Vienna

Second day in Vienna, Austria. The Lonely Planet guide refers to this city as a "multi-tiered wedding cake," and I think they´re not too far off. It doesn´t exactly have the powerful presence of Paris, but everything is beautiful and ornate in a similar way. It is also having a similar effect on me as Paris - which is to make me interested in things like operas and symphonies and Barocheness (totally not a word). I kind of just feel dirty drinking and being a loud backpacker in this city. I feel like I should walk around with my head high and my scarf flowing from my neck as I make insightful comments about architecture and Mozart.

So my first night here, we went for Schnitzel at this tiny little place around the corner from our hostel with a bunch of people from our bus. I reunited with my American girl friends for one night, but thankfully still have 2 more nights with my Aussie couple. So since it was the last night the 5 of us would be together on this trip, we just spent it together walking around, hanging out at the hostel bar, playing cards, being unnecessarily loud, taking stupid pictures, etc. Good times.

Today, my Aussie couple friends and I walked basically the whole city. We saw all the palaces and stuff. We saw the travelling King Tut exhibit. Well, they didn´t really want to, but I twisted their arm because I´m an Ancient Egypt nerd. It was ok, but there was no mummy! You pay 8 euros for something you expect a gol-dern mummy at the end! Sheesh. Anyway, after I got over my disappointment, we went to dinner at this traditional hole-in-the-wall Austrian food place. We got a wheelbarrow of food. I´m not kidding - it came in a small wheelbarrow right on the table. There was schnitzel, some kind of roast pork, noodles with ham, sausages, fries, a potatoey-cheesy thing. . . and I think that´s it. It was AWESOME. I plan to eat all of my food from a wheelbarrow from now on. Last but not least, tonight I went to see a performance at Vienna´s 25th annual International Dance Competition. It was a modern dance thing from South Africa. Pretty weird and awesome.

I think tomorrow we will see the Belvedere Art Museum and gardens, and maybe head out of town to a local winery village. Stay tuned.