Vienna

We woke to knocking on the bunk room door, "Vienna in 30 minutes", woohoo we'd survived the night train!! With 2 days planned for Vienna it was a good thing we had both managed to get a decent sleep as there was walking to be done and plenty of it. After dropping bags at the hostel we headed into the old town area to meet up with Jourdan and Celia, friends from home who are coming to World Uni Champs in Czech Republic with me. As soon as we emerged from the metro Vienna impressed, beautiful old buildings and parks everywhere, ridiculously clean streets and I'd already spotted a Viennese cake shop. It was going to be a great 2 days.

After finding Jourdan and Celia by the Opera house we did what I love best in new cities, wandered! None of us had any specific plans or requests apart from seeing the city so off we went. St. Stephens cathedral with its beautiful roof and spires, we found Mozart's house where he died, the Hofburg palace and the continual stream of horses and carriages on the cobbles kept us entertained. The list of sights and neck craning architecture seems endless when trying to recount everything we saw.

We found lunch in the Naschmarkt, a whole series of food stalls with a strong turkish influence. I managed to give us an accidental tour of the university while trying to find us a shortcut to the markets. Luckily a nice guy in a white lab coat pointed us in the right direction! In the afternoon we visited the Albertina. As much as I would have loved to explore more of the museums unfortunately my budget didn't quite stretch to a 10 euro entry to each. However the Albertina was great and we all tried to act cultural while looking at the Picasso and Monet paintings.

After a decent amount of time wandering the streets we finally settled down to a huge meal of Wiener schnitzel and a very large beer. Definitely the most meat I've eaten in a while and I devoured every bite. Would be rude not to!

The next morning we were up early to make the most of our time and headed out to Prater, the theme park/fair with the giant Ferris wheel that is iconic for Vienna. It was a bit of a ghost town with us being too eager and most of it yet to open. Some interesting statues kept us entertained before we decided we were too cheap to go on the giant Ferris wheel and opted for the baby one instead. A wander over the Danube and Danube Island took us back towards the city where we sampled some Mozart cake (horrifically sweet chocolate cake) and coffee before leaving Jourdan and Celia and heading to the Schönbrunn Palace.

The palace was amazing with huge gardens, fountains and a ton of tourists. We treated ourselves to a Grand Tour of the palace which gave us an awful lot of history that I had no idea about previously. The rooms inside were pretty incredible with gold everywhere. The Austrian tour guide had an amusing sense of humour, very German. Her little quips and attempted jokes along the way made the time whizz by. All of a sudden we were in a mad dash to get back to the hostel and get our bags before catching the metro across town to the bus station and our departure for Prague. Lets just say I'm really glad I never have to see those people again as I was suffering in the heat with a pack on my back. So much so that I got changed as soon as we got to the bus station. The joys of backpacking in the European summer!

The bus ride to Prague was relatively uneventful. I find it quite interesting how quickly it changes when crossing the border though. From a very affluent, clean country to our dinner stop in Czech on the 5 hour ride. We were surrounded by homeless people drinking and a rather strong urine smell, admittedly we were at the bus station so I can't really judge but it was pretty different to the Vienna one. The road also went from smooth as silk to bouncing along a slightly rutted motorway which did not help my Woolworths bladder.

Rach is here until the morning of the 1st so a couple of days to explore Prague. Laura is already here and we're joined by Jourdan, Celia, Tessa and Renee before heading to Olomouc on the 3rd for a training camp for World Uni Orienteering Champs. The currency is 1 CZK to 0.06 NZD, a welcome change after a week in Switzerland and the slightly less expensive Vienna. Given that this is also my last country before heading to Sweden I think I'm going to have to splurge just a little bit on some shopping, will try not to get too out of control!

