Austria to Athens to Cairo

aaaand its midnight. I got myself a birthday prezzie in Athens, the airport we have a 3 hour stop over in on our way from Vienna to Cairo- Ouzo! Its basically the same as black galliano sambucca, but its clear and I reckon it tastes better. Its somewhat of a Greek tradition, so pretty appropriate. I caught a travel show a little while back about a scooter tour of Athens, with one of the big highlights being driving up to cafes, getting your shot of Ouzo and driving off to the next cafe, regardless of the time of day. All the security guards at the x-ray desk loved it too- seems tourists don't know about the stuff so the bunch of them had a good laugh too when we told them it was our only souvenir from Greece.

The day so far- or hour of it that I have seen so far has been awesome. We are flying with the national Greek carrier, Olympic airlines and they are the first non-budget airlines we have been on this tour. This means we get service! Dinner came around- Beef stew with pasta, a salad, desert... "What drinks sir?" I asked for a wine and so did every other person after me once they found they could too haha. I also got the chance to sample some Gerek brews- I'm looking forward to coming back here in a few weeks! Leg room, food, drinks, comfy seats- its like its my birthday!

Vienna (Wien) was a blast for the past two days- we met so many great people it just topped it all off. I'm still wondering why I don't come across this many awesome new faces back home- Might have to start making the hippee club a regular haunt again! We caught the Schonnbrunn Palace with its gardens of 6m tall solid walls of trees, fountains the size of Olympic swimming pools and grounds bigger than a country town. Also in there was the natural history museum and the Museum quarter, some markets, a stroll through town past the endless fountains, castles and renaissance style mansions. The place was pretty fancy- marble all over the place like on retaining walls and in public parks. I know how long new pot plants in roundabouts last in Aus, so its no surprise we don't have stuff like this.

On the last night there (Friday) we also squeezed in a pub crawl and met up with the guys from California that we met over at the Eggenberg brewery in Cesky Krumlov. 12 EUR, free beers and wine the first hour, random shots getting poured down throats, free drinks and cocktails, and the crippling "nail game". Everything was progressing sweetly until the last place with the cheap cocktails after 2am... After a couple too many Long Island Ice teas and an empty wallet the freezing dawn stagger back home was not as fun as it could have been. Deciding to buy breakfast 10 odd train stations from the hostel and having the shopping bag split on the train at the station I had to jump off at was another unwelcome skill tester.

We are due into Cairo pretty soon- I can see the night lights of towns passing under the plane now as we descend. I keep looking out expecting a pyramid or 3 to be standing out but no luck yet. haha... I'm noticing the effects of that lack of sleep. I thought the city of 30 million was having rolling blackouts just then- it took a little too long to realise that it was actually just the clouds in the darkness blocking my view of the lights. Anyways... Hopefully we have a hotel and some place to sleep booked for tonight.