Day Fourteen (and Fifteen really): A Marathon Finish
July 9, 2008
It’s crazy to think this is the last European extravaganza post. It’s also crazy to think it’s taken me two days since returning to write it! But what can I say – we got back Sunday afternoon and not only did I have work Monday morning, I also have been feeling a bit yucky (still!!)
But no excuses, no excuses! It’s time to let you know how it all ended. And, you’ll be happy to know, we took loads of videos.
So we woke up (late) with a fairly simple plan: shop. Leslie had lots of stuff she wanted to buy and, since we failed to ever put away any real time for shopping in the past, she was entitled to some.
And so we shopped. We walked and walked from one side of Prague to the other in search of things she could get. Now, most of the getting was in the name of others (as in, she was buying presents for her roommates and Anthony primarily) but I did help talk her into spending a little bit of time getting something special for herself. And boy did she heed the advice! The Czech Republic is known for its garnet (among other things… obviously) so it seemed fitting for her to get a garnet necklace. So, after some price checking and chit-chatting, Leslie became the proud owner of a very pretty necklace at a very very good price (especially give how friggin insane Prague pricing is). Doesn’t she look so pretty?!
Other than that I’d say there were two other highlights of our day:
First, we stopped by an art nouveau looking store (since I wanted magnets!) and Leslie realized that there’s actually a Mucha/Art Nouveau museum in Prague! This got me all excited so we detoured from shopping in the name of one last art museum experience. Yay! I was wondering why so much Mucha was being sold in Prague considering the fact that I’d only seen one thing by the guy (and that one thing was one of the stained glass windows in St.Vitus’ Cathedral that I mentioned in my last post). So highlight one: Mucha museum
Second, Leslie wanted to revisit some marionette shops and in our attempt to return to the awesome one from yesterday, we stumbled upon another (perhaps even more?!) insanely awesome and magical one! This new one was pricier but had some of the neatest looking little marionettes I’ve ever seen. Let’s just say, if I had a LOT more money, I would have spent a LOT of money in there. Leslie and I must have roamed the place for an hour… just in awe of how wonderful their creations were. So highlight two: more marionette magic
Other than those two “big goods” it was also nice to:
stop by the synagogue again to look around without the bigger tour group
see some more live music as we were racing from shop to shop!
Eventually, after the dust settled on the zillions of bags of stuff Leslie got, we had to high-tail it to the airport! We determined that the best way to get there was by shuttle from a nearby hotel. And oh goodness! I felt like royalty – I mean a shuttle taking me directly from where I am to where I want to go?! Hellllooo bourgeois living!
Once at the airport Leslie and I made it through all the lines without delay. But one weird thing: they don’t do a security check at the start. Instead, they have a security check at each gate. So you can imagine getting through LAX where they first check your ID and plane ticket – so now you have access to all the food on the inside… but you still haven’t had your bags screened. Basically you wait to do that until the last possible second.
So, since we had time to burn and we didn’t feel like going through security super early and then sitting in a waiting area with nothing to do, we decided to find a way to spend the rest of Leslie’s Prague money. So, we got ridiculously expensive airport food and beer (mixed with Sprite) and hung out. The main food was pickled brie… it was pretty dang tasty!
Eventually we got on our plane and made our way to Dublin (not before taking a video, of course!) If I remember correctly, we successfully slept (and no doubt drooled) for the majority of the three hour flight.
Once in Dublin… well… I’ll let the videos explain all that.
And then! we got on a plane in Dublin about twelve hours later and headed to San Francisco. I have to say, getting home took a lot longer (in terms of perceived time) than getting there. On the way there Leslie and I chatted a lot but while on the way home we were both so tired (yet couldn’t properly sleep) and so crammed next to strangers that talking didn’t happen as much. But at least this time I got food with sodium in it!
Once back Anthony ended up picking us up! Originally I was just going to take the BART home and let Anthony and Leslie have their lovey-dovey moments but Anthony insisted and there’s no way I was going to deny a ride directly to my place. So, in return, I took a zillion pictures of them together and captured them both on the Flip!
