well, i am in vienna austria now, and, like a stereotypical tourist, i cant stop singing songs from the Sound of Music in myhead, even if annie tells me that it actually takes place in salsburg. also, less happily, i cant stop sneezing and feeling like im going to die. because my body hates me, i have come down with an awful cold as well as spring allergies simultaneously, which leaves me feeling far more miserable than i should in a beautiful city like this.
on the other hand, after having down overnight trips on a plane, train, and bus, i have learned that the overnight trip from Krakow to Vienna 10P to 5AM is not as bad as i expected it to be.
given the fact that annie and i got practically no sleep, we were surprisingly functional today too. we showed up at the hostel at 6AM only to find that check in time was 2PM, so we decided to go sightseeing instead of napping. we got a lot done. we walked around the beautiful gothic structures and parks in the old historic part of time, and made it all the way to the Sigmund Freud Museum, located in his old house in vienna, where he used to see his clients. ah, good old freud. i was tempted to pull out a cigar and ask the museum curator why i keep having nightmares about law school weeks after its ended, and what that says about my libidinal id.
afterwards we went to the Cafe Central for lunch, a popular meeting place for people like Trotsky and Lenin. i was pretty impressed by the food. we got a two course meal that involved a cut of beef as tender as a baby (why yes, ive tried baby) in a mushroom cream sauce that somehow only came to less than 9 euros. amazing! annie and i were hoping food would be expensive here so we wouldnt eat, hence properly kicking off our euro diet, but it looks like we will be fattening ourselves here as well.
speaking of expensive, oh boy the SHOPPING! somebody please stop me! because annie most certainly werent. there are a lot of expensive designer label stuff around here, but there are also some fantastic sales, and given the fact that i have NO room left in my backpack, i dunno how im going to transport todays purchases. sigh. this city is kind of awesome.
the hostel here is like the one in london, nice, clean, friendly safe, but not so free and not so private like krakow. sigh, oh well. i still have plenty more former communist blocs to visit.
now, on to my quest for cold medication!
