THINGS I MAY OR MAY NOT MISS ABOUT VIENNA, but will most certainly remember:
1. people sporting random t-shirts with nonsensical/morbid english slogans, like "KILL YOURSELF" or "perfectly 100% human". apparently engrish isn't limited to asian countries.
2. vienna is very bicycle-friendly, so there are bike lanes everywhere, and bikes even get their own traffic signal apart from pedestrian crossings. unfortunately this increases the chances of absent-minded pedestrians wandering stupidly into bike lanes and getting nearly run over by bicyclists in a rush. on the bright side, i quickly picked up german swear words.
3. cute german accents.
4. cute austrian babies.
5. people in austria actually speak english. or at least enough english to make you think that they do speak english, until they bring you your order and you realize they didn't understand anything at all.
6. the face of Mozart plastered on every single coffee mug, coaster, poster, chocolate, and even teddy bears. apparently he is big here.
7. ditto number 6 with Gustav Klimt. who would have thought it was possible to grow sick of "The Kiss"?
8. for some reason, there are a hell of a lot of Koreans in Vienna. far more Koreans than any other asian ethnicity. Clearly, Koreans are the new Japanese, only hip.
9. instead of seeing cheesy John Mayer wannabes busking with their acoustic guitars on the streets, you seeing string quartets dressed in ball gowns and suits busking Strauss to an admiring middle-aged crowd on the streets. vienna is freakin' classy.
10. the delicious repetitive use of "fahrt" in various german words and phrases. for example: einfahrt means entrance.
11. finally, i will miss the awesome street meat. it is not awesome because it is particularly delicious, but the manner that their sausages are prepared and inserted into buns are rather pornographic. i can't expand here because my parents read this blog, but i will tell you that annie and i found it rather hilarious.
okay, time to quit hogging the free internet. updates on the slovaks to follow shortly!
