Big Adventures, Little World

We started the day with a walking tour through the city of Vienna visiting the palaces and other monuments and museums. Most things are all within a short walk of each other, all around what’s called the ring road, which is just a big circle and has all the famous places around it. Once we had finished the walking tour we had the rest of the day to explore the city for ourselves.

A group of us wandered the main street with a couple of the girls wanting to shop and it was a good place for it. We had a nice relaxing walk, got some ice cream before we found a place to have lunch so we could get some schnitzel. I had a wiener schnitzel, as they called it, topped with ham, cheese and a white wine sauce and it was delicious. Closest thing I could find to a chicken parmi! After lunch it was time to head back and meet up with the rest of the tour for our visit to a local Schnapps museum/factory.

The Schnapps Museum was really interesting and we had a short tour and some explanations of how the schnapps was made and the different types they made there. The owner gave us the tour and was quite funny and gave us a lot of information about it, like that it had been in his family for generations making the schnapps and that it is all still original including the cash register which is nearly 100 years old and has never failed or needed to be repaired. After the tour we had the opportunity to sample some of the schnapps and also buy some if we wanted. I tried a few different shots, including the absinthe, which was very strong, but still quite nice and not too much of a burning sensation either. Then I tried what they call Rocket Fuel, a 56% alcohol drink, but surprisingly doesn’t taste that strong at all. They recommend that if you have a cough to have a shot of it before anything else and it will get rid of the cough. I also tried the Schonbrunner Gold, which is an orange flavoured drink, about 40% alcohol and has little gold flakes in the bottle. They were all really nice and went down a lot easier than their alcohol content would suggest.

After the schnapps there was a group going to a traditional Viennese Chamber Orchestra performance and the rest of us were going to Prater Park, an amusement park with one of the largest and oldest Ferris wheels in the world. We mostly just sat around and had some food, and a few of us went off and on a couple of the rides. Bel, Rainbow (our bus driver), Ando, Tommy & I headed off to go on a chair swing ride, when it spins around and the chairs fly off to the sides. Not scary at all, the face it is 117 metres in the air could make it seem a bit scarier I suppose. This is exactly what happened to Tom, as once he saw the tower he was having no part in it at all, being that he is afraid of heights. So the rest went up there and it was definitely worth it. The views were amazing. The lights were all starting to come on through the city and through the park on all the other rides as well. It looked really spectacular and I even took my camera up with me and took some photos while spinning around. There wasn’t much else to do, so we sat around a bit longer and chatted before going to pick up the rest of the group from their performance and then back to the campsite for the night.

After arriving in Vienna the first thing we did was go straight to the Hofburg Palace which used to be just the summer residence for the family. The Palace was huge in itself but then the entire grounds of the place were about another 20 times bigger. We could have spent hours there looking around with all the gardens, statues, fountains and even a maze! Unfortunately we only had about an hour before we had to be back on the bus to get to the campsite.

We had a fairly quiet night at the campgrounds after dinner and sat round with a few drinks and kicked the football around, and got attacked by mosquitos. They were everywhere and it didn’t even matter that we were covered in repellents, they were relentless and just kept attacking.

Our day started with a walking tour through the city of Venice, which is by far the best way to get around. That or on a boat through the canals. Hottie guided us through the city showing us a few sights here and there, like the Bridge of Sighs, which has been ruined giant advertising all over it. We ended up in St. Mark’s Square where there is also a basilica dedicated to him. There are some really beautiful and amazing sights and views throughout Venice and after the walking tour we had a chance to explore them for ourselves. First though, there was a lace demonstration of how lace was made and the history of it, I think. I’m not too sure because I walked in for about a minute before getting bored and going to check out the square again. I ventured back in to the lace demonstration again, only to see the lady holding up a piece of lace and saying is cost 960 Euro before turning around and heading back out again. I’m not sure if anyone actually thought it was interesting at all.

Tommy and I headed off to explore the city and get lost. It is so easy to get lost in the city of Venice, but also it’s so easy to find your way back again, so it never really matters. So we just wandered for a while checking out some of the shops and sights around the city. Although there wasn’t really much of a range. The extent of the shops was basically souvenir shops, clothes shops and plenty of mask shops, but not much else. We had a lot of time to kill before needing to head back to catch the shuttle bus to the campsite so we thought it would be a good idea to walk back out to the square, and then catch the Vaporetto (Water Taxi/Bus) back to the bus station. We would have plenty of time, or so we thought. Once we got out to the square the first taxis we found we private taxis and were going to cost 60 Euro, which wasn’t what we were looking for at all. We found the right place and jumped on, but it was the longest ride stopping at every single place it possibly could before we finally made it back to the station, and then had about 45 minutes wait before the next shuttle bus. Not so much fun considering all we wanted to do was get back to the campsite and relax.

