Harry's Visit and More!

Before I talk about Harry's visit, I'll write about the tandem meeting. I went there on Thursday to get some information about the program and maybe meet whoever my tandem partner is. By the way, the program pairs you with a native speaker of a language you wish to learn. It's to help both folks learn a new language in a stress free environment. My partner isn't there - they're in Budapest - but I do meet this Austrian guy named Peter and two girls, Gwen from Texas and Lana (I think that's right) from Canada. I found out that Lana is probably in my German class, too.

Now, Friday morning Harry arrives from Munich. After we get his stuff to my place, we take off and go to Stephansdome and look around inside. I've seen more impressive Churches, even in Wien. But we climb up the tower, which is a very long, spiral staircase. The view is great. I put pictures up on Flickr (at least, I'm in the process of doing that). After that, Harry wants to go on the Riesenrad, the famous ferris wheel, because it's in "The Third Man." Right next to it is a coaster called the Dizzy Mouse with this terrifying cat that the coaster runs through. It's freakier than any of the coasters in the U.S. just because of that cat. We head off, looking for a Café to get some coffee and wind up by the Rathaus. During the winter at night, the Rathaus is lit up in multiple colors and it's beautiful. We walked around there for a bit watching the ice skaters. The rink in front of the Rathaus consists of two large rinks and then a maze of trails connecting them. It'd be very cool to go skating, but it's a bit expensive - 13 euro. We finally found this Café Central, which is a famous meeting place for intellectual types. Trotsky and folks like him met there to talk. It's a very classy joint and Harry and I wound up going there again on Saturday. A pianist plays in the middle of the place and when the first piece ended, Harry was the only one who clapped. I think he started a trend, though, and more and more people began clapping. From there, we went and ate at 1516, which is always very good. Then, we walked around a bit and Harry called it a night at about 11. He'd only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before. I went to the kitchen to read, but wound up talking to Kate, Olga and Eugene. Slobodan showed up and asked if I wanted to go to a pub with them.

We went to some Irish pub and hung out for a while. It was a good time and I met a few people. I gave Harry my bed and crashed on the floor, which was surprisingly comfortable.

The next day we'd set our alarm for 10. That didn't happen. We got up by about noon and headed to Schönbrun. We ate at a pizza place near the Palace which had some very good pizza. At the Palace we walked around the gardens, but it's a little sad since it's winter and there are no leaves or growth of any kind. We climbed up a hill that's part of the Palace grounds and overlooks Schönbrun. The sun came out when we were at the top and the view was beautiful. It was the prettiest day of my trip thus far - and of Harry's too, apparently. We went back to the city and walked on the bridge that crosses the Danube. The sun was setting which reflected off the water. It was amazing. There are pictures of that, too.

We went back to Café Central, which is one of the coolest places I've been to so far. We decided to get dinner at some place that's down the street from 1516. It was pretty good. I had goulash, which came with spätzle. When I had spätzle in Steinkeller's, I did not like it at all. This time, though, I tried it and I wasn't bad. It was the best thing I've eaten, but it was definitely edible. And the goulash was delicious. We went back to my place to get ready to go to some clubs. The first stop we got off at was Schottenring. At this stop, these two guys walk up to us and are start shaking our hands. The guy who was shaking my hand starts doing this weird thing with his leg and I feel his hand reaching in my pocket. I slap his hand out of the way and yell at him. He didn't get anything, but it was a little scary. Harry said he noticed what was happening because the other guy came up to him and asked him for a cigarette.

We went to some clubs, which was pretty uneventful and then got incredibly lost on the way back home since the subways stopped running at midnight and it was about 3 or so.

So that was this weekend. It was a good time, and I'm glad I discovered Café Central.