Adventures of Gamblegirl: Vienna, Munich, Austrian Alps Grost or Groust!! (We aren't completely sure of the spelling as none of our phrase books have the word printed!). Anyway, greetings from Austria (even though I keep typing Australia - duh!!!), Germany and well Austria again. Okay I am book marking Austria and Germany as places that I really want to come back to. I find Austria charming especially with it's country side, it's "gingerbread" houses that I'd expect Hansel and Gretal to come skipping along. We headed into Vienna, a place that I'd always wanted to go to see since I saw "The Third Man" (a classic Orson Wells film - brilliant!). I wasn't disappointed. After the shock of going from hot weather to "I'm freezing my arse off here" cold, it's off to explore Vienna. In Vienna, there is a theme park called Prater which has the second largest Ferris Wheel in the world (was number one, except the London Eye came along and well, it's not any more!), it's over 100 years old and as you can imagine a bit old and creaky. Ever since I saw "The Third Man" and it featured in one majorly significant scene, I wanted to go on it. Now let me just remind you again, am one big scaredy cat. Remember me saying that I don't like things that might suddenly drop - yeah well my ride on the wheel was amusing for some, but a freak fest for me. Still (between thinking holy toledo batman this thing rocks and creaks far too much for my sanity), the view was magnificant (see a new word to describe something!). We ent up at night and all Vienna was in lights. Ahhh soooo pretty. I tried to do as much as I could in Vienna but damm time meant that I couldn't see cool stuff like Beethaven's (however you spell it, don't hold it against me okay!!!) grave or much of Vienna that I wanted. It was too rushed, especially when it's such a city that I wanted to see so much. I wanted to explore Hapsburg Palace in more detail and next time I'm definitely am going to a Mozart concert. I went to St Stephen's and saw the Catacombs which was interesting from the limited English translation that we got. Vienna's also known for it's coffee houses and it's cakes. Naturally I had to taste it's unique cake called the Sasha Torte. The story goes that one of the pastry chef was away for (now I am a bit hazy on the woman's name and her position, I know that she was a ruler of some sort as her father deemed her his heir as he didn't have any sons but I don't know the title) Maria Therese and she had a function coming up and needed a cake to mark the occassion. So she had a competition and a young pastry chef from the Sasha Hotel created a chocolate cake layered with marmalade and hence it's name. I normally don't like marmalade but I loved this. Just like I love Austrian snaps. This girl got very snappy Dumb arse moment for me - there's a major road in Vienna called the burgring. I don't know why or what was going on in my head, but for some reason, I kept thinking that it was called the BURGER RING after the chips. Yes less said the better abour THAT!!! Vienna also marked the downfall of my health. In all honesty - I was s*** sick. I even had to croak home for some mum and dad TLC. My ailments - well it started with I lost my voice, my throat was killing me and it was like swallowing razor blades, the hacking cough I had burned my chest, every time I blew my nose, the room span which wasn't good because well I had a heavy cold and my eyes were doing this weird runny thing but I wasn't crying. I went to a dinner in the Vienna woods and I was thinking that all I wanted to do was die in bed and not be there. And that's how I spent my 27th birthday. Sick as s***. Absolutely no voice, no energy and over it all. What was worse, was that I was away from my family and my friends and it didn't feel like my birthday. Normally my birthday is an all about me day, but it felt so... normal. Surely it sucked right? It was the best birthday purely because of Mauthausen. It made everything memorable and also it snowed when we were in the bus going to the beer hall. That was soooooo cool!!!. And my new friends, sure made it even more memorable after Mauthausen, we went to the little town where the church scene in "The Sound of Music" was filmed. One of the guys was a real sweetie (I think he felt sorry for me because I was such a tragic figure for my birthday!) and bought me a really yummy slice of cake. It was soooo divine. Then it was into Munich. Yippeee. It was also the night that we went to a beer hall. A stein of beer say before me anbd I drank it. As most would know, I am an avoid NON beer drinker. I hate it. It's foul!! I am so pleased with myself for drinking it. When in Germany right? A bit controversay though, they called out two other people's birthdays and not mine. WHAT?!?!?! Ali what are you doing girl?! Thankfully it was Dan to the rescue! Thanks chick. I was a celeb for 5 mins. I also got the best birthday present from Dan, Jane and Andi. Remember that photo from the Greek night that I was b****ing about not being on the wall? (Oh and Andi, love the cards babe). Yeah well my loveable gumbies had bought it and had got all the staff to sign it. It's a corker and I love it. Thanks guys. The next day we had a couple of hours in Munich which am bummbed about. I so needed longer - then again, I always do. I like to see things througherly. I went to Fravenkirke "Church of Our Lady" for something called the Devils Footstep. Andi, Anna and I looked everywhere for it, searched this church from corner to corner. Where was it? Bugged, we asked the lady who moved one of the signs which was COVERING IT! Um hello? The major attraction to this church (well aside from the religion aspect) and they've covered it up. Anyone else scratching their head about that? The story of the footstep is as follows: On the floor in the enterance hall beneath the chorus - between the front gate and the vent hole - you can see a footprint of a human being in the pavement, which even has the print of a spur on the heel. If you step into this footprint and look up to the alter, you can't see any side windows; and from 1622 till 1860 you couldn't see the window in the middle either because it was covered with a huge picture. About this footprint known also as "the black footprint" (yeah I know, real imaginative with the name hey?), the following legend is told: When the building of the church was finished, but not yet consecrated, the devil sneaked through the big gate, curious and angry at the building. Suddenly he started to laugh very loud and said "a building without any windows is not very useful". Just at the meoment he was standing exactly at the point where the footprint is, so he could not see any windows. In triumphal happiness, he stamped into the floor, hence the footprint. As he made one step further, suddenly there were lots of windows to be seen. Furious, he changed himself into a great wind and hope he could blow the building down, but he failed and since that time, there is always a wind blowing around the towers. Pretty cool huh? Stopped to watch the Glockenspiel and WASN'T THAT LAME, so left. Next time, I want to do the Hitler walking tour and the tour of Munich and it's Nazi headquarters. I think that would be educational. So it's back to Austria again, this time, the Austrian Alps. Yay I have a bit of a voice which is good, but the cough is driving me mad. Driving through the mountains, I saw the most spectacular scenery. Snow covered villages that were oh so adorable. We pulled over for a while and had a bit of snow ball fight which was fun. The rest of the time - I spent in bed, trying to get better. Thanx Mazza and Jonno for the parently medicine because I felt a million times better after speaking to you. Next stop ... Switzerland. Love and kisses from your neighbourhood freak!!!!