Wienershnitzel

incase you haven't seen them, here are the pictures from Day 1 until Rome.
http://www.jacobbrand.com/gallery/bela

6-22-05
We got up this morning, and after breakfast, we loaded the car and headed out of town. Dad had these grand ideas of going to a bunch of small towns along the way from Salzburg to Vienna (Wien). We stopped at Mauthausen, which was a concentration camp during WW2. Even though I have taken countless Jewish History clases, and visited many holocaust museums, it is still almost a shock to my psyche every time I go to another memorial. This camp is still in the condition it was during the war, and it was eerie to be there.

We came to Wien around 6:00, and the guy that owns the hotel was really nice. He was a funny guy, and gave us great suggestions on where to go. Right outside the hotel (which is on the Northwest corner of the center of town), there is the "campus". I am not sure that there is actually a school there, but it is in the courtyard of a block of buildings, and it is this green area with five restaurants and a grocery and a park and a playground, all situated within the courtyard of this enormous block. We came in at 8:00 and couldn't find a place to sit, and then fianlly squeezed into a table that already had a few people sitting at it. I've never seen any restaurant so crazily crowded! We finally ordered around 8:30, and it was 9:20 before we got our food. We thought they'd forgotten about us, but I suppose with a restaurant that full, it takes a lot longer to get your food. But it was worth the wait. I got salmon, and dad got lamb, and they were enormous delicious dishes, and there wasn't a tourist in sight. We like to pretend we're not tourists wherever we are. So we loved it.

6-23-05
We got up early today (surprise surprise), and walked around town for what seemed like forever. We went to the synagogue, and took a tour after some very in-depth questioning about our reasons for being there. Security is high. We went and ate some bread and cheese and yogurt lunch (we have a fridge in the room, so that keeps the perishable stuff a while longer), and then we went to do some decision making about the next ten days. Here, coffeeshop life is the norm in the afternoon, so we decided to be locals, and sit in a coffeeshop. After that, we went and sat in a park, and then went and sat at dinner on the campus, and then came back here. Today was a day of sightseeing the town and the people of the town.

Tomorrow hopefully we'll be going to a palace, and taking a ride on the enormous ferris wheel here (it used to be the largest in the world before someone else decided they wanted one bigger).