vienna

arrived vienna on tuesday afternoon, walked 10 min from train station to pension...had own toilet and shower...heaven...no ac...learning to live without it...not as hot here and no humidity to speak of

walked around some and had dinner at a place recommended, imagine, by rick steves...zu eberner erde und erster stock...thought maybe would be some of paul stocks peeps...and paul, passed near budapest on the train a golf course...horrible condition...literally in a field-slums...you will not want to bring alex macfayden and others here to play for your next guys golf week abroad...good dinner near museums

wednesday did the vienna city walk recommended by rick steves...scheduled for an hour...took over 6....great, relaxing...saw tons...opera....went on the stage...reminded me of time in dc with friend clem seifert from henderson...friend in dc, mickey, who books for kennedy center took us on stage...2 rednecks from henderson-warrenton on stage at national opera...pretty cool

had famous chocolate-apricot cake at cafe sacher...then onto the albertinaplaty art museum...monet...picasso...and 2 exhibitions of american artists...alex katz...seemed familiar...perhaps we have one at ncma?...and walton ford...loved both...cathedral...stephansplatz with multicolored, tiled rooftop...dorotheum auction house...no purchases made...holy trinity plague column-built by leopold 1 to thank God for saving city from plague

also st peters church...then, as in glory days of rome...seems a life time ago...back to room for nap...didnt actually go to sleep, but rested for an hour...then to tour the hofburg castle complex...enough china, crystal and silver to have one helluva christmas party...aint no party like a christmas party cause a christmas party dont stop...quote by chris smith, columbia sc...party man...also sis museum...recalling empress elisabeth, quite the eccentric old witch...and the imperial apartments

wonderful street-film festival infront of city hall...lots of different food stations from various countries...had a taco type salad from mexico with sangria...kept trying to figure out the beautiful lady at the table with me...twin of janet chesson of raleigh who is on the board at the museum of history with me...down to eyes and smile...her husband, hans, i think i heard her say, is not twin to janets wes

other twins spotted...beth elam from warrenton now of raleigh and lauren rutherford, former colleague at ncba


people here say the second world war...not world war two as we do

broke my international traveling rule...nothing american...ie starbucks or mcdonalds

had to have a sprite...just needed something fizzy...stephie harty u know what i am talking about...dove into mickey dees...best 1.79 euro spent...crushed ice...sprite from the fountain...can it get any better

i cannot be in chapel hill at the west end wine bar at 6 pm on saturday night...but if any of u can...please go to cheer on the chris hendricks band...my unc bud, michael sullivan is in the band and they are having their cd release party...for those of you who have received a cd compilation from me this summer...almost all have one of michael´s tunes on it...typically...a winters end...my favorite of sullivans...promises to be a great evening...sullivan thinks i should open a bed and breakfast...meet new people, interact with people, entertain, enjoy antiques...but after 4 weeks of worrying the snot out of the innkeepers with whom i have stayed, probably this is not for me

major street construction going on in prague...made me feel at home...on glenwood

saw a deer in a field while on the train yesterday...lucky for bambi i wasnt in one of the many deer stands i have seen...they seem awfully close together...about 50 yards---oops, i mean meters, apart

met guy waiting for train who had ipod stolen, was in a 6 person compartment...went to sleep listening to tunes...woke up, no ipod

bought myself some way cool silver turtle cufflinks...silver-turtles, combined in one...some of you know i collect turtles...turtles dont like the way things are going...stop...tuck in...wait for it to pass....of course if it is an 18-wheeler...not such a good thing