Once home I went straight to bed and laid there… not quite asleep but definitely lacking the energy to do anything else. A little while later I looked over this very blog a bit and I have to say, it’s pretty jam-packed with awesome-ness!
Except while reviewing it I wasn’t happy as much as spaced out and a bit melancholic. Our trip was so immensely wonderful – unlike anything I’ve ever done before. It’s weird coming back. Perhaps because I’m returning not to my apartment in LA but to my new place in San Francisco, where I don’t feel as grounded. Hard to say. Either way, after spending some time with friends, seeing people at work, and spending a night with my sister, I lay here now… typing when I should be sleeping… knowing that the trip is over but itching to get out there and explore some more! Whose with me?!
So this is not the end of my extravaganza-ness, nor is it a fermata. Instead, I view this trip as a short powerful lucid movement in an ongoing piece. Now, upon my return, I’ve transitioned into another one- one that includes a new house in a new city with the building of new relationships and places of value. And this should be pretty exciting, too!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this adventure! It’s been so great hearing from some of you. I know Leslie and I both really treasure each and every comment! We love you guys! In fact, our final video is a big tribute to our biggest fans!
And, for the last time, to see all the pictures from the end, click here.
Lots and lots of love, Heather
Day Thirteen: More Fairytale, Less Puke
July 7, 2008
After one of those wake-up-every-few-hours-and-ask-yourself “am I going to puke now” nights, I’m happy to report that I awoke feeling substantially better. Not totally restored mind you, but I wasn’t running down any alleyways looking for a trash can if you know what I mean.
This of course is good because we had a lot of events lined up for our full day in Prague. When we first arrived we were told about a tour company that did a full day 6ish hour-long walk-boat-tram Prague tour. And, while a bit pricey, it included lunch and drinks. And, since Leslie and I were growing a bit weary of getting massively lost every.single.day we thought, why not! Tis our last full day, why not be spoon fed a little gosh darnit!
So the vast majority of today was consumed by this nice long tour. Of course, I thought there’d be a lot more walking in the walking tour but, alas, there was not. We went all over but we walked very very slowly – with lots of breaks for talking and whatnot along the way. But, looking back, I think this was better for me – I was still feeling pretty ill and while in my head I wanted to run around like we always do, my body was not so much in agreement.
So what did we see? Well let me tell you! First we started with a nice history lesson on Communism in Czech and in Prague in particular. Since all of this happened not so long ago (the Velvet Revolution ended in 1989), our guide actually witnessed some of the landmark events. Isn’t that neat?!
After our lesson we walked over and…
- walked through the Jewish ghetto and saw the oldest in-use synagogue in the world
- Took a boat up and down the Vltava river, going under the lovely Charles bridge (the tour was lovely and Leslie was in high spirits but I, well I still felt the way I look in the picture to the right)
- 
Ate lunch at a yummy place where I had some most delicious sauerkraut (Leslie had yummy goulash) and made friends with two guys from Norway!
- Walked over the Charles bridge and took public transportation (successfully) up to Prague castle
- Were told some more interesting stories about Prague castle and the stained glass windows. (Did you know that each window was sponsored by either an individual or company and so, in return, there’s basically an ad on each window – like for instance, in one of the more subtle examples, a pretzel making company sponsored a window so one of the guys looking up at the religious scene has a friggin pretzel in his hand!!!)
- got a most gorgeous view over the city (at which point Leslie and I thought it high time for a video!)
After the tour concluded at Prague Castle and Leslie and I had taken our video, we proceeded to walk back to our hostel. Sadly, some combination of Leslie and I lost the map during lunch and so… unsurprisingly… we got lost. I must give Leslie some massive credit, though – while it’s true we were lost, Leslie was very very close to getting us back to the hostel. And, since I was totally out of it the last time we walked to the hostel (reminder: I was puking), I was of absolutely no help.
