puppets

I've left Vienna.. No really. I've left properly this time.. I promise..

Vienna has been such a good place for me. Riding through the streets lined with old buildings, drinking coffee at the fancy cafes, visiting the museums, dancing all night or just chilling out in the flat. A big thanks to the Hirschengasse posse (Petra, Kathi and Thomas), for letting me use their spare room on and off over the last month. Thanks to Rastko and Jesssca for the wine and tips on Vienna night life - hopefully we'll catch up in Belgrade. Thanks to Elke, Eva and Esther from Cuntstunt for allowing my crazy cooking adventures. And a special thanks to Anita for hosting my first random dinner, being a top Austrian sheela and taking good care of me over the last month.

I can’t believe I missed out on Friday Night Skating until now. I’ve made a couple of attempts at joining the small wheeled masses around the streets of Vienna, but each time my plans have been foiled by other super fun thing to do. But on my final Friday night in town, I was determined to check it out. And it didn’t disappoint. 400-500 people tailing a music blasting panel van while it drove around a 18km road blocked loop of central Vienna. If you're thinking about coming to Vienna, make sure you check this out because it's a great way to see the city and it isn’t the usual touristy thing visitors do. They have city bikes which can be rented free for an hour, and sweet Fanny Adams after that. Once that was out of the way, we made our way to the Gurtle Ring where we danced and made puppets until about 5am. I will be coming back through Vienna on my way back into Western Europe to meet Jo and Craig in December, so I’ll be able to hang out with my Viennese buddies again. Unfortunately, looking at the calendar, I’m wont have the time needed to do Iran and Turkey properly, so they might have to wait until after Christmas so I can concentrate on sketchy South Eastern Europe.

Now I'm in Berndorf hanging out with Clara's family, the same people I stayed with way back in July. Yesterday's ride from Vienna involved much of Friday night's Sturm pumping through my veins and it wasn't that pleasant. It's cool because this time around I get to meet her dad Paul, who is big on taking photos and has an impressive collection of lenses and various cool camera tech. He knows a lot about the areas where I’m planning to ride through and has already given me a few tips on what to see and do along the way. Last night, I went to a few bars in a near by village with Clara and a couple of her friends, where we pulled out some choice dance moves and pretended to be elderly deaf people. On the way, I got rather excited as I spied my first ever one of these out of the car window. Today I've been tooling about with computers, testing out Clara's 8 year old brother's new stereo system (which has a USB port for mp3s - some Beatles, Stones, Hendrix and Radiohead should start him off), flying a flight sim over Vienna, building hedgehog nests and drinking way too much coffee. Later this arvo there is a some Kleinbahn (model trains), action on the cards.

Tomorrow I'm going back to school to talk to a few different English classes about Australian life and my travels. If you have a suggestions of what I should talk about other than kangaroos, Vegemite and Chinese trains let me know.