The past 48 hours

Well, we've officially landed in Vienna and are settled in our apartment. Traveling here was a bit of a traumatic adventure, but all in all we're here. Our travels began Friday at 3:00am when Justin picked us up to take us to SFO. Unfortunately for us we found out United's desk doesn't open until 4:15am, which actually turned out to be 5:00am. I wasn't very impressed with United, other than the fact that they managed to get all of our luggage to Vienna. Beyond that, not thrilled. But that's a whole complaining rant/sotry I don't feel like writing about.

The misadventures for me began on the flight from JFK to Vienna, when the mild nausea I'd felt since 3:00am (which I had attributed to nerves) turned into strong, almost violent waves of nausea smack dab over the Atlantic Ocean. You know you've hit a low point when you're praying to God hunched over an airplane toilet thousands of miles from land. Apparently it was a flu bug that Todd picked up about 12 hours later and has since run its course through both of us. Thankfully I had one Compazine packed in my purse, and the flight attendants also gave me some sort of medicated liquid that managed to make the nausea tolerable though not cured. Todd forever gets the boyfriend/partner of the year award for staying by my side through the whole ordeal, speaking to flight attendants, giving up his seat so I could try to lay down, etc. I don't know what I would have done without him.

Driving into Vienna was truly breathtaking, as the entire city is in bloom and the weather has been fantastic -- about 80 degrees yesterday, and 75 today. It really is one of the great European cities to visit. After three months I'll hopefully have a greater sense of what living here is like too!

We share an apartment with two students, Vera and Marlene (very nice), and our room is absolutely huge. It has 20-foot ceilings, with large windows overlooking Neustiftgasse and the "Bombay Indisches Restaurant" directly across the street. The room is furnished with a king-size bed, a computer desk and chair, couch, coffee table, etc. It's been easy to settle into, and we're within walking distance of most of the major sights of Vienna. That's what we've been doing the past two days really -- just walking around the city, exploring new parts and visiting old haunts. Austria is a very Catholic country, everything (and I mean everything) is closed on Sunday, and most businesses (including grocery stores) are closed by 5:30pm Saturday. On the one hand I admire their ability to 'take a day of rest' on Sunday, but honestly it can be a royal pain in the ass to an American who's used to doing errands when they want and not having to worry too much about closing hours. I'll just have to adapt.

Today Todd and I got 12 fantastic hours of sleep (after nearly two days with no sleep), then went to the Kunterhistoriches Museum, which is one of the best art museums in Europe and we missed on our last trip. Nearly all of the contents of the huge museum -- ranging from Renaissance and post-Renaissance art to Egyptian and Greek artifacts -- came from the private collection of just three Habsburg empire rulers. Makes you realize just how powerful and huge the Habsburg Empire was at its peak. Then we walked throughout the city, enjoying a nice lunch in the Bundesgarten, sunbathing with all the Viennese who are just as pale as me.

Tonight we're grabbing dinner with our roommate Marlene (Vera comes back from Bulgaria on Tuesday and we'll meet her then), and then maybe we'll watch another episode of "Deutschland Super Star" aka German American Idol. It's too weird to even describe. I may end up devoting an entire post to it.

We're trying to work on our German, because it became pretty clear to us yesterday that when you leave the tourist areas English is not nearly as common. Plus not speaking the language can make you feel pretty isolated...like being on the U-Bahn (subway) today and Todd telling me that the two people across the way were clearly talking about me, but neither one of us could understand it. We'll keep working on it, though the process has been a little harried. All part of the adventure. Gotta go to grab dinner in a little while, so I'll sign off for now.