Four days in Austria

From October 10th to October 13th

8:00 am: it's time to put away our things, to eat a quick snack before taking the road again. We leave for the city of Graz in Austria.

The bus ride is long, but beautiful: we go along the Adriatic Sea in the east of Italy, we discover a fabulous mountainous landscape in Slovenia. It makes us want to jump off the bus to see more. But be patient, we will come back to Slovenia in a few days!

6h30 later, it is under the rain that we arrive in Graz. Just the time to get off the bus and to put on our rain pants before Victor realizes that he forgot his hat: too late, the bus has already left! Damn, this hat was coming from the Californian desert and Victor really wanted to make him go around the world! (We tried to call the bus company the next day to find it but apparently, the procedure can take up to 4 weeks. The continuation in the next episode...).

It is a little depressed that we arrive at the youth hostel in which we shall stay two nights. The premises are new and the people seem nice. And above all, it's much more quiet than our experience in Milan. Tonight we will have just enough time to have dinner and buy some cheese and ham for breakfast the next day.

We spend the next day visiting the city: between the university campus, the bell tower, the Eggenberg Palace, Graz is surprising and very artistic.

On October 12, we took the bus to Vienna. The monuments are majestic and imposing. After the visit of the palace (and its gardens) and of the belvedere on the first day, we went on the next day with the Sigmund Freud museum, the national library, many churches and cathedrals.

We liked Vienna a lot. At each corner, there is a building which is worth the detour. The Austrians also amused us a lot: they are very respectful of the rules. We never saw a single person without his FFP2 mask in the transport (obligatory in Austria) and everybody waits wisely the passage to the green man before crossing the street. It's a change of scenery from the Paris area!

The disadvantage is that at this season, scaffolding is a part of the monuments (and the pubs that go with it). Indeed, like many other cities, Vienna chooses the low season to do its renovations. Between the crowd or the scaffolding, make your choice!

Tschüss Austria, tomorrow we leave for Slovenia!