Last Post!

Day 36
We arrived in Singapore sometime in the afternoon, though it felt like morning. We had one night booked in at our hotel so we went there and made up for all the sleep we didn’t get on the plane.

Day 37
After waking up to the hot and sticky weather of Singapore we decided to have a wander around the Singapore zoo, as we had free tickets. After catching the MRT and a bus there we finally arrived and started to wander. There weren’t a lot of animals that we wanted to see, so we just wandered around and I took photographs. Before leaving the zoo we went and had a look at one particular animal, the polar bear. Mum and I were both curious as to what kind of enclosure they would have the polar bear in, as the weather in Singapore was very hot and humid, weather quite the opposite of the Arctic. The polar bear was kept in a outdoor enclosure with cold water for it to swim in, but they had a air conditioned room for it to lounge in.

After the zoo we went back to our hotel and headed to the airport. We had about 2 hours to waste before our flight left so we did some shopping, mum bought a beautiful pearl necklace, and I bought some shoes! After the shopping we boarded our flight, which unfortunately had lots of babies on it, so neither of us got any sleep.

Day 38
Back in Australia today! After arriving at Sydney airport we collected our baggage and went through customs. As we had bought some cheap saffron in Hungary we were worried if we could get that through, luckily after explaining that it was commercially packed in a glass jar, we were allowed through, and they didn’t even check through our suitcases. Mum had arranged to hire a car so that we wouldn’t have to wait around the airport for hours waiting for a flight, or bus back to Canberra. As we were both tired, though especially for mums sake, we called in at our cousins house in Sydney and had a sleep and a shower, it felt wonderful! I slept the entire way back to Canberra and when we arrived home I was excited to see my dog, Benji, who had clearly not forgotten me as he ran out and gave me his version of a hug, which nearly made me fall over.

Last few days!

Day 33
Another rest day today, we went to church in the morning and then rested during the afternoon. As we’re getting towards the end of our trip, mum and I are pretty tired.

Day 34
Our last full day in Vienna, we’re all going back to reality soon. Today we just decided to do the last few things that we really needed to. We got up and took the kids to school then headed off to Metro which is a big store that sells different products to business owners or people with special permission (such as a diplomats wife). They had some brilliant stuff there, my favourite being a 5kg jar of Nutella. Next we went into the city and just looked around, before going to the Hotel Sachre for some of the famous Sachre Torte. After wandering the shops for a little while longer we went and had a traditional Austrian lunch of savoury pancakes. After we picked the kids up we headed to the Prater; a big park filled with rides and little amusement stalls. Me and Mia went on two roller coasters and then on the dodgem cars 5 times! On the way home we told Charlie that it was our last day with them, his bottom lip stuck out and started trembling and then he asked ‘Mummy, why do they have to leave?’

Day 35
A sad day today, we’re leaving to go back home, in the morning we decided to do a little more shopping and just spend time with Bindi. As per my request, we went to the Lindt shop again and we tried some Christmas chocolate. It’s chocolate, with a hazelnut filling that has a hint of cinnamon and coriander to make it taste ‘Christmassy’, it was surprisingly good! While we were looking for a bag to take all of our chocolate back in, we had a look at the backpacks, thinking that they might be cheaper, it was shocking to see that the cheap ones were around 80 euro each! We decided to have a quick look for formal shoes, not expecting to find any as most shops were just selling winter shoes, and we found a beautiful pair of lacy gold shoes that were made in Milan (apparently the ‘Shoe Capital’). After our shopping we went to the airport and flew to Frankfurt, where we would then continue on to Singapore.

Zotter Factory!

Friday
Today we wandered Vienna. First we went to see the Lipizzaner horses train, it wasn’t particularly exciting, but it was worth seeing. It was just the horses walking around nicely to music, but the building they were in was beautiful, all made of marble with three big crystal chandeliers! After the horses we went to the House of Music which is the music museum. The first part was dedicated to the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra and just had some information about them and objects belonging to the conductors and famous members. The rest of the museum was about sound and music with displays explaining how sounds go from the air to your brain. The museum was very good, and finished with an interactive display where you got to ‘conduct’ the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Saturday

Today was one of the greatest days of my life! The day started out with us driving to Reigesburg, an hour’s south of Vienna, to the Zotter chocolate factory, but before that we went to a castle. The castle was situated on top of a hill, which had rocky cliff faces on its side. We took a funicular up to the castle and made our way inside. As with most medieval castles there was a moat, but this one was filled with about 40 rabbits! We were trying to convince Mia, who is 6, that these were rabbits like the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that could kill you, and that the rabbits were used to defend the castle! Sadly she did not believe us. The castle was very interesting, the first part had information about witches and how they punished people they believed to be witches. My favourite room in the castle was the ballroom which had a lovely marble floor, a grand staircase, high decorated white ceilings and a beautiful glass chandelier!

After the castle we headed to the Zotter chocolate factory. We were meeting people from my uncle, Simons work. My uncle is a diplomat so they were all people involved with the Australian Embassy in Vienna, and also the Ambassador himself, who didn’t really look like what you would expect an ambassador to look like. The tour was very interesting and we had Julia Zotter, the daughter of the founder of the factory, as our tour guide. Normally there aren’t tour guides there, but because we were Australian, she wanted to show us around, as Austria is often confused for as Australia. We got to sample so much chocolate during the tour and there were some interesting flavours such as cumin, Indian masala and fish! The chocolate factory was a definite success!

Day 29
I was pretty tired today after just getting back from our trip so I spent the morning in bed then just had a quiet day at home.

Day 30
Another new country today! Simon took Mum and me out to Budapest in Hungary for the day. It was a two and a half hour drive, so we got up pretty early and headed out. The first thing we did was go to the market there, It was very similar to the Victoria Markets in Melbourne, but a bit bigger. The bottom floor was full of food, with stores selling fruit and veges, and others selling meat. Almost all of them were selling paprikas (chilies) of all different types, such as cherry paprika! The top floor sold less edible items like lace tablecloths, hats and your typical touristy trinkets. The hats were all beautiful, they were made of leather and had real fur trims on them!

After the markets we headed to Buda castle. Just for a little background, Budapest used to be two cities, Buda and Pest, which were separated by a river, the Danube. Buda castle was the castle on the side of the river that used to be Buda. The castle was beautiful with lots of ornate stone carvings and an amazing church. Near the church were two men with an eagle and a hawk, I got to hold the hawk which was quite heavy. After the castle we drove to a park that had lots of communist statues in it, but first we quickly called in at parliament, which was decorated with beautiful stone carvings that looked like lace. The communist park was just a small area where all the communist statues were moved to after the fall of the Soviet Union. There were some interesting statues; my two favourites were one that looked like a communist version of John Howard, and one that was of Lenin’s feet!

I'm not quite sure where the photos of Budapest are, so I will have to upload them later!