Vienna and Grunau

Our first day in Vienna was hot. It is not fun waking up, already covered in sweat. The open window held no relief, just the occasional warm breeze. You could try and have a cold shower, and it was great while you were under the water, but as soon as you step out you were covered in sweat again. I think that the first day was 38 degrees. It is really hard to feel motivated to do anything in heat like that. However, we got ourselves up and headed into the centre of Vienna. We had planned on doing a walking tour, but when we arrived at the start point there seemed to be no tour guide waiting. We waited there for a while, but no one showed up so we decided to wander around on our own. We went into St Stephan's church, which was amazing. I think it was one of the most impressive churches we have seen! Amazing gothic architecture.

We wandered around the city for a little while in search of lunch, and came across a hotdog stand. We ordered hotdogs with traditional sausage, and they were the biggest hot dogs I've ever eaten! They cut open the top of a really long bun, hollow it out and then put the sausage in there. It was pretty good for how cheap it was! 

Once we were done with lunch we decided to walk to an amusement park that we had been told about, that has the oldest ferris wheel in the world!

 It was a VERY long walk in extreme heat. Once we got there we were both totally exhausted. However we managed to meander through the park looking at all the rides. We allowed ourselves to go on one ride, because we were in an amusement park and we had to! It was a haunted house type ride. You sit in this cart thing that takes you through the house. We entered through the spooky doors and were greeted with complete darkness. So dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Throughout the ride scary things that light up pop out and jump out at you. It was terrifying and super fun at the same time! I really enjoyed it. 

By this time we were completely knackered. We had booked a bike tour for the whole of the next day, so we decided to take it easy for the rest of the evening. As the evening progressed I started to feel really bad. My throat ached and my whole body was in a huge amount of pain. All I could do the whole night was roll around in bed and cry whilst Harrison tried his best to comfort me. It was really horrible. However I did eventually fall asleep. 

The next day I woke up determined to go on the bike tour that we had booked. We got up bright and early and started to get ready. But I just couldn't do it. I had managed to get dressed, but everything still ached. We went down to breakfast to see if that would help, but I couldn't get anything down. My head was spinning and I really just felt like crap. So after a lot of convincing, Harrison got me back into bed, and we had to cancel the tour. I was really upset about it, as I had actually really been looking forward to it. 

The rest of the morning was spent drifting in and out of sleep. It was another incredibly hot day, 35 degrees, and I had a terrible fever which really didn't help as I was sweating out any liquids I managed to get down. Luckily we had some cold and flu tablets left over from the last time we were sick, so I took some of those and went to sleep. When I woke up again I was feeling much better. I managed to get out of bed and get into the shower. I even managed to keep some corn cake things (like rice cakes but with corn) down! Since it was a Sunday, all the grocery stores were closed. We were supposed to go on the tour, during which we would have gotten lunch so we hadn't bought anything to eat the previous day. So we had the trek into the city centre to look for something that was open. We found a small cafe and had lunch and a cold drink. However by the time we were done, the cold and flu tablets were wearing off and I was not doing well again, so we went back to the hostel, and I went back to sleep. 

I was rudely awoken by the need to puke. So up came all that I had managed to eat that day. Great! This was about 3pm. By 7:30 I had puked 3 more times. I would take a few sips of water, and try to sleep again. But would once again have to run to the bathroom to puke up the water. I could keep nothing down. By this time we both decided that I needed to go to the hospital. All of the doctors offices were closed since it was a Sunday, so we had to go straight to the hospital. I was in no state to catch the train there, so we had to call a cab. It was possibly the longest cab ride of my life. This guy was really stepping on it, knowing that I was sick. But because of this, it made the ride very bumpy, which in turn made me very ill. I did everything I could not to puke in that cab. When we reached the hospital, we went to pay. Our card did not work in his card machine. Could the day get any better, really? We were really lucky that the cab driver was kind enough to walk with Harrison to an ATM in the hospital. We got out the cab, and thank goodness we had brought a plastic bag, because I puked again in the car park. The cab driver allowed Harrison to take me into the emergency and hand me over to the doctors before going to find an ATM.

We were also very lucky that all of the doctors and nurses we dealt with spoke English. Once Harrison returned, we had to wait to be seen. It was not a long wait, we were really impressed. First things first was a blood test, and then I was put straight onto a drip and pumped with liquid and pain killers as my body had started cramping pretty badly. We had to wait two hours for the blood tests to be analysed, which again was not bad. During that time Harrison began speaking to one of the security guards that was working in the hospital. He apparently loved Australians, especially the Australian cricket team. He was such a kind man. He let me use his phone to contact my parents, helped Harrison find something to drink and checked up on me every time he saw that a doctor had spoken to us. He spoke to Harrison a lot throughout the night (whilst I slept and lay down), about his life and asking what life was like back in Australia. 

This hospital was very efficient, and as soon as they got the blood results back they came over to talk to us. Apparently my blood showed that there was a very high level of inflammation somewhere in my body. Unfortunately it didn't pin point where the inflammation was exactly, so they needed to run tests as they were unwilling to send me home with such a high reading. I had to get a chest X-Ray to check for pneumonia, pee in a cup to test for a bladder infection and see the ear, nose and throat specialist. After all of these tests were done we were told that the inflammation was most likely coming from the beginning of a throat infection (like laryngitis just the ones on top not the bottom? That's how she described it). So I was put on another drip. More liquids, and a course of antibiotics. So not only was I incredibly dehydrated, but I also had the beginnings of a throat and possibly chest infection. All because some girl in our dorm had given me her cold! 

