*note: apologies for not finishing what i started. marriage and the routines of regular life kept me from completing my travel diary. i have about 55 days remaining, which i hope to finish very soon.
of course, i have hundreds of photos left to show … so that will be something i try to do every few days for the rest of the year.
day 431 – we got the train to croatia and in the early morning crossed the border. we got some more sleep and arrived in zagreb. christina and i walked through town and found our hotel. as usual in europe, we had to wait a while to check in, so we went to the nearby farmer’s market, bought some food for breakfast, returned to the hotel and showered.
afterwards we did some shopping, had a sleep and cooked dinner. in the evening i checked email and we had some wine and crackers, talked and slept.
day 432 – we cooked breakfast and returned to the farmer’s market for a look around. it’s pretty cool there – the fruit is cheap and the stalls are very colourful. we walked into town and went to the bus and train station looking for tickets to vienna. we settled on a cheaper bus ticket then returned to the city to check out the sights.
we visited strossmayer house and got caught in the rain as we were leaving. we ran to a gazebo and waited for the rain to stop. after that christina and i got some great coffee in a little cafe built amongst some old roman ruins.
we returned to the hotel, had lunch and headed to some religious sites. we visited st mary’s cathedral and st mark’s church. we also saw the old stone gate which used to be the city entrance. we walked to the main square (which is enormous), had some yummy chips and headed back to the hotel. christina was tired so she went to bed while i backed up photos, did some editing and checked email.
day 433 – we had breakfast, checked out and stored our luggage. we had to wait for the bus (in the evening) so we went for one final look around zagreb. we returned to st mary’s cathedral and walked around the city. i bought christina a g-string and we sat near the fountain to watch people and talk for a while. at the fountain was a couple with their toddler. i gave the kid a coin which he threw into the fountain. i gave him another one and he happily threw it in too.
we had lunch at a nearby cafe and returned to the hotel to pick up our bags. there was not much else to do, so we went to the bus station and had a long wait. we managed to get a refund on our unused tram tickets (which was nice) and i also exchanged the rest of my croatian money. late in the evening, we jumped the bus to vienna.
day 434 – we arrived in vienna really early and walked to the hostel from the bus station. we couldn’t check in until 2pm, so we had no other choice but to get some sleep on the couches. we had breakfast and waited around for check in. in the afternoon we were still tired and hungry. christina and i had a bit of a fight, but soon made up over ravioli, lasagne and a bottle of very nice chianti. a bit drunk, we returned to the hotel, made love and slept.
day 435 – the hostel in vienna was called wombats. it’s an australian owned hostel and they have 3-4 of them in austria and germany. the hostel was a typical backpacker joint, but had one great advantage: buffet breakfast. in the morning christina and i stuffed ourselves silly. then we headed out for a day of sight seeing.
we started with the big cemetery and saw beethoven and strauss, we did lots of walking and headed through the old town. we thought it was saturday (it was sunday) and we ended up missing our chance to see the vienna boys choir. but we didn’t mind … we walked along the danube, looked around town, bought bus tickets to prague and returned to the hotel. we drank a lot of beer (with nachos) chatted and slept. we had seen a lot today and were tired as hell from all the walking.