Vienna stories

I woke up early in the Nord Sam campingplatz in Salzburg and met the owner to settle the bill. Normally you pay upon arrival but i arrived under the cover of darkness and used my patented fumble around in the dark like a tit approach to putting up my tent. In retrospect i could have got away without paying as the owner didnt even know i had camped. However hitch hiking has tought me many beautiful lessons. I almost beleive in a watered down version of karma now. My own personal thinking is that if someone does something nice to you, pass it on. Ive never been that superstitious in the past. I did however have a routine before football games in the 98-99 season for Henfield FC. We went on a 13 game unbeaten streak and won the plate that season along with promotion to the horsham mini minor league a. I used to spit into my shinpads before games. lovely huh?

Anyway I digress from the real story. I set off into town and chanced upon a spar and bought some semmel (buns or baps depending which part of england your from) with cheese. I cought a bus into town and had a lovely breakfast at the mirabel gardens.



I then popped on a bus to walersfied where i tramped my way to a shell garage for my hitching. Ive found it saves time to get to the outskirts where cars and lorries are travelling long distances instead of to the local shops. Within 45 minutes i had secured a lift with a Romanian guy and his family. There was little we had to talk about as the language barrier was too vast. My usual tactic of mentioning footballers failed to interest him. I managed to gleam that he had travelled from bordeaux so it must have been one hell of a journey. It was actually quite nice for a change to relax and watch the countryside go past. Austria is not all mountains and singing nuns but it is still rather pleasing.

I got dropped off on the outskirts of vienna at another service station. I love and hate these places. In europe they always charge you for the loo. Paying to eat and drink makes sense but paying to get rid of the bits and bobs you dont need is going to far in my book. In estimation trips to these Mr sheen wonderlands has probably cost me between 7-10 euros so far. Thats atleast two mcdonalds or a trip to the cinema.

Anyway i asked about and the nearest train station was three miles away on the other side of the autobahn. Lucky for me there was a service tunnel going underneath so i got to do my own version of the great escape before climbing an embankment the other side and hoping a fence. Feeling all macho I swaggered to the station and into vienna.

Vienna is immense. Ive seen town halls less ornate then backery's in vienna. The scope of the place is huge too. Unlike the old town in salzburg you know that vienna is a real functioning city and not a place preserved for tourism. It just happens to be fully functioning, interesting, vibrant and colourful whilst looking good. I met up with a girl called July who i was to be couch surfing with. Couch surfing is essentially sleeping on someones couch for free. Its good because its all built on trust and you meet real people who live in the city your visiting.

Im off for food an edit later perhaps. Rich xxxx

The hills are alive

The last time I went to salzburg was on a holiday with an ex girlfriend. I had a lovely time and it was probably the best holiday in recent memory. This time round i arrived lugging my back pack and got bemused looks from people as a half eaten bag of haribo fell from one of my pockets and scattered across the pavement. I was stuck in two minds with what to do. If i left it i might get tutted for littering. If i picked it up people might judge my dishevelled appearance and assume i was going to eat it. Its funny when moments like that hit you and you wonder whether you have progressed or regressed in life. Im generally quite laid back but im always keen to be moving forward. As I contemplated my dilema I decided that life is like juggiling. Its difficult to be amazing at everything at once. Yes i no longer have a few things i had a few years back but i now know how to do small talk with eastern european truck drivers. Surely that is far more usefull then being in a stable relationship???

Anyway i met up with an old college friend called Ali who i once went to T in the Park with. He has a fantastic job were he travels austria teaching english in a different school each week. Its a great way to travel and get paid for it. He was with another teacher an australian girl called zetty (sp?). We spent a good hour looking for a hostel and eventually ended up in one called the institute of San Sebastion. It was a religious refuge with its own bell tower. Breakfast was also ridiculously early. The alarm was the said bell tower. However it also had the comfiest beds in the world. We set off in the evening for some tea and a few beers. The menu was a bit of a lottery. I went for Wiessbierbeuscherl which had the word bier in and sounded like a safe bet. Ali had wiener scnitzel and zetty had this weird german carbonara thingy that looked like vomit but tasted as good as scoring the winning goal for port vale in a potteries derby against stoke city.

The biers flowed and we ended up in a cavern pub with a lager called zipfer on tap. There was this weird band playing irish versions of robbie williams tracks amongst others. There was also loads of smoke. I woke up smelling like a victorian chimney sweep.