Once we found our way we quickly got a new map and figured out where to go to pick up our tickets for the Black Light Theater! Yay!!! This was the one show we booked ahead of time. I was super duper interested in trying out this Black Light business and, since I was quasi-responsible for Eastern Europe, I decided to get us some tickets (since I had no idea if these things sold out or not). Oh and the show I got us tickets for is called “Aspects of Alice”. You can see their website here.
I’m happy to report we made it to the ticketing office literally one minute before they closed. I don’t know why the gods like to play with us so, but as long as in the end they let us survive, I guess I’m ok with it…
After we got our tickets we decided to eat dinner. This is exciting news because it means that I was actually hungry. And, after a day of not wanting to even look at food, I took hunger as a sign of recovery.
And oh what a recovery we had! We stumbled upon a pub-like place called Pilsner Urquell that seemed to have good prices (and let me tell you, do NOT listen to what all these crazy people tell you – Prague was, without question, the most expensive place for food! Even more expensive than Italy!!!) So, it looked to have reasonable prices… but of course, we couldn’t actually read the menu (and there was no English translation) so we were going on a bit of faith.
While we were looking at the menu (and I think I must have been trying to decipher some of the words aloud) a couple came up and was sort of looking at the menu, too. The wife ended up saying “Ah English! Are you from the US” – at which point we started all talking for a moment. Now, it would have ended there but she was wearing the most vibrant colorful (me-want-able) knitted shawl thing, so I had to tell her how pretty I thought it was. She slightly beamed and let me know that she actually made it (no doubt the cause of said beaming). Then, the conversation continued and we all ended up going inside and eating together.
I think one of the best parts about traveling has little to do with where you are in the world and much more to do with the state of mind you’re in. In California it’s not like I’ll see someone in line at a restaurant, strike up a conversation and then eat dinner with them. And, similarly, it’s not like I super-duper-ly value every passing conversation I have with strangers. But, when you’re traveling, you feel so happy, receptive, and free – you’re in a place where you can truly and sincerely appreciate all these different people and the transient exchanges are viewed more as precious gems and less like forgettable blips. Having dinner with some random couple becomes one of the highlights of your day. Meeting someone similarly interested in AI and then having a chat about consciousness with them while wanting to throw-up takes on an almost magical serendipitous quality (well, save for the wanting to puke part). I just think that that’s so great – it makes every day so much better, so much more juicy and technicolored, when you allow yourself to get so much satisfaction and meaning from these sorts of things.
But back to the story! So we had a lovely meal with the couple from Iowa and they told us all about their journey thus far. They had just arrived in Prague a few hours prior to our meeting, they were staying at the InterContinental, which, I’ve gathered, is a super fancy-shmanshy hotel, and they had just driven here from Germany. They rented a car, stopped by random villages, had lots of delicious wine, and were generally living the good life. I think I mentioned this in my Florence entry but I’ll say it again – I think Europe via backpacking is seriously different from Europe with lots of money. Both are great… but they are great in very very different ways 
I’m looking forward to one day trying it the other way, too. hehe
After we said our goodbyes (oh and by the way, the meal was FANTASTIC! I had chicken, the most delicious sauerkraut ever in the history of my life, and dumplings (two types)) and Leslie had fried cheese) Leslie and I had time to burn before Black Light time. So, since Leslie was interested in buying some small piece of art, we decided to walk the Charles bridge to see if any of the street vendors struck her fancy. However! While crossing we bumped into two guys from our touring group and they told us that they had just left the marionette shop on the other side of the bridge and that it was “unreal” . Now, the tour guide told me about this magical shop but I figured it would be closed by this hour so I was planning on going tomorrow. But! I looked at Leslie with glittery-splendor in my eyes and she knew… we had to go straight away! We hurried ourselves across the bridge and found the place…
It was soooooooooooo awesome. So so so so so awesome! Like our last post mentioned, Prague really is like magic fairytale land – and this marionette shop fit right in. The woman running the shop is what I think really made it. In her heavily accented but fairly understandable English she told us lots of stories behind each of the marionettes. She explained that she in fact had made a fair number of the marionettes in the store and that each one was special to her. I think she’s also pretty big into astrology and hippie things generally because at one point she and I were talking about mermaids (which, if case you don’t know, I totally adore) and I think she made mention of their spiritual significance. In the end I couldn’t help myself, I splurged and bought a marionette vodyanoy, which is, in Czech lore, the waterman or spirit. She explained the story to me and that he is the father of the mermaid. I knew it was meant to be. She even wrote down for me the name of an opera, named Rusalka, based on both the vodyanoy and (more primarily) his daughter, the mermaid. How perfect is that?
