praha,ha,haha, und wien

let me start out by saying that paris was tres belle!
we flew into paris on the 14th and spent three increeeeeedible days there! we saw the kafka museum, the astronomical clock, st. vitus cathedral (possibly the greatest of nostradomadon's late anti-trans-gothic works), and heard people speaking in hilarious czech accents. now as all of you know, paris is the biggest party city in the world. the pub crawl is an institution of night life there, and boy oh boy did we ever see some pub crawls! in fact, get this: we even joined one in progress and tried to get some free shots that the group leaders were pouring into the excited crawlers' mouths from vodka bottles! and matt even got through and snagged one before they discovered our ruse and made us go away. it was at that point that the group leaders lined up all of the partiers in a single file line and made them hold hands while they took them from pub to pub for overpriced drink and strained conversation. the people in paris were magnifique! but to be fair, the city was gorgeous, the traditional czech cuisine was stellar (how many pork steaks can one man eat in 3 days? fifty is the astounding answer), and the beer was oh so tasty. we even encountered a couple of students from america in one of the pubs! and, prepare to be wowzinated: they were from minnesota! and not only that, they were from the twin cities! and not only that, they went to the u! so naturally we hung out with these two lovely ladies for the remainder of the night. they also introduced us to their macedonian friend (read: man they had met for 5 minutes in a souvenir shop about an hour earlier) who turned out to be a real stellar gent: he bought us round after round of drinks until not only could I not stand up, but also I felt like my entire world was made of bouncy foam. it was at that point that we returned to the hostel. on a related note, we shouted with a russian man on charles bridge about rugby and football for about 10 minutes, mostly because those were basically the only two english words he knew how to say. we bade each other good night with a heartfelt roar of "MOSCOOOOW!!!"
this experience has led me to believe that cold war tension is finally starting to thaw.

shovel pass

so, now lets see what josh left out....

hmmm, well here we go:
sugar > breathable air
pointillism > gravy ? (this is still debatable)
vishnu > pepsi
the satchmadon was a large prehistoric beast, much like the brontasaurus, yet the satchmadon can be distinguished by its deep and soothing singing voice and its insatiable lust for peaches, and only peaches.

also, now we are in wien! huzzah! after nearly missing our train (major disaster avoidance #4) we arrived in vienna in the mid afternoon (only after i discovered that i had carelessly lost a camera which was not mine to lose :-( major disaster not avoided #1). as we joked about our incredible indignance that carlye and hannah had not met us at the platform...we looked down the platform to see them there, meeting us at the platform. hugging, kissing, tears, etc.!
after matt had a dangerous run in with a sprinting backpacker, we successfully made it back to our respective host's dorms and deposited our things. we then met up amongst a wine festival featuring wine tasting, wine chess, and marauding children living lawlessly off the land in little cardboard boxes! (they probably moved back into real housing when their parents had enough wine...or did they?)
hannah and carlye gave us the grand tour of wien 1, including a wonderful trip into stefansdom (which may have, in fact, surpassed nostradomadon's masterful st vitus cathredral, due to st stephen's quadruple antiquarian style swimming buttresses). then we went to get a delicious and wonderfully affordable wiener schnitzel! jawohl! we then sat out in front of the belvedere palace eating our schnitzel and debating the pros and cons of childhood, breathable air, ice cream, windows, and the indian ocean.
next we ventured accross the street to a wonderful greek restaurant where i'd eaten with my family a year earilier. the owner immediately recognized me and invited all of us in for a free glass of wine. we sat and chatted and carlye decided that it would be best for all of us that we had dessert. she asked for a menu, and the waiter suggested that we allow him to 'make something greek for us.' he did, it was glorious. baklava, zuckertorte, natural yoghurt with honey and bananas and nuts! yum. then the owner came by and gave us a second free bottle of wine, because, as he said "it is good to have some wine and beer when you are on holiday no?"
what a great guy. shameless plug: go to the art corner greek restaurant if ever you are visiting vienna's belvedere. :-)

well, that was probably our most lengthy post in months! so, in conclusion;

FACT: there are 77,777 peanuts holding up each of st vitus' mighty columns, thats more peanuts than the center, of the sun.