Day 15 in Vienna

Linda Eder's Song "Vienna" keeps going through my brain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JK4OP-sGPA

I wish Ron, my true love (and the biggest Linda Eder fan I know) were here to enjoy it with me . . . "cause in Vienna we were poetry, Yes In Vienna love was alive." Some day we'll be in Vienna together.

Right now . . . I'm enjoying Vienna with my daughter Lauren. She's in bed . . so the blog for the day fell to me. I have had many of you email me that you are following our blog. We are actually having fun writing it . . . maybe it's a little like being a foreign correspondent or a travel writer. Anyway - it is fun sharing our adventure . .. thanks for your interest in it.

I just spent the last three hours "skyping" with Jennifer at the office. See our previous blog on skyping (day 9). We finalized the dental office schedules for June and July. It's basically a process of analyzing supply and demand and making sure all the staff, room, equipments etc. are available to meet the needs of our patients. It's something we do togerher every month and it's really amazing that I can do it from Vienna. It almost didn't happen though . . . . .read on and somewhere in the next few paragraphs you'll find out why.

We had pre-arranged to stay at a little pension for our time in Vienna. (Prior to this we had been staying in small local hotels) The pension came recommended and looked really cute on the internet. A pension in Europe is generally a hotel with a few rooms and run by a family. It has the advantage typically of being cost effective and can offer one a glimpse into the life of the locals. When we arrived at the pension . . . after a peaceful 4 hour train ride from Prague yesterday afterno - we took the city bus directly to the pension. The entry was off a side street, through an alley, up some common stairs and into a locked reception area. (Upon check-in I was given a key to all three areas) The room was not as cute as it was on the internet. The room was on a very loud street. The curtains did not hav blackout lining. The toilet was in the hall outside the room (though the shower and sink were inside the room). I started to feel stressful about getting sleep. It was very clean and obviously well run little place. . . but the towels were stiff and hard. A note accompanied our 2 hand and 2 bath towels that said we would get clean ones every three days. I determined that it would be ok and after delivering our bags to our room, we first started to get settled and then determined we needed to explore our neighborhood . . we could finish unpacking later. We went off to discover Vienna. It was late afternoon by this time and we decided that the street we were on looked like it was worth exploring. We strolled for a mile or so and discovered it was a shopping mecca . . . with very few restaurants. This was not normal . . . we have had no shortage of restaurants . . but this street appeared to have only shops.

We have shopped for only three things in Europe and they are all for Colby at his request:
mints - he can't chew gum in the MTC but can have mints, we are trying to find a package of breath mints from every country we go to
watch - he thought it would be nice to have an inexpensive watch from Europe to wear as a missionary
small writing book - he had almost filled his little leather moleskin book up with notes from the MTC and was hoping to have a new one from Europe to write in once it was filled.
We have looked for these things in Paris, Krakow and Prague. We had had luck with finding mints and had about given up finding a suitable watch or writing book. (I could write a sidebar here about the sad demise of wrist watches in our technology laden culture - but it's late - so suffice it to say I will never substitue an electronic device for a wrist watch. Many of the younger generations will never understand the pleasure of wearing a nice wristwatch) Well ... this street in Vienna (Mariahilfer Strasse)is full of shopping spots and we have succeeded in finding him all of his requested items.

We scouted out a place to eat dinner and were about to give up on the area when we happened across a restaurant called Vapiano. It is an Italian pasta bar. They make fresh homemade pasta on site. There have pizza, pasta and salad stations. They cook everything up fresh for you as you order. Really good, fresh food. This would be another great business idea for the U.S. My Father Ron is always looking for restaurant ideas for his developments .. . this is worth looking into if you are reading this blog today. Go to www.vapiano.com

During our walk on this major shopping street Lauren discovered an English Language movie theatre. After dinner we decided that we should go see a movie. So . . . we got tickets to the 7pm showing. We saw the movie Rachel Gets Married, which we thought was a romantic comedy, a chick flick. NOT! It was a drama - about drug rehabilitation, atonement and family relationships. Very powerful and moving . .. but not as light and romantic as we were in the mood for. (Ron just skyped me and told me that Anne Hathaway won the best actress oscar for her role. All I can say is ... what planet have I been living on because I didn't know that . . .and . . . she earned the oscar ...and . . . I can't wait to tell Lauren) The movie ended at 8:46pm and as we walked out of the theatre onto the street we discovered that it was pouring with rain. (It has rained a lot while we have been in Vienna.) We brought our umbrellas to Europe . . .but of course . . .they were in the hotel room. Anyway - I looked at Lauren and said . . "We didn't get our romantic comedy chick flick - but the Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Called "The Womanizer" in Austria) started a minute ago. How about if we just turn right around and watch another movie?" I didn't have to talk her into it. Her eyes lit up with excitement and we turned our heels returning to the same ticket saleswoman who sold us seats the first time around (in Austria you buy specific movie theatre seats) on the 5th row again. The movie was not very good -but it was at least light. It was a fun way to spend the evening together and the rain had passed by the time the movie was over. I certainly felt luxuriously free with my time. I have never seen two movies in a row before and had always wanted to do that. I guess you might say I checked an item off of my bucket list; if I had a bucket list.

While we were going to sleep that night, Lauren and I talked about the movie and came up with a list of discussion list outline like you would use in a book group discussion. Things like . . ."how did the camera angle affect your sense of perspecive in the movie . . .Did the toasting scene at the rehearsal dinner make you feel more intitmately involved with this family and how?" We were too tired to go on and so joked that we would create discussion questions on "The Womanizer" the next day. It was great that we both understood immediately that there was nothing deep enough about that movie to warrant a discussion list.

We returned to the pension and attempted to login to the internet. We couldn't access it in our room at all . . . only in the public area, but even then . . . it was so slow. We couldn't retrieve email with any speed. It was so slow ... I knew that I would not be able to skype on it. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I knew that I had a web meeting with Jennifer at my office the next evening and there was no way I could do it under these circumstances. So . . . I looked at Lauren (it was 11pm by now) and said something like.. . "what do you say we get out of dodge and go find us a decent hotel room with internet service?". We left the pension - (down the stairwell and through the alley previously described) and visited a couple hotels in the area. We asked the desk clerks to show us the recommended room and after about 30 minutes time we had the key to our new room. We made our way back through the alley etc. to the pension, packed our bags up (we had barely unpacked anything) wrote our host a note and arranged for payment of the bill. We slipped the note and the keys under the door of the kitchen and slipped out the door down the stairs, through the alley and back onto the street. We rolled our luggage to our new hotel and slept well all night long. (I did return in the morning to the pension just to be sure that the owner had received payment and keys.) That is how I was able to keep my web meeting appointment with Jennifer Friday night. While I was conferencing with her . . my friend Pat happened to be in the office for an appointment and I got to see and talk to her too. Technology is so cool!

Tomorrow we'll tell you all about the Palace here and the Royal Treasury. And oh yes. .. more food pictures tomorrow.