The next day we explored the city of salzburg. It is very pretty indeed. The view from the danube across the aldstadt with the cadtle high in the sky has to be one of the best around. We went for a monster alk up one of the mountains. We didnt sing any sound of music once can you beleive. At 2.30 the largest beer garden in europe opened so we bought some bread and meat and cheeky beer. We played a game called factcents which is where you get given an accent to do and a topic. You then have to tell a fact in the said accent. For example "jamaican and carrots" if anyone laughs they have to drink. Fun times! Anyway it hit about 5 oclock. Ali and Zetty had to get to commute out of salzburg to their teaching locatians. I found a campingplatz in north salzburg at 8.00.

Thats about all i have time for today. Ill update maybe tommorow in budapest and tell you about vienna. I am currently couch surfing at a lovely couples flat called July and Sunny. They have a two cats, johnny and lucky + two turtles. I have also enjoyed coffee at cafe central. Lenin and hitler are rumoured to have played chess there.

love rich x

beer today, gone tommorow

Its been a couple of days since i last blogged and so much has happened i could probably write a small book. I am now in vienna and the following is the start of how i came to be here:

After my last trip to an internet cafe i went for a meander around munich. It is a suprisingly clean city with a real buzz to it. Walking down the street you get the feeling that any kind of wonderful thing is around the corner. The magic of the place was probably magnified with it being okotoberfest. Literally every german was dressed in their traditional liederhosen or dirndl. I like to think that even lawyers and bankers disregard their suits for 3 weeks and turn up to work in their traditional outfit. To put it into perspective it would be like us in england hanging around in morris dancing gear or dressed as beefeaters. The weird but very cool thing about it is that no one cares it looks rather silly. Who say the german people dont have a sense of humour. Big respect to them all!

Anyway i went to a outdoor market in the centre of town and had the first few steins of the day (1 litre beer) At 1.00 i noticed a japanese couple were already passed out asleep on a table whilst everyone else just went about their business as if everything was normal. I then decided that the day would likely be a long one and went on a walk to see the sites of munich. I walked through this park called the Englischer gardens and for some reason everyone was nude. It was a sunny day but not warm enough to give everyone else the privilege of seeing my own special bits. I quickly scuttled off before any more OAPs appeared. The rest of the day was spent in the very impressive beer tents of oktobefest. It is like the best party you have ever been to. There was crazy oompah music, a giant ox roasting on a spit, dancing on tables and enough beer to fill all the lakes in the lake district. Needless to say my memories of the evening grew hazy. I made friends with a few irish lads and drank to our health. I woke up the next morning suprisingly hangover free. The beer gets drank so quickly they dont bother with all the preservatives we get in english lager.

After a hasty packing of my tent I was back on the road. I have developed a great technique using google earth for finding the best hitching spots. Typically i type in tankstelle munich into google maps. It then locates all service stations on the map. I found one on an autobahn in the right direction. I then search for the nearest train station. I flip the map into satellite view and if there are not too many things to jump over im on my way. The only downside is the walking . My converse are now so battered they are actually like a lyric from an artic monkeys song. After hopping over 3 fences and 1 ditch I had made it to a shell service station. I then had two lifts to salzburg. A woman called Nicol who was returning from Stuttgart. She worked as an estate agent and had a really nice convertable mercedes. She also like driving it fast. Everytime she talked i had to duck down to hear her as the top was down. I got dropped half way at another tankstelle where i met another hitcher (trampen in german). She was like a character from a book with her faithul hund (dog) in tow. We exchanged stories, I gave her some chocolate and she gave me some cola. We tried to get a lift together but the first taker we had didnt want to give a dog a lift too. After an hour in the car with amelio and his wife i was dropped at salzburg airport. more of wich in my next post.

Good morning campers

hi everyone,

good news!!! i made it to munich in one delightful hitch. A wonderful german guy called peter picked me up from a petrol station. just outside of siegburg and drove me all the way to the tourist office in munich city centre. Talk about hitting the hitching jack pot. I was only holding a sign up for frankfurt. 5 minutes wait too!!! Having said that i did have to navigate a tram, bus and walk for 40 minutes to get to the petrol station. We talked a lot about football and reminiced about certain penalty shoot outs. We also talked in depth about karl heinze riedle and jens lehman. Turns out jens is still bonkers and doing daft things.


