The 2013 West Suburban Fantasy Football League draft is in the books. For those who care about the awesomeness that is this 16-team scoring only league, the New York Jets (picking 15th overall) will start the season as follows:
QB:
Russell Wilson, Seattle
Ryan Tannehill, Miami
RB:
Stevan Ridlay, New England
David Wilson, New York Giants
Darren Sproles, New Orleans
Rashard Mendenhall, Arizona
WR:
Mike Williams, Tampa Bay
Anquan Boldin, SanFrancisco
Michael Floyd, Arizona
TE:
Owen Daniels, Houston
K:
Matt Bryant, Atlanta
Shayne Graham, Cleveland
For those who read this far and for those who skipped right over the fantasy football, I am still awake as I type this. This fact is only significant as I've been awake for 30 hours or so. After the draft ended after 6 am local time, I got up, got out, and visited Vienna's famous "Naschmarkt" for a stroll through the Saturday flea market. Kind of fun, kind of cool, and since I was neither seeking to rummage through people's garbage nor did I have any extra luggage space to carry crap home, I just browsed and left.
The sunny and pleasant morning continued with a reverse stroll back through the market - Vienna's outdoor fresh market and restaurant alley, if you will. The bright colors and captivating smells were delightful: fresh flowers and spices of paprika and saffron and chili and more created an enticing olfactory experience. Feeling hungry (as I hadn't eaten since dinner last night around 9 pm and it was now 8 am ... and you'd be hungry too if you smelled everything j smelled!) I stopped at Neni, a Jewish owned and operated restaurant at the markt. A wonderful and expertly prepared slice of challa bread French toast with stewed peaches was my treat to myself for getting out of the apartment and exploring instead of going to sleep.
Just another experience I get to check off the list; ironically, thanks to fantasy football and the seven hour time difference to back home, or else there is no way I'm at the markets while the shopping areas are still passable or the fresh produce sellers are thriving or the restaurants are just opening and getting prepped for the day! :-)
(Oh, and on the off-chance that anybody from the league is reading this post, I WILL be kicking all of your asses all the way from Europe. You can't stop me. You can't even hope to contain me.)
That's The Count counting how long I've been in Vienna.
It is NOT the Owl figuring out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
Just in case you were wondering.
It's been a little over three months, to be precise. And exactly three months at work. So we're close enough for international government work. And keeping with the positive vibes of some of the past few posts, it's been an incredible three months. So, a few questions and potential answers:
Does it feel like time has flown by? No, not really. It feels like three months have passed. The days have been filled whenever possible with exploring, adventures, new friends, interesting work, international travel, and anything I can get my hands on to learn in this new culture. I still remember living out of the hotel wondering how I was going to make things work so that ends met ... and I am still incredibly optimistic and excited for what comes next, whatever that may be.
When are you coming back? I'm working on that; give me a little, eh?
What has been the best part of your first three months living abroad? There have been a lot of "best parts" so I'll boil them down to the internal answer first - - the feeling of "I got this." What the heck does that mean? It means, there have been a number of best experiences and best parts: from traveling and exploring new cultures, to learning about Vienna and starting to feel somewhat like a "local," to the food, to the friends, to the experiences ... it's all been great. But what has been the best part is the knowledge that I'm closer to feeling how I want to feel than I have in a long, long time. I was genuinely afraid that this part of me had walked out the door last year, and that's not true at all. I let myself lose this feeling. It petered-out slowly over a period of time that it was almost imperceptible to me, even when evidence was put directly in front of me. It's a conscious and deliberate push to feel good, and not just think about feeling good or think about having fun (you get the point). Everything else that I've done, some wacky, some a little crazy [surprising even myself!], some smart, some not so smart, stems from that feeling.
What has been the toughest part of your first three months living abroad? Nothing has really been "bad," but trying to figure out financials and budget for effectively two lives -- accounts and commitments back in the States as well as living a full life here -- that's been a challenge. Not an insurmountable one, but something I continue to keep an eye on to make sure I'm not costing myself something bad now or in the future. Once tax season rolls around next year, then I'll surely feel a pinch for my adventure here ... but, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, eh?
