A Real Quick Trip to Vienna

I went to pick up Elsie in Vienna on Sunday. I gave myself about 3 hours of venturing the city before I had to get her at 7pm. It was beautiful weather when I left at 1:30pm in Graz. It was horrible, foggy freezing weather when I arrived in Vienna 2 1/2 hours later. I did not really plan for that...which was dumb. It's true that since Graz is in a valley it never gets as cold {or as hot} as the rest of Austria. Art didn't come with because it's not really inexpensive to travel by train and we thought we'd save the extra dough for all of Elsie's material needs. This was ok...it meant I was the first person she'd meet and, of course, like more forever. :)

The train ride was the beautiest yet because of the red, orange and yellow tree filled mountains.

It was hard to capture through the window on camera, but I tried.

I also met two different girls that sat in my compartment with me. We discussed American/European differences and this is always interesting. One girl, exactly my age, told me "Americans are so obsessed with marriage. Is it true that they ask the bridesmaids not to look better than the bride?" Ha. She's probably seen a reality bridezilla show or something. People over here tend to wait quite a while before marrying. Kinda the same trend as in America, but much stronger over here. I also sense that people don't have as many children, if any, here. The Austrian government pays a monthly stipend per child to encourage more children. Men can even elect to stay at home with the baby for up to 2 years and get paid a portion of their salary and their employer has to take them back after the two year period.

Ok, so back on topic....I really only had enough time to figure out the subway/tram system, ride it to

and fro several times, realize Vienna is so fancy sassy that they even have jewels in the subway station,

freeze my buns off walking around (sorta lost), grab a latte macchiato and study my map

see the Rat Haus (town hall)

and Stephansdom Cathedral

even see the inside while Sunday night Mass is going on.

(the back is gated for this reason...tourists are constantly shuffling through)

before getting a bit lost again and hurrying to find my little puppy. I was uber-perked to finally

meet her. I was literally sorta jogging through the empty, frosty streets of Wien with my

now-unable-to-fold-back-neatly map crunched in my hands.

I finally got to her. She was in the midst of a sea of Malteses, two Yorkies and a porker.

and she was by far the bestest! I wrapped her in a towel, put her in my backpack with just her

little head poking out and put my backpack on backwards (essentially a baby sling) and took to

the streets of Wien.

We made it home at 10:30 pm safe and sound and met Art in the train station. He had a huge

grin on his face. The owner told me she was an only child and needs special attention...ah,

now I have two of those. :) And today they checked out the snow together...