Those server moves at my host finally went ahead last night, bringing all sorts of difficulty. All my sites are up and down like yo-yos (but with much more down than up), and email is decidedly flaky.
So no, I haven’t died. But if you sent me an email in the last few days and didn’t get a reply you expected, it may be worth sending it again.
Sorry.
You look out the front door and realise it’s time to buy a lawnmower.
(‘Old’ in that you have a lawn to call your own and look after. ‘Responsible’ in that it’s you who has to do the looking-after.)
Things that appeared rather popular in Vienna:
Not to mention the cafes – there’s got to be as many cafes in Vienna as there are pubs in Edinburgh, which is no small achievement. Those we visited were great for a coffee and a cake. Mig had pointed us towards Cafe Central and Hawelka, which contrasted fairly sharply. Hawelka in particular is one to return to.
For return we shall. In five days we hardly stepped outside the Ring, so it may not be too long before we catch a bit more time and see some more.
In there it was quite touristy, but in a relaxed, friendly sort of way. And I make no bones about us being tourists; not ‘backpackers’ or ‘travellers’, ‘visitors’ or ‘guests’, we were honest-to-goodness sightseeing tourists. Actually, I was quite glad of the tourist-friendly nature of the city, as my German is much worse than I remembered and we were regularly relieved by the way everyone we encountered spoke English better than we did. It would appear that for me the language isn’t still in there somewhere…
Vienna is definitely worth a look, especially if you like parks and museums and great-looking buildings to wander among.
Expect more posts on the subjects of high-quality street-performers, minimalist art at the Albertina, the Spanish Riding School, and possibly a photo or two.
By way of a disclaimer:
Being just back from a short holiday in Vienna, I have a number of observations accompanied by a mind-bogglingly large number of photographs (tremble before the terror of digital imaging!).
In the hideously likely event of a few finding their way here, don’t feel obliged to read them. Just nod and smile – it makes me feel good about myself.
On the other hand, do feel free to read away, natch.
I spent last week at Spring Harvest Word Alive, working on the youth team there. It was great to get away, and surprisingly refreshing even though I was doing basically what I do here anyway. I guess some old cliches are cliches becasue they are true. Which is not to say that I’m not looking forward to the actual holiday holiday coming up in the next couple of days.
Right about… here.
Cricket as a metaphor for neo-colonial social decay.
(Via Peet, and his dad.)