Why do you keep saying "eh?" You're in Vienna, not Canada, right? Yes, that's true. But a Canadian supervisor came into the office a little while ago and I have some Canadian friends and I was thinking about a trip to see the Blackhawks at an away game next February so hockey was on my mind and wait a minute leave me alone why do you care what I type? This is my blog!
What now? Now ... now I need to get back to work. I'm taking Monday off so a friend and I can explore the Austrian mountains south of Salzburg at a town called Hallstatt. Look it up online if you want. I'm excited to bust out my hiking gear and DSLR, to see how everything handles in a real outdoors environment!
Also, Prague photos are online, but because I uploaded several dozen pics I decided not to put them here. Look for a public photo album on my Facebook page for those of you who have Facebook; that's where I put the high def images and comments. Otherwise, I think this is a link to the Picasa and/or Google+ image library where I have them as well (I have no idea how Picasa / G+ works; it's weird). https://plus.google.com/photos/112554637864868191494/albums/5913903034858700113
No fireworks. No
parades. No BBQs. And certainly no day off of work.
Being out of the country for Independence Day gave me an
opportunity to think about what it means from a different perspective. I also had the chance to discuss some of
those thoughts with friends over a cold beverage in the bar after work,
accompanied by some live jazz, which was great.
So a few thoughts: (1) We like to fight. We earned our independence through a war, and
we continue to place men and women in the line of fire to defend the freedoms
and opportunities that we enjoy back home.
That’s neither a positive nor a negative – I have far too much respect
and gratitude for those who serve to use this as a platform for any kind of
political statement or debate. It’s just
interesting compared to some of the other voices at my table last night. Canada earned its pseudo-independence by
asking nicely. Great Britain is still
essentially overseen by the Crown, even if the legislature is managed by
Parliament. Japan, like the UK, has
actually seen its holdings shrink over time.
I don’t know where I’m going with this.
Let’s pivot to…
(2) Our reputation precedes us. The international perception of Americans as
overweight, obnoxious, inconsiderate, and generally boorish tourists or
politicians who expect everything they want has been around for some time. I suppose a lot of different perceptions of
Americans have been around for some time.
But at least here, the reputation of Americans seems to be in good
standing at least in part because so many people recognize that we are so
diverse. It’s genuinely difficult to
stereotype an American. Most Canadians
are very polite. Most Brits are proper. Most Japanese are very respectful. Most Australians like to drink. Most Americans … what? There are so many of us, and there are so
many differences between different communities and regions, that it’s nearly
impossible to put us all into one bin. That
diversity is part of what makes our shared national heritage so unique, and I
think it helps our standing internationally when people recognize that.
I think I’ve got nowhere else to go with that line of
thinking so I’ll pivot once more. Being out
of the country for July 4th was … interesting. Not because I have a long history or
tradition of spending it with family, or going out with friends … but because
even as options those weren’t on the table at all. It really was just another day. While we sometimes look at the 4th
as a day off work or a chance to cookout, it made me feel strange when everyone
around me didn’t really distinguish the day as special somehow. Because it is special; it is important. The historical connotation is almost second
to ID4 as part of our national identity, and not having that readily and
unmistakably identified by here felt odd.
The people who did identify it as the 4th and me as American
looked at it more like a curiosity: “So, what do you do on 4 July? Why?”
I’m all for learning about other cultures and sharing mine – that’s been
one of the many fun things about living overseas – but think about that for a
moment: something that we grow up learning about as kids and celebrating or
recognizing every year, and someone walks up to you and asks “So what’s this
all about?”
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.
Look, I appreciate it if anyone actually read this far. This wasn’t originally intended as a stream
of consciousness type of entry, but it has certainly turned into one and the
stream isn’t going anywhere fast. I
think the best thing to do is to cut it off before it wastes more of anyone’s
day. We’ll just chalk this post up to “needs
more practice” or something like that, okay?
