport. And surprisingly, customs and security as well as check-in services are a breeze, no doubt a rarity in British airports.

The flight was a non-event, I slept through the 2 hour ride to wake up very refreshed and hear the announcement of -1 degree Celcius (degC) in Salzburg. Ouch! Bright daylight and 9am in the morning but temperature seems to suggest late night London climate. Customs in Salzburg are simple, and we could retrieve our luggage quickly as well. The airport is 20 minutes from city centre, and cost only 1.80e. More amazingly, given that we only have 50e notes fresh from the money changer in London, the bus driver actually allow us to break a 50e note for a ride total of 7.20e. London drivers just tell you to get off the bus and find some change to buy a ticket at the machine in the bus stop.

It was on the bus that we had the first taste of Austrian friendliness and hospitality. We weren’t sure of where to stop, and Kiat’s German isn’t exactly up to mark. However, we managed to ask an Austrian lady who told us she’s getting off at the city centre and offered to help guide us down. Though we never really get off at the city centre but the train station, we were amazed that Austrians are quite well versed in English, or at least the younger ones.

Reaching the hostel isn’t tough, neither is checking in. It’s the weather and cold that worries us more, for it seems to be continental Europe tradition to be immersed in negative degC temperatures compared to us who came from the tropics. Ear muffs, gloves, 4 layers of clothing barely brought comfort.

Lunch was at a restaurant in a 4 star hotel, recommended by the hostel receptionist. And prices are pretty much 10 pounds a meal! The first taste of sauerkraut and dumplings are unforgettable but those are nothing compared to the roast pork that I had. The most tender piece I ever had in my entire life, not to mention the slick taste of it dissolving soon after I chewed on it. A simply amazing experience!

Life beyond lunch was to explore the old town. More importantly, we were curious about the Christmas market. Gluhwein, pastries, handicrafts, frankfurters and sausages… it’s quite magical to be exact. Then there’s the Christmas tree sales where you literally see a miniature Christmas tree forest on the old town square. Beside it was a makeshift ice-skating arena, coupled by a snack bar selling Gluhwein and providing everyone with wood fire. The atmosphere cannot be described by just words alone; you just gotta be there warming your hands in the wood fire and enjoying the snow-white view from the fortress to the churches and the Christmas market.

The climb up to the fortress is just pure fun. Not that ascending up-slopes are fun, but the path is lined by un-melted snow which we put to good use: snow fights. Me, Kiat and Jordan bashed one another with snow while Jan watched on. Talk about being unsporty, she gave the excuse that she had a coat that does not repel snow and dampness. Not like mine is waterproof or snowproof or whatever it is supposed to be. Along the way, the scenery gave way to snowy hills and treetops with a spectacular view of the city below us. I had a premonition that it’s gonna be better when we come back to Salzburg in 9 days’ time, but just keep it between you and me.

Dinner wasn’t any fun, just the thrill of finding 1e burgers in McDonalds and finishing 3 of them at one go. Nightfall is early in Salzburg like any other European country in winter, and it became so cold none of us were interested in walking around anymore. Perhaps, that’s the sacrifice for low season’s availability and prices.