Day 5 Supplemental – Evening in the Viennese Woods

Ok, so I have mostly been keeping my travel diary up to date offline (well a few days to catch up) but finding internet has not been as simple or easy as I thought it would have been. So tonight now I have some time up my sleeve here in Scotland and a reliable internet connection (probably the only one I will find this week) i will post all my europe trip. As I write this small introduction I know Im in Edinburgh, Scotland as my room has a view of the castle and the whole vista of the old town and I can hear bagpipes down below in one of the parks - it doesn´t get much more Scottish than that!

Here is the night of day 5 in vienna:

This was an optional dinner that most of the tour took up to go out into the countryside around Vienna to taste some Heurigen (new wine) and chow down on some traditional type austrian fare (sauerkraut, roast pork, chicken, sausages) in an open air type restaurant.

Mark our tour director kept reiterating to eat first and then have the wine as apparently it is very strong stuff. Given that most of us were of aussie or kiwi extraction, that was tantamount to issuing a drinking challenge and hence things got out of hand especially as we had musical accompaniment for the evening of a violin and piano accordion.

So the restaurant soon came alive to singing and dancing of our tour group as we polished off karaffs of wine like it was lolly water. I definitely fired up when they started playing Waltzing Matilda although the kiwis sang along as well.

We also had a woman coming around and taking photographs of us individually and then making these into keyrings with the name of the restaurant attached. Yes I bought mine for 9 euro ... bit of a scam really but hey I have something to remember the place by I guess.

Our dinner was supposed to finish up around 9.30pm however given how much we were enjoying ourselves our tour director gave us the wrap up call around 8.30pm, I think we had him fairly worried. And it was the elder members of the tour who really went the wildest! There was a table of elderly germans next to us and they were also joining in the fun and thought it was great.

The bus ride back to hotel was fun as we played abba, and other 70s songs and all sang along and after a few requests I did my Vasilov (tour guide from Prague) impression which had everyone laughing but at the same time a little freaked out at how good my impression was!

Once back at the hotel, we found the bar was closed already. Much disappointment, however the previous night I had been for a walk up and down the street near the hotel with Freeman and we had discovered some pubs and bars and another slightly dodgier place (more on that later).

Hence we led a contingent to continue drinking. The first place was empty and about to shut but in my rudimentary german I order a few beers (gross meaning LARGE) and we kicked back there for a bit before I figured I should move us on.

A bit further down the street was the dodgy bar, what we thought was a topless bar. We had two girls with us but they were adventurous enough to want to come along still. So Dave and I led the way into this place. In my drunken state I did think it was slightly strange there was nobody on the door but we had to be buzzed through a metal gate and then down some dungeon stairs.

When an older woman came up to meet us and said to us No girls no girls, dave and I realised that this place was a bit more than a topless bar. So I went back out and told the others not to come any further and we retreated rather rapidly!

Options were running out so we headed back the other way past the hotel again and ran into Mark our tour director who told us everything nearby was shut. I wasnt convinced and was sure I could smell beer still being poured and led the way to a small bar where I asked in halting german whether they were still open and could I have a beer please.

The two people in the bar replied in perfect english so we were set and spent the rest of the evening there. Towards the end of the night they were serving us some god awful shots of some liquor that reminded me of what Pall used to serve us at the Corio Hotel (some of you who have experienced that will relate!

Anyway, I think I acquitted myself fairly well this night, although once again I forgot the required water before bed so, obviously it is no surprise what hit me the next morning.