Vienna is where it's .at!

Vienna has been a bit of a bust so far, as I'm writing this on the early morning of our second of two and a half days so far.

The hostel is the worst one I've ever been to. It's not that it's unclean, or dangerous. Far from it. It is more sterile and boring than any hospital (not a typo) I've ever seen. The people working behind the desk have no enthusiasm or interest in travel, the area is as boring as hell and there is no sense of life here that I've seen in other hostels I've been to. Things like food are actually cheaper here than Switzerland, which is a plus, but the accommodation is more expensive and a whole world more crap than our beautiful Swiss Chalet was. It does have more headroom, about 14 ft ceilings verses the 5'6 in parts of the chalet, but it only contributes to the hospital feel. The advertised internet is expensive - €1 for 15 minutes - and of course you have to use their shitty locked down stations. Seriously guys, this isn't 1998, people travel with laptops with wifi now.

Anyway, so yesterday we needed to send a file to the crazy US travel agency we were booking flights from Vienna to Paris with, and of course couldn't do it with these stupid terminals, so we went to the dodgy turkish-run internet cafe down the road, which is much cheaper, but who knows how much spyware is on the terminals.

Speaking of crazy US travel agency, we booked the flight from Vienna to Paris (CDG) a week and a half ago, with my Visa card. All was well, except the agency wanted more proof of ID before they would confirm it. Putting aside the fact that AFAIK this is against Visa regulations, eventually I emailed them a photo of it (yay, secure!) but by that time, they had cancelled the initial flight, and the price and seats were no longer available.

Credit to them in booking us on another flight (this time to Orly, the older Paris airport) for not much more in US dollars (but thanks exchange rate, a lot more in Aussie dollars..). Which would have been fine, except the airline wouldn't accept my credit card. As it expires at the end of the month, and despite assurances from the bank that it would be fine, I suspect this was the issue. We had sent through the ID the agency requested to pay on Elizabeth's card, but then we called the agency in the US and found out they weren't open on the weekend, working out that when they did open next at 9AM EST on Monday, it would be about 2 hours before our flight, and we didn't like the chances of them completing the transaction in a timely manner to allow us to fly.

So Elizabeth and I tried booking the flights online ourselves, but the airline's website wouldn't take either her or my card. Mine was declined, as expected, but them not accepting Elizabeth's was a bit of a surprise. So we went to call the commonwealth bank back home. Payphones here no longer do direct international (non-Europe) calls, which is nice of them, since payphone rates always suck ass. So you call up a number and type in your credit card number and make the call that way. Except the call broker won't recognise the +61 13 XXXX number that the bank give you call, because Australia's numbers are all +61 X XXXX XXXX or +61 4 XX XXX XXX, aren't they? Repeat this experience with a telephone card, assuming that direct dial will work and finding out that it won't. Repeat with a freecall+PIN calling card and find out it won't. Oh, actually, spend an hour or so trying to find somewhere that sells those cards first. In bad broken German at supermarkets and petrol stations.

Give up on calling your mother for help, as she's in Alice Springs without her mobile, give up on calling your wife's (whee, wife!)'s parents, as they're not home and only have an answering machine. Eventually call your father, who bless his heart does get in touch with them and find out the bank's +61 2 9999 XXXX number, but it patronised by the bank and told that we just need to put +61 in front of the 13 number to make it work (Note to the commonwealth bank: NO WE F***ING DON'T, WE'RE NOT RETARDS, WE'VE SPENT ALL MORNING TRYING TO CALL YOU, HE'S CALLING YOU BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WORK). Anyway, call the bank and find out that the Airline never tried charging my card, someway confirming my guess that they are pussies and won't charge a card expiring in the next month, and find that they tried charging Elizabeth's card, but the incorrect expiration date was given. Which would mean I was a tard. When I read the card again under better light, it confirmed that I had typed in the wrong number. Sigh.

Call up the airline in some *slavia country, because calling the Austria number is €0.49/minute, explain the situation, rebook and pay for the seats, confirm that the US travel agency bookings won't cancel out the ones we pay for now, and suddenly everything doesn't seem so bad. Go back to Hostel and send an apologetic email to the US travel agency for booking behind their backs, pointing out that it actually would have been cheaper to pay them, but we felt we had no other option, hoping they won't charge our cards out of spite.

Then look for accommodation in Paris. That doesn't have reviews saying it has really nasty bedbugs, 6 stories and no lift, has wifi or wired Internet (seriously, having a laptop and having to use netcafes is pissing me off) and is available with 2 days notice for 3 days. This is perhaps harder than it sounds. Or then again, perhaps it is exactly as hard as it sounds. Spent about an hour searching for a place (AUD$8 in internets, woo), and I think we've actually booked it successfully. Fingers crossed it all works out ok.

So that was our first day in Vienna. We did go to St Stephen's Square, and see Virgil's Chapel, and have a bit of a wander in some of the nicer looking areas of town, but it was overshadowed by all these challenges. We will be back to them today to actually be tourists.

Remaining todo for the trip: Book accomodation in London (the place we stayed last time seems to no longer be available, which is a shame, because it did meet our needs pretty well), then simply catch the train from Paris to Calais, ferry from Calais to Dover, and then train from Dover to London. Flight from London to Singapore, Singapore accommodation and flight from Singapore to Perth are mercifully already sorted.

On a related note, being on holiday without pre-paid accomodation/travel when the exchange rate PLUMMETS sucks nads. We can still afford everything and not have to use credit cards (or tbqh, have much of an impact on our finances), but it is still annoying when things don't work out as planned. Pre booking and paying for all this would have been a lot lot easier and less stressfully, but we did have a wedding to plan. Next time we go to Europe, we will start planning and paying for things months in advance.

The trip so far...

A brief recap for those of you following at home...