After she and I had finished chatting, Leslie asked her for advice on which of these two marionettes to buy. In response the woman did a sort of personality read on Leslie. She said something like “When you first enter a new area you are quiet and observant. You don’t talk much and you come off as serious and cold. But, once you feel comfortable, you come to life and are warm and playful. Leslie and I laughed about this in part because it’s a bit true. We look back on these videos and get a kick out of the fact that Leslie looks like the serious one when in fact, that’s really not true at all! It took a bit of time, though, before I realized how absolutely hilarious Leslie really is. But it took marionette woman but a few minutes!
After Leslie and I had finished up I asked the woman which of the marionettes in the shop she felt most special. She explained that it was the mermaid she had most recently created. It reminded her of her childhood, when she was free to be a princess. To have unadulterated fun. So I asked her to stand by her favorite marionette so I could take her picture. It just so happened that her mermaid was next to a traditional Czech devil marionette and so, she was standing between good and evil, looking towards the good.
At this point it was high time for Leslie and I to go to the theater. We got there and were pleased to discover that we had, seriously, the best seats in the house! I really tried to secretly video tape some of the performance but I messed up and flipped nothingness instead. But, if you go to the performances website, they have video there. Sorry about that!
All in all I’ll just say that I totally loved the performance. It was weird and funky and magical and fantastic. I think I liked it more than Leslie (not that she didn’t like it, but I think it was a bit too weird and out-there for her) but that’s ok! It had a bit of (unexpected) female upper nudity and we all know how Leslie feels about nudity! (If you don’t, shame on you! Go watch the videos from Vienna!)
After that we walked around for a long time before calling it a night.
All in all quite a magical day.
And to see all the pictures, click here.
Day Twelve: Welcome to Fairytale Land (Prague)… and puke
July 4, 2008
Today we said goodbye to Vienna and hello to Prague! And! to a new experience… namely (and in line with all of this talk about magical experiences), the experience of throwing up all over a beautiful town!
But let’s start from the beginning…
Leslie and I woke up in Vienna determined to do a few more things before heading out to catch our 1:30 train. The main thing we wanted to do was tour the Opera House because we heard it was so gorgeous and it’s such a big part of the culture here. But, we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to make the times work out. However, luck was (for about 5 seconds) on our side. We showed up and got in to the 11AM tour. Soon I’ll go through the pictures and add explanations, but right now I’m still feeling sick… so give me a break!
Suffice to say, one day I will definitely return to Vienna and watch an Opera there. Ideally I’ll go back when I have significantly more money so I can dress up for the occasion in a beautiful dress… and play princess for a night!
As for the tour itself, it was very informative and fun. Plus, our tour guide was super friendly.
After all that we hopped on a train to Prague. We got lucky (in one sense) because we got a super nice train for the ride. The bad news was that this train cost significantly more than all the other ones. But, it was the only option we had, so we sucked it up and paid.
While closing in our Prague Leslie saw lighting out her window! And, sure enough, it was pouring rain in Prague (yay!!!!). Leslie and all the others seemed upset, but this confused me. Am I the only one in the world who recognizes that being in the heat is like being in hell? With humidity saved for the deepest ring?!
