last day

well its my last day here and I am really not sure what I want to do....i might just go somewhere nice and sit, read harry potter and eat and drink some beer, seems like a very Viennese thing to do really, I am excited and sad to be leaving and I look forward to seeing everyone when i get back, and also look forward to subjecting everyone to a very long slide show of pictures. (evil laugh)

Prague

ok, just got back from Prague, super awesome city, I think it may be one of the most beautiful cites I have ever seen, the train ride was around 4 hours and on the way there I almost died of heat stroke because of the total lack of working AC in the car and the total lack of windows, not good, the ride back was much better though. Anyway, here are some neat pictures for everyone to see, the city really is super nice so enjoy (I am way to tired to tell you want everything is...sorry :)

weekend

hope everyone has a good weekend coming up, I am leaving for Prague in the morning so thats what I will be doing until sunday, ill let you know how it goes

sorry

sorry for the lack of updates, its really hot here so I have not been super active, I will try and remember to post some new pics, we have a group dinner tonight so thats what is going on tonight

busy again

ok its been a busy few days. on Thursday we went as a class to see John Roberts, well we had been lead to believe that it would be like a small group Q&A kinda thing so everyone was super pumped, however it turned out to be a lecture series that he had already been giving for days to the Penn kids and we just got to sit in on that, and to make it worse no one got any pictures with him because he was whisked away at the end of the class....damn it.....but it was still cool to see him speak and stuff. On Friday a group went to Bratislava.....let me save you the trouble and tell you dont go!, let me sum up Bratislava for you with one story, on the way back to the train station when i was classing the car door i ripped the door handle and other various door parts off the door, the driver was like "thanks, not ok, thanks" basically the trip in a nut shell, its totally a soviet block that is still coming out of all that and its very small and there are only a few things to see....its also pretty dirty and nasty.....food was good though! and there is a good exchange rate, 24 SK to a US dollar! weeee monopoly money, its fun to pay with 1000 dollar bills, I will put some of the pictures up later on.

busy busy

ok, didnt post yesterday because I was very busy, we saw the Austrian supreme court and one of the judges came and spoke with us in the morning and then later gave the actual building tour and then we were greeted by the president ofthe supreme court. After that I saw The Third Man which is a really famous movie that was shot here in Vienna right after the war, its very interesting because you can see the bombed out buildings and the after math of the war here and recognize scenes at the same time from present day locations. pictures below of the court house and today I am going in a few minitutes to have a tour of a local hospital and museum or something, not really sure, one of the Austrian students has a sister that works there so a group is going.

crappy

ok forget what I said bellow, I just got back from the resturant at the grand hotel, if you are in Vienna some day do NOT go there, the service was very good (admittedly very very good) but the sushi was way below sub par, terrible for 30+ euros in fact. There was a small table with 3 trays, one all tamago (not bad), the other had some nigiri and maki selections, one was some sort of quasi California role with only avocado and the rest rice!, and then a huge bowl of pickled ginger or Gari (NOT made in house i might add...if it was then it was not very good); then across from that was a little stand made to look like a street sushi stall (yattai i think) and there were plates of the nigiri that had the same selections on all of them that you could take, had the regulars, salmon, shrimp, some different white fishes, no eel....well it was just not good, not good at all...the fish was stiff and bland and they were poorly formed, an utter disaster. Carolyn and I have had sushi that was light years better at a one room shack resturant in Asheville than in the Capital of Austria, in one of its most prestigious and expensive hotels....much better sushi...sublime really.... I waited all weekend to eat out for this? terrible...they should be ashamed of themselves for claiming to be so good, but at least it was a nice walk this morning, its nice and quite and there are not that many people out, so that was nice.

brunch on sunday

ok, i just found the most insane Japanese restaurant with an all you can eat sunday brunch....I am so going, and its in one of the really nice hotels here. go check it out, really interesting menus - Unkai

...just got back from the clock museum, very interesting stuff, pics later. I stopped by the store before coming upstairs and on the way out some girl was buying a cart load of liquor (classy) and then another girl dropped a bottle of ouzo on the floor, it make the place smell "Very nice" (Borat voice), no pics of that though sorry.

