From Africa To Russia

In the morning, take the boat once again, sit top deck, enjoy the beautiful sunshine and the breeze. Gaze out across the water into the mist. Somewhere out there is Algeria and Libya and the whole mysterious mammoth girth of Africa. I hike through the alleys of Venice with my pack on my back. No matter how carefully I follow my map, I wind up in dead ends, or going in circles. A bit maddening without signs. I wind up at the extreme west end of the island, having overshot the train station. I backtrack a bit, twist and turn and eventually find it. I take my pack off and rest in a park for a spell. My shirt is soaked through with sweat. The mosquitos enjoy this. Stop in at a little cafe near the train station, hoping to save some money. I pick out a bacon and brie sandwich, 3.50 euros. I have a coke with it, and then a beer. The bill comes: sandwich: 4.50 euros, coke: 4.00 euros, beer: 6 euros. Highway robbery, no two ways about it. The train to Vienna is mostly empty, but there are two Californians sitting with me, Chris and Alitha. The train ride is long, but the conversation is good and time passes quickly. We ride through mountains and valleys, some of the peaks sprinkled with snow. There are cottages here and there, and everything looks like something out of a dream, truly magnificent country. I realize on the train that what I thought were allergies in Venice were actually the beginnings of a cold, which proceeds to get into full swing in a very short space of time. We get to Vienna around ten, grab the metro and I find my hostel. As I am walking on the street towards it, Germany scores in the World Cup with only five minutes left, and I hear eruptions in just about all the apartments in Vienna all at the same time. The reception guy at the hostel is ecstatic, he has been watching the game and can barely contain himself. He giddily showers me with gifts: a free towel, a handful of drink coupons. The hostel I am staying in is called Wombats and is really top notch, a lot of attention to detail, a highly recommended stop in Vienna. I am feeling like crap because of the cold and collapse in bed immediately.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 10:28 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.