Hello hello,

My last night in Zurich was spent checking out the Zurich Street Parade. The street parade happens once a year and this year I was lucky enough to get to experience it. All thanks to Bec and Seth's generous hospitality.
From what I can tell Zurich, an ultra conservative city, just let's loose once year and that is on Street Parade day. I think originally it was a gay pride type party but now is much more like the Berlin Love Parade.
The people get out their leathers, feathers, lingere, fishnets and PVC's for the occasion and then head in to the city to make up the crowd of roughly 1million! There are love-mobiles filled with techo loving dancers and DJ's, that drive past v-e-r-y slowly. The crowd totally gets into the swing of things, raving away into the small hours of the morning.
My favourite outfit would have to be the see-through g-string toting man, who, I would guess, was in his early 60's! A close second would have to be the woman dress as a very authentic Avatar. Still don't understand how her body paint didn't run in the torrential rain!
After Zurich, I headed off to the home of Maria and the Sound of Music - Salzburg. Here, I had actually managed to avoid seeing or hearing the movie until my last morning in Salzburg. I spent most of my time pleasantly exploring the old town and learning a bit about Mozart. Who knew the man was such a legend! Well, most people to be fair but I learnt that he did struggle for recognition early on and that his dad was the ultimate stage parent, pushing him to tour for 3 years non-stop!
After Salzburg, I headed to Budapest, the "paris of the east". It is a beautiful city with such a torturous history. It was heavily bombed by both sides during WW2 and has since been rebuilt. There is so much to see and do here but one of the main attractions is the natural thermal bath houses. I have been walking around the city for the last 2 days so am heading to a bath house tomorrow. It is St Stephens day tomorrow and the are parades and fireworks etc so will chill out for a bit then mill with the crowds and enjoy the festivities.

As for the next stop, I have cancelled Krakow and am heading to Munich. From Munich, I haven't decided where I will head but maybe the south of France.