First off, I have to say that travelling business is SO much better than economy, it will suck to have to go back to economy on my next trip. From the executive lounge in the airport to the champagne before take-off, the 4-course dinner and the seats lying completely flat, this makes travelling a real experience!
I arrived in Vienna yesterday morning. After getting to my apartment hotel and having a short nap, I went for a walk to start familiarizing myself with the city core. Turns out I am staying abou 5 minutes walk away from tourist central. This area contains St. Stephan cathedral, a huge pedestrian street lined with stores, and the museum quarter. I found the typical tourist draws, the Spanish Riding School, the Mozart House and the Sisi museum. I walked through one of the parks between the museums. It was rather disappointing, there was quite a bit of litter on the ground, which is surprising as this city is in general very clean.
I started to take pictures, then reminded myself that I now live here, and there is no rush to photograph everything. So I just wandered around, not going into any of the exhibits, just soaking in the atmosphere. What gorgeous architecture, fantastic statues everywhere, and horse-drawn carriages by the dozens! Plus, it is extremely obvious that this city markets itself as "Mozart's City", as there are Mozart Kugel (a kind of chocolate confection) everywhere. Even the souvenir shops carry the Mozart name. And to add a bit of flavour/kitsch, there are people everywhere dressed in period costumes, selling tickets to "Mozart evenings", dinners and concerts in old buildings with the waiters and musicians in period costumes. Kind of cute, to me it provides more atmosphere (maybe it's the tourist in me). But if they have Halloween parties here, a lot of people will come dessed similarly. :-)
After about 2 hours, I went back to my apartment and stayed awake as long as I could. I think I made it to 8:30 PM, not bad consiering I'd had about 2 hours sleep the night before.
