Vienna

The travel has begun and I'm excited to get it over with and be home, but I'm also savoring it for all its worth... because this is the last time I'll have business class for probably a VERY long time! The food, as expected, did not disappoint. My main course was a fillet of beef and while it was cooked more than I would have preferred, it was a quite tasty piece of meat for airplane food... plus the grilled veggies that came with it where awesome! :) I didn't enjoy the red wine pairing with it as much though... should have gone for the champagne, as was my first instinct!

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Vienna right now, it's 9 pm here and I'm going to go roam around in a minute, but I'm an Internet addict and had to log on and check my mail and the stock market and call folks to let them know I'm ok and all that jazz. I know, big waste of time when I'm in one of the coolest cities in the world right?? As soon as I finish this, I'm out the door, don't worry!

I'm always struck when I come to Europe about compactness, efficiency, and overall order of things and Austria is no different. Everything is so clean that when you see a small bit of graffiti it hits you like a slap in the face! I also love that you can be going along in a taxi (yes I'll be walking in a few minutes, ok, I just haven't yet!) and passing high rise buildings and gas stations and WHAM you pass a centuries old Church. The tension of modernization and old world seem to fit seamlessly somehow because its Europe!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go *waltz* around the city. (was the emphasis really necessary??) :)