Ripleys believe it or not

Good morning stalkers. I hope you all had a sucky day while I was out enjoying myself on vacation. You had sucky times? Awesome. So on with the journey. Now that we were done in Munich and the beer halls it was time to head off for our next destination; Austria. Okay now I wouldn't say that I wasn't looking forward to Austria, I was kind of indifferent. Why? Because I've been there before. Damn was I surprised.

Austria in summer and Austria in winter are too completely different things. For those of you who are confused by the seasons, it is currently summer here in Europe, 'kay? Now Austria was our first stop where it didn't look like it might rain at any moment which was a nice change from the rest of the tour. After a hurried breakfast... which I didn't touch. I couldn't recognize most of it... anyway, we headed off to Austria. The trip didn't take all that long and once again our tour manager decided to remind us that the accommodation wasn't going to be very good because it wasn't actually a hostel, it was a Contiki special stop over.

I'm not entirely sure what he was trying to get at, because this was one of the best places we had stayed in. Not to mention one very important factor, twinshare instead of quadshare. For those of you not versed in languages other than stupid, that means that it was two to a room instead of four to a room. For those of you who still don't get it, it means that we weren't saddled with roommates this time which was awesome.

Now, to the shock and awe of most of my stalkers out there, I did exercise here. I'm not talking about going to gym and doing some arbitrary exercise, I'm talking about good old fashioned exercise; bike riding. Immediately after arriving at the spot, we were handed our mountain bikes and we started our bike trip UP the mountain. Yes that is right, not some quick little excursion down the road, it was up a friggin mountain.

For the unbelievers out there I have photographic evidence of having been on this bike ride. So bugger all of you. The damn thing was 25kms. Most of which was uphill, the end of the ride was cool I suppose, it was downhill but it was much much steeper than the ascent and thus it was shorter. Do I regret it? Not one bit. The views from the top of the route we took were AWESOME. You can see down the entire valley and out to all of the logging sites that are around the town we staying at. This is definitely another thing I suggest everyone try do. If you're thinking of excusing yourself saying that its too long and hard then think of it this way: if I managed to you it you bloody well can as well. If someone as lazy and unfit as me can do it then anyone can.

The ride finished off with a decent barbecue (seriously, when are they going to learn it's called a braai?) This was followed by some relaxing in the room and then "bar orientation". Now this one was entertaining. Basically, it was an excuse to have us all pitch up at the bar and get given a free shot of sour apple schnapps... hey I'm not complaining, but they could have just said, "guys we going get drunk huuuaaaaaaaaa!" It would have worked just as well. Anyway, we proceeded to move from here to dinner, after which it was some more drinks.

Now, something that I need to explain about our tour manager. For most of the beginning of the trip he has been sick. Not that you could tell from the way he behaved on the bus etc. He is actually pretty decent at making it seem like he's fine, however, because he had been sick he hadn't been coming out drinking. Well he was feeling fine now... at least until the other Contiki reps got hold of him and poured I don't know how much alcohol down his throat.

So later that night after finally finding him (we were surprised that he was capable of standing without assistance) we headed out to a bar in the town. Ooooh wait before the bar, I just remembered. We did it after the barbecue, we went for a walk into town. The reason? I had this weird rash on my hands which I've had for a while but it seemed to be getting worse. So we hit an Austrian pharmacy where the lady who could barely speak English gave me this weird looking gel stuff to put on it. Only one word can describe it, AWESOME. As I am sitting here typing the rash things are almost completely gone, anyway, bar.

So we headed out to the bar for a few drinks and had some mild entertainment with Chachi (the tour manager) losing his watch. I left earlier than some of the others and may I just say this. Some people should not be allowed to sing while drunk. I know I'm bad as it is, but at least I don't make up songs as I go. New Guy had decided that he was a grand composer and was sharing all of his new ballads on the way back... someone save my ears... please? Anyway, that was pretty much our short stop in Austria.

Score:
Me: 2
Her: 4
New Guy: 2
Chachi: 1
Bus: 2