Innsbruck, Austria

I arrived in Innsbruck very late at night, with no plans for a place to stay. I knew that I needed to find shelter for some time during the night and I decided to walk around through the town that was obviously sleeping to find a pub that would be open all night, I figured if I found one I could just sit down in the back and maybe catch a small nap. Walking through the town I didn’t find anything too promising. One of the towns squares was under construction, while walking through I was making sure to avoid any rubbish and debris from the construction site and almost stepped on a young man about my age laying down next to a make shift fence. He was laying on his back, half in the closed pedestrian street, and half on the sidewalk. Upon realizing that there was a person laying in the dark, I may have freaked out a bit. It certainly surprised me.

Being a bit spooked I decided that the train station would be the best place for me. I decided to go out to the platforms trying to find one that did not have any arriving trains for a few hours. I found an enclosed waiting area on the platform and rested on the ground. Later in the middle of my sleep I was awoken by some jerk who came and sat down next to me and started eating loudly. He had a loud crinkly bag and some loud snacks. Annoyed, I got up and headed back into the main building. I spotted a bench in the distance that I started to head for, but right before I got there another homeless person took it. It was at that point I realized that I was starting to act like a hobo. Disappointed I laid against a wall on the ground and caught another 20 minutes or so of rest and then looked for another location to rest. Downstairs I found an enclosed waiting room that was warm! I was so happy. I sat down and slept for the rest of the night. Waking up only to find two security guards asking to see our train tickets, making sure that we were in fact waiting for our train, luckily having a Eurail pass I was able to keep resting.

Early in the morning I started exploring Innsbruck, more than I had done the night before. The town is very nice, it is surrounded with huge mountains and has several pretty gates and buildings. During my sightseeing I was on a mission to buy a Bivy Sack for my upcoming stay in Seewalchen and in Switzerland near the Matterhorn. For those of you who don’t know what a Bivy Sack is, let me explain. A Bivy Sack is a protective waterproof “shell” that you can put your sleeping bag into in lieu of a tent. It keeps you warm enough for the night, with of course the sleeping bag, and a pad. I figured, oh its summer it will be warm enough. So while walking around I kept my eye out for stores that might carry such a product. Finding several I went ahead and shopped around and got one.  Pleased and excited about my purchase I headed back to the train station.

Store I bought the Bivy Sack from

Following my fathers suggestion I headed to a small town called Seewalchen. He raved about how pretty it was, so I figured I would check it out.

Vienna, Austria

From the Largest Natural Arch in Europe we headed to Vienna, the gorgeous capital of Austria. Breaking the theme of getting into a city and wandering around the center, we headed directly to a place to sleep. We found a cheap hotel that was suitable for us plus the addition of 3 others (Carolynn, Allison and Pat). We basically slept the majority of the day, going out in the evening to a resturant our Pennsioners suggested as fairly cheap yet good food. The establishment was Centimeter. A cute little chain of places throughout Vienna serving Beer by the Centimeter. At this place you can order a meter of beer which is actually 8 beers of differing varities. Also they have another beer… 5 liter beer, served in a giant glass that took two people to carry. It was silly. We stuck to our Radler (Lemonade Beer) and I of course had the Schnitzel, while Carmen had something equally delicious, Meat Pancake things with Gravy and such. It was really good. So was my Schnitzel, I wish I had some right now.

After such venture we walked around a bit more and headed back to the station where we rode the trolly around, hoping we could see the city at night via a quaint trolly ride. Unfortunately the lights on the inside of the trolly were a bit too intense creating more reflections than desired.

After seeing some of the buildings we headed back and slept more. Traveling at Schnell Speed does make one tired.

Feeling bad that we slept the whole of yesterday, we decided to get up and make the most of our new day in Vienna. But still being really tired we slept in and didnt get around to seeing Vienna until well into the afternoon. We walked around a bit seeing the magificent churches and cathedrals. Vienna is gorgeous. We wandered around a bit more and then met up with Carolynn, Allison and Pat and headed back to the room. After figuring out a plan for the morning… Carmen and Carolynn to the airport, Pat to the train station and Allison and I heading to Graz, Austria with Allison continuing on to Italy to soak up the sun on the beach. That night we squeezed four of us on the bed and surprisingly we all were able to wake up and get ready in good sequence with only one bathroom. We were then off to the airport while Pat slept in at the hotel room a bit longer. After dropping Carmen and Carolynn at the airport Allison drove me to Graz, Austria where I continued once again on my travels alone.

