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Published: July 23rd 2010
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graben
graben Started my day off with a morning run for the second straight day. Even running around this neighborhood I still really have no idea where I am. All I know is bus 60A takes me to the U-bahn 6 and that takes me back to civilization. Followed this recipe to get me into the city centre and began to wander the alleys in search of Judenplatz. Thought I was lost for a bit but then out of nowhere the square appeared with the newly constructed Holocaust Memorial. It's about 2% as impressive as the one in Berlin and if you just happened to be walking through the square you probably wouldn't pay it much mind or even know what it was there for. Well done.
I had been hoping to find this Italian restaurant we used to go to as well as this comic book store where I used to get Magic cards when I was a kid. As dumb as this sounds this was much more interesting to me then seeing Schloss Schonbrunn, the Hapsburg palace, etc. I ended up seeing this one monument that was familiar. Mostly since we used to park in the lot right next to
comics
used to buy my magic cards here haha it. From there I easily found the square I was looking for and was pleased to see that once again everything was just as I had left it. It's like going back in a time machine. I would say that nobody ages either but after an hour in Vienna you can tell that's not the case. Almost the opposite. Everyone here seems to be a bit past their prime. Made my way out to the Prater for a quick look around but after that I was pretty gassed. Have spent a lot of time walking around in the sun the past few days and it has been uncharacteristically hot here. Was about 94 degrees here today and not much cooler the previous two days. Headed on back to Natalia's place (my Russian host) to get packed up and cook dinner before heading over to Wien Meidling station to catch my evening train.
Also, want to say a big thank you for Natalia for hosting me these 3 days. Her hospitality was fantastic. As she said in Russia we treat guest like family. I really appreciated it. Would be cool to see her down the road when we both have
incinerate
coolest incineration plant on earth some more free time.
It's funny. The thing that gave me the best impression of Austria was when I left it on the train out tonight. Had a couple of hours of sunlight as our train winded through the hills outside of the city as we headed south. Really is a pretty countryside. Quite a sight too. The train was unbearably hot at first so everyone was lined up in the hallway with their head out the window enjoying the breeze. Another thing that helped was meeting the kind old Austrian couple in my sleeping compartment. They spoke quite good English especially the husband who according to his wife spoke about 7 or 8 languages, thought not all fluently of course. I believed her as soon as a Russian woman joined us in the compartment he began conversing with her in Russian. The guy was fantasic, just had a wealth of knowledge. Was telling me about the good old days in Carracas long ago, when he would fly up to NYC for a weekend to catch a ballgame. Awesome. As an aside I knew the guy was old when he told me that his family came to Austria from
haps
Hapsburg Palace the Old Empire in the Czech Republic. Who says that anymore ha? Another successful overnight train trip in the books. Time to go explore Firenze.
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