Before I leave...

I didn't have time yesterday to write everything I wanted to, so here are a few more little tidbits.

The room I stayed in here at the hostel in Graz had the cutest little sink I've ever seen in my life. The basin was about the size of a football! Aw... I took a picture, it was too cute.

A-L, l'autre nuit j'ai reve que tu voulais devenir animatrice d'une emission de television sur le chocolat! Et j'ai mange du simili-poulet ce matin en pensant a toi. :D

I found an actual supermarket yesterday and did some grocery shopping, so I have enough snack food to last me at least a day or two. Among other things, I bought a bag of little hazelnut-filled rolls that are oh-so-delicious, and on the bag was written "Mini Röllchen". Aw, it's so cute!

That's all for now, I have a train to catch.

Greetings from Wien!

So I made it, and even saw Dr. K. Lueger Ring.

The train ride was comfortable and uneventful, and what I said about the street signs in Graz holds true for Vienna. The only reason I got lost was that the map in my travel guide is not a very detailed one; it only has the names of the big important streets. But fear not, my ancestral memory came through and I found the youth hostel.

What a beautiful city! Walking around the Inner Stadt is wonderful. Every corner you turn, there's another impressive piece of architecture. I'd be tempted to say, "Imagine what it must have been like at the height of the Empire!", only I don't think it would have been all that different. Everything here seems to be in such good condition, not faded like Venice or downright ancient like some parts of Paris, so well-built and just, well, just *grand* that had a a Habsburg come strolling out of one the buildings, I wouldn't have been all that surprised.

Thanks to my trusty Lonely Planet guide, which I'm relying on more and more since I don't speak the language, here, I found a very nice restaurant with a very reasonably-priced buffet. The highlight of the meal was not the food, however. It was when two little old ladies sat down at the table beside mine, each of them with a whole pie. I swear, those pies were at least seven inches across, with whipped cream and everything! And they ate them in half the time it took me to finish my two plates!

So while the raita and saurkraut duked it out in my stomach, I wandered around the Ring which changes its name at every intersection. I spent a while dozing on the grass in the Burggarten, beside the monument dedicated to Mazart, and generally just enjoyed the balmy evening air.

Here, pedestrian crosswalks have little boxes that click at you when the light is green!

My room key is a little plastic stick with an electronic sensor that unlocks the door. Magic, I tell you!

It seems that my mother has discovered we are, in fact, of Norman ancestry. No wonder I felt so at home in Normandy! (what little time I spent there...) I also feel right at home in Austria, at least so far. I can't wait to go the Kunsthistorisches Museum tomorrow, I hear they have a great Breuggels (sp?) the Geezer collection.

It's official. Austria rocks!