We spent one night and two full days in Vienna. I was a little shocked by how wonderful Vienna was. Yesterday was, most probably, one of the best days of my life. St. Stephan's cathedral is where we went first. St. Stephan's is downtown, and surrounded by stores and beautiful buildings in excellent condition with a fine pedigree and history, I have no doubt. Everything was painted fresh white or in a shade of sea foam green or pale yellow until we rounded a corner and there, suddenly was St. Stephan's, a hulking Gothic church black with pollution and age. The cathedral was looming and threatening, and totally awesome. We went on a tour of the crypts under the church, including an old plague pit that was filled with bones, and the walls were absolutely covered in stacks of femurs and skulls. It was a little horrifying and a little thrilling.

Yesterday we went to the Schonnburg and Belvedere, two palaces in Vienna. We got to walk around on the grounds a lot, and it was so good to be out in the sunshine. The Belvedere has been converted into an art museum, and they have a fantastic collection of late 19th century art. Gustav Klimt art is so beautiful it hurts a little. It was after the Belvedere that I walked through the garden and tall box hedges and flowers planted in regimental formation that I got this curious feeling of complete delight. I'm here, I'm seeing things I had not even dreamed of, and it's even more wonderful than I thought it would be.

on the way to lunch I passed a plaque saying something about how "In 1780 Mozart composed a song here." Hell yeah. I've been by a place where Mozart composed a song, in fact I ate lunch near there.

This computer is being dumb about my camera, so I may just put off uploading pictures until I really must, when my 2 gig drive is full.

Today is a free day, so it will soon be my nap time, either that or I will be tempted out into the hot sun to drink warm wine, which sounds like a terrible idea. Speaking of terrible ideas... I ended up in a fountain last night, which was not a terrible idea after all, even though it meant I had to wash those pants this morning.

When we got back to Olomouc after our three hour bus ride from Vienna it was funny to feel like I had come home.