theducks | 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.