More travels and adventures are on the horizon, and that
means more pictures. Yay for shiny things.
All the way down my street (isn't my street pretty?)
I have no idea how long the party went
Everybody was in on the party
They brought their own sound system!
Plus crazy double-tall bikes
And everyone's favorite, the Olde-Timey Bike
So, that's something fun that just happened. Only in Europe I guess? I don't know. Still, fun and different to see something like that totally unexpectedly. Yay Vienna!
So nice of you to invite me...
UPDATE: It was the the traditional Vienna Bicycle Corso parade, apparently. Yay.
In honor of social media, memes, and the pervasive presence of twitter
in everyday life, let’s begin this post with an appropriate hashtag:
#firstworldproblems
I’ve written about my apartment in Vienna and so I think the secret is out
that I really like it. There’s only one
major drawback: no clothes dryer.
For much of the world, that’s not a drawback at all! That’s simply a fact. Old buildings don’t provide the same kind of
access to gas lines as newer construction, and electric dryers use a large
amount of electricity. Here in Vienna someone
offered that probably 99% of apartments don’t have dryers and many homes never
will.
Therein lies one of the small but surprising cultural differences … for
I have always had a clothes dryer either in my home or at a minimum in my
building. And I have to say, that if I
stay here for an extended period of time, I sure need to engineer some way to
get that beautiful and magical appliance into my flat. That’s no knock against people who enjoy line
drying their clothes, but I just don’t think that it’s for me.
Like most changes I’m sure this will become comfortable and normal in
time. But for right now, of all the
silly or superfluous things I miss about the US, I can’t believe I’m saying
this … but I miss my clothes dryer L
… so your real home’s in your chest.
– Captain Hammer
I haven’t written a lot lately because I’ve been busy doing a lot. I hope that’s a good thing. Apartment is mostly settled, pending today’s
run to IKEA. Yes, that’s right … I’m
going to IKEA in central Europe. Is it a
little like using an Easy Button to find an Easy Button? A little, I suppose. But it gets the job done in the end.
A few people have commented that I sound genuinely excited and happy
about my living situation in Vienna, and I think I agree with them. That isn’t meant to be smug, but more of an
overt realization that I found a great place in a good area with people nearby
and a lot of things worked out. A lot of
work went into making those things work out, but it’s a nice realization when
it happens. My commute to work today was
13 minutes. Actually, let me rephrase
that, because the word “commute” has different meanings to different people: it
took 13 minutes for me to lock my front door, descend 8 flights of stairs, take
the subway to work, and clock-in for the day.
A guy could get used to that.
And today, for no reason whatsoever that I can discover, Summer Hours
begin. I like the concept of Summer Hours
in the US: work a little more each week day, and take a three day weekend every
week or every other week. Simple and
basic. Well … Europe’s got us beat. Here, Summer Hours consists of: go home 30
minutes earlier every day. Why? I have no idea, just because! That combined with the flexible hours outside
of the 5 “core hours” in the middle of each day, plus the short commute, that
leaves a lot of time out of the office which is just swell.
That having been said, the apartment and the neighbourhood don’t feel
quite like home just yet. And I’m not
sure if they will. Home means more than
just a comfortable place to hang your hat.
It’s more than just a collection of furniture and kitchen wares. As happy and excited as I am to be where
living where I am, it’s tough to say when – or if – it will capture that
feeling of being more than just a temporary dwelling. Does it beat a hotel room? A thousand times yes it does (although, I
sure miss the Marriott bed …. Come back!!!).
Pictures to follow as soon as I get around to taking them. Also, a report from someplace other
than Vienna to follow just as soon as I can leave … hopefully this
weekend.
Huge thanks to my work colleague Aqmal for helping me move all that luggage - yikes! More pictures and descriptions will follow, but I'm just psyched about this place and this neighborhood. This is what city living should be: lots of shoppes and restaurants and cafes any direction out the door. A subway entrance less than 20 ft from the door. A top floor space with tall ceilings, a terrace, and a view. A few co-workers and friends within either walking distance or two subway stops.
