I had planned on traveling to Bratislava this morning to begin my summer of European jet-setting, but I reconsidered leaving Vienna for the following reasons:1. Heavy consumption of weißer Wein (a.k.a "white wine") is fun at the time, but not so fun the next morning.
2. I checked Gmail as I was getting ready to leave and the first email was from a friend in Greece. He wrote, "Whatever you do, don't go to Bratislava. It sucks."
Thus, I opted not to skip town. Instead, I went to tour around the Hofburg palace, the former home of the Hapsburg empire, in the middle of Vienna. What's most spectacular about Hofburg isn't its physical beauty (which is awe-inspiring) but the fact that the palace has survived two Turkish sieges, a invasion by Napoleon, and two World Wars intact.
Pictured above is a statue of Franz Joseph, which rests in the middle of a courtyard at the Habsburg palace. I don't think the picture really does justice to how majestic the place is, but I thought it was sort of cool that Franz Josef was the last Holy Roman Emperor. A throwback to AP European History, if you will.
The photo to the right is of a building near Museums-Quartier, a district near the Hofburg. I think this is something related to Parliament but again, I don't read German, so who really knows. Whatever it is, it's beautiful.
And finally, I really empathized with the kid in this picture. Do you remember being seven and sitting through family vacations? Torture. I watched this kid up and leave his family to enjoy a little "me time" in the fountain. $20 says we've got a future Philosophy major on our hands.
