XI: The Hills are Alive...

...with the sounds of tourists.

With apologies to Rodgers & Hammerstein, and of course, Julie Andrews:

Dough, for beer, delicious beer!
Ray, the guy who drove the bus;
Meat, something I ate for lunch;
Fall, a season of the year.
So? What punks say in high school;
La, a tele-tubby name
T, says 'I pity the fool!'
and that brings us back to
Dough, dough, dough, dough, dough!

(that was a whole lot funnier when I hadn't slept in forty hours, hehe.)

---

Thanks for coming back, I know I haven't blogged much this month and the reason is simple: I didn't go anywhere until yesterday. I had a trip to Belgium planned but that night I had such a migraine that I decided that sleep was the better idea. (Oh man, was it better.)

If I haven't given you the rundown on how these trips work, let me take a second and describe the USO Bus Tour Process.

1. Payment is made in advance and you get a 7 euro discount if you pay 5 or more days early
2. Departure, at least for the trips I've taken, is between midnite and 2 am on Saturday morning.
3. Bus: uncomfortably seats, but you generally get two side-by-side per person so even though you can't stretch out, it's a lot better than it could be.
4. Drive to the destination and we usually stop a couple times, once for some breakfast. If you've ever taken a long road trip in the U.S., then you know that roadside dining is not the best food in the world; same is true in Germany.
5. Arriving at the destination means a tour. They are about an hour, maybe 90 minutes, often informative though.
6. After the tour, it's free time until the bus leaves. Every time I've gone the USO escort provided a map showing the general area, handed out an emergency contact number, and shown you where the bus pick-up location is. Then you're off on your own. This is generally the point where I go find some lunch!
7. Lunch is on you, some groups bring food (why???), but most go in search of something local. I'm a big fan of doners, which is the German equivalent of a burger joint. It's like gyro meat, but not necessarily lamb. Although I disagree with packing a lunch, I heartily endorse bringing your own beverages. (Unless you're a beer/wine drinker, that is.) A glass of soda at a restaurant was nearly 5 bucks yesterday. And, if you order water, it's mineral water and usually carbonated. Just letting you know, some people like it that way.
8. Free time is just that. You get to explore the local area and see what you want. Vienna, in particular, is full of museums, art galleries, shops, even a casino. Like many metropolitan areas, there's plenty to do. There's also plenty to avoid, but which is which is a matter of personal taste so I leave that to you to determine. I'm yet to have a problem using English, but since most of the places I go to cater to tourism, that's probably more of a function of the economy than the universality of the language.
9. Find the bus, come back. The returns range from midnite to 3am. So, if you've done the math, that's basically 24 hours for one trip. And, unless you're one of those rare few who can do it, sleeping on the bus is a terribly ineffective way to get rest. Couple that with having to work on Friday and taking more than half of Sunday to recover, and you can see why these trips are not exactly something I want to do every Saturday.

Here's some pics. I hope you like them.
I don't know if I'll be making any more of these excursions before I leave. I return to the States in less than three weeks, so there's only a couple opportunities left and I don't relish another long bus trip especially since I'm still recovering from the last one. However, the one trip that interests me is to Geneva; I'm going to have to really think about that one!

Tchuss!
David