Taking a picture of myself while doing a handspring

Better luck when Carmen took the picture

View from the hotel room

Rijeka, Croatia

Rijeka, Croatia! Is a medium sized port town on the western side of Croatia. It is pretty…

We got to Rijeka early in the morning, walked from the train station to the bus depot and found that there was a nearby island called Rab. We got on the next bus to Rab. From what we saw of Rijeka, it was quite pretty with very nice old buildings and such… but there wasn’t much time for exploring as the bus was leaving…

Rab here we come…

Thessaloniki, Greece

I arrived in Thessaloniki late in the afternoon met my couch surfer and went back to his house, while he was studying his cousin and her two friends invited me to go with them to see a Greek play. I thought that was pretty cool because I think the Greeks invented Drama. The play I saw was called “The Lady” apparently it was about a band of robbers trying to steal a painting I think, but I am not 100% sure. I could not understand any of it, but it was fun to see a play in a different language. When we got out of the play it was raining really hard, it was crazy, the streets were overflowing in places and there were bits of loose trash flowing in the current down the streets. I was with  one of the girls who couldn’t get her arm brace wet due to an injury, so it was pretty difficult for us to keep it dry while everyone got soaked to the bone. The girls made spaghetti it was really good. While we were eating two girls from Iceland came to the house too. My couch surfer was hosting me and two girls from Iceland at the same time. It was really cool staying in a house full of people to talk with and learn about one anothers cultures. The next day we took a walk to the castle on the top of the hill and saw a beautiful view of the city and of the Gulf of Thessaloniki further down the road was an old city wall tha protected the city a long time ago, at one end there was a castle, in the middle was a rotunda with frescos depicting Jesus Christ and other religious symbols and at the very end near the sea was the beautiful White Tower which is not white. After relaxing at the waterfront for a while we walked to a great Greek resturant where we got a smorgasboard of food it was of course, amazing.

The next day I hoped on a train to Sofia, Bulgaria. I was really excited that I had an entire room to myself and that it was a non-smoking train. Then I realized that no one pays attention to the signs and it makes me very upset. Those of you who know me know that I cannot stand smoke/ing and it was coming right into my area so I had to put on a mask to try to give myself some decent air to breathe, which of course didn’t work as well as I wanted it to. I really wanted to go to the cabin next to mine and throw them off the train, but of course I refrained.

(not happy)

I arrived in Sofia at 11:30PM and I wasnt sure if it was Sofia or not, so I went out to ask someone, and there was no one on the train. It was dark in this seedy looking train station at midnight and I didn’t hear anyone get off the train, yet there was no sign of anyone and only a few people outside the train, not a trainload thou. I gathered my belongings and steped off the train into what felt like dozens of peering eyes, a big disgruntled man saw me and started to follow me into the train station I was walking toward what looked like a security guard just in case, but as I figured he was a cab driver following people around. I tried to call my couch surfer but for some reason I didn’t have the exit code right and couldn’t get ahold of him. Great, stuck in a train station at midnight and I can’t get ahold of my host while a bunch of seedy people lingerd about. Then I saw a man who looked clean cut and like he spoke English, he let me use his phone and my host said he would meet me at the station in 20 min. I told my new friend that my ride would be here in 20 min. We started talking a bit more as creepy guys came up to us asking if we needed a cab. He turned to me and said you really shouldn’t wait here. So we moved inside just as a lady was locking the doors. While inside we got kicked out because the train station was closing. So, outside on the freshly rained pavement my new friend told me that this area was really not safe for either of us, so we walked across the street to get away from who knows what. He was kind enough to wait with me until my ride arrived, relieved I got into a cab with him and headed home.

I hadn’t eaten in quite some time, so we walked to a 24 hour restaurant where I ordered a Bulgarian style pizza and my couch surfer ordered a salad, which was just a bowl of cut up tomatoes. It was pretty funny.

Bulgarian Pizza