p a p e r d o l l

In brief,

Vienna  is a beautiful city. I love the eye-catching window displays, the wide streets, the huge meaty salads, the cleanliness and the friendliness. Joanne and I walked everywhere- the first day was perfect for doing so because it was a public holiday (I don’t know which.) and the streets were pretty empty and thus perfect for a long leisurely stroll. My favourite food of the whole time we were in Vienna was not the Sacher Torte (a famous chocolate cake), but the Manner wafers- like the Loacker wafers but way better in shape, size and taste. The funniest incident was when I woke up the second morning in my dorm room and the first thing I saw was a boy in bright red briefs sleeping on his girlfriend’s bed with her. Ho hum. The most disturbing incident was seeing this tall skinny man in a heavy leather coat with eyeliner and black nail polish chipping off, standing in the middle of the tourist centre, drooling\:

The train ride to Salzburg was horrid because it was so hot in the train. We did catch a magnificent sunset towards the end of our ride, which was nice.

Salzburg was cute. I was really happy here, because I’d specifically come to go on the Sound of Music tour, and it was fun! I loved seeing and being in/at the places in my favourite movie(: Yay! Cool fact (to me): the headquarters of Red Bull is in the Lake District in Salzburg! I’d always thought Red Bull was Thai\: The headquarters is on an actual lake. The whole Lake District was beautiful… but my favourite Lake is still Lake Como. Had apple strudel outside of the church where Maria and the Captain were married in the movie. The apple strudel was nothing to shout about, so… ok.

Took a night plane to Berlin. Reached my hostel, The Generator, the biggest hostel EVER, just after midnight. The Generator looks like a gigantic hospital. And the sci-fi blue walls and the even more sci-fi blue lights are unfortunate… but I suppose it’s a hostel and it’s right next to the S-Bahn or the U-Bahn (I don’t remember but it was so convenient to have a train station right next to the hostel.)

Early the first day, we had bad breakfast (watered down stuff and just unpalatable food… to me anyway) and then decided to go for some flea market shopping. Turned out the one we wanted to check out had already closed down, but chanced upon a good-looking guy to ask where would be good for such an activity. He was really friendly about it and so we found ourselves at badeschiff. A pretty cool place- second-hand things in a warehouse. Didn’t buy anything though. What was cool too was the outside. There was a canal where people were seated along to talk, eat in restaurants… basically to enjoy a nice Sunday out. There was also an even cooler place- a ship that was converted into a swimming pool- we couldn’t go in without our swimwear, but we did see cool-looking people going in and out! (Will stop using the word cool.) And then we got a little bit tired and hungry and decided to escape into the cool interior of a cafe some distance away, ate yummy food, flirted with the waiters a little and had a nice relaxing afternoon. Refreshed, we visited Checkpoint Charlie. And then the Berlin Wall. And then the Holocaust Memorial. The following day we went on the Berlin Free Walking Tour, which was pretty damn good. (They work for tips, so it’s not really free, but it is a great idea!) It was just so damn hot though! So I became a bronzed girl. I’m still brown from that dayO_O Lunch of the best seafood spaghetti I’ve ever had, and also ginger ale. To the Jewish Museum after the walking tour, which I enjoyed.

I can’t remember what I did the last day. HMMM. Will try to remember. If not, will ask Joanne. Probably something idyllic like wandering/sitting/reading/eating/shopping or all of the above.

This holiday was a good one! Packed, beautiful, interesting, historical, contemplative, plenty of cold chocolate milk, cherries, conversation, pretty things.