Unter den Linden Krems

... the bend in the river.
Austrians seem to smoke an awful lot, and surprisingly they still do in restaurants. It's the first time for a long time, that I have noticed a strong smell of smoke on my clothes at the end of an evening. Yuck. Reminds me of pubs of old. I know, Asians smoke a lot too, but everything is so open in Asia, that it never gets on your clothes.
(This computer doesn't have a card slot, so no pix today.)

Ciao.

... buss to the next town,
We had to walk about 10 minutes along the river to get to the busses that would take us to the Abbey. The Abbey is very beautiful, especially the exterior view with its location on the hill above the town. It is a working abbey so we only toured the Imperial Rooms, the library and the church. Magnificent ceiling paintings and gold leaf. Displayed were centuries old manuscripts and vestments which are still used today on special ...

The only attraction in Melk (other than being a beautiful town on the water) is the Melk Abbey (which is still a running Benedictine monastery and school and has been for more than 900 years) It is definitely worth the stop .. abbey,church and gardens are beautiful. The journey from Melk to Vienna is one of the most ...

... That in a combination of no dryer means we have clothes laid out all over our room and everytime we go to put on our clothes is us going around to feel, which ones are the least wet. Umbrellas are no match for the rain here.

When we got into Melk on Sunday afternoon, we checked into our hotel and went out to investigate the town. Melk is very small so that didn't take us long. We went out for supper at a great restaurant that had traditional ...

... until 5pm. Whilst waiting outside two women walk past and say hello. I double take; its the same pair from earlier. Anyway this is a very nice hostel; its e15 with just the facilities you need. It has a members kitchin, a tv and comfortable benches. At last a sensible balance! This place is within striking distance of Vienna but I'm not sure if I want to stay or whiz through. On the other hand its hard to believe I'm so close to Hungary.

... was like what? and i had to tell about myself and the teacher said i could in english but i did in german because how else am i supposed to get better?! but it was really embarassing because all 28 fluent german speakers were just staring at me and i said that i lived in Phoenix with my mom and dad and that i had three sisters who lived in Minnesota, NYC, and Bolivia. And thats it. It was bad but my nachbar said that it was very good, but i think she was lying to me so i would feel better ...

Das BORG ist mit dabei Endlich - unser großer Tag ist gekommen. Wir haben es endlich geschafft zu unseren Helden vorzustoßen. Jakob Foramitti, Christoph Kögler, Benjamin Schön und ein glücklicher Lehrer durften mit Michael und Otto die letzten 25km mitlaufen. Es war wie ein Traum, als wir am Donau-Radweg 5km vor Melk die zwei Gestalten im Regen auftauchen gesehen haben. Tapfer haben sie sich die Schmerzen nicht anmerken lassen ...

... and other Austrians) had to go practice for the performance leaving Miriam, another Austrian student, and me to our own devices. The other Austrian student was named Niva and she failed to mention in the car that her English was excellent. To the pass the time before the concert, we walked the palace grounds and we came upon a farm with an interesting assortment of animals. We saw Billy goats, roosters, sheep, and CAMELS ...

... And I'm still trying to get him to Rome and more normal places! On the train and we managed to have the whole carriage to ourselves until the ticket guy told us were in the wrong one and we had to move to another one that was full! 7 hours to go..... Zagreb Thursday We found out hostel ok the night before but mainly because we bumped into people going that way on the walk there, otherwise I think we would have had a bit of trouble! So we headed out to ...

... sliced meat, buns, juice, coffee, tea, muesli, milk and/or yogurt. We checked e-mail first and then went in search of the Stadtpark. Had to backtrack since we'd originally gone the wrong way. Finally found the statue of Beethoven we'd been looking for. He was quite imposing so I had my photo taken with him. He certainly isn't on the radar in Austria the way their native son Amadeus is. "Composers do not cry, composers are made of fire!" We did a nice ...