Once we arrived I was feeling, officially, like crap. My stomach felt a bit weird and my head hurt and I was tired and it was no good. But, I’m a trooper! So we made our way to the hostel and then decided to walk around a bit. As luck would have it, there was a marionette show playing at the time. And not just any marionette show, but Don Giovanni – originally created by Mozart for presentation in Vienna! How perfect! So we got tickets and watched the puppets (which were awesome). Part of what’s so neat about marionettes is that they incorporate playfulness and child-like imagination into theater.
Sadly… I was not feeling so good. After the intermission I told Leslie, “Leslie, if I just get up and run out, then remember that I’ll come back for you. I will have just needed to throw up and then I’ll be better.” Luckily (I guess) I made it to the end of the performance and about 20 feet down the street before I started puking in a trash can (classy, huh?)
After that I was feeling loads better and Leslie really wanted dinner. So we ended up sitting down right across from the Astronomical Clock Wizard’s tower for some food. By the time we made it there the next cycle of puking hell had arisen in me. I ended up ordering a cup of chicken soup and had, oh, 2 spoonfuls. Again, I tried to be a trooper. But by the end, the smell of Leslie’s food was too much to bear. I threw money at Leslie, told her to pay, and then made it about 20 feet down before projectile-puking all over the main square area. I was so embarrassed.
After that disaster, Leslie found me and we headed back to the hostel (after getting lost about 15 times, which, when not sick is slightly a pain… when sick, it’s just plain-out no good). When we finally arrived and laid down, the guy in the bunk bed down from me started talking a bit. Turns out he’s into AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Robots! He’s a PhD dude up in Canada. It was so funny – Leslie left me in the room for five minutes and I was totally quiet (well, not quiet… I was sort of moaning really) she comes back, I’m sitting there debating this guy on questions of consciousness. Granted, I wasn’t on my A-game and had to leave early for fear of puking again, but seriously, that was pretty neat. It’s always nice when you and some random person have some small thing in common. You’d be surprised how long a conversation can go on, on so very little!
After that I totally laid dying on my bed with a trash can next to me… hoping I’d be miraculously healed by morning.
We’ll have to wait and see…
But in the meantime, you can see the pictures from today here
Day Eleven: Artsy Goodness in Vienna (Wien I mean!)
July 4, 2008
Artsy Goodness Day! We awoke this morning in our crazy hostel (it’s basically one gigantic room separated into a few “rooms” by a curtain with as many bunk beads as can physically be squashed together, squashed together. We’re talking there are bunkbeds with less than a foot of space between them!) and ran down to the grocery store to pick up some cheap food before heading out for a long intense day of goodness.
So the (extremely ambitious) plan in the morning: Go to the Leopold Museum, then try and tour the Opera, then go to the Belvedere (the second art museum), and then figure out some sort of music thing to attend in the evening.
And I know what you’re thinking: “But Heather, I thought you favored tapping into the city’s zeitgeist via relaxing strolls along its cobblestone alleys? Not trying to kill both you and Leslie with a meth-fueled marathon!”
And it’s true- that’s usually my preference. Except! When there’s art involved. And not just any art, but really good more modern art. As much as I think Renaissance and Classical stuff is interesting (I mean come on, just read my stuff on David!!), for me starting at a trillion triptychs and pictures of Mary having rays of light and a little dove beamed into her from heaven (symbolism for the Immaculate Conception) gets a bit old after a while. But in Vienna we’re talking about seriously awesome, seriously unique, colorful, weird, grotesque, funky, gorgeous, romantic, art starting primarily in the 19th century. So in the Leopold Museum we were going to get our fill of this guy named Egon Schiele and a bit from Klimt and lots of German Expressionism (like some solid pieces from Kokoschka).
And at the Belvedere they had the super uber famous “Kiss” paining by Klimt and supposedly (as Leslie was told by the security guard at the Leopold when she was sitting waiting for me to finish up) lots and lots of other you-just-can’t-miss stuff.