Zermatt to Zurich to Vienna

The remainder of Swiss O week passed in a flash. Rach arrived on Thursday night after a long day of travel. I gallantly gave up my sleeping bag as she hadn't come particularly prepared for orienteering cheap/camping style accommodation. The following day we had a race up Trockener Steg which was a bit of a blowout for me. An incredible area right at the bottom of the glacier with big patches of snow and crazy rock. I had a rather epic fall on the way to number one, sliding down the very slippery snow and having to make a grab for the rocks on the side to stop myself going swimming in the ice-water lake. A teeny tiny cut on my finger gave some impressive blood stains to the white snow before deciding 'bugger this' and I took the rest of the course nice and easy, even stopping to admire the glaciers as we climbed yet another hill.

A few beers and a meal out on the last night with all my new friends (they had to share a room with me, therefore equals new friends) brought the end to an epic week. Zermatt is a beautiful area, the changeable weather was a bit of a shame but really just added to the experience and being in the mountains you can't really expect any less! After 10 days I feel like I well and truly explored everything my weary legs would let me. On to the next adventure!

Rach, Laura and I caught the train to Zurich the next morning with plans to do some decent exploring before all leaving for further destinations that evening. Despite being a major city in Switzerland, Zurich is very much in keeping with the traditions of the country, all of them, like everything closes on a Sunday kind of traditions. Damn.

We wandered the streets of the old town area, much to my disappointment even the supermarkets were closed so I couldn't spend all my remaining francs on swiss chocolate. Very upsetting.
We had noticed that there were quite a few people wandering around with Ironman t-shirts and backpacks. After some investigation we discovered the Ironman was on! A rather long walk led us to the transition/finish area which was humming with competitors and supporters. For three sporty gals we'd hit the jackpot, a great time waster and they even had food! We spent a good proportion of the day there, watching ridiculously fit people deliriously cross the finish line and trying to decipher the Swiss German commentary. A wander up to the university and look out over Zurich old town got us through until Laura's bus departure to Prague.

Rach and I wandered back to the station to find that Sunday is not as disappointing in Zurich as we had initially thought. There is in fact an entire mall under the train station, complete with open supermarket! We managed to successfully spend 38 francs on dinner, breakfast for the next day and a ton of chocolate. Finally 10.40pm rolled around and with full bellies we headed for our night train to Vienna.

I had taken charge of all the bookings for our time together and thought the night train would be a cool thing to experience plus save us a night of accommodation and a day of travel. With 8 hours ahead of us on the train I was hoping for the best sleep I'd had in a week, the lack of pillow and lights on sensors in Zermatt had been an issue for me.

It was definitely an experience! At some point while struggling with the booking form I had managed to get us into a 6 person cabin, rather than the planned 4 person. With all the rooms being the same size, about the size of the bathroom at home, 6 people was a squuueeeeze. Rach and I were on the top of the 3 tier bunks, a young couple and father-daughter combo joined us before we set off into the dark. Once the air conditioning started working I managed to get past my fits of giggles at the situation and thought it might be ok. Then the swaying started, slowly at first with a few jerks around corners before the constant jolting began. Being on the top bunk helped to accentuate the movement, just what my queasy, motion sickness prone stomach needed! My thoughts of a good nights sleep went out the window and plans to sleep in the corridor by the bathroom became a very real possibility.

In the end drugs saved the day/night! Little blue tablets were my saviour in the form of Phenergan. I had originally brought them with me to help me sleep on the plane (thanks for the suggestion Judith/Mum!) but being good for travel sickness too it killed two birds with one stone. In no time I was crawling into my bunk (so small that was the only way to get in it) feeling significantly improved and VERY sleepy.

Moral of the story was night trains are good if you want to travel cheap but it's worth forking out for a 4 person or even 2 person cabin. In my case, given the motion sickness I'll probably take the high road (literally) next time. I like train travel but I also like keeping my food in my stomach!

Rest day....not!

Rest day of the week, translation for Greta and Immy = opportunity to cover as much ground as possible whilst also taking time out for photo shoots in the epic surrounds. What a success!