The trip from Perth to Singapore was pretty good, nothing too bad or good, the airport hotel at Singapore had our booking when we got there (though they require far too much paperwork to check in) so we had a good nap before the flight to Zurich.

The flight to Zurich was one of the nicest I've ever been on. It was mostly empty, so we had plenty of room to stretch out. Everyone was loaded on so fast that we actually took off early. The plane was almost brand new and had Singapore Airlines' new 10 inch IFE system, so watching movies was great. Arrival at Zurich was smooth, but I'm sad they didn't stamp our passports.

The hotel at Zurich was nice, if a little small, and really really central. Oh, and the rooms come with free rubber ducks, that you can take away with you. Had a good time visiting museums and just wandering around this town of old Europe. As mentioned previously, it was fun to catch up with Packrat and have a bit of a verbal spar over Exchange ("It'll all end in tears" "No, it'll all end in a lot of money, but at the end of it, it'll hopefully work").

Next stop was Wengen in the Lauterbrunnen region. Possibly some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen (It's like the Canadian Rockies, only reasonably densely inhabited). Going up the Jungfrau Joch was also an amazing experience. I don't think I've ever been unpressurised at 11000ft MSL before, and frankly my lungs didn't care much for the experience.

The question is, how did we choose Wengen as a place to go? Well, let me out myself as a huge dork. You know the Apple Monitors page? Click here to go there now, don't worry, I'll be waiting when you come back.. ok, now see the picture showing the different sizes of displays? Compare it to this photo that I took. Is it clear yet? :) I did some reading on forums and found it was taken in the Lauterbrunnen region. I did some comparative checks, and found that Wengen actually was going to be a fun place to go. So basically, we went to Wengen because it was pictured in the Apple Displays product page. Yes, I'm a nerd, but Elizabeth went along with this crazy plan, because I believe in honesty in insanity.

We did a bunch of hiking around the area and couldn't find the exact spot it was taken, so it may have been on the other side of the valley, but whatever the case, it was worth it for reasons other than the search for this photo. The chalet we stayed at in Wengen was really nice and cosy, and run by a nice lady and her family. I kept hitting my head on door frames and rafters, but it wasn't that bad, and the price was excellent (CHF400 for 5 nights for two people). We self catered with food and kept costs down further.

Jetlag continues to be a problem.. bed at 9PM and up at 4-5AM. Blah. Also have a neck ache, and have had it for an hour or so per day for the last few days, which is a bit sucky, but overall not too bad.

For the future.. as I'm a writing this post, we're on a train to Vienna. This will take a while, but meh, there is 230V in the carriage so we can use electronic entertainment devices with impunity. The countryside is also pretty. We spend two and bit days in Austria, then fly to Paris on the 13th. The company we booked tickets to Paris with dicked us around a bit wanting further proof of ID (which is against VISA regulations, but whatever..), so we had to pay a bit more in USD (and a lot more in AUD due to the exchange rate crash) and we're flying into Orly instead of Charles De Gaulle, but it should still be ok.

We're in Paris until the 16th and then onto London from the 17-21st. Plans are to catch up with ambie01 for a Sunday breakfast, and e_bee and moonbug (and maybe sammers?) and anyone else we know during the rest of the time. From the 21st - 25th we're in Singapore, then it's back home and back to work on the 28th.

Wedding Post

Given we're on honeymoon, most of you will have noticed that we're married, and thus the wedding is over. I must say, it's a weight off our minds, however I think I'm also speaking for both of us when I say we were really happy how everything went.

It's a learning experience, but one you probably only do once. Mostly, the issues that seemed big were actually little (who comes to the reception, what music plays as the bride walks down the aisle, etc) and fortunately none of the ones that seemed little ended up being big.

I was sick as a dog for the two weeks leading up the ceremony, but thanks to several visits to doctors and pharmacists, I was actually almost 100% on the wedding day. The weather had likewise sucked for the week beforehand and cleared up for our wedding day. No-one forgot anything important (rings, lines, etc), and plenty of photos were taken by both our official and unofficial photographers. I think I counted at least 6 x digital SLR's there.

The reception was great fun, lack of light over over the wedding table and air conditioning issues notwithstanding. The speeches were nice. The food was great and plentiful, and they even did a really good job of dealing with the gluten free and vegan requirements. In fairness to me however, I did sit them down and make it very clear that these were very important requirements for us, but still, whatever the cause, it all worked out pretty well from the feedback we got. The only drama was that we forgot to arrange vegan/gluten free cakes, and we're sorry about that guys, we'll make it up to you :)

Our friends (and family) are just awesome and were so much help. Big thanks from me and Elizabeth, especially to Stephie and Davyd Penguin, Dr Z and Kim.

Photos of the day:

• Official Photographer Kim - http://flickr.com/photos/30973545@N04/sets/72157607947624684/


• Davyd - http://www.flickr.com/photos/penguincakes/sets/72157607551994084/


• R - http://www.flickr.com/photos/10340055@N03/sets/72157607560960658/

Jovana - have you had a chance to do yours yet?

Sorry for the LJ spam..

The previous entries were written at various times I had time to kill. Right now we're in the Vienna airport waiting for a flight to Paris (on SkyEurope, leaving at 1800). The rest of the time in Vienna was great, after we got the Paris leg sorted out. We saw lots of Museums and cool things, took lots of photos, etc. Apologies for the emoness of the previous post about Vienna, but it was a getting a bit stressful.

I did have a bit of a chat about the hostel to one of the employees last night, and he agreed. I think they made a mistake by building a new building in a residential area. Hostels work better where people can make noise and sprawl in grandfathered fire-codes.

Anyway, we'll definitely have to come back this way to see Germany, Hungary and perhaps more of Vienna. For now, to Paris