A tip for those of you going to Vienna. To budget for your trip, first take the price of food, drinks and board and then double it. After that, you calculate the exchnage rate. For instance, if a candy bar is $0.50 in the states, it will cost $1 BEFORE the exchange rate. One euro is worth $1.27... you do the math. This makes for a very expensive place to be. Hostels in every other country in Europe start at 10 euros while those in Vienna and Salzburg seem to start at 16 euros.
It has really cut into out Russia money but we figure we can live cheap in Germany for a bit to make up for it.
Money aside, Austria is a beautiful place filled with a lot of history. We went up the steepest cable cart to see the biggest ice cave in the world. We saw the summer palace and the opera house (yes, we saw an opera too). We also saw the biggest presevered castle in Europe. Not to mention running around the Alps for a bit and seeing the bones of plague victims stacked like firewood up to the ceiling (guess where we got your rock from Tina!)
We also had our first medical worry. One of the cuts on my leg got infected. We aren't sure what it was or how I got it. The cut got red and developed blister like lumps filled with clear liquid. I put some antibiotic cream on it and took some penisilin. It seems to be ok now but it looks like its going to scar.
Tonight we hop on a train for Germany. Hopefully we can stay at a military base there and save money.
Love to all
-K
The "polar bear" in the Mammoth Ice Cave and Kristin and myself at the entrance.
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