Yesterday when I was sitting in Trotsky's old Cafe Central in Vienna, reading the election results in the IHT, I kept inadvertently making loud "Aaaah" and "Oh dear" noises, and smacking my forehead with the paper. I was a big hit.
posted by acmcs at 3:49 AM

kidding about both.
Good morning.
Venice is great. A zoo, though. The canals here are nothing like the ones in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam they were wide and stately, and few. These are squirrelly and many, lots of streets just endplop right into them, some even have stairs, right down into the water.

I joined forces with a dude from Chicago, Jason John Francis, who I met on the train, in the search for a hostel. Every single one was full. So we accepted the offer of a dude in the station for a double in a hotel. It's nice to be in a hotel instead of a hostel. Yesterday we just wandered around Venice, getting lost, and I taught him a little Italian. Drank capuccini and hot chocolate and spaghetti vongole with tomatoes. Kind of like manhattan clam chowder, and I like it better than the white-wine-sauce version.

It's once again great to be back in Italy. I feel like I know the people here. Plus it's about fifteen degrees warmer.

Today I am wandering around solo, but JJF and I will meet up for dinner, I think. Today's my last day of true vacation; the rest of my four days will be spent in stages of getting back home at last at last.
posted by acmcs at 3:28 AM

Ok. if you for some reason get a lot of gibberish, occasionally, that's what I thought was an apostrophe. Like the e with a slash through it next to the Y with two slashes through it. The jAE is a degree sign. I guess the Yerp keyboards rock more hard core.
posted by acmcs at 11:06 AM

for some reason cheap email has not found vienna. either it¢¥s free and impossible to find, or zou paz through the schnoy.
posted by acmcs at 6:58 AM

P.S. It¢¥s finallz quit raining, but now it¢¥s just brrrrrliciouslz cold. This morning it was -1¡ÆC. I¢¥m wearing 6 lazers on top.
posted by acmcs at 6:52 AM

Mom and Dan Dietemezer, greetings. I spelled castlz castlz on purpose. Sweet Zosh. And Rachel: she just disses me.
No, Mom, I onlz saw one protest. I think it might have been the same daz as the one in DC. Everz European I meet here is disgruntled about Bush and his war. It¢¥s not popular.

Well, it¢¥s clear to me anzwaz that the waltz is native to Vienna. The buildings are so tall and prettz and the streets so wide zou could walty to work instead of bus.
This morning I went to a applied arts museum but it felt more like shopping. Lots of furniture and glass vases and porcelain and metal stuff.
So then I just went to a sushi buffet place and ate all I could for 10 dollars. I now know something of mz sushi-eating limits.

Last night I ate upscale hash browns at a vegetarian restaurant. I don¢¥t think thez were worth the $7 thez cost, but the waiter was so concerned about mz happiness that I told him thez were great. Also zesterdaz: a portrait gallerz; a music museum; a gallerz called "secession" that had one klimt frieze and nothing else verz artz.

The music museum was fun. Lots of discussion of pitch and timbre and volume and how ears work and accompanzing fun activities. There were actuallz fart noises involved once or twice. I got to virtuallz direct an orchestra. I did so poorlz that thez stopped plazing and refused to continue the song, both times I tried. Also it¢¥s prettz much confirmed that mz pitch is horrible. There was one computer thing where zou sing into the microphone and it provides accompanzment, either smooth or dissonant, depending on how on target zour singing is. Guess mine must be prettz bad. There were also short presentations on Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Haydn, and mazbe one or two other composers. I felt sillz afterward, finding mzself walking around Vienna humming the 9th Szmphonz.

Last night zour basic rhino attack came in handz when I got mugged on the Vienna metro. just kidding.

This morning there were some prolife fellows actuallz persuing me down the street in attempts to give me pamphlets with the title "Pregnant? Worried?". I tried to assure them that I was neither, but thez were so agressive I was afraid thez were going to trz to verifz mz assertion. Finallz I had to actuallz turn around and go a different waz to rid mzself of them. I thought not speaking German would do the trick, but that just got them more excited for some reason.

