On 2nd September I said “thanks” and “farewell” to Mirek, as he left to go to work . Later Marta gave me a ride to the bus station.

From there I travelled in a rather crowded bus to České Budějovice where I bought a rail ticket to Vienna. There was some confusion when paying the ticket clerk, and after working it out later, it seemed that I’d paid less for the ticket that I was supposed to…

I changed almost all my remaining Czechoslovak money into Austrian Schillings leaving just a couple of coins.

My ticket had me following the same route out of Eastern Europe that I followed on the previous occasion in 1986 – directly south to the Austrian border. On that previous trip, which lasted 2 months, I crisscrossed Europe by trail in 2 huge figures of 8, and it so happened that the crossing points of both figures of 8 was the town of Linz in Austria, so 3 times I had to go through a town to which I had absolutely no interest in going. Needless to say, my round-the-world trip route had an obligatory stop in Linz too…

At the border there was passport control, but the barbed wire that used to mark the iron curtain had been removed. I duly reached Linz, and after declining the opportunity to be ripped off by the money exchange office on the station platform, I caught an intercity train to Vienna, where a friend Sue from the UK was living. I’d managed to ring her from Mirek’s house and she had said I could stay for a couple of nights.

I took a while to figure out the metro system in Vienna, and it seemed very expensive – unsurprisingly given that I hadn’t really experienced First World prices since leaving Singapore. I reached Sue’s apartment and we went out for a pizza – even that seemed extremely expensive.

Next morning, 3rd September, given my rapidly diminishing funds, I decided that priority number one was to figure out the cheapest way back to the UK. There was no direct bus, and it seemed the only practical option was train. I headed into the city centre after Sue went off to work. This required using the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn and was still confusing. I decided to go for a wander round the Ringstrasse – the historical perimeter round the inner city.

It was certainly spectacular, with wide boulevards and plenty of space between the many historic buildings.

I went into the Royal Palace and saw some of the staterooms.

Later I went past St. Stephen’s Cathedral and went in for a brief look. There was a remarkably accurate Lego model of the cathedral on display.

In the early evening I headed back to Sue’s apartment, and met her as she was about to leave – she’d been invited to a dinner party with British Embassy staff who she had worked with. She’d managed to get approval to bring an “itinerant” with her should I return in time, so I changed quickly and off we went round to the friends’ apartment.

It was an interesting evening – it was clear that working at an embassy – at least a European one – doesn’t necessarily make people more worldly wise than if they had never set foot abroad. I certainly detected some naivety… and hoped that it wasn’t the fact that I am now excessively worldly wise, and will therefore experience the same naivety back in the UK with everyone I meet!