Germany To Austria Via Impromptu Liechtenstein Stop (Friedrichshafen, Bregenz, Vaduz)

5/3/2005 Saturday

Woke up to a picturesque window view of snow falling. Apparently there was a storm in France and it is going to snow here for at least two days. Made the trek to the train station and booked a ticket to St Anton via Bregenz. I will probably stop off in Bregenz to check the place out and perhaps see if I can scope out the situation with accommodation. I have a feeling that if I lob up in St Anton I could be sleeping with the snow bunnies... the real ones.

I'm actually starting to miss the underground of London... but only in the sense that they make lots of nice maps so you can figure out where you are going. In Germany, I don't think I have seen a rail line map and everything is in German, which is fair enough, but makes it figure out how to get anywhere. I'm at the ticket masters mercy. Oh, and having station names with the same first part and then taking something on the end makes it most confusing to figure out when you're meant to alight the train.

---

Haha, *sigh* got caught out by that stupid stations with the same names but extra bits tacked on and had to walk a station, just after I had written about it the day before. I think I need to go back home and sleep for about a week and perhaps start this holiday again with a clean slate.

To top it off, I had read in my Lonely Planet book about fake cops a few days ago. So I walk to the next station and two dudes walk up to me and flash badges and ask me for my passport. I told them I wanted to go to the police station and then one guy started getting a bit agro, but then said we could go to the station. I started walking in a direction and then he demanded that I show him the passport now. Anyway, I gave up and pulled it out and showed him. He rang someone, spoke some german, looked at it a lot and then gave it back. The other guy said it was because I was near the border. I don't know if they were real, but at least they didn't run off with my passport.

Liechtenstein raped me! Unfortunately I don't have Nirvana's "Rape Me" on my notebook, so "Where did you sleep last night" is going to have to suffice. I believe I am paying $200 Australian to stay in some old hotel. On the up side, there is some free food, a manky looking apple and a chocolate. At least I hope they are free, and not part of the minibar!

Very scenic place. There was a really cool church that looked really cool all lit up and with the snow falling around it. I took some awesome pictures, but they didn't turn out quite as nice as I hoped. Night shots with bright lights in them is a killer. I think I should of read my camera manual before I left.

Bah, stupid TV. I can't understand anything and when I can, someone starts talking german over the top of them. I can't find any way to get english subtitles either. They have such good F1 coverage here too. They call it Formel 1 though. At least I don't have to listen to those losers on Channel 10, Bill Woods and Neil Crompton.

Big Brother was on TV before... I'm thinking of entering for that... it's the cheapest accommodation I can think of. Actually, in London there was this drug trial pamphlet that seemed to offer free accommodation... and drugs I guess.

Oh, I stopped in Bregenz, Austria on the way... it was pretty boring. I walked around a lot, thought, "there is nothing here I want to see... sod it, let's rock up at St Anton at night time and see what happens". That is how boring Bregenz appeared! After seeing Liechtenstein was close to one of my station stops, I decided that might be a wiser choice to try find somewhere to sleep, plus I could rack up another place on my "Where I've been" list.