Vienna

Hey Everybody,

Sorry that I have not been able to post during the last few days. I was in Venice, and it cost about 5 euro for half an hour of internet. Though i do love blogging and checking the internet, there was no way I was paying that much for it.

Vienna.

Vienna is not only a gorgeous city on the eastern coast of Austria, but its also the capital. As I walked through the streets I wondered if there were any Arnold Schwarzenegger statues, specifically for the time that he saved mankind. Maybe, I thought, there would be a big statue of him in full Conan attire. Alas, throughout my three days I was thouroughly disappointed for I did not find any such statues.

My cousin was in town for the International AIDS convention. One of the main reasons I was going to Austria was to see her. The first night that I was there,I met up with her and her coworkers. After walking the streets for an hour or so, we ended up eating at Illiys (the coffee chain).

After parting ways, I headed to the bar at the hostel, where I met an Australian and a British guy. The British guy told me that one of his close friends had married into Indian royalty and that he had attended the wedding.

Apparently, the festivities lasted about 2 weeks, one week there were parades and parties all the time, and the other week they traveled into the Himalayes, where he would sleep at villages that had no more then 100 or 200 people. Custom dictates that the chief (or elder) must let travellers stay at his place for free, and the way he makes the money back is that he sells beer to the travellers at a low price.

Of every beer in the world, guess what he sold...

Youll never get it.

Seriously, you wont get it

Corona! He was selling Corona! Apparently if one wants to drink the fine cerveza of Mexico, one needs to go to the Himalayan mountains.

The next day, I walked around "the ring" that surronded the old city. I would not recommend to do this. Besides a few mueseums that are pretty, the area isnt that nice. The point of the ring is to enter the middle. The old city is in the middle of the ring. There is a huge church that is hundreds of years old, but across the street is the McDonalds.

On a totally unrelated note, Mcdonalds is everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

After walking around town for a little longer, I decided to leave to go see Schonbrunn Palace.

I decided that I was sick of paying to see castles and palaces, so I tried to sneak in.

I was successful. I figured that if I walked in with a large enough group that werent wearing the same t shirt I could get in for free. Boo YA!

The best way to describe Scdhonbrunn Palace is that it is the Austrian Versailles. Its a nice palace, but the gardens are the main selling point. After climbing to the top of the castle, I had an unbelivable view of Vienna.

Golden Rule in Europe: If its climbable, climb it!

The next day, I went to the AIDS Conference. Unfortunately, it was expensive to go into the actual meetings, but there was a free part called the global village. This was an area for organizations from around the world to promote their local cause.

There were people walking around giving away free hugs. I cashed in on that one pretty quickly.

I learned that the AIDS epidemic is starting to decrease internationally. It seems that the area that is still greatly affected is Sub Saharan Africa. This is due to lack of infastructure as well as lack of available drugs to help ail people with the disease.

On a totally different note, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and Desmond Tutu spoke at the conference. Also, President Obama made a video that was shown on the big screen at the conference.

For my last day, I had to do maintenece stuff. This meant laundry, hygiene checks, buying soap and all that fun stuff. I ended up meeting a bunch of people from all over in the common room of the hostel, and we all went to dinner together.

I had seen a sign for an International Film Festival that was being held in Vienna. We had heard that there was international food stalls around the festival. I ended up eating interesting chicken teryaki... it was pretty good!

The next day I left and went to Venice..

I dont think I have enough time to write about Venice now, but I will tomorrow!

See you all soon,

Zac