Fill In The Gaps

Austria! the hills were alive and i thought i was dying most of the time! But for the time that i was alive and kicking i kicked it good! Vienna is a city of wonders! i was, however, disappointed when i IMDBed Tobias Moretti and found out he lives in Munchen and not Vienna...but Komissar Rex disappointment aside i discovered the city in which i want to live! For the first time since leaving home i felt like i was at home! I walked the streets and could imagine myself carrying fresh rolls and cheese up four flights of stairs for breakfast before embarking on a leisurely stroll through the Schwarzwald forest which circles the city...wait that WAS my life for a week or so!! It was crazy! I spent the afternoons battling men dressed as classical composers trying to sell tickets to Mozart concerts while attempting to not let a single drop of my crazy nutty chocolate eis drip on the pavement. Eyes wide, i admired the most amazing architecture, the Sisi and Kaiser apartments, part of the Hofburg palace...yes i said palace, the palace square is also where Hitler first assembled his masses... are in the heart of the city. Crossing the archway from the Kaiser apartments took me to my heaven on earth. The Spanish Riding school! Watching baroque shaped white stallions execute motions one thought only existed in oil paint while listening to Blue Danube in a riding arena built over 300 yrs ago and which was built to accommodate the entertainment needs of the Hapsburg royal empire my heart almost burst! It also happened to house a human bird flying attempt some 100 yrs ago. accounts beyond the gentleman's ascent are hazy! We toured the stables and my chin started to hurt for it was dragging on the floor my mouth was open so long! The stable the stables...the cleanliness...the tack...pieces worth up to $500,000 exhibited as if in a museum. You get the point...i loved it! The come down post Lipizzaner land was tough. But i managed. A ride on the Viennese version of Melbourne's-fantastic-wheel-thing-which-is-so-insignificant-i-can't-even-remember-its-name-in-Docklands. The view was spectacular! A visit to the local castle...yeah just the local one not one of the hundreds sprinkled like chocolate shavings over the flourless chocolate cake that is Austria, was in order. Schloss Schonbrunn, with its meagre 300yrs of history and sprawling lawns was amazing! Literally. My first maze ever. Was so unbelievable! I could just imagine the inbred royal society sprinting madly through the 2m tall hedge labyrinth skirts in hand after so naughtily pinching that handsome cousins rear end screeching....Oh! One will never find me!!! Every corner of the castle and its plot were dripping in opulence. Flowerbeds manicured better than Janice Dickinson's Eyebrows, a Zoological Garten, servants quarters and stables, enclosed within a wall of pale yellow stone all decorated tastefully with gold and all in the city! After a day of exploring such wonders, however, my guts began begging for food! And feed them i did. My first rib experience. I was served off a surfboard sized board and am convinced i ate an entire pig's worth. Along with about a dozen potatoes and the best garlic sauce my polish tastebuds have ever encountered! Washed down with beer i was so satiated that had i died at that moment i would have been smiling. its sick what food does to me. the garlic sauce did come back to haunt me later, though, the audience at the opera did not appreciate the ribs as much as i had!
My Austrian adventures end here as i boarded the train the following morning and headed for what was to be the best adventure of my meagre life! Italia!!!

Auf Wiedersehn for now