Vienna, Austria & Bratislava, Slovakia

**Warning - this is going to be a big one!**

My first big trip! I went with almost everybody I work with (Tara, Michelle, Cora, Jimmy, Jarrett), including Immi, and met Michael in Vienna (since he lives there)

We left hours before the sun came up on Friday morning, spent Friday, Saturday and a good part of Sunday in Vienna, then drove about an hour into Bratislava, Slovakia and came back on Monday!

This trip was amazing...i'm totally whiped out this week. That might have something to do with me contracting what I'm thinking might be food poisoning in Bratislava, but who knows.

Ok where do I start!

We landed in Vienna around 8:30 Friday morning, picked up a rental car and headed straight for Schloss Shönbrunn (directly translated as Castle 'Beautiful-Well'). This castle was totally and completely amazing.. I spent most of my time in Vienna walking around with my mouth open, everything was sooo beautiful and there was so much to see! Maybe that's why I'm sick...all the germs flew into my mouth while I walked around like a tourist 'ooohhing' and 'aaawwwiing' all the time.

This castle, is unlike anything I've ever seen...so luxurious, check out my pictures on my msn space. The tour guide was amazing also, he was a riot and included a lot of interesting stories about the origins of things. I have to share them!

Piggy Banks:
A long time ago, maybe in the 15th century, i can't remember, it was tradition for farmers to give their youngest pig away to a friend on New Years. I believe it was supposed to bring good luck in prosperity, hence why we put money in a piggy bank...for luck!

Flea Markets, Lucky Rabbit Foot, and Flea Bag:
Flea Market translates directly into many many different languages. Again, a long time ago people had a big problem with fleas. There were often markets, where you could go and pay a man who had a monkey, and this monkey would go through your hair and groom you, removing the fleas, hence the term flea market! To help with the flea problem, people often carried a small pouch at their waist containing a rabbit foot, so the fleas would go onto the foot instead of onto their own heads and bodies. Then at the end of the day, they would take the rabbit foot out and brush off all the fleas...and this is where our tradition of carrying a rabbit foot, or rubbing a rabbit foot for luck comes from! And this is also where the insult 'Flea Bag' comes from.

Cool? I thought so.

Next we go to check into our hostel, only to discover that we accidentally booked for January instead of February....woops! They gave us all of our money back though, thank goodness, and helped us book a new hostel. It was nice, clean, free breakfast, and so empty that the girls all managed to get a room together...no sharing with strangers this time.

Alright, so after this we met up with Peter, a friend of Michelles who happened to be studying in Vienna and he kindly played tour guide for us for the next couple of hours.

First stop was the city hall, which looks more like a mansion or a palace. By this time it was dark, and there were beautiful lights of all different colours lighting up this building (called the Rathaus, in German). There was a festival going on outside and Cora and I tried a very traditional winter drink called Glüwein, which is a hot spiced red wine, sort of like apple cider. It was tasty :)

Another place we visited worth noting was St. Stephans Cathedral (a gothic style church on the main shopping street). THIS building had me walking around with my head tipped back and my jaw dropped for a good half hour... Outside it's sort of scary looking, like something out of Lord Of The Rings, but it was sooo beautiful inside! The ceilings were so high, I can't even imagine how they were built.. there were so many paintings and stone carvings, the lighting was low, only a few candle lights around....i'm pretty much speachless trying to describe this...I wished so many other people could be there to see it with me! I was really lucky actually, there was some sort of service going on, so people were singing at the front....the whole experience gave me the shivers.

Eventually we all got hungry and met up with Michael for dinner and drinks, who promptly started to try to get me drunk, surprise surprise :P

All in all it was an amazing and beautiful and fantastically wonderful first day!

DAY 2!
We got up and walked around the city some more, taking in all the sites, and then made our way to an amazing building called the Hundertwasserhaus - Hudredwater house. Hudertwasser is an artist, and at some point somebody asked him to do some architecture. This building looked so out of place in Vienna, it looked like it belonged in Spain or something... Hundertwasser is a great nature lover, and this building definitely reflected that. There were no straight lines anywhere! Even the walls and the floors went in/out/up/down..... there were trees growing all over the roof and out of windows, everything was so brightly coloured... This guy believes that man has three skins: his own, his clothes and his dwelling, and that like his own skin, his dwelling should change and grow and adapt in order to be harmonious with nature.....or something like that. This picture is just one side of the building, and it really doesn't do it justice...ask to see my postcards when I get back!! Or better yet, do a quick google search for Hundertwasserhaus images. So gorgeous!