So with all that! Leslie and I checked out the Leopold, got audio tours (I’m telling you: It’s the way to go!!! You will never get as much out of art if you don’t get the context), and finished up there in a smidgen over two hours. Then we ran on down to the Opera house but were disappointed to discover that we’d just missed the last English tour of the day. Boooo!!! But! We did run into a guy from the Palais Auersperg who was selling tickets to that night’s performance: which was a combination of big name pieces (think “Magic Flute”) with a few opera singers and ballet. So Leslie and I decided to pick up tickets for that and then make our way down to art museum number two.
The Belvedere, just from an architectural and landscaping point of view, is gorgeous. It has some awesome gardens and sculptures. Speaking of awesome sculptures… can you figure out what movie I’m referencing to the the right? If you can I will love and respect you forever! The moment I saw these statutes (hint: especially the first pair) I knew what had to be done (and what had to be done was me taking this picture)
After that, we went through the Belvedere (with audio tours, of course) and it was great. I really love Klimt’s stuff and there was a wider selection here than at Leopold. This place also had a lot of realism landscape stuff – which doesn’t do anything for me, but it was still neat to see.
After all that we had to boogie over to the Palace for the live performance and, of course, we got lost on the bus. I thought this was the case but Leslie was told by some other guy at the Museum that this bus line was the way to go. But I was like “Yah we walked far, but we didn’t walk this far!!!” We were both convinced right before we ended up in the Vienna woods!!!!
Luckily, a very nice adorable old couple helped us get back and we were only ten minutes late to the performance.
The performance was fun and very intimate. I think we were both imagining a bigger hall, but really, there couldn’t have been more than 200 people there. I love live classical music and all that, so it was a treat! At intermission Leslie got a flute of orange juice… because we’re nothing but class
After that we ate dinner (where we took a video to introduce you to Viennese cuisine culture) and then headed down to the Giant Ferris Wheel!!! That was an awesome experience!
We had no idea the Ferris Wheel was actually next to an entire fair-like setup, complete with lots of other cool rides. It was funny because Leslie and I had randomly been talking about our favorite fair rides and we both agreed that, undoubtedly, the swings are the ultimate fun ride. And!!! As luck would have it, they had swings at this place!! So you’d better believe we paid our way and had some fun. I asked the guy running it to let us stay on for as long as possible and oh boy did he – we were up there forever! It was fantastic! I swear, in the videos I look like I’m about to pee myself with delight
After that we headed home and blogged for a bit. I actually started feeling sort of ill… which may be from the lack of water… in conjunction with the eating of way too many wafer cookies (in replacement of meals) and Coke Zero (for energy). I had to stop blogging a bit early because my poor head was starting to pound 
But all in all- a fantastic day filled with artsy and playful delights!!
And for all the pictures (minus pictures of me feeling ill) click here
Day Ten: Welcome to Wien! (but first, try to get out of Budapest…)
July 3, 2008
After a rather relaxing night in Budapest (to remind you, Leslie fell into deep snoring slumber early on and I just blogged away until ridiculously late) we awoke with a plan (and, to remind you, we’d been having good luck with plans in Budapest). The plan: go down to the market again, get some food for the day, do a bit of shopping and whatnot, and then quickly go to the post office (which we’d already located) and send the insane amount of alcohol Leslie was going to buy back home before catching the noon-ish train to Vienna.