I'm genuinely excited for this like its a new challenge or new opportunity, and yet I also hope to spend as little time in the apartment as possible due to work and other traveling adventures. Time will tell! Until then, one last night in a Marriott bed to enjoy. Life officially "living in Vienna" begins tomorrow!!!
Today I ran about Vienna's Museum Quarter, and I cannot describe in words how impressive it is. Former mansions. Palaces. Galleries and monuments and architecture that can genuinely only be found in Europe. Chicago's museums are wonderful; they're brilliant and educational and full of history ... but not like this. I'll post some pictures soon, to this blog or facebook, once I get them moved over to the laptop.
But pictures aren't what this post is about.
Most of my pictures are lousy. I love to take photos (although I'm certainly no expert), and I keep a decent DSLR camera with different lenses and attachments in order to produce a moderately nice result (although I'm certainly no professional).
And yet, most of my pictures are lousy. And that's okay.
Spending almost the entire day running around Vienna and taking pictures, I had a lot of time to think about what I was doing and why, what it means to me. And for me, photography is something that bears more in common with art than for many other people I know. There's a difference between snapping a picture on a phone or a quick point-and-shoot, and really searching and striving for a unique view of a place, a person, or a memory.
Not everyone has a philosophy when they settle behind the viewfinder on a camera, and that's certainly alright. Everyone takes pictures for different reasons, at different times, and in different ways. Personally, I feel like when I take a picture, I want it to be unique. I will suffer through dozens after dozens of photos that don't look good, don't line up right, don't seem to actually capture the subject ... if it means capturing that one unique shot. Because when I look back at that image later it makes me feel like "either nobody has captured this subject this way before, or others have decided that other views were better / more attractive / insert whatever adjective or description you want ... ... but this view, from this angle, in this light ... this is mine. The feeling of satisfaction and joy from that realization makes the memory -- and I'll be the very first to admit that it could be full of crap. That photo could have been taken dozens of times before or seen by hundreds of people over years and years ... but it feels unique and special to me, for reasons that only I know. And that's important.
Some of my favorite pictures of all time were the strange ones, the ones that people didn't notice or felt were lesser than other options. I remember scaling a set of large but awkward rocks on Cape Sounion at the farthest tip of Greece in order to brace against a fall of a couple-hundred feet to take a profile picture of the Temple of Poseidon that nobody else took that day. Seeing that image makes me instantly relive the inspiration that the profile could be captured from that angle, the sheer terror of looking down into the cape, and everything else from that day.
I should be so fortunate to have some pictures from Vienna recreate those feelings.
One of the unfortunate results of searching for those kinds of memories is that the search can be isolating. As uplifting and fantastic as running around Vienna was today, it still felt lonely at times. Therein lies the trade off: point-and-shoot and phone grabs are usually taken to capture our times spent with others. And that's what's missing from this city and this trip so far. The shared experiences. The memories with other people. Friends. Family. And love. This isn't a boo-hoo kind of moment I'm trying to write (although hell, its obviously part of what I'm feeling as of typing), but just an observation.
The time we spend together creates more perfect memories than can be captured on film or file.
That said, I would encourage anyone who enjoys photography to visit this city. It is entirely begging to be photographed at just about every corner, from historic churches to famous opera houses or concert halls to beautiful natural scenery, and of course it is a midpoint to so much of central Europe. Bring comfortable walking shoes. Bring your favorite or your best camera. But most importantly, seek or bring good company to enjoy it with.
Updated 5/26/13 10:15 pm --
I may want to adjust the colors a little bit to punch up the contrast, make the blue and the red especially jump ... but after a whole day of searching and about 100 pictures in an hour or two, I think this is the closest to what I'm talking about. Personal and meaningful to me:
I've remarked before about the Vienna public transit system, and had a quick experience today that got me thinking "this would make for a good blog post." Don't worry, it won't be long (by anyone's standards, but especially for this site!).
