The Book of Crispy

The journeyman 11:57AM

uk.weather.com has become a new friend. I can't tell what the weather is really doing until I get outside. I used it througout Vienna to tell me how cold it really was when it felt like minus eight.

That's right, I've now been to Austria. I have a map on the wall that I am putting dots on when I've visited places. And, it was minus eight many times during our trip. We only got snowed on once though, as the sky was a lovely clear blue most of the time.

We spent most of the time in Vienna, but also visited Salzburg to do the ""Sound of Music"" tour. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. In fact it was a journey through beautiful mountain scenery covered in snow. We walked on a frozen lake, which was scary at first. Salzburg is an old city retaining many of the very old buildings, including a fortress on a hill, and ancient walls still present in the city. Ate lots of Strudel and custard, including cheese strudel. Back in Vienna, we went to the famous Christmas markets and had some local puncsh (nasty stuff). We did ice skating on an outdoor rink (many times larger and better than Sommerset house in London. Had plenty of wurst, wiener schnitzel and sauerkraut. On Christmas eve we had a pre-booked show/dinner in an 800 year old monastry. Afterwards they took us for a tour of their in-house hat museum (?!) and the wine cellars, where we got to enjoy some REAL puncsh.

Some things Austria is famous for:

* Great composers Mozart, Hayden, Strauss and Beethoven

* Hitler grew up in Vienna (and we had cakes in the cafe he used to hang out in when he was trying to get into art school)

* The Sound of Music was filmed in Salzburg (and the original story came from there too)

* Red Bull came from and is headquartered near Salzburg

Now I have a few days off to enjoy one of my christmas presents. Joachim got me a copy of Fruity Loops so I can make some music. I've put together a pretty cool bass-line already.

Play play play!