Preparing for the trip

It was going to be a pretty long trip and what is there really to prepare for a long trip? 

FOOD

I once bumped into a Malay woman joining a long queue at the cashier's counter of a local grocery. In her shopping cart were about 12 packs of Brahim's Kampong Fried Rice.

"Is it THAT nice?" I asked, pointing at the packages.

"No. They were for my Dad. We're going to Europe."

Food was a huge concern but that part of the world is big on sausages, hot dogs, ham, pastries and bread, all palatable to us so it wasn't an issue.

KETTLE

Someone brought up this matter about kettles. Apparently, hotels in Europe do not provide kettles or complementary beverages. (It is true.). Hence, if coffee and tea is part of your daily regime, you'd probably have to pack some. And certainly you would need a little kettle to boil the water for that cuppa.

DOGS It is not uncommon to see dogs being walked practically everywhere. They were on the streets, in subway complexes, trams, buses, trains, food joints (where they sat demurely under the table) and airports. Dog poop though is a rarity for they were promptly removed. It appears that dogs in Austria were trained NOT to be approached so "a hands off policy" is good counsel.

KEEPING TO YOUR RIGHT

The rule of the road in Austria and Budapest is right hand traffic. Drivers are seated on the left hand side of the vehicle. It gets pretty confusing to drive on these roads, because you have to remember to keep right instead of left, overtake from the left instead of right. Further more, pedestrians have the right of way, and tram lines on the road complicates the effort.

The same rule applied in escalators, stairs and walkways. Everyone stepped onto the right hand side of the elevator, leaving the left for people in a hurry. Some sections of the road are designated as Bike Lanes and pedestrians are prohibited from entering these lanes. Walkways are usually on the right of the bike lanes.

WEATHER (JUNE)

Sunny, it being the end of spring. Some days were blustery so it was a good thing I packed in a shawl as well as a jacket. The temperature fluctuated between 17 to 28 deg Celsius

DRESS CODE

Someone on Trip Advisor wrote "Austrians are cultured people. Visitors to Austria should avoid leggings and yoga pants." Not sure what to make of that, I figured I wouldn't go wrong with jeans and shoes, taking with me only one pair of khaki shorts (I should have brought more) and a pair of FIT-FLOP sandals.

Most tourists dressed as they please anyway, so shorts and slippers were the order of the day, well ... most days.

WATER

Austria's tap water flowed from aqueducts which carried spring water from the Alps and surrounding mountains. This meant that their tap water were drinkable and rated better than our typical mineral water. It is more common to find bottled mineral water spritzer on open shelves in retail outlet than to find bottled mineral water.

Drinking Fountains were placed in public places and tourist spots. Manual pumps are still standing tall along the walkways in the city center.

Drinking Fountain near Uhrturm Clock Tower

At Stephansplatz

At Ringstrasse

WASHROOMS Public lavatories were indicated as WC in maps and signage. While most are free to use, some are installed with ticket vending machines. It cost EUR0.50 to use these. TOILETRIES It wasn't true that shampoo and bath gel were not typically provided in hotels.

Ticket vending machine for public lavatory

CONTINGENCIES

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. (Murphy's Law)

I did not prepare well for this trip. Seasoned travelers were to tell me later that I should have brought more medical supplies for contingencies. Food poisoning and  other minor injuries can happen while you are abroad. I fell and bruised my knees from a sudden leg cramp on this trip and had to suffer the inconvenience of locating a pharmacy in order to acquire the antiseptic cream, plaster and other pharmaceutical product necessary to ease my troubles. Did I mention that I also caught the dastardly flu? It was a good thing though, that we packed in a raincoat. It rained in Budapest.