funny stuff

ok i have been watching youtube videos...I know, in Vienna, great use of my time, well its better than sitting here staring at the wall...or reading for school, anyway i found some insanely funny clips enjoy .

for people who say metal lyrics make no sense...i agree if you are talking about this band, and so does the guy who made this video, watch and laugh your face off
metal interpritation

this is me a few years ago, i dont know who let this video out..
me...

um, can you say perfection?
yessssss I can

ok this guy gives metal fans a bad name for sure....but it is funny
sad sad man


this one is really just for Russell, Josh and Mike, it wont mean anything i think to anybody else but feel few to check it out...it puts the wow in WoW...oh and try and guess what series that slow music in the middle comes from...I know, do you?
WOW!

always good to get a ninjas perspective
ninja metal

Finland is strange
very strange


THIS is for Ben...and this is as welldrums
ok this is too king of drummers

and....something to make you laugh Pablo P

uhhhh, im totally sick and havent done anything all day but lay here being sick....so not a good time.

happy 4th!

I hope everyone had a great 4th, we had our group dinner at one of the traditional wine houses on the outskirts of Vienna, it was a good time, getting there was not so good as my street car ended up getting stopped by the one in front us, which had something going on but im not sure what, so I missed the group and had to find my why to the place alone, long story short, it sucked, but I got there just in time for food and a good time was had by all.

in addition

I also noticed that not many people are making comments on the posts, this makes me sad, please post, I know you all arnt working ALL the time, i mean come on! Its easy to do, i mean if i can figure it out gosh, what excuse could you possibly have!?

military history

ok here are the pictures from the military museum, which was very cool, it seriously is a temple of glory pretty much, so really it was just freaking awesome; the guy who gave us the tour was actually the director and he was only in his 30s...and he has every battle and important officer in Austrian History memorized, it was quite impressive, while you are looking at these I want you to guess who's car and jacket you will see, its a game, dont fail. oh and the huge room with the plaques on the wall is the hall where they put all the names of high ranking officers who died in combat up until 1918, apparently the last one was kinda terrible officer or something and got himself killed because of stupidity. on another note we had our first real class today, i tried really really hard not to say anything, i did really, and i think i did ok, but man, its hard when you got harry belafonte and Danny Glovers all around you saying stuff, i mean come on!...enjoy the pictures.

well today was the first day of classes, its seems like it will be ok so far..maybe....there is this one person, picture all of "those" kind of people, like "that guy" in crim and the others over the course to last year and every other person like that you have ever seen....this person is worse...back seat far corner, comments on everthing said, no matter who says it, talks over anyone and everyone, and was talking when the retired dean of the law school here was speaking...in a room with 30 people....yea....other than that we went to the military museum and saw some cool stuff, lots of walking though and it was very hot so I am very tired now, ill post some pics at some point later

I did 10 hours of walking yesterday....not all of that on purpose, word of advice, when in Vienna do not leave without a map thinking you can find what you are looking for, it wont work and you will get lost and end of walking all over the entire inner city. but on the plus side I did seem some cool stuff early in the day, ill post more later


heres a few pictures as well for everyone from Stephonsdom or St. Stephen's Cathedral

heres some more shots around the hotel so you get an idea of the area

here is a shot down the side of the Marriott on the right, you can see the building in the back which is a super fanzy 5 star hotel and restaurant


down this one you can see the park, Stadtpark
Stadpark Information


the super fancy hotel Palais Coburg
Palais Coburg information
I was walking by this place the other night and there was a maserati outside as well as a ferrarii with a trunch full of louis vuitton luggage, of course I thought I would try and get the name of the owner and maybe pass it on to a certain someone we all know who would like to meet rich man cough Denuhhhh cough, I guess they didnt understand that was what I was trying to do when I jumped in it and tired to drive off with the car...oh they also have a modern hi tech strongroom/safe in the basement with 24 hour guards...in case you needed that service, and the cheapest rate I have seen so far is 560 euros, and the most was 2040...do the math...

interestingly , while may of the buildings here would appear to be stone they are in-fact plaster over brick, they just do it really well here
again the park in the front of the hotel
now here are the picutres from inside the park, i wont comment on all of them as they are mostly in the link i put above or they are self evident for the most part





my parents in front of the Kurslon, they have concerts there every night apparently the famous golden statute