We started the day bright and early (for those on holiday time) at 9am with a ride up the gondola to the very top for Immy to see the views. Waking up to a stunning day was an added bonus to what was set to be a great adventure. Everyone else obviously had the same idea as it took a solid 90mins for a normally 40min ride. Still worth it, even as the cloud closed in on the Matterhorn it couldn't mar the experience. After the excitement of the top and our strenuous effort we decided we deserved a coffee at the first stop on the way down, got to keep hydrated whilst exploring. There was also free wifi there which let us see how the NZ JWOC team were getting on in Bulgaria.

Once fuelled up we set off on our walking extravaganza. We took the track from Trockener Steg (2939m) across to Schwarzsee which took us directly below the glaciers and the base of the Matterhorn, this provided some perfect opportunities for self timing photos, some great successes, others hilarious fails. The cloud hovered around the top of the Matterhorn but every time it cleared we would stand in awe/take a break from walking (it was a rest day after all). Once at Schwarzsee (2583m) we stopped on the grass for lunch with a beautiful view of the Matterhorn while listening to the live band at the restaurant, they even played Crowded House!

We wandered down the hill to Zmutt (1936m) chatting as we quickly dropped in height then the serious stuff began. We had eyed up Trift (2337m) as being a good spot to walk to, there were no gondolas up that valley so there must be something special up that way, maybe a local secret spot. The hike up the hill began in unison with the rain but as we moved around the hillside it abated and moved off to the opposite mountain range. Eventually we got to a sign with some times on it, 2 hours to Trift, what?! It didn't look anywhere near that far on the map, surely they had it wrong and we were moving pretty quickly anyway. We committed and up the hill we went.

The next junction gave us options, not always a good thing. Left climbed straight away and took us round the top where the only option was to go all the way to Trift. Right dropped down towards the valley where we would reach a junction towards Zermatt or up the valley to Trift. We were hard out, the rain had stopped, the left option it was. We climbed up and up and up. After a stop there was a comment that it seemed to be taking an awfully long time to climb 400m. Our suspicions would prove correct, we were hard out and we had taken a poor choice. With Immy commenting that she was 'sweating out of her jacket sleeves' (we are oh so ladylike) we finally reached a ridge with a sign. We were now at 2665m, we had climbed 300m higher than we needed to, whoops! At least it was all downhill now!!

As a bonus of our route choice we had now had a really solid training day and got to see some sheep with bells on at the top. It was also pretty damn cool climbing up the hill with Zermatt below us and the thunder from the opposite mountains rolling around the valley, provided it stayed on the opposite side of the valley. The 300m descent zoomed by and Trift proved to be the not quite so secret spot we were hoping for. A hotel/restaurant with a pretty waterfall out the back and not much else. At this point the rain started and we decided to make a dash for Zermatt, the supposed 1hr 25min walk taking us just over 35mins as we ran down the tracks to get back at 6.30pm. A seriously good day, and still 4 to go!

Zermatt and the Matterhorn!! Oh and Swiss O Week

I love mountains!!! As our train slowly wound its way up into the valley the mountains grew, the temperature dropped and the smile on my face got bigger and bigger.

Swiss O Week is held every 2 years somewhere in Switzerland. The last one was run at the same time as my last WOC in Lausanne, this year it's in Zermatt. It was last held in the shadow of the Matterhorn in 2006 and I had only heard rave reviews so given all the time I have on my hands I was there!

The week consists of 6 races, a sprint followed by 4 longs and a middle I think, or 2 middles and 2 longs. Either way they are about 5-7km with over 250m climb and ridiculously epic views.

Zermatt is considerably bigger than I had anticipated. Not quite sure what I was expecting but there are throngs of people around. A good proportion walk around with packs on their backs, sporty gears and giving off the idea that they are heading into the mountains. The next largest group are courtesy of what must be a very good sales pitch in some Asian country. It is rather amusing watching the big tour groups get off the trains, scurry around grabbing bags and nattering in what sounds like mandarin before being taken off in what they use as cars here (funny mini truck things that are only about a metre wide). They seem to be the proportion that keep the big posh hotels in business. The last lot of tourists are families with little kids going for a few hikes or alternatively people who look like they do not walk up mountains and will be using the gondolas as their main mode of transportation. This particular week however the orienteers are adding to the mix with 5000 people competing in Swiss O Week.

