Guten tag!

Forgive me in advance for any typos I make. The Z and the Y keys on German keyboards seem to be switched! And the apostraphe symbol is also misplaced!

Anyhoo, I'm alive! I just checked out of my hotel and am now at my hostel, hence the internet access!

The plane ride coming here was amazingly uncomfortable. I got stuck next to the washrooms. And worse, next to a baby. It was a bit fussy but slept through most of the night. I think the worst part was that my seat wouldn't recline, so I had a horrible backache and also people kept brushing my hair on the way to the washroom so I kept waking up. Upon arrival in France for my connection, I had to do one of those stereotypical airport scenes were you run from one side of the airport to the other to make it in time. Yikes! Luckily my boss (for the meeting) was also on the plane, so we were able to talk about the meeting and get some last minute planning done, it made me feel so reassured. Plus, she also gave approval to use meeting funds to take the taxi to our respective hotels. Yay for less stress!

Vienna's weather was rainy for the first two days I was here, which translated into coooold. I was a bit worried that my "spring" jacket would't be warm enough, but now that it's sunny again, life is good!

To get the boring stuff out of the way, the meeting went really well. It was very productive and I wasn't the only one suffering jet lag, so life was good! There were a few "oops" moments (like when I realized that I forgot to provide a list of participant names - I hear that's important when people meet for the first time) but it went very well in general. Yahoo! I also got to skip out on the after-dinner. My boss asked if I wanted to join them but the subtext was that I didn't have to so I begged off.

On to the fun stuff: I haven't done too much touristy stuff so far - the first two nights were a waste since I was too tired and it was too rainy to enjoy myself. And then yesterday I slept in a great deal, so all my plans were screwed up. Mainly I've done my generic "walk-abouts" AKA Mau wanders around the touristy areas randomly, hoping to see cool stuff. And boy, I sure have! Vienna is so pretty - it feels cleaner, greener, and more modern than Rome or Paris ever did.

So far I've wandered around St. Stephandom's church, I've walked around the Hofburg area (but not inside yet), walked up and down a massive shopping street which wasn't touristy at all but was full of bonafide Viennese, gone on a tour of the UN buildings here (that was the other reason yesterday was a waste - I slept in, missed the first tour, and decided to wait until 2pm for the second tour - I was insistent on seeing the damned UN!). I also accidentally went to the DOM museum - a museum filled with religious relics, etc. I say "accidentally" because I was actually trying to get to the DOW museum (full of Jewish/holocaust info) and I mixed the two up on my map. I'm bummed because the museum is closed for the weekend now, so I won't get to see it afterall. Oh well, let's hope that the Museum of Terror in Budapest makes up for it!

By far, the coolest thing I've done so far is gone to the State Opera House (Staatoper) and got standing room tickets (literally standing space only) to go see a ballet of "Ein Sommernachtstraum" - that's A Midsummernight's Dream. I swear, my standing ticket probablz had the best view in the house! It was so neat seeing the ballet in German - but I do need to read the actual play so that I can catch the information that I missed - and because there were a few spoken or sung parts in German. (I don't mind hearing spoken German, but German singing? Sounds terrible!)

Anyhoo, I think I shall leave off here for now. I've got about 2 hours till I meet my old boss - we're going to the Belvedere museum together. Not a clue as to what that holds, but it's in my guidebook, so it must be good! Tomorrow I shall dedicate my day to going to Shünbronn Palace (or however you spell it) which is supposed to be the equivalent to Versailles. I'll also try seeing the rest of Hofburg, and then I'm off to Bratislava on Monday!