Computer games and bling

Vienna is famous for its huge assortment of museums, but rather than look at art, or history, or go to the opera, we visited an exhibition of a different kind – a massive computer game expo.

Gamers from far and wide flocked to the annual event to check out the latest offerings for Playstation, Xbox and Wii consoles. Still bleary-eyed from our early morning start to watch the football earlier that day, we wandered through the maze of rooms filled with giant TVs, impressive light and sound shows and staff handing out showbags full of freebies. There were lots of interact Wii-style games (people dancing, cheerleading, singing in the shower etc) and we met some very interesting characters, including everyone’s favourite quiz master Buzz.

Much to our amusement we also got asked to show ID before entering the 18+ games tent!

One place we didn't get asked for ID was in the Swarovski crystal superstore in Vienna's main shopping street -- three huge, sparkling levels of BLING! (the photo below does NOT do it justice!)

The store boasted jewellery, keyrings and diamond-encrusted pens to huge crystal figurines and elaborate window displays -- even the walls and ceiling sparkled.  Of course, as a lover of all things bling, I carefully browsed every square inch of the massive store.  I picked up a few small souvenirs but refrained from making any major purchases.  However I did take home a copy of the latest catalogue, just in case I change my mind when I get home...

Vegemite, AFL and Tomato sauce

One of the guys on our Kumuka tour brought a tube of Vegemite on holidays with him so he can enjoy his favourite spread on toast every morning, but the rest of us have been missing this Aussie breakfast staple, despite a huge buffet breakfast each morning at the various hotels we stay at.

So it was exciting to find an Aussie pub in Vienna that served up Vegemite toast while we watched the AFL grand final (and I couldn't help but take a photo of my tasty toast, pictured above).

Decked out in our Collingwood colours we crawled out of bed at 5am to get a taxi to the pub and watch the game live at 6.30am.  By 7am we were eating toast and drinking beer and vodka – it was, after all, 3pm in Australia (dual clocks on the wall helped us keep track of the time difference), a perfect hour for a beverage.

There were plenty of expats at the pub and plenty of Aussie tourists and many were decked out in footy gear. Three mates who are touring Europe in a van for six months even drew up a sign for their beloved St Kilda on the back of a sangria carton and the publican happily stuck it up on the wall alongside the big screen, the kangaroo roadsigns, and other Aussie memorabilia

 

There were a few hiccups – Sky Channel was not working so we had to watch it on Eurosports 2 so the commentary was in German – and the scrolling newfeed along the bottom of the screen meant we could only see part of the score (Collingwood’s score), making me the official counter who had to keep track of any scoring by St Kilda, which is NOT an easy task so early in the morning!

On top of that the bar manager claimed that Coopers was the best Australian beer as he served up Aussie favourites like VB and Crown Lager.  When we asked ``what about Cascade?’’ he confessed he had never tried it! When he served up hot chips he asked if customers wanted ketchup (of course I quickly informed him that it is TOMATO SAUCE).

It was also obvious that staff were from Austria and not Australia when they served up Vegemite. When we ordered toast we asked if the barman could bring out the jar with the buttered toast so we could spread our own and get it just right, and he happily obliged.  But the second round of toast was prepared by one of the other staff, who presented us with toast boasting the thickest spread of Vegemite I had ever seen. It was so awful none of us could stomach more than a few bites.  No wonder people outside Australia are so disgusted by the stuff if it is served to them an inch thick on lukewarm bread.

As all of Australia knows it was a nail-biting game, and now, due to the draw, we have to go back and do it all next week, this time in an Aussie pub in Berlin. Fingers crossed the commentary will be in English this time…

No kangaroos in Austria

We were whizzing up the cable car to a massive fort on the hillside at Salzburg, enroute from Munich to Vienna, when a friendly German started chatting to us.  He first guessed that we were English (so many people confuse the accents, even though they sound nothing alike!), but when we said we were from Australia he was thrilled -- he got quite excited about our new government and started asking us all about it. 

The only problem was we know almost NOTHING about what is going on in Australia right now -- the only reason we even know that Gillard made it as our first female PM was because we saw some kind of update on a news channel on a plane between Beijing and Athens, and even then there was no sound so we couldn’t listen and just had to guess what was happening from the pictures. Of course there's the internet, but I'm staying away from anything work-related -- it's kind of nice to have no idea what’s happening in the news for a change…still, the German man didn't mind -- he was just happy to meet someone from Australia and not Austria!

Speaking of Australia vs Austria -- the Austrians are so sick of being confused with their similar-sounding counterpart that they have made special t-shirts, as well as magnets and other memorabilia that say:

Of course Bryan bought one, and the guy in the t-shirt shop seemed pretty impressed that we were Australian -- he went on to tell us that they decided to print the t-shirts because ``Americans are dumb'' (his words not mine!) and always get the two confused.  Obviously the Austrians aren't dumb -- from the looks of souvenir sales they are making a packet out of such a mix-up.

What I learned about Munich from inside the walls of a beer hall...

By day Suzanne (right) works as a doctor. But when Oktoberfest rolls around each year she takes annual leave, puts on her dirndl (traditional outfit) and works the busy beer halls.

This experienced beer wench can carry about a dozen heavy steins brimming with amber ale in her hands all at once as she serves some of the six million people who attend the 16-day festival each year -- patrons drink more than seven million litres of beer during this time (not to mention almost 80,000 litres of wine, over 30,000 litres of sparkling, 220,000 litres of coffee and almost one million litres of water and soft drink!)

The beer hall staff also serve up loads of food to hungry patrons, including half a million chickens (so tasty!), loads of pork knuckles, bratwurst sausages, giant pretzels and some other weird stuff, including the biggest block of cheese I think I've ever seen (I was thinking of you Suzette! Notice how big it is compared to the 600ml bottles of cordial...) 

