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Published: April 2nd 2006
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So here we are in Austria. Home of Arnold 'what's-his-name?' and the pioneer of Red Bull.
We landed at the airport midday on Friday, January 6th. After watching Method Man and his posse transfer to their flight for Berlin, we filed out of baggage claim and found Chris just walking in to pick us up.
Chris is Holden's very good friend from high school in Seattle - Mercer Island to be precise. Chris and his wife, Katja, have lived in Vienna for just over year, where she works for the UN at the Internationational Atomic Energy Association(IAEA) and Chris is going to business school.
From the outset of our trip we have intended to visit them. Holden was at their wedding in Bavaria in 2004, but the four of us briefly met in Seattle the past summer on MI, and they invited us to drop by. Hey, it's on the way!
It was cold out - much colder than Greece. But, the reception was warm. We made the brief drive to their apartment in the burrough of Mexicoplatz, just outside of downtown Vienna. Once there, we parked their car and squeezed into the elevator up the top
floor. Just in the door we found Katja and their loving dog, Rivera, waiting to say 'hi!'.
First off, what a pad! Mexicoplatz is not the best 'hood in Vienna, but they have obtained a newly renovated, rent-controlled pad. It is ultimate: so much room and so well decorated. 'Nuff said.
We then settled into a cheese platter and some beer and wine. Chris had prepared for our visit by obtaining two cases of Czech Budweiser - Didn't last that long.
As we mentioned in a previous blog, Czech Bud has now become the reigning 'king of beers' with Holden's taste buds - no pun intended. So, so good.
No space in the fridge, but a half an hour outside and it was almost frozen - and perfect!!
So we relaxed for awhile, and discussed all there was to discuss. Travel, jobs, studies, Vienna, etc....
Chris and Katja were sharing their other(!) guest room room with a friend from their time in Kiev and his girlfriend - Henri and Sonja. Those two long-distnace lovers were seeing each other for just a couple of days before they went their separate ways.
Anyways, they showed
up not long after wards and we all met. Then we sat down to dinner.
During our stay in Mexicoplatz Chris and Katja would gradually empty their freezer and fridge to prepare all sorts of good eats for us - downsizing the stockpile of frozen goodies they had amassed in storage.
That night it was pasta a la calamari. Pretty good, but by the time we ate we were all too drunk to care - we were just hungry!
After dinner we settled in for more social conversation. The boys went out to the deck and enjoyed a cigar in the freezing darkness to talk about Henri's new job. He was heading to Moscow the next day to take on a political educator role in some activist group - not radical, just progressive, and quite intersesting.
That was that for our first night - and a good one it was.
The next day we woke uo fairly hungover. Surprised? No! But we hadn't even dived in to the raw Ukranian Brandy Chris had offered us.
Alas, we all arrived at breakfast table around noon, and the coffee couldn't have been strong enough. We were
then introduced to a true Austro-Germanic brunch. Great bread and good spreads with smoked back bacon and cheese. This would become our daily regimen over the two weeks we stayed there.
And that was that. We stayed at the table from noon until 4:30 just noshing and talking. During that time we said goodbye to Sonja - Henri had left at 0 dark 30 to catch his flight that morning.
Our plans for the evening were to go and meet up with Katja's colleagues and attend a small part at one of their apartments.
Empty the refrigerator,
Sleepy Town,
Hofburg,
Watching the OC,
Rio's apt.,
Sports bar/ NFL football,
Schonnbrun,
Egon Scheile exhibit,
Museum days,
girl's night/guy's night-out,
U-bon subway,
Laid back blogging,
Prague trip,
Home cooking,
Czech budweiser & Ottakringer,
Deals at the Penny Market,
Mozart,
Walking the dog....
................OK, OK, OK! enough!
We haven't been blogging for the last month, and now - with our trip near an end - we just have to suck it up and show some pictures.
Thus, with journal incomplete, here is Vienna. The rest of our destinations will have even less talk -
just pics. Here goes nothin......
PS - looking at the travelblog home page, I noticed some 'Friendly Biker' who has had his blog published on the front page for the THIRD time! What gives? Huh? What gives, for real????
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