Our intense days in lovely Prague was over, and we had taken to the wheels. We crossed the border to the south into Austria, headed for Vienna. A nice trip in the convertible, with one strange happening..
We will actually miss Prague. Not because of the city, but because of all the cool people we met at Hostel Elf.
We spent most of the last night hanging out with some americans from Seattle, Anders from Denmark and Jihee from South Corea. We could only have a couple of beers, since we had to drive the next morning, but it seemed most of the people at the hostel was kinda beat after the late night partying from the night before (and we don't blame them, that stuff was rough!)
3 of the Seattle crew in their room. We had a great time just hanging out with these guys!
In lonely planet guide it said:
"Driving in Prague is not fun!" Having left the city we can't do anything but disagree with that. Driving in and out of Prague was like a walk in the park. A west european park that is. Because if you walk on the grass in the park in Prague, you will get a gun against your head. Anyway, it was a easy driving there, as long as we stayed on the main roads.
Fire finally got to drive on the motorway today, and was cruising in about 160. He's really looking forward to breaking Dice's record of 200 once we get back to Germany! Driving on these 3-lane motorways are super easy, you can see the road for miles ahead. The weather was sunny and there was no wind at all. With this came huge possibilities. The roof was sent into the trunk of our car. We had a convertible the whole way from Prague to Vienna. Sweet!
We drove through some beautiful countryside towns. Convertibles are so much more fun than ordinary cars, you can actually get an impression of the areas you're driving through!
The roads in Czech was very nice. At first we drove on motorway, then on very nice countryside roads. We drove through beautiful small towns with nice old churches. People pointed at us and waved when they saw our car. A brilliant feeling, the locals in the countryside seemed very friendly. The landscape looked pretty much like east Germany. Flat country with fields and some forests and windmills, but a line of trees was planted on each side of the road, it kinda looked like one super long avenue.
A quick stop at a gas station to use the rest of our Czech money and fill some gas, was the only break before Austria. Dice took over the wheels and we got to the border between the two countries. It felt nice leaving a country where even parking officers got guns. Security at the border was much more relaxed out of Czech than into it, they didn't even open the passports!
In Austria the wonderful roads continued, and before we knew it we where 4 miles from Vienna. At one point, Fire broke into almost uncontrollable laughter. We passed a really weird roadsign. "Danger! Frogs!" We began to picture what this frogs could do to be a danger to us! Maybe two hundred of them suddenly would jump over the road? Would they be so many we took damage crashing into them? Would we squeeze them all so the tires got slippery and we drove into oblivion? Would one frog be so huge that it actually became a hazard? All the pictures in our heads gave us a really good laugh.
Appareantly, this sign meant that we had to watch out for frogs crossing the road, so we don't run over them. If you're a cursed prince, you'll be very happy that these signs exist!
A while after the froginsident we got of the road to get a real break and miss the worst rushtraffic. We had some real Austrian food, Schnitzel and chops, before we got all the way into the city.
Vienna looks beautiful. Like a clean version of Prague. On the streetcorner a quartetto of young people played som classical music on one cello, one viola and two violins. We stopped to listen for a bit, they played really nice music and set a special mood for the city street around them. We tossed a few coins into their box, and moved on.
Vienna: Where the streets musicians play beautiful classical music! Back home we're lucky to get some half-drunk playing his accordion!
The room in our hostel is huge, like an apartment of our own. It's quiet though, so this will be a completely different experience from Prague. Tomorrow we're going to get some beer with the danish girls we met in Prague. We're looking forward to that.
Vienna will be great, we can both feel it. We're extending our stay right away.
Dice's travelling tip:
If you take of your watch at a local restaurant, don't forget it on the table as you leave. Tracking time will be much harder afterwards. Either way, Fire will be a happy man when he gets to the swatchshops in Switzerland.
Tip 2:
Creditcards are not supposed to be lost. Don't get so drunk you loose track of them. You'll probably manage, but it will be a pain in the ass the day after. Hope you'll manage Tim.
Posted 7. jul 2007