Public transit here requires a ticket, of course. These can be purchased in increments from as short as one ride and up to ten; and for time periods as short as 24 hours up to one year. The brilliant thing is that passes for time periods include rides on every type of transport: subway, train, surface tram, and bus (within the Vienna area). There is never any "swipe in" or validation process ... the whole thing is on the honor system.
Except for the random checks, that is. Today, a man in his thirties wearing a plaid shirt and jeans was standing on the subway train I rode. After the subway started, he revealed a badge from around his neck and proceeded to ask everyone to please show their tickets. A colleague of his, a woman in her forties wearing a sweater over a polo shirt with jeans, worked the other end of the car. Failure to have a ticket results in a fine that's more expensive than a monthly pass, so there's really no reason not to have a ticket in the event that you get caught. This time, everybody in our car was good, so the plainclothes officers departed the car at the next station and probably went on to inspect another subway.
It sounds like the system has a very high success rate: people are generally happy to pay for their passes and don't want to try and cheat the system; whether its from fear of getting caught and paying a fine, or their general disinterest in cheating, I don't know. I wonder, though, if they'd have an even higher success rate if Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones ran the inspection service :)
No Ticket!!!
Now, if only public transit passes worked on airships ...
... and, given the conclusion of that scene, that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Calling Shotgun!"
yes I know the biplane had a machine gun and not a shotgun ... but the pun still works, okay? leave me alone...
This was originally intended to be a post after the first
successful day at the IAEA; however, apartment hunting and a long day at the
office sapped the energy right out of me.
So, instead, this post documents two successful days working in Vienna!
The Vienna International Centre is the home of the IAEA and
other UN agencies. It is a large,
seven-building campus located immediately off the subway line, on the banks of
the Danube River. It’s tough to
describe, so I’ll try to upload a picture here:
The VIC, with the Subway station in the foreground [View looking Northwest]
Google Sketchup is fun
The rotunda, with all the Member States flags, around the Memorial Plaza
Inside the office floors are like some kind of horrible
optical illusion. As I look across my
hall, I see another concaved hallway. “No
problem,” I think, “that hallway takes me to the stairwell I need. I’ll just cross the hall and turn left.” Except, crossing the hall and turning left, I’m
actually in a different third of the
building then I need for that stairwell!
ARG! What sick, demented, horrible
person designed this place! I thought
Europeans, and especially central (think: German) Europeans were known for their
views on efficiency? Where’s the plain,
unadorned rectangle? Now THAT’S how you make
good use of space.
Anyways, I’m working in the Incident and Emergency Centre,
which has a difficult act to balance. On
the one hand, it’s an international operations center, which sounds
straightforward enough. Except they
actually have exactly no regulatory authority or jurisdiction to do
anything. They can receive information, process
information, assess information, and share information. Lately, they’ve been asked to conduct
independent assessments and publish recommendations based on data from
emergencies or incidents; but that function is still so new that they’re only
just developing the infrastructure to do it.
I’ll be designing a workflow management system to help them with the
first part – dealing with all that information – as well as other functions
they need to stand up and operate smoothly.
Should be a fun challenge!
I hope to have an apartment soon; I’ve located one – and exactly
one – apartment with air conditioning, and it is allegedly located in a good
area and just across the street from a subway station that can connect
me to work in about 10 minutes. If the
visit goes well, I’ll hopefully have news to report in my next update. If it doesn’t go well … I may not have much
of a choice, really! This is no time to
be picky …
Getting into an office environment and meeting people has
been great. As I may have mentioned (but
don’t think I did), the last few days of not working in Vienna had me a little
down. Just a bit lonely I suppose. But, past trips and experience helped me to
realize right away that it was just some muckity-muck that needed to be slogged
through, and not indicative of any bigger problem. In general, the folks in my group are
experienced and care a lot about protecting people during an emergency. It’s a group with tons of cultural and
geographical diversity, with employees from all over Europe, Russia, Canada,
and only one or two other Americans. Of
course, I’m hopeful that the Canadians and Minnesotan can help me find good
places to catch the NHL playoffs over here, hehe.
