Happy Birthday to me!

Well 08/08/08 = my b-day and the olympics starting... how are we doing by the way? I only managed to see a bit of the opening ceremonies while I was drinking at a little sidewalk cafe.

Anyways, to pick up from where I left off...

So Thursday morning Deanna and I took advantage of the 3 euro breakfast offered by the place around the corner from out hostel to hostel guests. It was the best hostel breakfast so far.... one ham and cheese bun, one with orange marmalade jam and a cappucino and orange juice. Perfect.

Then, on Jeff's recommendation we made our way to the Kunst house. We hopped from the subway to the tram with ease and then walked the 2 blocks, so easy. The kunst house is a crazy place designed with uneven floors and trees going out the top and sides of the building and just an insane motif overall. It was designed by a famous architect here in Vienna and he has done many buildings here in Wien (Vienna). Our ticket was a puzzle piece, definetly saved that! We toured his works of art and later when we went to the Albertina museum I bought a postcard of my favourite work called "The way to you". Check out their website!

http://www.kunsthauswien.com/

We sat in the outdoor cafe there and had a cappucino after that to just take it all in. So cool!

After this we took the U-bahn back to the city centre and went for lunch at this crazy cafeteria.
There was a little sign outside and I just suggested we go check it out. We walk down the stairs and it was this huge place that seats 560 people and it was comeplete chaos and super stressful. Deanna and I shared pasta and salad and then got the heck out of there.

We shot over to the Albertina and saw a Picasso and Monet exhibition as well as the state appartments (WOW) and then to the Sacher Hotel for the world famous Sacher Torte (Early b-day cake?). It was pretty good but I've had better cake.

http://www.sacher.com

After sacher torte we wandered around shopping a bit and saw some crazy blue-lipped druggies in one store. I was not getting on the escalator with that guy!

We were super heat-exhausted so we went back to the hostel to chill and get ready for a pub crawl. On the way to the pub crawl we stopped at Mc D's for a quick bite so we would not be drinking on an empty stomach. The pub crawl started at 9pm with power hour = free beer or wine for the hour and vodka/redbull shots. I had one beer and 1 wine and 1 shot while talking to fellow Canadians and a few Australians.

At 10 we went to a second bar that was super smokey and gross and I just had one drink there where I talked to this French guy Cedric. At the next bar, the beach bar along the Danube he was done for the evening.

Speaking of done for the evening.... at midnight Deanna came to wish me a happy b-day and tripped and scraped her arm really badly and bruised her knee so we got her all cleaned up (after kindly being asked to get her literally bloody arm off the bar) :) After this Deanna went off with her new friend Chris and I went to the last bar called the excess bar... started talking to an Australian guy named Sam and after attempting to walk home and wandering into an area where we got asked for cocaine 5 times we called a taxi!!!

The next morning (My b-day) we slept in till about 1030 and then got up to have brunch at an italian place downtown. I had super sub-par pizza,... I was so sad. Then we got a cappucino at McD's and settled in infront of Stephensplatz to wait for Jeff to arrive. He was about a half-hour late but oh well. We went to a cafe where we drank some beer and watched the opening ceremonies of the olympics and then went for supper again at the Chinese buffet. We all totally gorged and felt so gross. It started to rain and get cold so I went back to the hostel to change and then I went for a b-day sundae and called it a night. Sounds like a lame b-day but it really wasn't.... it was nice and relaxed with good food and good friends.

Besides, we had to be up early today to go on a bike winery tour in the Austrian wine valley.
We met at 9am and took the train out there for about 1.5 hours. When we got there we tasted 4 different white wines and the hopped on our bikes. We came to another town and tried chocolate, jam, chutney, schnapps and liquors. Awesome! While biking to the next stop it poured rain on us but ponchos were provided and it was actually fun, I laughed the whole time!

We came to another more family oriented winery and had lunch.... oh my god. We got a pork chop, a bratwurst and a bacon wrapped hot dog plus bread, salad and veggies and WINE. Oddly enough I wasn't full (silly Chinese buffet stretching my stomach). The sun came out again and it shaped up to be pretty amazing. After lunch we played beach volley-ball and took a swim in the Danube. Our last stop was back to the chocolate town to climb up to the ruins of an old castle in which King Richard the lionheart was imprisoned. I almost died but the view was incredible! We biked back to the original winery and walked to the train where our group leader gave us more wine to drink on the train. Best 49 euros I've spent this whole trip I bet! I can't wait till I can put up the pictures!

We leave tomorrow at 630 am on a train to Venice, arriving at 330pm so it is supper then packing then sleep!

Before I go I would just like to thanks everyone again for all their birthday greetings, I am so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends I love you all! I will be home soon to celebrate with you!