Vienna

Vienna, Austria!

I happened to land my arrival in Vienna on the beginning weekend of the big fußball tournament, Euro 2008. Not only was it the opening weekend of this big tournament, but Vienna happened to be one of two hosts for the tournament. The whole entire city was pretty chaotic. Sites that I wanted to see were blocked off and only the beer-drinking fußball fans were allowed on the other side. It was quite a party though. They had giant televisions and I think people even slept out there.

The way a large part of the world unites through fußball is really quite impressive. In the U.S. from coast to coast we have one country and one language. Coast to coast over here is very different. So many languages, and so many countries that have had a lot of trouble living next to each other for so long. It is really amazing to see how much everyone seems to get into fußball and they really seem to forget all the differences they have had in the past. I don't know for sure really, but so far it seems that way.

Large groups of fans parade through the city wearing their country colors and shouting their teams' songs. All over the city this was happening. The pride people have in their country's team is something very different from supporting a professional team in the U.S. I still don't think it would get me into sports though. Haha, I'm just teasing.



I wish I had better pictures. It looks like I have none of the enthusiastic fans. I might get another chance though. They aren't only in Vienna.

Oh, and I saw some more exotic pianos. This piano was Bösendorfer's submission for a World's Fair contest in Paris. I can't find online or remember what year it was. The piano far surpassed any of the other pianos entered in the contest, but was disqualified due to its failure to arrive to the fair on time. I think if I were to purchase a flake of paint from this piano my trips' savings would be gone.

Füssen

From München (aka Munich) I took the train out to Füssen. I had a failed attempt to take the train out to a small town from Salzburg to go see something. That time I got off the train and there were no tourist information points, no directions to anywhere, and no employees at the train station. I didn't want to take a bus because I didn't know where I needed to go. So, I took the train back to Salzburg.

This time, however, I decided I would rent a bike and take it on the train. I rented a bike in Munich and took it on the train to head out to Füssen. My trip out to Füssen was a much different story than my trip out to Golling. There were many English speaking people on the train and everyone was headed to the same place I was. Also, as soon as I got off the train there was a mountain bike shop. I figured with my cruiser bicycle I might look like a local since I obviously didn't rent it at the bike shop in town. After taking my bike out quite a ways where the path got pretty steep, I felt I looked more like an idiot, sitting upright and with my arms wide open riding on a cruiser up a mountain. Then I figured maybe I looked the local idiot which would have been fine. I'm just teasing. I didn't care what I looked like, I was having fun. I was very glad I rented the bike.

Also, I had the intention of doing some biking through Scotland and going on a tour or something. Well, here in Munich they advertised all over for a tour out to where I was going. The bike shop I was renting the bike from advertised it. The tour was 49 Euro though! When I was renting the bike for 12 Euro the guy asked if I was doing any tours, I replied no I wasn't going to do any tours and he said, "Well, you don't get a discount then." Haha... a discount on a €12 bike rental after paying €49. Anyway, I was talking about Scotland biking. Well, it took me until now to know what to do with my stuff when I am not staying in town for the night. I stayed in Füssen last night but I didn't want to take all my stuff out there, and on the bike too, so I just checked it into a locker here at the station in Munich. It has been such a breeze to have it in that locker. I am going to do that more often. Especially when I get into a town that I don't know for sure where I am going.

Back to the Füssen story:

My main goal out here was to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. There is another castle in the same area and a lake. The weather was very foggy which wasn't a big deal to me since it kinda gave the whole area an ethereal feeling. The lake is called Alpsee and I guess there are wild swans that inhabit it. I got in and skipped some rocks. It was warm, too! Not warm enough to swim though.






Can you see it?

Salzburg

The train part of my journey started Thursday when I left Paris. (Well, I think that was Thursday) I was going to take the night train from Paris to Berlin, but since the train to Berlin was full I went to Hamburg instead. I spent the day in Hamburg and it was fun. I hadn´t made plans ahead of time to do anything, but I did enjoy a Jägerschnitzel for lunch.

I was looking at my train time table and saw that I could get into Salzburg first thing in the morning. I was very excited about doing so. I found a campsite; I took a picture of it this time. I have had a wonderful time here. In the pictures are the Salzach river, the Mozart Geburtshaus (the birthplace of W.A. Mozart), and Festung Hohensalzburg (literally "High Salzburg Fortress" in German). I got to see a little Musical Theatre, but I didn´t see any concerts like I wanted to. I think they have some open-air concerts in Vienna, so I will have to check that out, I am going there tonight.

I drew the Eiffel Tower

Well, I'm not quite as good without SketchUp. ;-)

I make a new start

I have some pictures from Paris. I'm planning on coming back to see everything I want to see. I wasn't ready this first time. The cities of Dublin, Edinburgh, and London were a soft and easy introduction to traveling and I was not prepared for how vunerable I would be in the non-English speaking countries.

I'm still a target for thieves, with or without my gadgets. Yesterday, I walked a block to a laundromat from my hostel. There were some American girls doing laundry in there at the time I started mine. They finished though and then it was just me. I was seated at a table reading, and a man walked in and just looked at me. He didn't say anything, he clearly wasn't there to do laundry. And I was merely a lone, lorn traveler. I "looked at my watch" and then put my book in my backpack and put my backpack on and stood by the dryer. He remained there just looking at me for a moment and then decided to go.

After that, I put EVERYTHING in a locker in the hostel except for my camera to go out sight-seeing. I'm going to try to carry as little as possible with me from now on any chance I get. Anyway, I've learned a lot. The first part of the trip through the UK feels like a totally different part of the trip. So I'm just saying I'm starting again.

Well it happened

I know I'm a very optimistic person. I know I'm very trusting of people. I thought my stuff was safe when it was with me and if I was in public view. But today I got my laptop stolen right out of my hands in the middle of the day and in a very public place. I had just opened it to look at some directions I had on it. I closed it and was putting it in my bag. Someone ran up to me, grabbed it and shoved me, I tried grabbing it back and I got shoved to the ground. He ran out the door and I chased him. I abandoned my bag which also wasn't very smart, but I really wanted my laptop back. I ran after him as best I could yelling stop and help and everyone just watched as if it were a game we were playing. I knew they probably didn't understand what I was saying but certainly they knew what was going on. I chased him to the street where a white car was approaching. The door opened and he got in. I was right behind him and I tried to grab it again. Again I got pushed and I fell backwards into a puddle. This time when I tried to get up and run the car was speeding away and my legs gave out. I got back to my bag and it was untouched.

Well, I'm hoping it goes better from here!

I'm in my hostel now on their internet. EVERYONE has laptops here it seems. It is sooo frustrating to know I just had mine and I've replayed the scene of getting it stolen so many times, wishing it wouldn't have happened. If I was Jason Bourne I totally could've dropped that guy. But alas, I am Joshua Houston and I was very helpless.

London - Days 042, 043, 044, & 045

Forgive me for not going into detail on all four of these days, I am about to head to Paris and therefore I will be brief on the last leg of my London trip.  

The highlight of the last few days was going to the British Museum.  They had a lot of cool stuff there.  They have the largest Egyptian collection outside of Egypt.  They had the Rosetta stone, which was a key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics because written on it was the same decree but written in 3 languages: Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic (the modern language of Egypt in that time), and classical Greek.  I knew the picture of the Rosetta stone wasn't going to be very good when I took it because of the reflective glass, but I thought I'd show it since I talked about it.

There were real mummies.  They had a picture of the CAT scan that reinforced the fact there was a very old body inside that little halloween costume thing.

There were loads of Roman statues.  I took many photographs.  And there was a vase called the Portland Vase.