Our stay with Couchsurfers Sonja and Andre turned out to be a very rewarding one. We made instant friends with this couple, which made our time in Vienna even more enjoyable.
They live close to the centre of the city, so getting there was interesting. Because of parking restrictions, we could not leave the car in front of their place. Unfortunately, by the time we had transported all our bags up to the apartment, we had already copped a €22 parking fine. Sonja told us not to worry about it, because our car is registered in France, and the fine wasn’t high enough for them to pursue it. We guess we’ll find out if she was right when we get back to Paris.
Sonja took us to another part of the city (across the Danube), where the parking is free, and we got the metro back. Yep, you guessed it, we didn’t buy tickets. Sonja says no one buys tickets after 7pm at night.
We then headed into the centre of the city, where Sonja’s brother was the sound technician at a free concert in front of the Town Hall. There was a huge screen set up on the front steps, and the opera of Don Giovanni (Mozart) was being played to several thousand people. We sat with Sonja’s brother (we couldn’t learn how to say his name, let alone spell it for this journal) in the sound booth area, which were great seats. We got wiener schnitzel and beer, and had a very good night.
The next day we walked into the city and checked out most of the amazing buildings that are in Vienna. We saw St Stephens (with its fancy patterned tiled roof), Hofburg Castle (with a massive statue of Franz Joseph out the front – no mention of any glaciers though), the Burgarten, Parliament Buildings, and the Town Hall (again). This would have to be the prettiest city outside of Paris (in our opinion). There were people (tourists) everywhere, but not as overbearing as other places. It was a big day – we calculated that we’d walked about 12km.
That evening we all went for a bike ride, using the free bikes that are available in the city. Several of the cities of Europe have introduced a free bike hire system, to enable the citizens to get around without using a car. The first hour is free and it’s a euro for each hour after that. There are bike stations all around the city and when you get to where ever you are going you just park the bike for someone else to use. We rode through a massive park up the road from where we were staying. It has a main road through the middle of it (about 5km long) that is just for bikes and people. It was a nice way to finish the day, an easy bike ride through the park on a very warm summer’s evening. Sonja took us to a little church in the forest beside the park, we sat and had a beer while we admired the setting. We felt very naughty drinking alcohol in the church yard, but it was just one, and we recycled cans.
We had caught the bug for biking, so on Friday morning we got the bikes again and rode down alongside the Danube canal. We then parked the bikes at a station close to the city and walked through the Autgarten. There were huge concrete towers in the middle of the park which had the flak guns from WWII mounted on top of them. They are still there because they were built so solidly that it’s virtually impossible to dismantled them, short of blowing them up.
We then grabbed some more bikes (we love this system) and went biking back up another part of the canal, ending up at home again. By the time we had finished with the bikes we were walking like John Wayne after a long day in the saddle.
Sonja’s husband, Andre, arrived home that evening after being away for several days. We all went off to a restaurant which is a big favourite of the Viennese. Well it’s where all the locals go anyway. It was massive place in the middle of Luna Park(fun park) that seated close to 1,000 people at a time. Most people were sitting outside, and because we couldn’t reserve seats, it took us about 15 minutes to finally nab a table. It was amazing to watch the bustle of the place, with the waiters working at a frantic pace. It was common to see the drinks waiters carrying trays with 16 pints of beer on a tray over their shoulder.
We ordered the speciality of the restaurant – a massive leg of roast pork, which we shared between all 4 of us (normally two people share it). We had it with with a type of coleslaw, senf (a mild mustard), Austrian wasabi (which is a lot milder than the Japanese variety), potato cakes, and of course all washed down with beer. The meal was delicious, and the atmosphere was something else. The place was a real buzz.
We wondered back through the fun park and down onto a train (of course no tickets), and into the city, where we had an Austrian spritz - wine and sparkling water. It is a favourite summer drink of the Viennese, and very very easy to drink. After our night cap we walked home and sat and listened to some of Andre’s record collection. He has a massive collection (mostly on vinyl) and the range is very wide. It seemed appropriate that we should also sample several bottles of Austrian wine from their quite extensive selection. At 2.30am we decided we should go to bed as we were travelling the next day.
Next morning was a little bit slow – dry mouths and slight headaches. We did our usual check of the internet, only to find that the guy we were to stay with in Slovenia was sick, and we couldn’t stay with him. Knowing that the next place we were headed didn’t have internet, we had to organise accommodation before we left. Before we had a chance to book anything Sonja offered us the use of their caravan, which they have parked at a small private lake just over the border in Hungary. It took us about 5 seconds to consider the offer before accepting it.
Leaving Sonja and Andre wasn’t easy as, even though we had only been there a few days, we really enjoyed each other’s company and had become good friends.
So, onto the little place Deb had found in the Styrian hills in the southern Austria. We had motorway for 90% of the way, then the roads got smaller and smaller. Gloria was taking us on one of her ‘off the beaten track’ ways – and sure enough, we got lost. So we rung the people, only to get a person who spoke very little English. But we got enough clues to eventually find our way to our destination. The place is a small organic vineyard, and is way up in the hills at the end of a dirt track. It was a lovely setting, and when we looked out our window, we gaze across the other hillside vineyards to the mountains in the distance. In the morning we woke to chickens and cows all making their farmyard noises. There are walking tracks all through the hills, linking the different cottage wineries. Very nice. We spent 3 nights there, not doing much other than a few walks. It was bliss. The rooms had their own bathrooms and kitchens and were very cheap, so the whole experience did not cost us much.
Instead of heading on to Slovenia as originally planned, we had to backtrack to Hungary. The caravan belonging to Sonja and Andre was just outside a small village called Beled, about 90 minutes drive south-east of Vienna. The lake was quite small – only about 100 metres at the widest part. The owner (Sonja’s uncle) has stocked it with fish, and people pay to try and catch them. It’s not fishing as we know it in NZ; they set up several rods on stands, and then sit beside the lake in a chair and drink & smoke until they (hopefully) catch something. We felt like we were in “The Castle” enjoying our little bit of serenity.
About 15 minutes drive from Beled is a larger town called Kapuvar, which has a large health spa with thermal pools. Sonja had been given a voucher for the place, but she gave to us, as she wasn’t interested in using it. She said that services in Hungary are very cheap, so we should be able to get quite a lot for the value of the voucher.
The place certainly was well set up. There were thermal pools, as well as water slides and ordinary pools. Then there was a physio, masseuse, several beauticians and a hairdresser. You could even get major dental work done. You can imagine our delight when we saw the prices; $6.50NZ for Hamish’s haircuts; $11 for Deb’s wash, cut and dry; $16 for a one-hour full body massage (we both had one); 12 for a pedicure (Hamish gave this one a miss), and much much more. We spent the best part of 2 days there and we had only just gave the voucher a nudge with what we did.
English was not a language that the staff at the spa could speak. When they realised we couldn’t speak Hungarian/Magyar, they tried German. But that was no better for us. So trying to tell the hairdresser how we wanted our hair cut was an interesting exercise. We learnt very quickly how to use primitive sign language.
After two days in the Hungarian sun, it was time to get back on track with our travels. So we headed off on what would be our biggest day of travel – back across Austria and down into Italy to a small town just outside Venice
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