Vienna to Sopron, Hungary to Gräz, Austria to Klagenfurt Austria
Met up with Attila at breakfast in the hotel.
Discovered Attila’s phone is out of data as he was sending us pictures without attaching to the hotel’s wifi. Hopefully he won’t have any problems on the way back to Budapest because he won’t be able to text.
Separated to pack up.
We dropped Attila off at the train station and then hit the road out of town. Got gas after leaving town, then drove to Sopron, Hungary.
Stopped in a parking lot and had a hell of a time trying to add time to our parking pass. Eventually figured it out.
Walled around the old wall before finding a way to enter the old courtyard.
Bought tickets to climb the fire tower and then asked for a restroom- they sent us to a nearby restaurant and told us to show our ticket to use the WC.
Climbed the tower, took selfies…
…then found a Hungarian cellar restaurant. Sylvia had Halászlé (fish soup) because she didn’t like the dish she ordered at the hotel in Vienna. It was great. I ordered the Aszaltszilvával és camemberttel töltött rántott csirkemell vegyes körettel, which really rolls off the tongue. It was a breaded chicken breast filled with plumb and Camembert cheese, served on a bed of rice and a side of fries, because there wasn’t enough starch.
Hit the road again, for two hour drive to Gräz, Austria. As we crossed the border, there were police checking random people, so we stopped filming our border crossing for fear that recording them might trigger them flagging us down.
Hit a standstill in the mountains with nowhere to go. Love how drivers here all pull over and create a center lane for emergency vehicles. If this happened in America, some entitled SOB would squeeze through and everyone else would follow.
Stuck there at least half an hour.
Arrived in Gräz and walked up the hill to the tower. Looked around the garden, found a restroom in a restaurant up top. We couldn’t find a view of the in-river seating “thing’, so we decided to leave.
Tried a different pathway down and ended up buying tickets to a slide that went ~575 feet and 209 feet down to the base of the hill. It was tight, dark, and FAST.
Now at street level, we walked over to the river thing and walked through. Not as impressive in person.
Hiked back up the hill to find the car. The car play has stopped working right away, which sucks, but eventually got connected.
Drove through SO MANY TUNNELS! Like, really long tunnels, all with standardized lighting (which blinks when warning of congestion), phone booths (equipped with fire extinguishers), and exit routes.
Also drove through a crazy storm with lightning and torrential downpour. Like driving here wasn’t stressful enough!
Arrived in Klagenfurt and checked in the hotel, which looks vaguely Cold War.
Really needed food and a drink, so we walked (in the rain and lightning) to a local beer house UNI.WIRT. Ordered a whiskey sour and a mojito, both among the worst drinks imaginable. Too sweet, wrong ingredients, no foam, etc… ordered burgers that took forever to come and were pretty great. Sylvia also ordered a small salad and that was much needed.
Walked back through the rain.
Shower and sleep came quickly.
(10,826 steps)