Michelangelo sibyl from the Sistine Chapel

 

day nine

To be honest we didn't see that much of Vienna, because it had been a long and dreary ride from Munich. When we got there all that we wanted to do was rest. Sightseeing just didn't seem that important and I hadn't done all that much research on Vienna anyway, because I knew that our time would be limited. In fact all that we did was eat some food and do a small amount of shopping at the train station.

It was while we were at the station that my brother went into the post office to see how much it would cost to mail his glass sculpture from Venice back home to the States. He was getting tired of carrying it with him and was afraid of breaking it.

...

At the hostel we met a girl from California who had been traveling with Stray Travel, which was another option that my brother and I had considered before we went with Busabout. After talking with her, we were glad that we chose Busabout. She had nothing good to say about Stray Travel. It seems that her and her friends had trouble meeting their guides at the appointed stops and eventually they just gave us and went off on their own. Busabout may have had their quirks, but at least they met us where they said they would.

...

The Austrian and Czech border was the only border in Europe where it became an event. When we left Britain and crossed over into France nothing happened. When we left France and entered Germany nothing happened. The same could be said when we went from Germany to Austria and then from Austria to Italy. All of them were uneventful. In fact more often than not they had to tell us when we were crossing the border. Entering the Czech Republic was definitely different.

We had been instructed ahead of time to be quiet when the guard boarded the bus to collect our passports. Any sudden noise or suspicious behavior could lengthen our wait at the border and we wanted to make it go as smooth as possible.

Soon the guard stepped onto the bus and slowly made his way to the back as he collected each passport. Then it happened. Someone's watch alarm went off and kept beeping and beeping.

After this went on for what seemed like forever, a voice from behind said that he was sorry and that it was his watch. He then went on to say that it was a new one, because he had lost his old one a few days ago, which was why he didn't realize that the sound was coming from him.

Thankfully this didn't cause any problems, because sitting in the bus without moving for half an hour was long enough for me.

 
yesterday | index | tomorrow | one year ago