Things I learnt along the way

... from Vienna to Zurich.

VIENNA

• That two Australians living in the UK + an Israeli and a Norwegian, both studying pre-med in Budapest + dodgy karaoke in a bar outside of Vienna makes for one hell of a fun evening;
• That I really need to take singing lessons and that corona does not make for better vocal chords;
• That when Annemarie, my partner-in-travelling-crime drinks wine and corona in one evening she resorts to doing ballet and serenading Austrian boys;
• That there must be really big chickens in Vienna as the schnitzels were all the size of dinner plates;
• That there are no kangaroos in Austria;
• If a Viennese violinist plays Mozart too hard on his violin the strings on his bow snap;
• Citybikes are the coolest way to get around;
• Bratwursts taste better when eaten with mustard and Austrian beer;
• That I actually like the taste of beer, but only when drinking it in German speaking countries;
• If you leave your boyfriend's camera hanging behind the toilet door of a museum it WILL get stolen;
• That when your boyfriend tells you that you should have deleted the clip of him and you dancing to 'Soulja Boy' from the memory card prior to taking his camera to Austria you should listen to him. M&P on YouTube dancing to Soulja Boy does not make for good resume material;
• Viennese women have a thing for dying their hair fanta-orange. Why, oh why?
• That there are the bones of dead people piled up high underneath the square outside St Stephens church and if you pay €4.00 you can actually go underground and see them. Way cool;
• Vienna has a lottalotta palaces and museums.

SALZBURG

• Someone has a lot of time on their hands to persevere with hand blowing and painting all of these eggs;
• That there really are boys named Chip from America who are in the marines and fly aeroplanes as inspired by Top Gun;
• That when they filmed the Sound of Music, they shot the last scenes first and the first scenes last, so the kids look older at the beginning of the movie than they do at the end;
• Mozart's balls taste like chocolate truffle and nuts;
• Playing limited edition Sesame Street Uno in a beer hall drinking beer made by monks is an awesome way to spend an evening;
• Hostels aren't necessarily a bad place to stay;
• Austrian special breakfast = scrambled eggs, bacon, herbs, onions and tomatoes and is the breakfast of champions;
• That Edelweiss is a very elusive flower;

INNSBRUCK

• The Golden Roof is just that, a building with a golden roof on it;
• If you climb to the top of a mountain in the snow whilst not wearing waterproof clothing you get very very wet;
• Women look weird smoking pipes;
• That if we had of pre-booked all of our train travel it could have saved us an absolute fortune;
• There's a really nice woman in one of the Schnapps shops whose one goal is to have you taste every single schnapps flavour regardless of the consequences;
• Supermarkets in Austria sell the BEST food;
• Bert and Ernie also conquered the mountain;
• If you look hard enough you will find that elusive edelweiss pin (alas, not the flower);
• Notting Hill and the Mornington Penninsula are not the only places that paint their buildings in bright colours;

ZURICH

• That everyone is stylish to boot (except the teenagers);
• That the train from Innsbruck to Zurich snakes through the most gorgeous countryside I have ever seen;
• That if you wait just one extra day you'd have a whole shop of Edelweiss pins to choose from;
• That teenagers dress really badly and stand around in the main train station drinking alco-pops making eyes at each other;
• That all toddlers should have a wooden bicycle without pedals - beats training wheels any day;
• That eating Malaysian food after a week of Austrian food is pure heaven;
• That there are some good looking men in Switzerland;
• That everyone who lives in Zurich should feel blessed that they are living in a gorgeous, cosmopolitan, stylish, modern city with stunning mountains in their backyard and a gorgeous lake in their front yard;
• That little Japanese girls snore louder than me;
• That not everyone who works on reception in hostels is cool

And;

That partner-in-travelling-crime-Annemarie is the best travelling buddy!