I hope to get around to other parts of the city soon and
ideally to get OUT of the city in the next week or two. Do some traveling. Take some pics. You know. No big deal.
I said it in previous posts but Vienna is a great city. Clean, safe, historic, green. I’d recommend visiting to just about
anyone. I have a view towards the West
over the Danube River (obscured by buildings) that looks out towards a set of
hills that border the city, and it’s just a great scene. Of course, it helps that Vienna seems to only
ever be 55-75 degrees F with hardly any rain.
Folks here tell me that won’t last … hence the desire for A/C! Hopefully I’ll have some cool news to report
soon!
And boy, does Vienna give some very nice first impressions.
At the time this post is being written, I've been in Vienna for almost exactly 48 hours. I may need 48 hours to write this entry, so wait until you've got some time to kill before reading.
The city of Vienna is beautiful. Three straight days of sunny 70 degree weather punctuated by fluffy white clouds and light breezes helps. In a nutshell, Vienna feels very much like a classical European city ... which is to say that it's exactly what you think of when you think of a major European metropolis. There are narrow, twisting streets adjacent to modern highways. There are unique and modern architectural constructions down the street from hundred year-old facades. The pace on the streets feels calm; not necessarily leisurely but not hurried or stressed either. People grab food or coffee outside at almost any hour. The public transportation options are plentiful and efficient. And most of all, it's just cool.
My DSLR camera is still packed away, so the following pictures are from my iPhone 4. Some of these images were shot into the sun, which is bad form for a photographer, but the only way to capture some of the scenes for this post. Also, I've reduced the size of each photo to a "medium/large" size for faster loading and a better mobile experience. If the photos are too small OR if you'd like full size photos, just let me know. If I get enough requests I may just open a public Dropbox folder or use another cloud service.
Anyways, this first set is from the area immediately around the hotel, in Vienna's 3rd District. See what I mean about the very classical European style?
The Imperial Riding School - Renaissance Hotel, in Vienna's 3rd District
How did that get in here? Me, at the corner of the Stadpark, adjacent to Vienna's 1st District
These next photos are in front of, and around, the area near St. Stephen's Cathedral -- one of the highest structures in Vienna, easily its tallest church, and the unofficial center of the Inner City: Vienna's 1st District.
Definitely not to be mistaken with Vienna's Inner City, here is where I'll be spending most of my quality time in the next few months. I couldn't access the grounds without either a Visitor or Employee Badge, but give me a few days ...
The Vienna International Center, VIC, home of several UN Offices, and also known to locals as UNO City.
The view across the Danube River, from an area a few blocks away from the VIC.
Looks delightful!
Now, imagine for a moment that you live in a major city, and someone asks you where you live, and you reply "I live near the park." What does that mean to us in America? In New York, it probably means you live in Manhattan, near Central Park. In Chicago, downtown near Millennium Park or in the South Loop by Grant Park. In other cities, it means different things. So then perhaps you can understand my surprise when, just a few blocks away from my hotel, and only just a covered doorway off a major street, I stumbled onto the Belvedere Palace grounds:
I promise that I'll be returning there with my DSLR in the near future for daytime and nighttime shots!
Today, I tried to explore more of the city, and took a surface tram to the area near Kalrsplatz, a central subway station located in front of St. Charles Church -- a gorgeous building:
Continuing the theme of just slowing down and relaxing, I decided to plop myself onto a bench and people watch for a bit. After all, it was nearly 12 noon and it was (yet another) amazing day outside. My inspector curiosity took hold when I noticed men in military uniforms beginning to gather. I was further intrigued - and went in for a closer took - when the church bells sounded for nearly 15 minutes! After keeping my distance from the far edge of the water out of respect, I noticed the uniforms splitting into two groups: dignitaries lining up for lunch, and a band getting ready to play.
