ALL THINGS AUSTRIAN

WEATHER:  Rainy in Munich – Cold at white water rafting – sunny in Hopfgarten

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Swarovski retail shop

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not doing washing when I had the chance – bad move

BUYS OF THE DAY:  My Swarovski pen I have been eyeing off for months – it’s beautiful

WORD OF THE DAY: Alcohol is NOT my friend……

Well after consuming 6L of beer and god knows how many vodka’s, and then I also had a camparinya with my Brazilian friends, waking up this morning was ROUGH.  I think I was still drunk when I got up ( no surprise there) and I hate doing it, but I had to drunk pack my bag, this is where things get left behind, but I swept the room like a dozen times, so I don’t think anything was left – I’ll keep you posted.

It was such a fun night last night and the funniest thing I remember was we all had to catch taxi’s home and we pulled up at a set of lights and I hear my name being called, I wound down my window and there is Victoria hanging, literally, out of the taxi next to us!  It was so funny and to see some-one you know when you don’t expect it, wrap that in alcohol and you get the ‘funny’ of the night!  Yes I have photos to show as well!!!

I’m not sure how I even got it, but I snagged the front seat this morning, and it was a total fluke rather than a well-executed plan, but either way, Mags and I were in the front seat and what a great day it was for it, as we were leaving Munich and heading into some beautiful scenery.  Being hung over you would think it was a recipe for some motion sickness, but I felt actually okay – miracle?  It was good to see Pete and Mark (aka Grant) in the ‘office’ and I think people just don’t appreciate the work that they do up the front while we all sleep.  I didn’t say anything to Pete, but man I wouldn’t want his job for quid’s, some of the roads are on the skinny side, and I am sure there were some very close shaves with other vehicles, but I think that is just my untrained coach driving talking as Pete didn’t looked perplexed at all!!!  Well that is why he is the driver and I am not!!!  High five guys – you’re doing an AWESOME job!!

First stop was white water rafting – man I feel sorry for the bastards that were drinking last night that were rafting today.  They had about 3 hours to get some sleep on the bus before we got to the rafting place, and it was cold and the sun wasn’t out, and they had to squeeze themselves into wetsuits – yep so so glad I didn’t do it!!  In saying that I have done it before at the same place and it was an awesome experience, so it should be done at least once.  For the wimps that didn’t raft, we got to chill for a few hours at base camp, where they had internet, café and toilets.  It was tough to sit there, looking at the beautiful mountains; hear the river passing nearby and the sun finally did pop out towards the end…ahhhhhhhhh the serenity.

Our next stop was the Swarovski World.  Yes all things crystal can be found here.  The factory is also located here, so it is a pretty massive place and rather than take you through the history and making of the crystals, Swarovski World is more of an interactive live art museum, with the crystals as the main focus of each art piece.  The biggest man cut crystal can be found here at 32,000 carats!!!!! , so with the largest also comes the smallest, where they had them under a magnifying glass to see these!  Man everything just sparkled here and the retail shop at the end is MASSIVE!!!   It would be very easy to spend up BIG time, but once again I had on my sensible hat and I bought a Swarovski pen that I have been eyeing off for months.  I saw it on the cruise ship, but decided not to buy it there and save it for the tour, not sure if I saved any money but I have it now and it looks awesome!  Just wait till the next time I am on the plane filling in my next immigration card how fancy I am going to look!  Oh Yeah.  I wasn’t going to, but I also bought a pair of earrings and I am glad I did because they look a million bucks!!  Did I need them, um probably not, but I did want them, oh yes – so I got them.  Go home with no regrets and I will be able to say I bought them in Austria!

A further hour’s drive found us at Hopfgarten for the night.  A ski resort during the winter at 1000m above sea level, it was a cute little town.  It was actually good to have some down time and not have to rush off anywhere.  Dinner was at the hotel with a traditional fare of goulash, schnitzel and apple strudel served and it was flippin delicious!!!!  I purchased some internet, so I could upload my last days blog and send off a few messages, it was great to just chillax.  They had schnappy hour (specials on Schnapps) from 8.30pm, I had 2 and I have to say they were a bit rough; I just couldn’t drink anymore of them.  I would have to say I would prefer a shot of vodka than the schnapps, but I gave it a go.  After 2 vodka’s and 2 shots of schnapps, I decided for this to be my alcohol free day, for my liver to have a little recovery before hitting Italy tomorrow and where I am sure some vino will be consumed.  David worked out that 6L of beer was approx. 24 standard drinks consumed in 3 hours, and then it takes an hour for every drink to leave the body so as of 7pm I still had alcohol in my system, well I did have a vodka in my hand, so I guess he was right either way!!!!

Day 4 of 43 Contiki days – hell will I be able to survive if this pace keeps up?  Ireland would have to be a big drinking trip, oh and Spain with a 2 night stay in Ibiza I guess will have some alcohol consumed, oh and the 3 nights on Ios will also be a drinking destination – hell I think I will definitely owe my liver a holiday after this portion of my trip.  Toughen up princess – things could be a lot worse right?