Back Blogging

So I just rediscovered this blog after what seems like 2 years of neglect. Worry not readers, the blog was not the only thing that has been neglected over the past 2 years...

Anyway, in discussions with Rai and our upcoming trip (New Orleans, if anyone cares) we talked about finishing the current trip, plus "back blogging" (or BB for short) our past trips. We've taken a few so it will take a bit of brain wracking to try to remember all the details and nuances that made the trips so great.

Some of the trips we hope to discuss in the BB process are (in no particular order):

• Jamaica
• Paris
• Washington DC
• New York City (halloween 2009)
• Contiki (Spain, France, Italy)
• London/Edinburgh
• hawaii
• Costa Rica

Hopefully you'll be interested enough or still care enough to meander through our travels.

I'll be honest, it's more of an archive for us, so we freaking remember where we went and what we did. Of course we have photos and memories, but to write all of this down is pretty fun as well. Reading back on the entries, there were so many things we did that I had forgotten, but after reading, I was transported right back to the trip and time. It's pretty great when you think about it.

Anyway, until we meet again.

--Lu (and Rachel :) )

I don't like Vienna Sausages, but I do like Vienna the City!

We spent the morning in Salzburg but we didn't have too long as we were taking the train to Vienna. I never realized how many trains we'd actually be taking. I think the next time I would definitely rent a car (with GPS of course) to tour the Austrian countryside. I think it would probably be much more managable. Plus I could totally go check out the Swarovski place...but I digress.

For our morning in Salzburg we went to the Mozartplatz and had breakfast at Demel. It was a really cute place. I noticed that most of the places we went to in Salzburg were pretty fancy looking. The previous night we were at Carpe Diem and that place was fancy, and then this morning at Demel. We are really classing it up this trip. Anyway, after breakfast we did some quick souvie shopping...there was a group of Euro teens buying beanies at the shop and they kept saying "gangsta, is this gangsta" in European accents. AWESOME.

We boarded the train for Vienna--It was a 4 hour train ride. Luckily there were no stops and so we were just cruising along at a clip pace. It rained almost the entire time on our voyage. When we got in to Vienna we had to split into 2 cabs. The cab driver that Rachel and I had was hilarious. He was super stoked that he was driving some Americans around (that's a rarity in this day and age) and he gave us a bunch of fun facts about the neighborhoods and the city as he drove us to "the Abbey" aka Haus Zamorsky Wien. My favorite part of the ride is when someone jumped out in front of him out of no where and he just started yelling and cussing them out in German. It was sweet.

After getting settled in to the house, we went out for some groceries, flipped on the TV where I discovered VIVA (another music channel that also shows MTV shows...I think it's the equivelent of VH1) and also discovered this magic.

Watch the video link for my German Hip Hop friend Jimi Blue. Prepare to be blown away with pure unabashed awesome.

With that I end this day in Vienna.

The Hills ARE alive with the Sound of Music

Oh Salzburg....the day I had been waiting for. The place I had associated all my Austrian references with.

After our day at Oktoberfest, we came back to Kitzbuhel and prepared our bags for a long leg of our trip, we decided to return to Kitzbuhel from Prague, so we could spend more time with Belli and her family before returning home. This also meant we could leave behind some of our things before heading off! I ended up leaving quite a few things at the house including my dirndl--that thing is bulky man!

We headed off on the train to Salzburg--Dad dropped us off at the train station. Can I just mention how much I love the Zamorsky parentals?? They are so cute. Such a lovely family. I can't say enough pleasant things about them. Seriously. Love. these. people!!

We got to Salzburg in the early afternoon and stowed our bags in a locker. We got outside it was pretty overcast. We walked to the city center where we would meet our tour group. On the way there was this cute restaurant that Tracy had eaten at previously so we went there for some food. I had the Viennese style fried chicken. It was SO good. It came with the traditional potato salad...which I liked--strange because I hate potato salad here. No gracias. They don't use mayo so I think that's where the happiness lies. The restaurant was so cute and the food was delicious. A perfect way to start our next Austrian adventure.

After our meal, we went over to the kiosk to pick up our tickets. They had a sound of music painted bus. Yes!!! I was so excited, they also had this cow statue that had all these images of the Sound of Music movie. It was cool. Of course I had to take pictures of it and with it. However, while I was trying to be all Ansel Adams, this woman on a bicycle nearly took me and herself out. I think she saw me, tried to veer out of the way, overcorrected and then almost wiped out. I got a little shaken and Tracy and Rachel were on the sidelines like what the hell just happened??

We started our tour, and it was totally packed. I guess I didn't expect there to be that many people who would want to do the tour. The tour took us to a bunch of different locations from the movie. Very cool. Also cool, it was indoors and it started raining while we were on our tour, so it was nice to be inside the bus. The tour took us out to the lakes to this little town to see the church where the Von Trapps got married. It was a nice tour, we also saw the headquarters for Red Bull on our way to the lakes. It was a really cool looking campus. Very pretty.