Switzerland is well and truly living up to its reputation of being a pricey place to be, the supermarkets are pretty reasonable but outside those doors it's a tad outrageous. For the week as part of our race deal we have been given passes that get us up every gondola or train that is in the area. I paid 280 CHF for it and had no idea what a good deal I was getting until I spoke to someone on the train. They charge 100 CHF return to get up the main gondola and about 50 CHF for the other ones, it's crazy! That's a one use pass and if you don't get a view of the Matterhorn from up there then tough. As a result of this newfound knowledge I have been getting my money's worth. I've been up the main gondola, which is the highest in Europe at 3883m (higher than Mt Cook!), 3 times and the other 2 main ones twice each. As awesome as this place is if I didn't have my pass I wouldn't be hugely impressed with those prices, it doesn't bear thinking about how expensive a day skiing would be.

The weather so far has been pretty patchy but we've been making the most of the sun and it doesn't matter if it's not the best for the orienteering, you still get out in the mountains. Our first day up the mountains running was an experience. Not only was my body objecting to the altitude (2500m) and this running business, there was also only about 15m visibility at some points when the cloud came in. Made for some interesting orienteering and good compass bearings!

Jula and I splashed out at the posh chocolate shop and purchased 2 midget chocolates each, which while expensive, were incredibly delicious and definitely worth it. I have already pre-planned that I'll use whatever Swiss francs I have left on Sunday to purchase outrageous amounts of chocolate, can't wait! We also splurged on a dinner with Matty and Van to try real Swiss cheese fondue. We got slightly carried away in our ordering excitement and ordered a whole serving each. If people manage to finish those serving sizes I am seriously impressed, we had a cauldron of cheese to share plus Matty had a bonus pot on the side. With a mountain of bread to accompany each our topic of conversation quickly turned to the different 'cheese dreams' we might have after consuming so much of the good stuff.

The races themselves have been relatively uneventful, loving just going out for a run around and a general good time. Now that my body has adjusted to the altitude it's gotten significantly easier to run but I will admit to walking up a fair few hills, or should I say mountains. After each race I've been taking the opportunity of being in a damn cool place to wander back down the mountain on the multitude of tracks. So far I have yet to recruit anyone to join me, funnily enough they just think I'm a tad mental wanting to walk back after a race. But it's all downhill so it's easy!! I would like to be able to say I've been using the time to do some soul searching, really find myself, blah blah blah. Instead I use the wandering hours to day dream and go marmot hunting. So far unsuccessful, and I'm not really hunting them, more like eagerly sneaking up to the corners of the tracks in the hope that I might find one round the corner. Maybe that's why I have yet to find friends to walk back with me. I will find a marmot by the end of the week.

One thing I do love about places like this is people are so in awe of nature. On my wanderings down the hill, despite the pouring rain there are a huge number of people out on the tracks, making the most of being in such a spectacular place. This is probably why I can't find marmots as they're all getting scared off but that's ok if it's because people are too cheap to buy lift passes so have to walk up the hill as I scamper back down. And despite the large Asian tour groups clogging up the trains and gondolas I get a great deal of amusement from their continual 'oooooh' and 'ahhhhh' sound effects as we come round each corner. That and the photos they take, it took me a little while to work out that the people awkwardly squatting were in fact taking photos of the wildflowers. Or the old guy on the train who I don't think could even see the screen and was clacking off photos of the entire train line. Literally the train line, he had the camera at such an odd angle that he was only getting the tracks. Perfect entertainment for me.

Florence

The rest of the week with Matty and Van passed by in a flash. After our last blissful night in the vineyard in Chianti we headed up to San Gimignano. Having stayed here with Mum, Dad and Ingrid in the past I had very fond memories of this wee town.