So with all this food and drink it's not surprising that there's nearly 1000 tonnes of garbage by the end of the event, there are also about 1800 toilets on site (incidently the male loos are called pissoirs, much to Bryan's amusement), and about 4000 items end up in lost property, including spectacles, mobile phones, and even the odd wedding ring! 

Working at the event is apparently very lucrative -- we were told that in just 16 days beer waiters can earn somewhere between 16,000-20,000 euros, so it's hardly surprising that they take leave from their day jobs. But it's not an easy job to land -- in many cases the tradition has been handed down through generations of families.

The beer halls are a great place to meet people, from chatty waiters like Suzanne (who by the way was drinking a stein full of Berocca on the morning we met her to help get her through the long shift) to visitors from all over the world.

We spent our first evening at Oktoberfest enjoying a beer in one of the many beer gardens and checking out the expansive grounds from the top of the giant ferris wheel (the place is PACKED with amusement rides).

Day 2 kicked off early -- we arrived at the Lowenbrau tent with our group at 10am to secure a good seat for a day of drinking.  The first steins were served soon after and by the end of the day Bryan had polished off four of the 1 litre gems which cost $10 each (including tips).  I'd had a decent crack too.

It was in this tent that we met Suzanne, and also a German Aussie called Christine and her lovely husband, who sat with us for a while.

The 20-something was born in Germany, lived there until she was 13 and then moved to Australia, where she still lives.

As she expertly ordered beer using her fluent German and then switched back to her Aussie drawl which shows no hint of a European accent, Christine revealled that she and her partner have spent the last six months touring around Europe in a cheap van they purchased, and also found time to get married surrounded by 70 family and friends.  She also revealled that she (and many other Germans) don't tip at Oktoberfest unless the service is impeccable (despite the widely-held belief that you will not get served unless you ply the waiter with lucrative incidentives).

We also discovered that love has been known to blossom at Oktoberfest. A guy who travelled on a Kumuka tour several years ago met and fell and in love with his beer wench at the festival -- they exchanged numbers, caught up after the event and later married and are about to start a family -- they regularly return to Oktoberfest and were there again this year.

Later in day we ventured into other tents, where our lovely and VERY efficient waiter (see below) sat us at table of Americans.

The mates, from Denver, Colorado, work for United Airlines, and used their staff points to fly to Germany for just one day of drinking at Oktoberfest -- it cost them just $50 in taxes plus $200 to upgrade to first class.

One recently proposed to his girlfriend in San Francisco and offered lots of advice on places we should visit when we get there, and the other revealled that he NEVER checks in baggage now that he's seen what goes on behind the scenes at airports. In return Bryan explained the finer points of Aussie Rules football to the fascinated yanks.

Ironically, like them, we got to see very little of Munich other than the inside walls of the many beer halls.

But it was an education all on its own.

Three countries in just one day

Few people can claim to have visited three countries in only one day. But today we had breakfast in Italy (Venice), lunch in Austria (Innsbruck) followed by dinner in Germany (Munich).  And there was plenty of nice scenery along the way -- white rabbits hopping through roadside paddocks just outside Venice, impressive mountains and cute cottages dotted around the hills of Innsbruck as well as some white swans, a famous castle and a hot air balloon drifting across the German countryside. 

Venice:

Innsbruck:

Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany:

On the drive to Munich:

A horse, of course!

``I’m so hungry I could eat a horse,’’ Bryan exclaimed after a busy day touring the waterways of Venice. Lucky for him, the speciality at a restaurant near our hotel was horse pizza, and we gave it a taste test (sorry to my horse-loving pal Shelley!)  So if you’ve ever wondered what horse pizza looks like, then check out the picture below.  For the record, the reddish-coloured shredded meat didn’t taste like dog food, it didn’t talk like Mr Ed, but was more like salty bacon.

The pizza topped off a great day in Venice, where we explored the narrow streets, rode a gondola and watched glass blowing demonstrations.

Most people have heard of Murano – famous for exquisite (and expensive) hand blown glass – but what about the island’s neighbour Burano?

Here the rows of houses are painted in bright colours in every imaginable colour of the rainbow and front onto an assortment of winding canals dotted with motorboats and gondolas.

The many little shops sell lace (mostly made by widows who live on the island) as well as venetian masks, and there are loads of bakeries selling tasty treats (which of course we sampled!)

After a couple of hours exploring the island we jumped on the ferry and headed back to the historical centre of Venice to watch the sun set.

Of course we managed to enjoy some more of Italy’s famous pizza and gelati too.

For Mr & Mrs Castelino

To my lovely friends Tameeka and Avil Castelino -- I found a cafe you need to visit in Rome :)

When in Rome…

There are three things that MUST be included in any Italian itinerary – pizza, pasta, and – most importantly in my case – gelati!

Within an hour of arriving at our hotel in Rome we had managed to track down the nearest gelati bar and later visited many more during our three days in Rome. We found old favourites like lemon and bacio plus some newer flavours like nutella, mandarin and coconut as we ate our way around the roman capital.

It was all part of the fun of exploring the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain and all the other famous sites of the city.

Ice cream also made coping with the heat and the long queues easier. Someone told me that Rome has the longest queues in the world – and I reckon they're probably right!  You need to queue for everything, whether it is a visit to the cruddy public toilets (which cost as much as 1.50 euro per visit!) to landmarks like Vatican City where we braved the lengthy queue, which often snakes along the streets for kilometres.

We also battled crowds at Rome's largest flea market (where you could buy bling for 1 euro and pairs of sparkly shoes for as little as 3 euro - heaven!) and we even joined the throng of paparrazi who hit the streets to photograph the mayor of Rome on a public outing.