Vienna

As can be ascertained from the title I'm in Vienna. As usual, I haven't spent my own money to make it here and have come here on a 'work' trip. By work I mean, accompanying a prominent musician who is here to rehearse with a Viennese orchestra for a performance in Mumbai on 16th November. To elaborate further, a grand total of 1 hour of rehearsal spread over 3 days. Go figure. I guess that explains why i have the time to blog.

Got here yesterday, at 6 am, made it to the plush Meridien by 7 and generally hung about in the coffee shop (couldn't check in til noon- why?- too long to explain) drinking coffee & hot chocolate til about 9 or 930 by which time it was daylight, and I couldn't take hanging in the coffee shop any longer. Headed out for a walk for about an hour, being extremely careful so as not to lose my bearings. Was hungry, and found a McDonald's...yes my 1st meal in Wien was @ McDonalds...that too a burger, fries and coke for breakfast. If you think that's weird, and sad, I suppose you're right. Found a museum (forgot the name since its all German) and took some nice pictures. Also wandered into a park with statues of Goethe and Mozart, and a huge mansion/ palace type thing. Took more pix. Went to a Tabac (tobacco) shop and added to my collection of rolling papers. Finally it was 11 or 1130-ish, and I went back to the hotel, hung about for 30 minutes or so, this time in the lobby. At last it was noon, and I got my Eu170 room. Took shower etc, then headed out. Walked to the St Stephen's Cathedral which is on a pedestrian street called the Kartnerstrasse, which is filled with shops. If window shopping were a literal term, I'd have bought the highest amount of windows ever. I must have gone into at least 30 odd shops- Zara, H&M, Benneton, Espirit and some more local ones whose (German) names I forget, and bought essentially nothing. Maybe a few years ago, I might have said fcuk it & 'dekha jaayega', and weilded my credit card but I guess old age and the rapidly falling rupee have added to my frugality. That and flashes of Clothesrack every time I see a pair of GStar jeans for Eu129, Adidas Superstars for Eu 90 (which in Sq are S$110 max...you know the math)and shirts and T shirts for Eu40- Eu 60. I don't get it...this is possibly the most expensive city I have ever visited. I did find an a comics store where I got a cool Homer Simpson battery operated beer bottle opener which says 'HmmmBeer' in Homer's voice (for AVP), an R2D2 mug (for KWB)and 2 Snoopy figurines (for the self and the sister) and mints housed in a can of Duff beer. I also got a few things for the better/prettier half, which I'm not revealing here, since she (is the only person who actually) reads this blog.

Back to the Cathedral...it's being restored, but I still think it's one of the most awesome gothic structures I have ever seen. Got out my cybershot and took some more pics which will add a few MB to facebook's servers.

Today after the rehearsal, had a cup of coffee over some business chit-chat with LS & KS, then headed to the MQ...i.e. the Museum Quarter. A good 20 minute walk..checked out some stuff and decided I'm not a museum person...at least not alone anyway. So then headed off to the shopping district...Vienna's 'Orchard Street'...i forgot the name of the (German) street which is very close to the MQ. Went into another 50 or so cool shops. Almost bought a pair of (on sale) Vans for Eu 60 but got visions of InR 3500 flying away for a pair which I'll wear maybe 20 times in a year, so I just added to my collection of windows.

All that invisible excess baggage is going to kill me!

Looking forward to tomorrow...post rehearsal, have been invited to join LS & KS to join them visiting a friend of theirs who has a house in the countryside.