After the tour we went into the gardens to take all our photos to imitate the movie. Good times. I just wish it wasn't raining so I could be all Julie Andrews without my coat or a care in the world.

We spent the rest of the evening walking around looking for this brewery...it was closed. Boo. but then we ended up hanging out at this little lounge then went to a subpar italian restaurant and had some pizza.

We met up with Belli's brother Rupi afterwards and he transported us to his home and put us up for the evening. I think the whole family is saintly...he had just gotten back from a business trip, plus had a business dinner and then hosted 5 girls at his apartment (4 of whom he'd just met). So above and beyond hospitable.

On our way to Rupi's house I saw a Cafe Rangie. I was so excited since that's the nickname I had given Angie's unborn child. Spooky side note--he was born the day I saw the cafe. Very twilight zone.

Anyways, back to our evening, Rupi's place was nice as well. He had this really cool photo wall with all these photos he had taken. We were going to attempt to watch TV but we couldn't figure out how to turn it on. Haha! Foiled!

Oh well, tomorrow would be a new day and we would be heading to Vienna.

Have Jetlag Will Post

Hello Faithful Readers (from your not so faithful writer),

As i sit here at 7 in the morning after already being awake for a couple of hours, I realize I should probably get cracking on the rest of my vacation posts.



I need to do a few things still...Like upload my photos, and do my laundry, but that will all come in due time.



Now to get back to the earlier posts I had written while I was train bound without computer...

Oktoberfest Lite

Hello Friends, I am just off the train to Prague and I decided to use my time wisely by writing out my posts.

Here goes...

Upon booking our trip to Europe, I had many visions of what Oktoberfest would hold. Part of my visions came to fruition, but there were others that didn't. I was really excited that we were going to be in a tent...Thanks Fritzi! However, Fritzi put us in a high class wine tent. Which was still awesome, but different from the Oktoberfest in my head. They didn't serve the beer in the big mugs, just in a large pilsner glass. However, the food was tasty, the beer was really good, and they had this random cover band called the Hot Frogs to play some jams. They played California Dreamin'...so random and cool at the same time.

Since we went to the Wiesn on a Wedsnesday afternoon, the crowd was pretty sparse. I was expecting it to be blowing up, but as we were departing the grounds the crowds were starting to come. I guess people go after work or after school?

Anyway, we went to the fest in our Dirndls and had a fun tour of the place. We toured the different tents, and I saw the Oktoberfest in my mind--the crowded tents with the large liter mugs of beer. Good times. I definitely will return, but I need to do a little less high class next time and be one with the people of Germany!

However, for my first Oktoberfest, I had a lovely(albeit tame) time. Unfortunately for you guys, there's no drunk Lu in Germany stories to relay to friends and loved ones. Guess I will just save all those types of stories for Vegas!

Auf Weideresehen!

Posting has been spotty!

Hello Friends,
Sorry posting has been so spotty. We've been on the go for the past few days and I haven't been able to type any posts in. I have some photos to post as well as a bunch of stories, but the internet cafe does not allow for me to get all elaborate on the postings. And we all know what happened the last time I didn't get to log out of the computer...

Right now we're in Vienna and it is really pretty, it hasn't rained most of the day so that has been good.

The past two days were in salzburg which was AMAZING! And of course before that we were at Oktoberfest...which was surprisingly underwhelming. I had imagined mass chaos but it was pretty subdued.

Don't worry, I will fill all this in with details later, but for now that's all I have.

I will try to post again from Prague, but I am currently writing notes to myself so that I can have a more detailed account of all our activities.

Until then...Auf Weideresehen!

Pretty Woman Austria Style

Today we had more adventures in the Austrian countryside. We rode a gondola up the mountain to almost the top of the Kitzbuheler Horn. The weather was not as clear as yesterday but it was still pleasant. There was a slight chill. We had lunch up at the Alpenhaus restaurant and I had some soup with these dumplings Knudel(?) and then this mixed salad with some pickled carrots, radishes and potato salad. It was alright but kinda random.

After returning home we were going to go into town to do a little shopping. The town is really cute. Very picturesque. It has all these different little boutiques and cafes. I heard that it gets really crowded during the winter season.

We had a very Pretty Woman moment today during our shopping. Fritzi called a friend of his to "dress" us for Oktoberfest. We were just planning on going to the Goodwill version of Austria to go buy a second hand outfit. However, with his call, the people in this totally authentic high end shop to just give us outfits. Seriously...these things were like 500 € each which works out roughly to about 750 bucks US....dude....each of us got one. and there were 5 of us. Holy bejesus!!

But the people were super nice, took us upstairs and individually fitted each of us in the traditional Austrian dirndl, apron and blouse. HELLO. I am a St. Pauli Girl come to life. It was SO cool!!!! Mine is light blue with a white blouse and a red apron. It actually kinda looks like Belle from Beauty and the Beast. fantastic really.

Tomorrow we head off to Oktoberfest. We're in the wine tent...don't worry, I will be drinkingbeer!! Wish me luck! I'll be back with stories!!