Two and a Half Cities and Dubrovnik

Julia and I were talking about Austria being the closest country to Australia in terms of number of letters per word that we would experience during our trip. I proudly declared that I would start some banter with the Austrian locals and declare that, 'I'm only one letter away from being Austrian!' Julia quickly corrected me, two letters. Not as impressive and hence the gag was prematurely culled. Nevertheless, differences or similarities aside, we really hit the ground running in Vienna. Acutely aware of the near obnoxious amount of significant and historical buildings elegantly strewn across Vienna's verdant streets. The architecture, both contemporary and historical, blend with seamless ease and the final product is without question the most aesthetically appealing city I've ever visited.

When people hear, 'Vienna,' they most commonly think Mozart, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud to name a few. Luminaries among the avant-garde of the 19^th & 20^th centuries. However, arguably just as important in terms of sheer pervasion and universal appeal/adoption are Vienna's humble yet vaunted coffee houses. Vienna boasts one of the best coffee cultures in the world. A fact well known and supported by the aforementioned vanguard. A Viennese coffee is generally regarded as an espresso shot topped with whipped cream. A yin and yang combination both in term of taste and alleged health benefits.

Typical Viennese coffee.

Aside from being the greatest place in the world to consume the ambrosial drop, Vienna, justifiably, also claims to be the classical music capital of the world. With Wiener Staatsoper often considered the 'mecca' of opera theatres. We didn’t let the fact that neither of us had ever been to the opera hold us back and we purchased tickets to attend. If you will, akin to an L-plater buying a Ferrari. The tickets themselves constituted about 3 days of travel on our shoestring backpacker budget. So, we took the fiscally responsible measure of eating dinner at Subway to balance the books. A cheap and bland meal. Quite the contrast to our thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening experience at the opera. Making our way through the entrance of the Staatsoper, past men in tuxedos, women with botox injected lips and enough animal fur to put Melbourne zoo out of business, we felt slightly out of place as we left the elite behind and made our way to the top floor where we were ushered to our seats. The show itself, L'elisir d'amore, was a comedy and therefore an entertaining introduction to opera for two novices. Regardless, the show must have been one of the best the audience had ever witnessed as we took their cue, joining them in a standing ovation, clapping for nearly 10 minutes. Cursing under my breath at having not paid to inflict paresthesia on my poor hands, I was frankly stunned to see the cast return for a second and then third round of applause. On their fourth return, frankly I'd had enough and forcibly ushered my dearest Julia out of the door. 

Arriving in Kotor, Montenegro Julia and I were unsure what to think. Our decision for being in Montenegro centred around opting for the cheapest flight from eastern Europe to Turkey, which was from Montenegro's capital Podgorica. After reading up on Podgorica, described in lonely planet as a place '...elsewhere that your attention should lie,' we decided to visit their famous and picturesque town of Kotor. Admittedly completely naive we figured we should at the least familiarise ourselves with the local currency. Conveniently I’ve got a handy app on my iphone that lists almost all currencies in modern circulation. Seriously, have you ever heard of the Rufiyaa? Surely you’ve heard of the Tughrik? The Ngultrum? Hence our shock not to find Montenegro’s currency on the exhaustive list. Genuinely alarmed at the omission of this far away, young and former Yugoslavian country, we began to question our decision to save some money. Alas, the question of currency was finally answered as, rushing from the bus to find a toilet, I was stopped in my tracks by a sign that stated, 50 EURO cents, to use the toilet. What a relief. Literally. And metaphorically too.

We stumbled upon these fresh and locally produced goods!Needless to say we obliged when coaxed to try them.

I can earnestly tell you that Julia and I are not demanding travellers. However it's safe to say that there are a few things that even the most care-free traveller would expect. Amongst others things, standing up in your own bedroom would surely feature fairly close to the top of the list. The roof of our room in Montenegro was slanted to such an extent that it brought back childhood memories of watching Willy Wonka and the shrinking hallway.

We travelled via train from Vienna to Budapest, Hungary. During the train journey, I managed to consume a smattering of Austro-Hungarian history. Much was my surprise when I learnt that until the recent date of 1918, Austria and Hungary were in fact part of a once dominate empire consisting of other now independent European countries. With some new found Austro-Hungarian history under my belt, it was very intersting to witness some of the similarities between Budapest and Vienna. Budapest is a city of two suburbs, Buda and Pest, which are separated by the Danube river. Ostensibly and culturally quite similar to Vienna. Budapest also boasts coffee houses, a love of classical music & theatre and rich and hearty cuisine. Economically the differences could barely be more profound. The poorer sibling of Vienna, Budapest still has visible scars of a repressive communist regime that until 1989 stymied growth, freedom of speech and many basic rights. For us, it spelt an interesting contrast and frankly cheaper few days than Vienna. At least this what we had imagined until we encountered our first Hungarian ATM. At 223.8 Hungarian Forint to the Aussie dollar, even those with the most astute mathematical minds would struggle to quickly and accurately convert the currency. After a sedentary train journey, hunger pangs and a 20kg backpack weighing you down, converting 223.8 HUF to AUD became all too hard and I unknowingly left the atm with $500 or the equivalent of $1000 AUD when considering the GDP (ppp) of Australia and Hungary respectively. $1000 is quite a lot of money for a 2 day stopover. Anyway, after checking into our hostel, I advised the receptionist that I would only be able to pay for half of our stay. $20 for the time being as I only withdrew a small amount of money. As I grappled with my unusually plump wallet and opened it up, my incredulity must have been obvious as Julia asked what was wrong? I showed her the thick wad of notes in my wallet and explained to the receptionist that I would infact pay to whole amount. 

The infamous Hungarian goulash!

Oops I forgot to write about Dubrovnik, Croatia! Here is what I remember from our relaxing 5 days; Sun, Rain, Rain, Rain, Sun and subsequently island hopping, a smidgen of sea sickness, a snapped mooring rope and fresh delectable seafood. 

Due to 3 days of house arrest on account of incessant rain, we actually began to ration our food!

Fresh, fresh seafood!

The stunning view from our restaurant.

Island exploring.

HTFU! Rough seas indeed. I've never been sea sick but even I got a tad squirmish.