Once the antibiotics had finished being pumped into my arm, we were finally free to go. With the request that we come back the next day to have my blood checked to see if the antibiotics had helped the inflammation. We were supposed to be leaving Vienna that day to head to Grunau, but we unfortunately had to push that back. By this time it was 2am, and both of us were just completely exhausted. The security guard that we had spoken to called a cab for us and waited with us until it got there, making sure the cab driver understood English. Before we got in the cab he gave Harrison a massive hug and wished us all the best. It was so nice. We finally made it home at 2:40am. Harrison had to speak to reception to let them know we would be extending our stay, and after that we went to bed. 

When I woke up the next day, I was feeling a lot better than the previous day. I was by no means better, but I didn't feel like I was going to die. I even managed to eat some breakfast, which was really the first thing I had eaten and managed to keep down in over 24 hours. We made our way back to the hospital, on the train this time. I had some blood taken, and had to wait 2 hours for the results. So we ventured into the hospital to look for something to eat and drink. We found a store that was selling fresh squeezed orange juice, which was just what I needed and was absolutely delicious! After the 2 hours were up we made our way back to the ER and were seen by the doctor. The inflammation had gone down! It was still very high, but it had gone down from the previous night which was good. They were prepared to let me go with a prescription for some hardcore antibiotics. We left the hospital in search of a pharmacy. It took a little while to find one, but once we did we had no issues getting everything we needed. This day out had completely worn me out, so we went back to the hostel and I went to bed. 

The next day was Harrison's birthday! I was still not feeling fantastic, so we had a lazy morning. For lunch we decided to go find the Nachtmarkt, which is a big good market in the centre of Vienna. It has the usual temporary food stalls, but also has a lot of restaurants sprinkled throughout it. After a bit of wandering around we came across a Japanese restaurant, and Harrison decided that was what he wanted to eat.

We got a feast! We started with spring rolls and dumplings, and then both got sushi for mains. Harrison got the biggest box of sushi I have ever seen! There were all sorts of different types of sushi.

It just looked beautiful! It was a really great lunch and a nice day out. Once we were finished we went back to the hostel to lounge around there. We were both stuffed from lunch, so for dinner we just had ham and cheese on corn cakes. 

The day had finally come for us to travel to Grunau! We were both so excited, as we had been told so much about it and seen so many beautiful pictures. And it did not disappoint! Grunau is a small village in the Austrian Alps, and the place we stayed was 7km away from the village in the forest.

When we arrived, we were greeted to a delicious home cooked lasagne! It was amazing to have warm, home cooked food! Once we had eaten lunch and got checked in a group of us decided to hike to a waterfall that was fairly nearby. The walk was an hour and a half, through beautiful forest and along the clearest river I have ever seen. It was an amazing walk. When we arrived at the waterfall I think we were all slightly blown away. It was so beautiful! It ran down a lush green mountain into multiple layers of pools of crystal clear water.

We climbed to the base of the waterfall, and braved the freezing water. It was the coldest water I have ever experienced! But it was worth it! It was also really great getting to go on the hike with a group, and meet a whole lot of new people. By the time we reached the waterfall everyone was chatting and encouraging each other and helping each other climb over things and whatnot. When we couldn't take the cold any longer we made the trek back to the hostel. We had an hour before dinner, so Harrison and I had a quick nap. The owner of this hostel is a lovely old Austrian man, who has done a chefs course. So you can only imagine how great the food was. Unfortunately, due to my horrific cold I didn't actually get to taste it, but from the reactions it got I can tell it was amazing. Every night we got a three course meal of salad, a main and a dessert. Another great thing about this hostel was that everyone had dinner at the same time, and we all sat together so we got to meet even more people. We met an American girl and an Aussie guy that we really got a long with, so the four of us spent most of the night hanging out. We later joined in with some other people and everyone had a few drinks and sat around talking and joking around.

The next morning we booked in to go horse riding! I was super excited, because as you may know I love horse riding! However, the whole experience was a bit disappointing. Usually the guides will ride along in front of you, but this one attached a rope to my horse and led me along. I felt like I was a kid on a pony at an amusement park. Not only that, but we basically stuck to the road and residential areas, and didn't actually get to see much of the forest and mountains as we were hoping. It was still a fun experience, but all in all a bit disappointing.

 I was really struggling that afternoon, so we had to stay at the hostel most of the day which I felt really bad about. 

Today we unfortunately had to leave our little slice of paradise. We are on our way to Munich at the moment (although by the time this is posted we will already be there). We are looking forward to seeing what Munich has to offer. Our hostel is going to be interesting, it is called The Tent, and is just that. It is a tent with 100 bunks in it, that everyone sleeps in. There is a fire pit and games room and bar at the camp ground. I think it will be pretty fun! I am still not feeling the best, but I am getting there. I am so grateful that it was not worse, and that I had Harrison to look after me. I don't know what I would have done without him.