Brothers and Empires

Zak arrived in Vienna without a hitch. It is great to see him-- he has really had an amazingly transformative year. It is great to hear his stories and see the ways in which he has grown. It's been good spending time with him so far, and I am really looking forward to having two weeks of real brother time.

Last night, we walked down to Hofberg Imperial Palace complex in the center of downtown Vienna. We lay out on the concrete entrance yard in front of one of the main palaces and gawked. It is very imposing. We wandered around and explored a little bit further, and then found ourselves locked into the compound. We had a jump a quite spikey fence to get out-- so spikey that it punched a hole clear through the sole of my shoe; thankfully, however, it stopped short of entering my foot itself. I suppose that the Hapsburgs did not want unannounced company.

The hostel is very nice. It is clean, modern, and our six other roommates are quiet sleepers. No complaints.

Today we took in many of the other amazing sites in Imperial Vienna. We walked to the Schonbrunn Palace this morning, and spent a large part of the day exploring the extensive grounds. I think that Zak and I both agreed that the best part of the whole thing was the hedge maze. I kept hoping that we would bump into a centauer or something from Harry Potter. No luck no that, but it was pretty neat-o anyway.

We went the Vienna State Opera this evening. The building is very ornate and it was fun to watch all the ritzy looking people milling around. We got 2 euro, standing-room only, tickets. I wish I could say that it transformed me into an opera-lover, but I kept falling asleep and so it was hard to follow the plot. We left at intermission-- 1 hour of opera was enough to say that we had the experience, but I think more than that might have left me comatose.

We toppped the evening off with the classic Vienna dessert, a Sacher torte, at the Hotel Sacher in downtown Vienna. It was worth the cost of the flight (almost.)