I got to munich at about 6.30 after a 4 and a half hour slog in peters very tidy A4 audi. That thing certainly flew on the unrestricted autobahns. It became a bit of a mad dash for a safe haven when i was dropped. Octoberfest is on and hostels are 50 flaming euros a go. Thats about 3 times as much as ive spent on travel my entire trip. A campingplatz it was then. I found one slightly out of town next to the zoo. I was hoping i wouldnt find an escaped tiger at the end of my sleeping bag. Luckily it was just my smelly socks when i woke up this morning.

The thalkirchen campingplatz is nuts. it's almost like being at T in the park music festival except even more alcoholic. I met a few guys that drink in the devonshire cat in sheffield which was weird. There was also this guy from hull who would talk to you normally then jump up and repeatedly shout "TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSS" as loud as he could. I think there was probably more than beer going on or maybe all the dirndl's in the beer tents had gone to his head. The dirndls being the very nice dresses that german ladys wear to october fest. Perhaps too brisk a garment for wearing in england this time of year but luckily munich is still quite warm.

Anyway other things i havent mentioned yet. I had a funny night out in köln where we met a guy called nico who had a lettuce strapped to the back of his push bike. There was no explanation given but we promptly named the lettuce colin and bought it a drink. This seemed to make sense in the circumstances. Anyway Nico was quite sound suprisingly and led us on a great pub tour of köln. I also visited a chocolate museum and it tasted just as good as it was entertaining. I also had a lift in the worlds biggest commercial pike up. It was this giant dodge thing and was virtually a monster truck. Oh + i have seen where beethoven lived.

Anyway i must get cracking on. I am finding hitching a really enjoyable experience and i would definetly consider it again in the future. Having said that it isnt exactly stress free and on my down time i like to explore the cities i end up in. Apologies for the grammar. Im against the clock here and ive already had a weissbier and a weisswurst for breakfast (its tradition not alcoholism by the way).

Catch you all soon, salzburg next time we talk i hope,

liebe,

Rich

I feel Bonn again

After a very interesting night in the most deserted campingplatz ever i am now back in bonn. It was a weird experience last night as i was literally the only guest. It was as if i was in the first 20 minutes of a horror film. I walked into the reception and it was all dead badgers and stuffed animals everywhere. The owner was pretty gruff. I ended up going for a walk and buying a snack called a bifi roll for my tea. Its like a pepperami in a roll. I then sat on the rhine watching the boats until it got dark.



The next step is to catch a train to the outskirts and walk to the tankersteller (a petrol station). Lots of cars and trucks stop here heading south down the A3.. Truckers have bladders like camels and drive for miles. I hope to make it down to frankfurt and if possible even down the black forest way for some cake.

Ive noticed in germany a lot of my food is coming from a shop called Kamps. It is essentially a german version of greggs. There are literally everywhere and the puddings are very big.



anyway ive got to do some research on places and routes and all that. hope everyone is well back home.

Oh and ive not plugged this much yet http://www.justgiving.com/richardlees85/ .

aufiedersehn,

lebe,

Rich x

And the wheels fall off.

Yikes talk about ups and downs. So much has happened in the last few days. I got to Köln found it was lovely. Took in an extra day to see it all on tuesday but unfortunately had my phone nicked. Im not keen on travelling without one for safety reasons. Today has been mainly spent sorting out a new one. Its frustraiting as i wanted to make some progress and get back on the road. It also kind of sucks because all the good feelings i had built up have just gone and I need to get myself back on my feet. This is my personal challenge. If i can come back from this than it will be great.

On the positive side I have met lots of interesting people. I have lots of stories to tell. I will surely find time to tell them soon once i get my bounce back.




Anyway I think im going to try to get to bonn today. It is just a short hop but id rather find a campingplatz before dark. I can then attack the next day with vigour. and hopefully just get as far as I can.

Rich

2 Aussies, 2 Canadians and a man with a lettuce

Köln is a great place to get lost in. I walked for miles last night just taking it all in and looking at the buildings. Ive never seen so many people sat outside with a beer. I was severly tempted with some wiener schnitzle. I even took a book (theres no suich thing as a free ride?) with me so i could sit down in one of the leafy beer gardens with a frothy pint. As it was I headed back to my dorm room and much to my delight i found too excitable aussie lads drinking beer.

