Where is Rune?

After a mediocre breakfast at the hostel, the reduced Gang of Three took an half hour €0.70 bus trip to Devin castle outside the city. Unfortunately, the castle was closed, so we just walked around it, outside the gates, instead. I also enjoyed a €1 beer at one of the many cheerful restaurants.

A bit disappointed that we could not enter the castle, we returned to town, and walked the streets of Bratislava downtown until we become very tired and returned to the hostel around 20:00. I had the pleasure to enjoy gelato ice cream once again.

Well arrived at the hostel, it didn’t took long until the tired Gang fell asleep.

Bratislava.

Local girls, Bratislava.

GPS track log.

Caecil left us at 10:15, took a taxi to the airport (where she was picked up by a friend), and thereafter went by car to Graz, to join a wedding ceremony she had previously been invited to. She would join us later in Budapest. So for a couple of days, the Gang of Four was reduced to the Gang of Three.

After parting with Caecil, the Gang started the day by walking from the hostel to Schloss Belvedere, thereafter generally walking the streets of Vienna downtown until we got very tired and returned to the hostel by subway around 18:00. Two of the highlights during the day were climbing the tower of St. Stephen’s Cathedral with great views of Vienna, and eating gelato ice cream.

We checked out from the hostel, grabbed our baggage, took a €7 taxi to the nearby Südbahnhof, and catched the first train to Bratislava, departing at 19:28 and cost €14 per person (yes, this is expensive, welcome to Europe).

One hour later we arrived at Bratislava downtown train station, and walked to Possonium hostel, where we checked in around 21:00. We had agreed on a room for 4 in advance (for €100 per night), but it was not available, or didn’t exist, so they provided a room for 3 instead for €62 per night. Which was perfect for us, since the Gang was reduced to 3. The room was a bit crampy, but pretty OK, and with its own bathroom. I am generally not picky about the rooms anyway. We went to sleep around 22:00.

Nearby street from our hostel, Vienna.

Astrid and Saras in front of Schloss Belvedere, Vienna.

GPS track log.

It is now two years ago since I moved to Balikpapan, and the time has finally come to move again.

So tomorrow, at 13:40, I will be flying to Jakarta. I have packed two paper cartons of my belongings which will be sent separately next Wednesday. The rest I will just bring on the plane.

The neighbour’s cat this morning at 06:52.

We arrived early in the morning (on-time) at Frankfurt airport from Jakarta/Singapore. In the passport control, Saras (did she look suspicious?) was asked where she was going and what she was doing here, and had to show her Paris hotel booking (which was cancelled beforehand and only used as a means to obtain the Schengen visa) and credit card.

We then catched the next LH flight to Paris CDG, and a €63 taxi to Orly airport (a taxi for 4 was cheaper than the bus).

We had a couple of hours to kill before flying with Sky Europe to Vienna, Austria. We had booked the cheap €24 flight in advance.

Taxi (€34) from Vienna airport to Meininger hostel, a bit outside the city centre. We arrived at the hostel at 17:30, 36 hours after leaving the Balikpapan residence 11:30 the day before.

Quite impressive room for a hostel, nice, clean, spacious, with TV and bathroom. Looks more like a hotel to me. €21 per person.

We were quite tired after 36 hours of travelling, and after eating at a nearby restaurant (Wienerwald), we called it a night.

Waiting at Orly airport, Paris. Astrid, Caecil, and Saras.

Tour Europe 2009 officially began with the taxi trip to Sepinggan Airport, Balikpapan, before catching a Rp 500k Mandala flight to Jakarta, where we took a shuttle bus from the new terminal 3 to the old terminal 2.

We had around 4 hours to kill in terminal 2 until Luftwaffe was scheduled to bring us to Frankfurt, Germany. And extremely fortunate for us, all members of the Gang were upgraded to C class for some unknown reason (perhaps overbooked plane), although we had only paid $935 for the ticket (Jakarta-Paris return).

Actually, at first everybody except me were upgraded, but the 3 others pointed out to Luftwaffe that I indeed also belonged to the Gang of Four, so Luftwaffe was kind enough to upgrade me as well… big thanks to Luftwaffe for their help in kick-starting Tour Europe 2009 in such a way!

The plane seemed to be quite full, but despite this, the flight went very well for us…