Zurück in Österreich!

I’ve always been one to procrastinate…I’ve got the mentality that no matter what happens, everything will be alright in the end. For example, I was up until 2 am last night trying to figure out how in the world I could make it to either Zrce Beach, Croatia or Athens, Greece without sacrificing too much time traveling or money the next morning. Otherwise, my plans would have to change again. Since I couldn’t make it work in my sleepy stupor, the next best sounding option was to wait until the morning praying I would wake up in time. Luckily my body remembered that I had to be productive today, so I woke up in time to visit the House of Terror right beside my hostel. This building was the site of 2 terrible periods in Hungary during the 20^th century. The Hungarian Nazis first occupied it until being taken over by the Soviet Communists where hundreds of innocent people were tortured & killed. The way it was set up & portrayed was fantastic & bone chilling.

Opera House

After packing up, settling the hostel bill, & finding the nearest Starbucks on the way to the train station, I sat myself down & had an hour to decide where to go before the trains I needed to take started leaving. As much as I’m going to regret not going to the beautiful beaches of Croatia, it gives me another reason to come back again in a few years. Sadly, it would have taken too long to travel to the Croatia islands & then double back to leave for my next destination. Plus I’d have to pay for the busrides. Back west it is.

Go home tree, you're drunk

There were a few options I could have taken heading back this way, but the nearest cities I want to see require some downtime in between. Salzburg, Austria here I come! I may end up visiting Munich afterwards since I didn’t take advantage of Berlin like I should have souring my experience in Germany. I’m paving my way to the beautiful people of Italia. Now I’m on the train for the next few hours & can’t wait to see the Alps! Who needs the beach, I’m more of a mountain person anyways.

Sight seeing...poor Chris P. Bacon

The night before last, my wonderful hostelmate decided he had had too much to drink & to continuously throw up in a trashcan left by his bed instead of becoming best friends with the porcelain bowl, which is the socially acceptable thing to do. Ah tunnel! I love tunnels. Because the entire room smelled of puke for most of the night (even putting my face in my shampoo smelling tower didn’t help!), I figured I should treat myself & spend the entire next day at one of the baths (thermal springs) located near Heroes' Square.

After doing some quick shopping, sightseeing around the city, & unsuccessfully able to get the 3 euro opera tickets, I made my way over to the park & spent hours upon hours bathing in the sun protecting my eyes from the speedos unsuccessfully. They had about 15 different pools inside & out with different temperatures. One pool had a small lazy river, some had fountains, others with jet streams shooting from the bottom. I had a good book to read & an even greater nap making up for the previous night’s loss.

I would like to celebrate 17 days since I lost anything. RIP sunglasses & brastrap.