When we finally made it back to the campsite it was straight into the pool for a swim before relaxing and then dinner in the restaurant of pizza and pasta. Pizza and pasta is pretty much the only two things we ate while in Italy. That, and gelati. After dinner there was a band playing outside the bar, so a big group of us sat around waiting for them to start. While we waited, we started a new round of Kings, this time with some different rules, including the ‘Gecko’ card, which led to gecko injuries for myself and a few others and I’m sure some bruises here and there. For anyone who is wondering, the ‘Gecko’ card entails once it being played, everyone finding the nearest wall or tree and pushing themselves flat up against it like a gecko. Once the card was played, everyone was up, chairs flying everywhere, drinks getting knocked over, and people running so as they weren’t the last one to be the gecko. I’m quite sure everyone else sitting at the other tables hated us and though we were crazy, but we had a lot of fun and that’s all that we cared about. The band came on after that and they were really good with the lead singer coming around trying to get people involved in helping him sing, but it seemed only our table were the ones joining in. All in all it was a good night, and I even got to bed early enough to get a decent sleep before making our way to Austria in the morning.

We had a long day ahead of us, but luckily it was broken up with a short stop in Verona, the home of Romeo & Juliet. Verona was such a beautiful city and we could have spent hours there, unfortunately we had only about an hour and only had time to see the ‘Tunnel of Love’ where people stick poems and other messages to their loved ones to be happy in love, which then leads through to a statue of Juliet, and her own balcony which is so famous from Shakespeare’s play and movie adaptations. We had a quick walk through the city and saw their very own Colosseum, which wasn’t as big as the one in Rome, but was still complete and fully standing, which in some ways makes it better than the one in Rome, although nowhere near as famous or with as much history.

We had a couple of hours before dinner so we went for a dip in the pool at the campsite. We were starting to grow accustomed to having a pool or a beach so close after having it the last few places we had stayed. After the pool it was showers and dinner before changing into our togas for the Toga Party at the campsite bar. The Toga Party was so much fun, and with most of our group all participating and everyone all wrapped in their sheets it made for a great night of drinking, dancing and just general fun.

The morning started nice and early once again, but this time not for the bus ride. This was to head to Vatican City, for a professional guided tour. I really don’t know what to say about Vatican City, there is just so much history involved and so much to take in, it is really something that needs to be done yourself to fully appreciate it. We went through and saw some of the famous and priceless statues and treasures of the Catholics in the Vatican Museums. The tour ended up with us visiting the Sistine Chapel, which is something that cannot really be described. I have heard about it before, but until you actually see it for yourself, you cannot really comprehend how amazing it really is. The fact that it was painted hundreds of years ago by a single person is just truly unfathomable.

We had the rest of the day to ourselves, so Lucy, Bel and I went off to a church where they have human remains inside, and is more like catacombs than a church. It was something that seemed so cool to go and check out, as we had a bit of history about it the night before on our walking tour, but when we got there they were closing, but we could come back later that afternoon if we would like as it would open again. We planned to do this after we checked out a couple of other sites, but because of the intense heat, we never made it back there unfortunately. Just gives me another reason to go back and visit Rome I guess. What a shame.

Our next stop was the Colosseum and this time, to go and have a look inside. When we got there, we were advised there was an hour and a half wait to get inside, but there was an abundance of guided tours around where you get a guided tour of both, the Colosseum and the Roman Forums, as well as entry without waiting in line for only an extra few Euros. We decided this was the best option and a few minutes later we were inside the Colosseum with our own personal tour guide explaining the history of the famous building to us. I would have loved to seen it when it was still completely built before being partly destroyed by an earthquake, but just the fact that it is still standing is amazing. I would have also loved to see a gladiator fight within the arena, as that would be an atmosphere like no other anyone could ever imagine. Looking around inside and imaging it filled with 75000 people all screaming for bloodshed is an incredible, but kind of scary thought.

After our tour we had about a 45 minute wait before our tour of the Roman Forums, but all we wanted to do was get back to the campsite and relax because of the heat. So instead of waiting for the guided tour, we made our own way in and walked around checking it out on our own accord. It really is an amazing place so full of such history, but being that it was so hot we really struggled to be able to take it all in and appreciate it for what it was. However, we saw some pretty cool ruins throughout it, and also got some amazing views out over the Colosseum and other parts of the city, as well as seeing a current excavation site which was started in 2009 and is uncovering some giant columns and buildings from thousands of years ago.

Then it was back to the campsite to relax by the pool with a few drinks and ball games in the water late into the night, as they were having a pool party that night. Once again we got some pizza and ate it around the pool before meeting 3 new guys from Perth who were joining the tour. That morning we had 6 that were finishing up in Rome, so we had become quite a small bunch. We stayed around the pool until about midnight playing volleyball in the pool and just enjoying to the cooler weather before heading off to bed before our drive to Venice in the morning.