Martinek Baden

... huge old Ferris Wheel seen in “The Third Man”)

... band, Porcupine Tree from Britain, played fourteen-minute songs that grew soft so it could "set the mood" with bleeping, synthesizer sounds. The third-favorite band, Dredg from San Francisco, liked to write Eastern-sutra-like stories about spiritual journeys or dream cycles, then write music based on them. My Austrian friend - in-between cigarettes - explained the album, "Pretty Hate Machine", by Nine Inch Nails. He said it was an album ...

... so I use them up. Then the three of us depart on a night-long journey in search for a club. The Australian wants to go to the famous gay club, the Ukranian wants to go to the classy club that charges 12 euros on a Wednesday night, I just want to go back. By the time, we end up in a tiny bar with a dance floor, it is 2 am and apparently closing (or does not want us there?). So much for a crazy night in Austria!

... and knowledgable, although he did seem to be a bit opiniated, which for someone at least 15 years my younger I wasn't too comfortable with. The concept that History should be ignored because it is always written by the victors seemed a little too naive for me, especially seeing the memories of Auschwitz / Birkenau were still fresh in my mind. All the same, the bike was a great way of getting around and it was fun for both of us! We spent the afternoon at ...

... on the corner. A quick note about our hotel, the "Fuerstenhof": it's compared to the Chelsea Hotel in N.Y. because it's an older building with a sort of faded-chic feel to it and also, we read in our Lonely Planet guide, houses rock stars and other celebrities when they're in town. There are photos of some of them hanging on the walls in the main lobby but we had to laugh because we recognized hardly any ...

... night we decided to have a typical Viennese meal - not that impressive, and then after that we met up with a friend, Thomas. We met Thomas and his girlfriend in Brazil, unfortunately Johanna had to work but Thomas and a couple of his friends came out for a few drinks and it was lovely to see him. For our last day in Vienna Thomas suggested Schonn Brunn palace as a nice place to see. We were amazed at the grounds. The garden were beautiful and we really enjoyed ...

(23rd): got up crack o dawn and caught train to Vienna, slept most of the way, but nice view along many parts, caught the subway to hostel area and found a hostel to stay for 3 nights...its OK...even though lonely planet recommended it...miss Sophie's in praha was a better recommendation...should have went with the Wombats again, oh well, already paid with cc and is just a bed! so since i have a full day pass i took as much public transpo as possible esp. since i walked almost 15 ...

... also went past the town hall and parliament house, again very impressive... went to the Stephns Church and went down into the katacoombs which were very interesting and huge underneath the church, a bit freaky though with bones everywhere... times about to run out but going to see a concert tonight so will fill you in next time ciao

... and a traditional meal. Then we just headed back to the vans and had another chilled out BBQ by the river. The next morning I headed back into town by myself to see some of the sights we had missed. It was early Sunday morning, so there were very few people around which was really nice for a change. I just cruised around the circular tram line and jumped off at the bits that looked ...

Well, after spending last night in the room and only venturing out for a kebab (!) (not that easy to order in German!), we managed to get out of the room nice and early and make it back up the well worn track to the riding school. We had standing room tickets for the performance, and so wanted to queue up nice and early. Lucky we did...there were already about 20 people there an hour beforehand, and they let us in at about 10.15 for the 11 am performance. We found ourselves a nice ...