Ill fill in all the köln details after I get moving. A lot has happened here both good and bad. mostly good overall. Watch this space.

Güten tag

Phew made it into a hostel at last. Its been a pretty mad couple of days. Europe is delightfully bonkers. Its taken ten lifts to get to köln. Ive met doctors, nurses, teachers, truckers, car designers amongst others. Ive also learnt that my map is shiser as one trucker kindly put it and that everyone knows im english because my signs are so polite. Ive also been to a party in surbiton (the defining place of surbabia) and visited the tower of london.

A really helpfull macedonian trucker saved me from my lowest point. I was stuck in a truck stop near liege in belgium for 3 hours. we had few words in common and our relationship soon fell into a pattern of grunting autobahn numbers at each other and naming famous people like david beckham.

The high points so far is the kindness of the peple i have met. A lovely french lady let me stay the night at her house and her husband drove me into belgium he next day. ive decided to stay in köln tommorow to explore it properly. It has this immense cathedral which luckily survived WWII. Anyway im off to find some currywürzt (its a sausage covered in curry) and a beerhall. This keyboard is so worn i cant see the letters and they are in different places comared to england. Also i want to find a cafe where I can upload my pics.



Tonight i may go and see a guy called DJ sniff play purely because he has an awesome dj name. I bet you can almost smell the funk when he drops a meaty bassline. Aufiedersehn!!!!

liebe,

Rich x

Excitement vs EEEEEKK!!! WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE!!!!!!!!

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it".



This is one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite films "Ferris Buellers Day Off". I'm hoping that I can use this quote to justify the madness that is about to unfold. Anyway i'm about to head off in about an hour. Still lots of things to pack. I should have bought my rucksack where mary poppins got her handbag thats for sure.

If all goes wrong it was nice knowing you,

much love,

Rich x

The best laid plans of mice and men...........

I keep thinking of things I need to plan and should probably be making more snappy decisions. As it stands I'm far too laid back. On Saturday I decided to practice my pottering and talking to strangers. I spent as much of the day as I could alone to see whether I could cope. It actually went all right because I had no major arguments with myself. The high point was talking about Roald Dahl with a pretty blonde girl. Shame I didn't know how to move the conversation on to things like phone numbers. I guess you have to be bold in this big wide world. Maybe the nex few weeks will teach me some useful stuff.

Below is a list of chores and a rough weekly plan:



Distraction is the enemy. For example today I was meant to be researching cheap hostels but I ended up searching every major European cities football team and their fixtures. If all goes well I may visit the constant vanden stock stadium in Brussels for Anderlecht vs AA Gent. Only 10 euros to stand on the terraces. If it works out I'll be amazed. I mean imagine I'm halfway to Brussels and I get offered a lift going far into Germany? What would I do? I guess I'll find out in 6 days time......

where comfort lies

If you asked me where my favourite ever place is I would automatically say my bed. After that I would say my sofa. A pattern soon develops where the next in line is invariably the next most cosy place in the house. Surely it is human nature to like a good bit of comfort. But what if you have too much comfort? I mean can it actually be bad for you? I realised today that whilst I love comfort and all the warming joy that it brings, I also fear it. My biggest nightmare is to be so settled I lose interest in leaving the house and slowly turn beige.

Anyway in more practical news I set up the tent on monday and it looked ace. Only took 10 minutes to set up too. That will surely be a bonus if it's raining. I also booked my travel insurance tonight. £15 for the backpacker gold package. Good times! Still loads more stuff to sort. Ohwell!

If anyone can recommend me a good book or two to take with me let me know?

Cheerios,

Rich

A Quest To Budapest

Good day to you and welcome to my blog.

If your reading this then your probably aware that I am due to embark on a sponsored hitch hike to Budapest all in the name of Charity and the Princes Trust http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/ . I wont go into the ins and outs too much but they do valuable work helping young people who have had set backs in life find work. A worthy cause indeed and good value for the possibility of damp socks and joining the missing persons bureau!

Anyways back to business. I intend to use this blog to document the trials and tribulations of my journey across europe. Whenever I can I will hit an internet cafe and update the blog. If I blog regularly it means I am doing well and likely in a city. If the blogs are sparse it is because my tent does not yet have WiFi.

If anyone has any questions or goodwill messages it will be nice to hear from you.

Rich