Woke up about 4am in our apartment in Vienna convinced it was about 9am because it was SO light. This was partly because we have no curtains and partly because the sun rises at that time here. Not slowly but at full throttle. So that the room was instantly flooded with the hot light of day. And I mean hot.
We are both reasonably indecisive and in the heat we both shifted into slow gear and spent the day dragging ourselves around the streets at a whopping 0.2 metres per second. It took us until 12noon to finish breakfast, check internet, reserve future train seats. After that we browsed shops “on our way” to do touristy things, which we didn’t get around to until 7pm-ish incidentally. Oh and we violated several of the millions of statues around here. There will be photos.
We are both reasonably indecisive and in the heat we both shifted into slow gear and spent the day dragging ourselves around the streets at a whopping 0.2 metres per second. It took us until 12noon to finish breakfast, check internet, reserve future train seats. After that we browsed shops “on our way” to do touristy things, which we didn’t get around to until 7pm-ish incidentally. Oh and we violated several of the millions of statues around here. There will be photos.
Rashi bought a dress and I searched for a white dress because that’s really what you need in Vienna. Couldn’t find anything not transparent tho. In the evening we went to the art gallery where I was intrigued by the real-live mummies in sarcophagi amongst thousands of horrendous paintings of naked fat ladies, “biblical” scenes set in Russian-like winter snow, and scary babies who look like fat little old men. Blach.
Interpersed this with multiple frappucinos (only trust starbucks, no one else understands the concept).
In the evening I was dead on my feet but we headed out in search of the famous Viennese club called Flex. After several train rides etc we ended up asking a lady for directions, who pointed us the wrong way, and at midnight we were still wandering deserted commercial/industrial landscape for any sight of it. We gave up and came home in a cab. Later we realised this could have been valuable Laundromat time.
Our sheets and pillows and duvets here are all made of old towelling instead of the usual cotton. Which I found very handy since I slept like a zombie, drool and all.
We spent today in a similar way, retiring under a cafe umbrella with waffles and juice until after 12 when we had to get out of the shade and face the heat again. I’m not sure exactly what we did until 5pm but it involved comments such as “Ew, I’m sweating out my face” and a lot of trams and buses to avoid walking. We keep forgetting to eat food and end up living on gelato and frappes instead. Every single block has an incredible icecream/sorbet/yoghurt/coffee/milk bar type thing. Nothing done by halves – no such thing as a boring icecream+sauce combo here. Everything has the works. So hot. So so hot.
At about 5pm we could face the thought of bikes and hired some (with baskets like all good European bikes – where else would all the girls put their high heels when they are cycling to a night out?) and no helmets. Cycling here turned out to be more complicated than I thought because you are only allowed in certain areas, where there are bike lanes. We learnt the hard way that you can’t bike on the footpath, but you can bike on the bike-footpath next to it. And you can’t bike on the left side of the bike lane. And you must use your bell to signal when you’re passing. And you must only go in the direction of the arrow and most of the bike lanes are only one way. Where the lane for the other direction is, no-one knows. And people get annoyed if you bike on the paths through the gardens. Or if you don’t cross on the correct half of the pedestrian crossing. And many more rules that we also breached.
Rashi’s brother arrived and I have just seen them off at the train station on an overnight train to Venice. I’m going to miss having a friend around. Between us, we made up the brain of a whole person.
Our sheets and pillows and duvets here are all made of old towelling instead of the usual cotton. Which I found very handy since I slept like a zombie, drool and all.
We spent today in a similar way, retiring under a cafe umbrella with waffles and juice until after 12 when we had to get out of the shade and face the heat again. I’m not sure exactly what we did until 5pm but it involved comments such as “Ew, I’m sweating out my face” and a lot of trams and buses to avoid walking. We keep forgetting to eat food and end up living on gelato and frappes instead. Every single block has an incredible icecream/sorbet/yoghurt/coffee/milk bar type thing. Nothing done by halves – no such thing as a boring icecream+sauce combo here. Everything has the works. So hot. So so hot.
At about 5pm we could face the thought of bikes and hired some (with baskets like all good European bikes – where else would all the girls put their high heels when they are cycling to a night out?) and no helmets. Cycling here turned out to be more complicated than I thought because you are only allowed in certain areas, where there are bike lanes. We learnt the hard way that you can’t bike on the footpath, but you can bike on the bike-footpath next to it. And you can’t bike on the left side of the bike lane. And you must use your bell to signal when you’re passing. And you must only go in the direction of the arrow and most of the bike lanes are only one way. Where the lane for the other direction is, no-one knows. And people get annoyed if you bike on the paths through the gardens. Or if you don’t cross on the correct half of the pedestrian crossing. And many more rules that we also breached.
Rashi’s brother arrived and I have just seen them off at the train station on an overnight train to Venice. I’m going to miss having a friend around. Between us, we made up the brain of a whole person.
