Austria and Italy

Let's just continue on from last time...

After Germany, we took a train to Wien, and spent the next two days there. We loved Vienna! We had very hot weather, and we enjoyed lots of sightseeing, attending an opera at the famous Viennese opera house, and taste-testing many new combinations of gelato. This might be sacreligious, but I think the gelato in Vieanna was better than any gelato I've had in Italy. My best combination so far has been  nutella and banana. I think in my next life, or maybe later in this life if teaching doesn't work out, I'll open up an ice cream shop and spend the rest of my life coming up with new ice cream flavors.

After two days in Vienna, we took a night train to Venice, Italy. Let me just mention that the night train was quite the experience. Maybe we were just a little shocked since we only had a vague idea of what we were in for, or maybe we just aren't used to this vagabond lifestyle. But nonetheless, we get to Vienna with plenty of time to spare. We find our train, find our car, and set out to find our bunks, and then...

We find the room, if you can even consider it a room. It's six beds (two bunks, each three beds high) with little space between bunk beds. I had the top bunk on one side, and mom had the middle bunk on the other side. We had quite an ecclectic collection of couchettemates, including one middle aged woman from Turkey who was studying computers in Austria, one younger man from Asia who spoke a little English, two American tourists trying their best to prepare themselves for their upcoming 12 hour couchette adventure (mom and I), a younger woman, and her sort of boyfriend (from what we gathered) whose bag smelled like smoke. I only know it reeked of smoke because he stored it two inches from may face for the duration of the train ride - except when he periodically got it down to whip out his wine bottle, plastic cups, extra stash of cigarettes, or hair gel for his morning after reapplication. And yes, that wasn't a typo, he did indeed bring two bottles of wine and plastic cups which he happily passed around to his maybe girlfriend, his other friend who came in our room, and the bunkmates in our couchette. Yes, that's also correct, Mom accepted his offer and shared in the wine celebration.

Somehow, nobody fell off the bunks all night - probably because everybody had the same strategy: sleep as close as possible to the wall and don't move for 12 hours - and we all managed to get a few hours of sleep. We ate our breakfast on our beds, and stepped off the train in the morning at the Venice train station. Tcheuss Wein, and buon giorno Italia!

We spent the next two days in Venice, where we literally walked for dayssss. We walked so much in Venice. Luckily, we didn't have to walk too far to get to our hotel with our backpacks. Did I mention my backpack is the size of a small child? Literally, it's the size of a small child, and weighs probably about the same. Because it is so big, we have given it a name: Gertrude - Gertty for short. I also have to carry around my computer in another backpack, which we have deemed Hans. Mom and I must look absolutely ridiculous carrying all our stuff around from place to place. Here's just a little snapshot:

I carry Gertty like a normal backpack and Hans on the front. Mom rolls her suitcase along, and then carries a backpack as well, along with a smaller, over the shoulder bag with food and my neck pillow. As we've gone from place to place, we've also accumulated a few more things. We've had to make room for these new additions in our packs - so now we tie our tennis shoes to the outside of our backpacks. It's quite the sight, really. The two of us wading through the crowds of other tourists with our combined three backpacks, one suitcase, one bag, one neck pillow, and two pairs of shoes swinging behind us.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed Venice. Particularly, we enjoyed the canals and the shopping in Venice. There are no cars allowed anywhere on the actual islands of Venice, only canals, boats, and lots of confusing streets for walking.

We met four other people on our first day randomly (two moms and two daughters) who wanted to share a gondola ride with us. Our gondola driver was named Allesandro, and we had a great time on our small tour through the canals of Venice. We also saw St. Mark's Basilica, and toured the Doge's Palace. We sampled plenty of gelato, and ate some pasta, although we weren't too sure about everybody's ravings about Italian food until...

We arrive in Cinque Terre! Time for another food diary entry:

Food diary of the Germer fam entry #1 for Italy: The pesto lasagne is probably the most delicious thing I have tasted, maybe ever. It's made from homemade pasta, homemade pesto (Cinque Terre is famous for their pesto), and cheese. It's incredible. We ordered some the first night we were in Cinque Terre from a restaurant just down the street, and loved it so much we went back the second night to the same restaurant - at least we tried different things on the menu the second night.

Entry #2: The bruschetta is incredible as well. The one I ordered yesterday even had pesto on part of it - such a great idea!

Entry #3: Unfortunately, I don't think the gelato is that great in Italy - it's more icy than creamy, and as a diehard fan of the creamiest ice cream, I haven't been converted. Although, Mom has liked every flavor she's tried in Italy.

Entry #4: The focaccia bread here is really great as well! You can get slices from lots of little vendors on the street, almost anywhere. You can eat it plain, with cheese or any other variety of toppings, or like a pizza with sauce, cheese and whatever else you might want baked on top.

Besides the food here, Cinque Terre is really great. We did two of the four hikes - the other two are closed indefinitely, and we have enjoyed soaking up some Italian sun and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. It's a very slow, relaxed pace of life. Time just seems to pass slower here.

We leave Italy tomorrow to fly to France, where we will spend one night before Mom flies back to real life and Michelle arrives.

Grazie Italia for the delicious food and great weather, I'll see you in a week again with new traveling companions by my side!