[side note: Through shopping, Leslie and I have discovered yet another difference between us! Leslie, while also just being a bigger shopper than me, is also much better at deciding to buy things. She sees it, she likes it, she buys it. done. The deliberation time is maybe a minute or two. This of course allows her to cover more ground and buy more stuff. As for me… oh dear gods – nobody should actively opt to go shopping with me. I am super picky as to which stores I want to enter and then, once I’m in, I’m there for an epic amount of time. When in a good store I do some sort of bizarre primitive-man dance thing-ah-mah-jig. I enter. I do a quick survey. Then I go through everything again more slowly, this time mentally eliminating some things from the list of possible purchases. Then I go through again and again… and again and again. Slowly but surely I get down to business. And then… maybe… I buy something. I’m exhausted and I’m sure Leslie is exhausted (and amazed at how long it takes to buy one stupid thing) but there it is! Another difference]
Anyways, back to Budapest. So we had a plan. The plan took a horrible evil hot and sweaty 5ish hour detour. Watch the 3-part video below to find out what happened. [side note: I know you hate that I break the videos up into parts. I know it breaks the flow. But look people!! The Internet in these raggedy hostels is, in the words of Leslie, sketch! And, uploading three or four minute videos can take hours! I’m not lying! So give me a break. When I get back home and feel so inclined I’ll go back and upload the full versions and then replace these broken up ones. But until then, no complaining!]
Suffice to say, Leslie will never ever complain when I want to go shopping. Not that she did before, but she certainly won’t now!
So, after Budapest was all finished, we were on our way to *trumpets please* Vienna! We got super duper lucky and got an air conditioned cabin all to ourselves. We took the liberty to lay down and sleep most of the way (after I finished some blogging… of course!). And oh, we keep passing the most beautiful and cheery fields of sunflowers on these train rides but I just can’t get a decent picture! I so badly want you to see how lovely and sunny they are! But instead you just get to see a blurry disaster. I think I’ll try and take a travel photography class or something when I get back… that way next time I’ll take better more artsy-funky photos.
Alright – then we hit Vienna (aka: Wien). And let me tell you, we knew it was going to be awesome right from the start. And why? Because the signs and public transportation systems were so clearly labeled! It was glorious! We didn’t get confused, everything was clean and organized… it was just what we needed after the chaos of the Budapest postal service.
After we dropped our stuff off we got some dinner at the place down the street. And I, being totally exhausted, felt justified in getting myself a cider (the alcoholic kind) but, alas, they didn’t have any. So our very friendly cute waitress recommended these flavored beer things. I got lemon and it ended up tasting a lot like cider! Yummy!
After dinner I subjected Leslie to about 2.5 hours of walking. I’m now a big fan of the once-you-get-to-a-new-country/city-walk-everywhere-that-first-night plan. The temperature drops to perfection, all the locals are out (Europeans stay out ridiculously late), and you can just relax without all that hustle and bustle. On our trek we randomly fell upon the Museum Quarter, which is an area where a bunch of Museums come together and in between them exists this piazza thing. In this middle open area there had to have been over 2000 people – and they were all super young and hip and just hanging out together at 1AM! There were also all these cafes and swank bar things set up in there. It was totally awesome and I was so excited. It seemed like such an awesome thing to be doing.
After all that we kept walking down to the downtown/main area and oh my gosh we almost died from all the cool stuff we saw. So much art and culture and performance listings and beautiful things to buy – it’s crazy! I said to Leslie, “I don’t know how I’m going to get across how in love I am with this place on the blog.” – and it’s true. You have to imagine I’m standing in front of you with my hands on your shoulders (shaking you) while yelling, “soooo freakin’ awesome!!!!!!”
I don’t know what these people are all doing for a living (especially given the fact that everyone is out so late on weeknights) but whatever it is, they are doing well. I was instantly sorry that we’d only have one full day because it was obvious that much much more time was needed. Vienna is the city I’ve visited so far that I most wish I could stay at for significantly longer. There is an incredible amount of art stuff going on and it would take weeks to process it all! So if anyone out there is up for a week in Vienna, you just let me know!
So after walking around we called it a night and got ready for our artsy full day in Wien!
Oh and as a random side note – isn’t the baby outfit to the right the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?! In case my future husband ever reads this: if we have a boy (I mean we won’t actually have any boys, just two girls… but you know, if the metaphysical fabric of the universe rips and we somehow freakishly have a boy), he will so have to wear this at some point. In Vienna. Just so you know…
Oh and of course, for all the pictures from today please go here.