I Am Kulched

Expensive interent cafe, Mariahilferstrasse, Vienna, 11.40am

Am spending Easter here in Vienna, did lots of museums and sights on the first two days, leaving me two very relaxing days of sunshine and parks. However I have left you all a long way behind so I am here, now, to try and catch you up!

So way back in the day, when I was in Slovenia, after I arrived and stopped freaking out, I discovered that Ljubljana is one of my favourite places so far, top five for sure. The people in Slovenia are the NICEST I have come across anywhere, they are genuinely lovely and helpful and warm. Plus they ALL speak English really well.

My day of checking out Ljubljana didn't take long, the central old city part is tiny and only takes an hour to walk around. It's all centred on a river and there are some lovely bridges over it, including the famous triple bridge. Since it was Saturday the market was absolutely pumping, plus there was a Bosnian food festival on, which seemed to consist mainly of baklava and coffee. I chucked laps around the market and up and down both sides of the river, soaking it all up. Walked up the hill to the castle, took some photos of the View, gawked at a wedding party, then headed back down the hill for lunch at a bar I'd scoped out on the way past earlier.

Best coffee ever. I took a photo of it because it was so wonderfully presented, plus because I'm a tourist. Gorgeous cup and saucer, yummy little biscuit, glass of water, so civilized! And here I was thinking Slovenia would be all peasants with horses and carts (apparently that's Romania) and no teeth. Also had a big bowl of potato soup with the most delicious bread. (Best bread of my trip - Slovenia, everywhere, including my hostel.) And then I had to have another coffee to celebrate how much in love with Ljubljana I was.

I was so wrong about Slovenia, I thought it would be kind of pretty and old, but a bit backward by my oh-so-hip standards, but it is COOL. Great shops, great lifestyle, super trendy bars and cafes, and they were dressed in really interesting clothes, bit Brunswick St (the money side, not the filthy hippy side).

After lunch I headed for the Tivoli Gardens and spent a few hours reading in the sun, listening to some young guy practicing his sax and watching huge plots of daffodils wave merrily. Wonderful.

The next day I managed to arrange with Lisa (who I met in Naples) to meet and catch the bus to Lake Bled for the day. She brought along a couple of young Poms from her hostel so the four of us wandered around the lake all day, up to the castle and church, bureks and ice cream for lunch, Slovenian Snotblocks for afternoon tea! Lots of sunshine still!

Then it was off to Budapest. Long train trip again (what happened to everything in Europe being small and close?), but STRESS-FREE which is far more important than a quick trip. Budapest is a big city and has the filth to go with it. As soon as I woke up on my first morning there I went 'What's wrong with the sunlight? Why is it kind of dim and hazy?' That would be the pollution. It was bad, really bad. It was quite a hot day too so the hazy sky and nasty yellow Danube were just horrible.

On the plus side, made some great friends in Budapest at my hostel and we all hung out for the two days we were there. We did a free walking tour of the city, followed by lunch at this outdoor kitchen kind of thing - kebabs! Sausages! Salad! BEER! The beer certainly helped clear the pollution from my lungs! Had dinner at a nice Jewish Hungarian restaurant with a bunch of their friends who were studying in Budapest, followed by shots of the local specialty at a huge bar in an abandoned building.

The next day we went to the Szechenyi Baths, thermal baths that are all kept at different temperatures. So we did nothing apart from loiter in the baths and lie in the sun. I did NOT get sunburnt! If I'd been in Australia it would've been sunscreen every 30 minutes, in Budapest, three times in four hours and not a mark on me - squee!

All three of my new Budapest Buddies are studying in Copenhagen, which means I get to see them all again this weekend. Really looking forward to that, hoping they know somewhere cheap to get a drink, think I won't be doing much drinking in Scandinavia. Much of anything in fact!

On Thursday I made my way to Vienna, met a girl in my train carriage who was actually staying at the same hostel as me, so we found it together then hung out for a couple of days too. Vienna is lovely, heaps to do, plus some really beautiful parks and gardens to relax in. Janie (from the train) and I went to the opera on Thursday night for €3, it was....an experience! Won't be racing for season tickets anytime soon, but now I can say I've been! I went on Saturday night to see the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (€5) - now that was AMAZING. And on Sunday morning I was up way too early to get into mass with the Vienna Boys' Choir (€5), so good. The mass part was all in German so I was fighting to stay awake for that, but the boys were incredible, the one who did the solo parts had a voice better than any woman I've ever heard.

Friday was Klimt Day, went to three different museums to get maximum Klimt action, certainly wasn't disappointed. Plus I saw a huge exhibition of gorgeous Art Nouveau work by Alfons Mucha. Hadn't been to a museum since Rome, so was ready to wander and appreciate more than I would've been two weeks ago.

Apart from all of that, have just been enjoying the extraordinary weather in the gardens of Schonbrunn Palace and Stadtpark, will probably head back to the hostel, make some sandwiches and go back to Stadtpark again once I finish this. Might actually go to the movies later this afternoon too, haven't been at all over here and am hanging out for some cinematic relaxation.

Tomorrow I'm off to Prague for a couple of days, really looking forward to that, still haven't met anyone who doesn't love it. Then it's up to Scandinavia, finally! Still only up to 3/4 of the way through my trip, feels like three years people!