Innsbruck/München - 25th-26th July

On Wednesday I left early and, after saying my goodbyes to Mike and Lisi, got myself a train to Innsbruck, where I intended to spend my lovely summer afternoon. At least, I thought that was where my train would take me. In fact, it took me to some obscure Austrian village I'd never heard of, from which I had to take a replacement coach to a similarly anonymous (though quite possibly amazing) village, then another train. Eventually I arrived in Innsbruck with an hour to spare before my connection to München. This was obviously a little less time than planned, so I quickly headed off into the old town. Luckily Innsbruck is a small place, so it was actually perfectly feasible to see a good deal of it in the time I had. It's also a very picturesque place, and I had a great, if all too brief, time seeing sights such as the Goldene Dachl (a roof tiled with gold) and the amazing mountain scenery which frames the streets of the town. However, it was soon time to move on, so after a bite of pizza I hopped on my train to Munich.


Now, as it turned out, my friend Holly, who currently resides in Munich, had got her diary in a bit of a tangle and very nearly forgotten I was coming to visit, but nonetheless managed to meet me at her nearest U-Bahnhof after work, and we went for a bit of a beer and a catch-up. After said catch-up we then progressed across the city to eventually find ourselves at a dinner party held by some of her friends. The food was all very enjoyable (meat fondue!), though I was rather tired from my day of heavy travelling, and caught myself rather impolitely falling asleep during the video we watched afterwards. Oops!

The next day, holly had to work, and I took myself off into the city centre to be a tourist. A cheap tourist. The same company whose free tour i took with Jane and Dani in Berlin also off a Munich tour, so I hopped along for the ride. Munich's rather a pretty place, and we took in the Old town Hall, New Town Hall, Glockenspiel, Frauenkirche, Viktualienmarkt, Hofbräuhaus and some other bits and bobs. It's also full of history (though not as much as Berlin!), so it was all in all an interesting day. Later on in the afternoon I met up with Holly again, and she biked me (some of the way) to the Englischer Garten, which quite confusingly contain a Chinese pagoda and lots of German beer. After that, we had a quick freshen-up then went for pizza and drinks with some more of Holly's friends. Fun!

Graz, Austria (22nd-24th July)

My semester at Humboldt finally came to an end on Thursday 19th September. I spent a few days saying goodbyes to all the lovely people I'd met there, then on Sunday evening set off on my penultimate journey of the year. I'd acquired myself a ten-day Interrail card, and my first stop would be Graz to visit my friends Michael and Lisi. To this end, I booked myself a couchette on the night train to Vienna, a 12 hour express over the border to Austria. This in itself proved to be an interesting experience, as in our cabin were situated six bunks, all of which were booked. This resulted in me taking a top bunk, which I was quite surprised I managed to sleep in without falling off!

My connection from Wien eventually got me to Graz around lunchtime, where Mike and Lisi were waiting for me. They'd been having a bit of a busy time themselves, so after a bit of shopping we had a relaxed lunch before I dragged them into the city with me. Graz was the first "Germanic" city I visited 3 years ago, so it was interesting to see it again from a different perspective. It certainly seemed a lot smaller than the last time, but I still like it very much. The weather was very warm, so we didn't do anything too active, but had a stroll around the centre and up to the Schlossberg. We also ate ice-cream, which seems to be a legal requirement there.

Before too long, we'd seen pretty much everything, so we retired to the park. Here we met some of M&L's friends, drank wine and played cards, generally being lords of leisure for a few hours. As evening fell, we retired further to the flat, where we met more people and played poker for a while, until the effects of my long journey took their toll and I had to curl up for the night.

On Tuesday we had intended to go up into the mountains and swim in a lake, but as luck would have it, cloudy skies were abound and the forecast was for rain. So we did what any sensible Austrian would do instead - we went to a cave. The Lurgrotte is a cave system over 10 km long, and has some amazing rock formations. The tour lasted about an hour and was very interesting, though I was disappointed not to see any bats. My disappointment was soon washed away by the amazing platter laid on by Lisi for lunch - Kaesekrainer (cheese-filled sausage), potatoes and fried egg on a bed of seived spinach. Outlandish to those from Ausland, but nonetheless a delicious concoction. The rest of the day consisted of another walk in the town (which was rained off and into the local armoury) and a visit to the Gösser brewery/restaurant/pub affair. Here we dined on Weisswurst, Brezeln and Bieramisu (yes, it is what it sounds like), and drank a number of delicious local beers, my favourite of which was the Schneeweissen. A pleasant evening to round of the first of my last cities :)