Michael took us all to a restaurant that brewed it's own beer right behind the bar. I tried two of it's 7 specialties - a Chili beer which was sooo spicy.. (Everybody at the table tasted it and after a 1.5 second pause made a face like they'd been slapped, it was great lol) and their Hemp beer. Yep, hemp beer! It was quite sweet actually, and very good :)

After the hemp beer we made some funny faces....just for fun of course :P

Next! We went to a place called Millenium City, where I rode a mechanical bull, played some DDR and won a game of bowling :D Ask me about for the bull videos later if you want, they're funny.

DAY 3!!!

Cora, Michelle and I braved less than 4 hours of sleep to get up and go watch the famous Vienna Boys Choir perform early Sunday morning. Vienna is very famous for music, and many famous musicians have called this gorgeous city their home in the past. Ever heard of Mozart? Beethoven? Shubert? Did you know that Mozart gave his first tour when he was only 6 years old? He went to a toonn of different countries to perform too...it's amazing! So we went to a pretty church inside the imperial palace, after wandering around for aggeess with our luggage because we were lost... But on the upside, we saw a lot of beautiful buildings on our little tour :P After the show Michelle and I cornered one of the adorable choir boys and played paparazzi....again, check out my pics!

After this we met up with the rest of the crew at Cafe Central for some hot chocolate and Mozart Cake. Vienna is also very famous for it's coffee shops...that's what people do in Vienna. They chill out in a cafe, drinking coffee, eating cake. When they get bored, they get up and move to another coffee shop :P

Last stop in Vienna - Haus der Musik - a super cool music museum! We spent a few hours here, everything is interactive...not like your average museum where you just look at everything and get yelled at when you touch it (every single time....but i still can't help myself!)...it was very cool. They had not only a lot of info and displays on the famous musicians, but a lot of cool stuff on sound, including a room that was supposed to recreate what it felt like to be in the womb.

BRATISLAVA!!

Next we take the hour trip to Bratislava to meet up with some people from the IBM team there...a bunch of young people actually, in their early 20's.

Now, before I left, while I was there, and after I returned I recieved several warning messages from my friends about the horror movie 'Hostel' which is located in Bratislava... My hostel was perfectly fine, but thanks for your concern guys :). Although I have to admit, when I got out of the car to go check in, I was very sketched out... We had to walk through this pitch dark alley and all the buildings around were crumbling and falling apart... It was scary for a few minutes.

So we met up with our Bratislavian teammates at a bar and hung out on this little balcony inside, kneeling on cushions on the floor around a low table. This proximity to the floor proved to be a verrryy good thing later in the night... at one point I remember looking up from my conversation and the whole team was sprawled on the floor... compliments of 'Slivovica'... a Bratislavian specialty shot, of about 60% alcohol. Good times, good times :P

This night was also my downfall, but not because of the drink. I ate this spicy Indian food...possibly the spiciest thing I've ever eaten. Now those of you who know me well, will know that I LOVE spicy food! The spicier the better... I always get the suicide wings...my Indian friends tease me because I'm a white girl, and can generally survive spicier food than some of them! I won 3rd place in a hot wing eating contest this summer... and I was one of 2 girls... Ok, so now you've got my background, you can understand why I thought this would be ok.. I didn't break a sweat, my nose didn't run, my eyes didn't water...nothing! So while I thought, ok, ya it's hot, i'll be fine. The next day I was a mess though...and today, 2 days later my stomach is still very very angry with me. I was so nauseous when I woke up monday...but I didn't throw up or anything....UNTIL...the worse possible time and place that I could have thrown up that day. We went in to the IBM office to visit the Bratislavian guys one more time...I was a whitish-green colour...it was awful.. So we're about to leave, waiting for the elevator....it arrives...and I know it's alll over. I ran for the bathroom, but it was sooo far away... really I was lucky that Michelle and Cora chased after me, and that Michelle had a plastic bag in her purse, because I was eyeing up a spot on the carpet, and somebody's garbage can under their desk was looking very attractive. Maybe I should ask for a job now, that I've made such an impression :P Actually though, the night before the team lead was teasing....said I was the only girl who had survived the Bratislavian drinking and asked if I wanted a job :P

Annnnyywayss.... we walked around Bratislava a bit, but i still felt like a 3 mile high mountain of garbage for the rest of the day, so I took it easy.

All in all a great vacation though! I wished so many times that I could show everybody everything....I wish I could share everything special with you!

Check out my pictures and feel free to leave comments and ask questions, I always love to hear from you :)

Much love all,