hello vienna

today is our last day in vienna. it has been fun. far more rainy than neccessary, but still fun.

our travel day was pretty smooth. we took a bus from cesky krumlov into austria. there were nine people in our van, three guys from Norway, a cute couple from Toronto, us and our czech driver. When we crossed the boarder Sasha started to sing the hills are alive with the sound of music. One of the boys said we could do the whole von trapp family song. we couldve. but we refrained.

we are staying at the wombats hostel which is huge and not the most centrally located. but we have a big room. with six beds and we didnt have roommates for one night. not bad at all.

once we got to the hostel we decided to go exploring. but then it poured. we were not so happy. we went to a cafe, attmpted to go to a museum, but it was closed, went to an internet cafe where the power went out... it was just one of those days. then we had dinner outside, despite the rain, under big umbrellas. our waiter was a very happy man, despite the rain, and called us lovelys and called tap water holy water.

the next day we did lots of sightseeing. the hapsburg complex. st. vitus church. i went to see a synagouge while sasha and mel had lunch. it was really cool though. it is the only temple in Vienna to survive World War II. The tour was me and a bunch of old jewish people. In order to get in there were metal detectors and more questioning then we have had at any of the airports. apparently there were some attempted terrorist attacks there so they take everything very seriously.

that night we went to dinner at this italian place where i got to practice a little speaking. conclusion - i can understand better than i can speak. i get nervous when i speak. but i got things across. it will only get better in rome (four days ahhhh). then we went to a bar for a little. kind of awkward. sort of amusing.

today we went to see a palace outside the city which i wont even pretend i can spell. it was very cool. kind of like versailles (ya i cant spell). After the castle we went to this carnival type thing to ride on a ferris wheel that is kind of like the London Eye. It was funish, but not as cool as the roller coaster we went on after or the swinging chair ride we went on. You know those things at fairs where the swings go around and you kind of fly and its exciting. well imagine that, but it goes up 200 feet in the air first. ya. we did that. no biggie. so scary. so cool. mel wins for quote of the day though (re: being up on the swings in a skirt) "i kept thinking, im young, im free and all of vienna knows that im wearing a pink lace thong right now."

and scene. budapest in the morning....

love... lindsey