San Gimignano is one of the more well known walled towns in Tuscany, particularly due to its towers which stand up proudly on the hill. I had a bit of a laugh at Matty and Van's continual attempts at nonchalantly saying the name, I think the best was "San Gimme-gaaaaano". We arrived in the 30 degree heat and set off into what turned out to be market day. Whilst still beautiful it was very hot, completely chocka with people and teeming with stalls with everything you could ever desire. I have discovered on this trip that heat and I don't get on terribly well. I've always been on the more warm blooded side than most people, usually getting hot and sweaty before everyone else. This was no exception however this time Van and I were on par. Every time there was a spot of shade we were in it and the walking pace slowed considerably to reduce sweatiness.

After wandering around for a bit we settled on our most important purchase of the day, a gelato from "The Best Gelato Shop in the World", or was it the "Number One Gelato Shop in the World". Both shops were situated about 100m apart and overflowing with weary tourists. Once slightly cooled we headed off to Florence and our next hostel for the night, according to Van it was a nice cheap one given our slightly more pricey last few nights. According to the website it had no rules, woohoo, big night ahead!

A slight detour on the way to the hostel took us to the lookout over Florence, what a city. With the duomo roof sticking up and the Ponte Vecchio over the river it's a pretty magical place. It's also no cooler than San Gimignano as a balmy 35 degrees greeted us, life was getting tough. We eventually arrived at the hostel perfectly situated a 5 minute walk from everything. Turned out no rules also translated to no air conditioning and a group of 18 year old boys (I think they thought they were men from their grooming rituals but looked about 14) in the room next door. There was nothing for it, we were going to have to get at least moderately tipsy to be able to get any sleep that night.

We all got into sporty mode and did our respective jogs, Matty the most impressive with 10k along the river at 5pm and 35 degrees. Van's was only slightly more moderate and I got the best deal of the lot. My "run" consisted of walking to the river with Matty to escape the crowds, followed by a few loops around whilst oggling at the beautiful buildings. I thought I would wind my way back towards the hostel via the back streets; there aren't really back streets in Florence, just tourists EVERYWHERE. Eventually (felt like forever, the watch said 10 minutes) I came across a shady square with a full orchestra playing, not bad Italy, not bad. Of course I had to stop and appreciate the music for a decent amount of time before walking back and attempting to cool down in our sauna of a room.

After the purchase of a cold beer for Matty and some sports drink I forced on the other two (I fully encourage rehydrating before dehydrating) we headed to the Piazza to meet up with Immy for dinner. Pizza and wine were on the menu and not a bad farewell to a good few weeks in Italy. Immy couldn't quite keep up with the drinking so the three of us headed back to the hostel for a nightcap/pre-drink of Limoncello. Normally I love Limoncello, when it's warm not so much.

With the cooling temperatures we headed out to check out the nightlife in Florence which I can report back was quite good but a tad over-run with drunk American tourists. We finished the evening with a rather disgusting cocktail Matty got us in a beautiful square. Followed (on my request) by a McDonalds run, it was pretty much on our way home and I needed to make sure they were keeping their meals standardised throughout the world. Which they are, still delicious when it's past midnight.

The next morning involved some very successful shopping at the markets. Van and I got matching cashmere lined leather gloves, I got 2 scarves, Van one scarf, I got a wallet, Van got a handbag and Matty got some gloves too. We all eyed up multiple other purchases but with my shrinking bank account and bulging bag and Matty and Van being at the start of their holiday it all had to wait. A laze in the park accompanied by the best sandwich I have ever had ended my Italian adventure. Sandwich doesn't really do it justice, it was this incredible foccacia bread filled with pork, cheese, artichokes and other goodness. I'm pretty sure the guy gave us extra meat cause he thought Matty looked like Steven Gerard the soccer player, thanks Mum and Dad!

Now off to Switzerland. And not just Switzerland but Zermatt and the Matterhorn, the home of Toblerone. Swiss o Week runs for the week and I'm planning to walk my socks off around the mountains in between races.