I had to switch rooms in a hurrz at the hostel zesterdaz morning, right before I left to go out. This morning I discovered that I had left mz tevas in the first room. so I went back, knocked on the door, and retrieved them. the guz at the door didn¢¥t know what tevas were, but he was friendlz anzwaz. Then about five minutes later I found out i was missing mz washcloth, so I had to go back. And zet five minutes later, no toothbrush or toothpaste. Thez laughed at me.

Now I¢¥m going to a butterflz house. I don¢¥t know what that is, but i hope it¢¥s full of butterflies.
anne
posted by acmcs at 6:28 AM

Ok, I can't stop. Just in case some of you didn't check it out, here's some picks from the NE trivia:

2) In 1927, Edwin E. Perkins of Hastings invented the powdered soft drink Kool-Aid.
10) Nebraska is the birthplace of the Reuben sandwich and the Runza.
11) Spam (canned meat) is produced in Fremont.
21) Wayne Nebraska is well known for the biggest and best chicken show in the world.
22) South Bend Nebraska serves more testicles than any where in the world at its 'Testicle Festival'.
23) Marlon Brando's mother gave Henry Fonda acting lessons at the Omaha Community Playhouse.
26) Mutual of Omaha Corporate headquarters is a public building built with 3 floors underground.
27) The Nebraska Cornhuskers have been to a record 27 consecutive bowl games and 27 consecutive winning seasons.
29) In Blue Hill, Nebraska, no female wearing a 'hat that would scare a timid person' can be seen eating onions in public.
30) The world's first college course about radio personality Rush Limbaugh is taught at Bellevue University in Nebraska.
33) The largest porch swing in the world is located in Hebron, Nebraska and it can sit 25 adults.
35) The world's only museums dedicated to Fur Trading are located at Fort Atkinson near Blair, Ne. and in Chadron, Ne.
37) The University of Nebraska-Lincoln weight room is the largest in the country. It covers three-fourths of an acre.
38) Chevyland USA near Elm Creek, Nebraska is the only museum dedicated to a single line of cars.
39) The largest Kolache Festival in the world is located in Prague, Nebraska
50) Dr. Harold Edgerton of Aurora, Nebraska (also the famed home of several Sarah W. Thompson relatives) is the inventor of the strobe light.
51) Kearney, Nebraska is located geographically dead center of the U.S.-between Boston and San Francisco, each way is exactly 1733 miles on either side of Hwy 30.

What a terrific place. Can't wait to get back to the Kool-Aid and testicles.

posted by acmcs at 2:59 AM

Cheers, Jess. Hearts don't need warming during Xmas in Nebraska! Hearts is toasty.

I just found a terrific Nebraska site. Everything you could want to know. You can even listen to our state song, Beautiful Nebraska. (This is news to me. I thought it was There is No Place Like Nebraska. But maybe that's just our fight song.) There's also very informative sections on "Cheeseburgers in the Heartland", "Where are We in the USA?", a handy though hardly comprehensive "Notable Nebraskans" link (Carol McShane conspicuously absent), all kinds of "Cool Cows" photographs, and, finally, what Nebraska site would be complete without "Cornfields Forever"? It goes without saying there's a Cornhuskers link. Herbie Husker commands us all to Listen to the Nebraska Tunnel Song. I've never heard of this. You can also hear our beauty of a fight song. Test your knowledge on the Nebraska Towns quiz, and bone up on yer Nebraska Trivia. I confess I fell into one of the "doesn't give a hoot" categories on the quiz, and probably not even the born-in-nebraska-and-doesn't-g.-a.-h. go big red
Personally, I think the whole site must have been concocted by Omahans, because there's nothing about our beautiful state capitol on it, with the "Eastern Nebraska" section devoted entirely to Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.

If anybody can do well on the Nebraska towns quiz, my money's on the Cherry children.

Ok, ok, enough.
posted by acmcs at 2:49 AM