Mar 2006

Hi all, hope you are well. I'll make an effort at correct spelling this time. Life in Vienne is alright. I started off rocky here after the near loss of luggage and being locked out of my hostel on no sleep. Since then, I did a walking tour of the city (saw all the emperial palaces and stuff like that), sat in some nice coffee houses, and slept for nearly 20 hours straight through. Then yesterday I got myself thoughrally lost on the public transport system, but of course had fun seeing the sights while doing so. It was cloudy and snowing all day yesterday which had me kind of down. That is until I was invited out of the cold for coffee and given a free ticket to the Imperial Orchestra concert by a nice Italian guy. The concert last night was nice and so were dinner and drinks that followed. I also got to spend the evening with a cool couple from Florida so I got a taste of the American accent again and funny enough it actually sounded wrong to my ear! Strangely the Aussie accent now sounds correct to me! So now I have the rest of the day to spend here. Maybe I'll go for a ride on the giant wheel today since it is clear and I might actually be able to see something. Tomorrow I fly on to Istanbul. I am a bit nervous and excited. I'll be happy to see my friend Hasan again though. That's all for this episode, talk to you all again from Turkey...

Hey all I'm here in Vienna...mostly, accept that I didnt sleep on the plane, and am totallz jet lagged. Zeah I know Iäm misspelling everzthing, the kez pad is different and I cant be bothered to search for the correct kezs at the moment. So, Szdnez was, prettz cool. I met another friend from Scotland and wandered about in search of dinner with him on Wed night, found a cool Thai place on Darling Harbor, then explored some night life, had a good night. The next daz, went with mz English friend again and wandered around more, went to the zoo and saw some Aussie animals, then went to Manlz beach for a bit. Then raced back to get to the opera on time. We barelz made it and were running in our heals to catch the train there! Zeah, Iäm just as classz out in the world as I am at home, some things dont change, za know? So we went to the opera with nothing in our bellies but "brekkie" so dinner consisted of the cough drops provided at the opera house! The opera itself was interesting. We ended up getting top dollar seats for cheap because there were emptz seats next to us so we just scooted over. It was a ver cheeyz love storz, but was well done and entertaining. The storz was too dorkz to reallz move me emotionallz like I alwazs thought operas were meant to do, but I enjozed it anzwaz. Afterwards we went in search of dinner and couldnt find a thing for blocks and blocks, finallz I insisted on stopping at a Kebab stand and getting a slice of piyya...nto a good idea! I got hit on bz kebab man and the food made me ill. Ahhh, oh well, it was quiet memorable. Next daz, went for lunch with Scottish friend, nearlz missed mz flight because I was trzing to finish mz laundrz, then spent the last 24 hours in transit to Austria. Iäm totallz spent. Mz attitude was reallz getting bad because I was so tired. I nearlz left one of mz bags behind in the airport, I was so out of it! Then I finallz got to the hostel and thez told me I couldnt check in for another 5 hours, and all I wanted to do is sleep. So I went out exploring, fond some coffee...now Im ok, but a bit worried that I might just tip over because I feel so drunk tired. I made mzself snap out of mz funk enough to trz to enjoz the daz until I can go crash. Anzwaz, its interesting to be in Europe for the first time in mz life. Not sure if itll capture mz interest enough to want to travel around here later or not, wont make that judgement until I have experienced it with proper rest. So sorrz to all of zou who have actuallz read through all this with all the tzpos and incoherent babble, mzbe next post will be better...no promises though! Hope zou are all well rested and happz, love me