vienna waits for me: she's alone in the new pollution...

hey folks. i just figured out how to make my heater work without it smelling like 400 year old dust in my apartment - i think. if the end of this post starts to sound hazy we'll chalk it up to gas fumes.

yesterday i got to see monika + family again. we went to the 'vienna prater,' which is a giant permanent fair here in the city. it houses a huge ferris wheel, referred to as the 'riesenrad.' you may have seen it in 'the third man.' when you enter the lobby for the ride, you end up standing on a revolving platform with little ferris wheel-cart sized dioramas, and the walls have an (edited) history of vienna from roman occupation until 1955. super cool! <---- austrians LOVE to say this. the carts on the ferris wheel ride are huge - like twice the size of my bathroom in portland. if you book ahead, you can get a fancy furnished cart with coffee and cocktails inside! if someone comes to visit me i will do this nice thing for them, because i am nice.

then we went to dinner in a real biergarten. i think it was the first time i've actually done this, though i'm not exactly hip to the subtle difference between an austrian cafe and a biergarten. regardless, i had some sausage things with pommes (french fries) and a "salad." i put salad in scare-quotes because it was mostly potatoes, plus a few cucumbers, one slice of tomato, and one indiscernible white vegetable. also all of it was half-pickled. it was pretty good! it just wasn't a salad. OH and for dessert, lucas ordered this thing called mohnnudeln, which is potato pasta shaped like fat worms, covered in a butter, sugar, and poppy seed sauce. it is one of the strangest things i have ever tasted; not bad really, just not really dessert? and it is not exactly cover-of-gourmet worthy either - you can imagine what grey potato pasta looks like smothered in butter and crushed poppy seeds. mmmmmmmm!

then i came home and tried to navigate the seemingly endless maze of problems with my 'handy' (austrian cell phone) and internet connection and went to bed.

this morning i tried in vain to find envelopes for over an hour, until i finally called monika. she was like, 'uh, the post office?' duh. then i went out and got lots of fun things to put in those envelopes! i'll be sending out chocolate care packages to the fam this week, plus a few to portland/phoenix/philly (although i may have to combine recipients into one package. i have no idea what this will cost me). i also found a wunderbar bookstore with a huge and non-lame english section (most english sections consist of sci-fi, crime novels, and an endless array of sex in the city spinoffs). i got 'i am a strange loop,' 'the complete short stories of oscar wilde,' and the new david sedaris.

on my walk home i saw what i can only imagine was a political rally. the elections are coming up here, as at home, and there are signs all over the place. except here, when politicians put signs up, they offer up head shots to be defaced by teenage ne'er-do-wells. anyway, there was a huge stage right in front of the stephansplatz with a disproportionately small crowd. it was not like an obama rally. it was also not like a hitler rally, which i was afraid it might be. when the candidate was done talking an austrian pop band starting playing and people started rocking out. it seemed very low key for a campaign event - there were lots of security officers, but it didn't really seem secure. most of the officers were straightening their cute hats in shop window reflections.

now i am home and exhausted. i'm trying to finalize a trip to greece which i hope to take in the next week but i think i'll have to do that tomorrow. speaking of which, if anyone has any suggestions/info re: greece i would love to hear it. right now i'm thinking athens for a day or two, but and the remainder of a week on spetses and naxos.

alles liebes
ashley

this is the austrian national library. i got a card here, but it turns out i can't check out any books. it's literally the austrian national library, full of historical documents, original musical recordings, etc. things 8th grade teachers refer to as "primary sources." but it will be a fun place to hang out, to be sure.