I'm American ... don't they know that ropes don't apply to me?
... so, of course I snuck into perhaps the best vantage point possible, and enjoyed a lovely, impromptu concert courtesy of the Austrian National Army.
Apparently the tall American is enough to scare away the Austrian Army!
... or, at least, their band ...
I was joined by a delightful couple on holiday from London: Edmund (Scottish) and Mika (Polish). They engaged a local school teacher who had come out from his office to see what the bells and the music were all about. According to the teacher, the military and members of the Roman Catholic church hold a mass at this church every year to pray for peace. The dignitaries, their families and guests, and members of the clergy then break bread together. The band was playing as a special treat for the lunch feast. Fascinating!
I posted two videos to YouTube, with my amazing vantage point and all:
For some reason Blogger isn't letting me simply embed my second video, so here is the link: http://youtu.be/R2lHD1_A950
Here's a few more pics of Karlsplatz and the church, from different angles.
After all this exploring over a few days, I needed some local food. I found a local schnitzel place next to the Vienna Institute of Technology. Believe it or not, the Wiener schnitzel (Vienna cutlet) is pretty good here.
This isn't my first big post on landing in Vienna and exploring around and my first impressions. Hopefully I'll write that tomorrow. I've taken several pictures and want the post to be a good one for you devoted readers <this is where you insert the sound of me chuckling at how hilarious that last statement was>.
This post is just to stay in the habit of writing, and share a little story that I hope highlights some of the changes I'm trying to continue here in Vienna.
Earlier today, I ventured out to view two potential apartments I might rent for my tenure in Vienna. The first apartment was being leased by a lovely couple whose names were Gerta and Heinz. We met in front of a coffee shop in the building adjacent to the apartment, and went inside to check it out. Right off the bat, I knew that it wasn't going to be a good fit for me. A small studio apartment with low furniture, a very high price tag, and busy traffic all around. Thanks, but no thanks. Yet, I sensed that the apartment was something they took pride in furnishing and renting ... a sense that was confirmed when Heinz talked about some hand-made accent pieces, and Gerta discussed how they enjoy this "side business" since both of them are semi-retired. I stayed, asked some good questions, and then they invited me to chat with them over coffee.
Now here's where the old me would have come up with any reason to bail. Not only did I know that I wasn't interested in the apartment, but I didn't want to be stuck for an unknown length of time in the interests of politeness. But - to my surprise and pleasure - that feeling disappeared as we walked along the Vienna sidewalk. Where did I have to be? Nowhere. What did I have scheduled? Nothing. These two lovely people were being kind and generous with their time, and rather than flee to the relative safety of isolation I said to myself "what the hell, let's have coffee!"
I'm glad that I did. Gerta and Heinz were warm and conversational. I learned that they have a son named Thomas who is a co-pilot with Austrian Airlines, and who flew them to Chicago last year during the weekend of the Air & Water Show. Not bad! I also learned through this discussion that Austrian Airlines has a new non-stop service to Chicago (that makes them the only carrier to do so). They offered some recommendations about Vienna, places to visit, information about traveling around, and details on a high speed boat (!!!) that connects Vienna to Bratislava in about 40 minutes (sweet!). I'm genuinely glad that I slowed down a little, and voluntarily traded about an hour of the day for some coffee with two strangers.
Reading this post back I'll be the first to admit that the story above feels kind of lame. Nothing exciting, nothing dramatic. "So, Nik saw an apartment and wanted to be a jerk by leaving to be alone but instead wasn't a jerk and had coffee with two people. Great blog </sarcasm>" Well, it doesn't have to be exciting or dramatic. It's about change, and reflection, and improvement. It probably says some words like that in the Ground Rules post or the "About Me" section. One of the goals for this trip was to slow down, appreciate things, and continue to be more social and outgoing. So far, I'd say that's an encouraging sign.
Another goal for this trip is to learn how to count goals. For example: knowing the difference between three smaller, discrete goals versus one giant convoluted multi-function goal. That'll come later ;)
