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October 13th 2005
Published: October 13th 2005
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Just a building amoung other buildingsJust a building amoung other buildingsJust a building amoung other buildings

(but this building happens to be the place where i saw the philharmonices!)
Listen to Mozart. So I did.
Vienna was nice, but I can't say I was...moved? The buildings were absolutely stunning, Doners (aka Gyros, Kebabs, Felafels) were abound, but I failed to get really excited about it.
However, with that being said, on the second day I was there, I was meandering about, clicking away with my camera like a good little japanese tourist (they're everywhere, also Aussies, its really quite incredible, there aren't many Aussies in the world to begin with, but it never fails that when you walk down a street, one must always be prepared to hear some sort of reference to Vegemite...weird) when a man dressed like beathoven asked me if I wanted to hear some Mozart that night, I said "yeah", and he said "cool, that'll be 25euros" which really isn't that much if you consider its Mozart, in the royal concert hall, but it is a lot when 25euros is like 3 days of food. So, I justified it by not exactly eating that day, BUT I GOT TO HEAR MOZART! It was so beautiful, definitely the highlight of Austria. But I didn't know of anything else to do in Vienna and I'd heard so many great things about Budapest and so thats where I can be found now. I caught a train (shmoozing train stewardesses not needed this time) and made my way to my hostel without any real problems which is nice, and somewhat suprising because I really can't comprehend even the smallest bit of Hungarian...which is great! For the first time on my trip I actually feel like I'm in another country. There's actually a challenge in getting places and ordering food!
Today, I went with some people I met at the Hostel to the parliament, paid an extraordinary amount for a tour, which actually got us all a little excited because we thought me might actually get what we paid for...stupid tourists. The tour only lasted half an hour and we only saw 3 rooms...out of a possible 300! no joke. A bit dissappointing. Afterwards we looked around for food, and being the good backpackers that we are, we searched high and low for a cheap restaraunt. All the restaraunts post the menu and prices outside and so we would scoff at the restaraunts we thought were charging too much and continue on walking, but then we found this take out place that had people queueing outside the door which we thought was great because the locals always know best. So we ordered this and that and we were all proud of ourselves because we thought we were so good only to end up paying just as much as the places that were "too expensive"...stupid tourists.
Oh, as I mentioned before about not understanding Hungarian and the difficulties that arise with that, well, standing in the queue, we saw all this delicious food passing by and yet looking on the posted menu, we had no idea whatsoever as to what was what. So again, while standing in the queue we racked our brains as to how we were going to portray that we wanted the deep fried cheese with the been soup (charades of milking a cow, molding the milk into cheese and then deep frying it provided much entertainment for many an onlooker) only to get to the front where the young girl asked us in perfect english "what would you like?"...ugh...so when if I ever rant or complain as to the difficulty of traveling is, tell me to be quiet because it doesn't matter where you are, someone always speaks english.

I hope everyone is doing splendidly well and there's no need to wish that back (tomorrow i'm heading to the baths, its a hard life i know) and as always, I would love to hear about whats going on in your lives.

much love,
Jordan

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13th October 2005

Oh the Baths
Im so jealous at this moment in time its ridiculous
16th October 2005

The OLD DONAU!!
Silly!! You were supposed to go for a row on the Old Donau! Ah well. Maybe you can go for a row on the Hungrian part. BUT MAKE SURE YOU EAT before you row. Gee wiz. You've got to eat to stay alive! Glad you're having fun!!! :-)
20th October 2005

The response
Thanks for the updates. Spent the weekend in banff and spoke at a Veterinarian Conference. Got a contract after speaking which justifies my trip and the prospect of another contract. Mom came along and enjoyed the shopping while in Banff. The kids are home from school because of the teachers strike and there is a possibility of a larger gereral strike in support of the teachers. HOpe you are doing well and enjoying your trip. Love. Dad
23rd October 2005

Happy Birthday
Oct. 23, is Jordans birthday, so everyone wish him a happy day. Mind you, it would be nice to hear if you are still alive, Jordan???
30th October 2005

oh the gelato
I love the pictures! Are these yours?? Too bad you've already left...on the other side of that court is the best gelato in the whole city...I hear the chocolate is good, but I will only ever endorse the rasberry. (miss you:-)

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