As a traveler I think the most important phrase is “Thank you.” That was what I learned to say before each country we traveled to. Even if you can't speak the local language and talk in English or gestures, it is nice to be able to thank someone in their native language. Second most important for me is “I'm sorry” or “excuse me”. That is very useful when on crowded buses or trains and you have to push by someone to get off. Third is probably “where is the bathroom?” or simply “toilet?” which gets the message across.
Anyway, here is how to say “Thank you”, in every country we visited, at least how it sounded to me. Please don't get too offended if I mangled your native language, I was trying 🙂 :
Taiwan (mandarin), China: Shi-shi
Korea: Gamsameeda
Egypt (Arabic): Shockram
Zurich – Switzerland, Vienna – Austria (German): Danke
Geneva – Switzerland (French), France: Merci
Spain: Gracias
Italy, Vatican City: Gratzie
Hungary: Kusonome
Czech Republic: Dekuji
Poland: Dziekuji (very similar to Czech)
Norway: Takk (pronounced like talk)
Denmark: Tack (like tact)
Iceland: this is the one I didn't learn. Supposedly it is similar to Danish (tack) but they add several syllables to differentiate from Denmark. Just saying “tack” is frowned upon, so I went with “Thank you” which everyone understood.
As I mentioned in the previous post, after we got back from the Tuscany tour we went directly to the train station to catch the night train to Vienna. We had reserved tickets the previous day, but unfortunately the sleeper berths were sold out so we got couchettes. Fortunately we were in a 4 person cabin, so it was only bunk beds, not triple level bunks like the 6 person cabins, but the bad news is we both had upper bunks. It was hot and uncomfortable and even though we were both tired from the long day we couldn't have a good sleep.
The train ended up being over an hour late, but it was still pretty early when we got to our hotel in Vienna. Happily they had the room ready even though it was more than 3 hours ahead of check in time. We went to the room and collapsed.
Night trains are good because you don't need to book a hotel or other accommodations for that night, and you don't waste a day traveling. However for that reason the comfortable berths sell out early. With our last minute planning style it doesn't work very well. If you get an uncomfortable berth then you essentially blow a day anyway because you don't feel like doing anything the next day. That's what happened to us. We mostly just rested in the hotel room all day, although we did go out for some Wiener schnitzel.
Belvedere palace
The next day we still got up late and finally went out to see some of Vienna. Yanmei has been here before, but she doesn't remember much other than the opera house.
We got tickets for a hop on hop off bus. These are double decker buses that drive around to various points of interest and you can get off, stay as long as you want, the get back on when the next bus comes by. It also included a short walking tour of the city center.
The Pestsäule. The plague column.Hofburg Palace
One of the interesting things the guide mentioned was that although most of the buildings appear old, many of them are only about 150 years old, including the state opera house. They were built with the style of previous periods to given the feeling of age.
State Opera House
We visited a flower and fruit market. Didn't see any flowers but there were a lot of fruits and vegetables and spices. It made Yanmei wish we had access to a kitchen.
We were considering going to an opera in the evening, but since we didn't plan ahead they were sold out already. Our other option was to stand in line for the standing room only tickets that go on sale each day at 6pm. We both felt tired so we decided to skip that.
Coming out of a pay toilet. This one played opera music to help you enjoy your visit.
I feel like Vienna is a city we should visit again. We barely scratched the surface, and it is located close to a lot of other interesting cities, such as Bratislava, Budapest and Prague.
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