Do they have sheep in Australia?

After the hectic sightseeing in Vienna, we all enjoyed having a lazy day back in Bratislava on Monday. We went out for an early lunch at a local restaurant which specialised in all sorts of different pancakes. Everyone then split up to do shopping and have a wander. Rob and I planned to go out to dinner before we would all meet Jason and Kylie, the friends we made in Bulgaria who also happened to be in Bratislava for cocktails. But first we all watched some episodes of Jonathan Creek and managed to get Lucy hooked!

We joined up with the others at a Jazz Cafe and had a hilarious evening. Poor Jason and Kylie were subjected to a grilling from Keira about the state of the nation of Australia, with such classics as 'Do they have sheep in Australia?' However, they and we seemed to enjoy it and most of the rest of the evening was spent giggling with cocktails.

The following day, we decided to go to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Hapsburgs in Vienna, designed by Fischer von Erlach to matchVersailles. Poor Lucy had a cold and so couldn't join us. The Place itself is just awesome, absolutely beautiful and opulent. We looked round 44 of the rooms and learnt a little of the history of the Hapsburgs, absolutely gorgeous. We then headed back to the centre of Vienna and the beer garden we had been to at the weekend. A lovely afternoon was had, sitting out in the sunshine, drinking home brewed beer and eating hearty Austrian fare, including the goulash my grandma used to make.

We headed back to Brastislava reasonably early to have a quick bite to eat before the opera Eugene Onegin. Thankfully Lucy was feeling up to going. It was a very bizarre production with apparently lots of symbolism, although I didn't get why they were all wearing socks . Much hilarity ensued during the supposedly tragic death scene as Onegin wasn't quite up to the job in terms of acting ability, it looked like he was having a fit. There were also some very interesting things going on in the strings section...We all had a great time seeing it, although I was glad that Lucy's first professional opera was the Donizetti. We all headed home for a Slovakian sweet wine tasting before heading to bed for the early start to see Nikita off.

Again, I'm not sure what Milan thought when he arrived at 7 the following morning to be greated by one clothed Nikita and the rest of us still in our pyjamas looking half asleep. Very sad to say goodbye to Nikita, but the others weren't leaving til 12 so we had an opportunity to head out for breakfast and some souvenir shopping. Lucy and I weren't leaving until 3, so after another very sad goodbye to everyone, we had a last check of the flat and had a cup of tea before walking the 1km to the station in absolutely blistering heat.

The train journey to Krakow was a bit of an epic... I'd gone to get the tickets that morning and been informed that we only needed to do one change at Breclav in the Czech Republic. Hoping off the train, we headed to the right platform, only to discover that it looked like we would have to do another change at Katowice. In the end, it all became slightly clearer; the last carriage on the train split with the rest and did head to Krakow, so all we could do was hope that we were on the right half. Thankfully at quarter to 10 we arrived in Krakow and headed to the hostel, which is in a lovely location right on the main square. There were still some food stalls at the Easter market open, so we had some lovely polish sausage for tea and finally crashed ready to explore Krakow more tomorrow.