The Final Day

Today was our last full day in Europe, and we spent it exploring the city of Dublin. Like every day, we began with a breakfast at the hotel, and then went off to the city center via the Luas tram. The first thing we planned to do was visit the Trinity College Library. Trinity College was founded in the 1500s and its library has a vast collection of historical books dating from medieval times to around the 19th century. One of the most famous books from the library is the Book of Kells, an original gospel manuscript in Latin dated back to the 9th century.

After going through a short exhibit about the book, I got to see it with my own eyes. It was quite incredible, for being written over 1000 years ago. The illustrations which made the book so famous were so amazing to see on the ancient pages. After seeing the book, we moved into the long hall, the library that inspired many movie libraries, including the Jedi Archives in Star Wars Episode II. The hall had an exhibit that changes monthly, displaying some of the books in the library. The theme for this exhibition was doctors, and we saw many old medical textbooks, as well as the first anatomy textbook ever (from the 1600s). After browsing through the souvenir shop, we wanted to go the Irish National History museum.

Unfortunately, it was a Sunday so the museum would open at 2PM, so we needed a way to pass the time. First, we went to Dublin Castle. In its courtyard, there was an exhibition on sand sculpting where I saw some amazing pieces of art. We decided not to do the tour of the castle though, since I can't even remember how many castles and palaces we've toured in the last 3 weeks. Instead, we decided to just go on the Luas tram line to the end. On the way, we saw the suburbs of Dublin with its gated communities and commuter parking lots. The end station of the line, Tallaght, was a new super-modern development just outside of the city that had a ton of new apartment buildings. Since Ireland went into recession in the last year, the city was mostly a ghost town, with hundreds of buildings "For Sale," "For Rent," or "To Let" (For Lease). We then took the tram back to the city and went to the history museum, close to Trinity College.

The museum had exhibits mostly about Irish archaeological history, starting with prehistoric times. We saw many stone age artifacts from when people first settled the Ireland. The next exhbition, the highlight of the museum, was about the bogs of Ireland, and how well they preserved artifacts and bodies. We saw four naturally preserved bodies ranging from 8000BC to 1500AD, one so well that we could see the face and hairstyle. The next few exhibits covered Ireland's history with the Vikings in the 9th and 10th centuries, the introduction of Christianity in Ireland, and Ireland in the middle ages. There were also three non-Irish exhibits, about Egypt, Rome, and Cyprus. The museum was decent, and basically a lite, Irish version of the history/art museum in Vienna.

Since it was now around 4PM, we were hungry. The first place, "a Persian Restaurant" we wanted to eat at tried to scam us with foreign exchange rates, so we ate at a Lebanese restaurant next door. In this regard, when you travel, never agree to be charged in U.S. dollars on your credit card because the exchange rates are very unfavorable if you do. There, I tried some falafel and lamb donner meat on Naan bread. Since we were exhausted, we decided to rest at the hotel until around 7:30PM.

Our final exploration of Dublin was short and rainy. We walked around Grafton Street and Temple Bar, but there wasn't much action outdoors due to the rain, a guaranteed attraction in Ireland. After a final walk through Little Italy and O'Connell street, we returned to the hotel for good. Tomorrow, we'll be going to the airport and flying home to Boston. When I'm home, I'll post all of the pictures and do a final entry about the trip.

Dublin and Wicklow

Sorry I didn't make an entry yesterday, but I was simply exhausted last night. I'll tell you what I've done in the last two days here, as well as outline our plan for tomorrow, our last full day in Europe. When I return to the U.S., I also plan to upload the rest of my photographs from Bratislava and Ireland.

On Friday morning, I woke up bright and early at 7AM to catch a bus to the airport in Bratislava. Because it was very crowded, I hand to stand for a majority of the 30-minute ride. We went on a Ryanair flight direct to Dublin, Ireland, and arrived at around 1:30PM local time. We then took a bus to our hotel directly from the airport. Our hotel, The Gibson, is a very new hotel with a very modern design. I was quite impressed. After a short rest, we decided to go out into the city.

We first took a tram from our hotel to St. James Gate, with the plan of taking a tour of the Guinness Brewery. Since we were hungry, we had some lunch at a nice little café, served by a French guy living in Dublin. After that, we walked to the Guiness Brewery. I could smell the hops in the air as we walked in, bought tickets, and discovered that the public area was simply a part of the brewery that was no longer used. The museum that was there explained the brewing process. At the end of the tour, we got to the top of the storehouse for a panoramic view of Dublin and the surrounding area.

From the brewery, we took a bus to the city center where we walked again around Grafton St. and Temple Bar, the city's most popular and action-filled streets. We also walked up to O'Connell Street to find out the place where needed to be picked up by a bus the next day. We were once again getting hungry so we walked all around the city in the three main streets I mentioned earlier. We eventually settled at what seemed to be a good Asian food restaurant. For appetizers, I tried some delicious dumplings as well as some good sushi. The appetizers were very good and made us expect similar for the main dishes. Unfortunately, the main dishes were not as good. The beef teriyaki dish I ordered was actually just a steak (with no teriyaki sauce), and the chicken my dad had in his udon noodles was awful. After leaving, we went to the hotel and went to bed very quickly.

Today, we woke up at around 8AM for our first breakfast at the Gibson. After eating, we went to a tourist office on O'Connell street to go on a tour of the Wicklow county in Ireland. The Wicklow county is the region just south of Dublin with some spectacular mountains and endless green pastures. Our tour guide for the trip was very informative and provided a lot of interesting commentary, and our bus driver drove us very well.

First, we drove through the suburbs of Dublin out to the countryside where we saw many beautiful landscapes. Our first stop was about 45 minutes from the city at Blessington, a small resort on an artificial lake. Although the lake was only created 80 years ago, it looked like it had been there for millenia, and fit perfectly with the mountainous landscape. After a 30 minute coffee break here, we drove again through the countryside where we learned that many famous movies, like Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan, were filmed in the area.

Our next stop was near the Wicklow Gap, or highest mountain in the Wicklow Gap. There, we saw some spectacular mountain views despite clouds. There was also a castle ruin from around 1000 years ago that we could explore. After this 10 minute stop, we descended into the valley of the mountain in the ancient settlement of Glendalough. This settlement dated back to the 6th century when the first Christians arrived in Ireland. There was an interesting bell tower, a ruined cathedral, and a large cemetery. There was also a 1-mile walk to a nearby lake with wonderful views of the valley (pictured above).

After spending around 2 hours in the settlement, we drove to our final stop, Avoca. There, we saw an authentic hand-weaving business. We could see weavers design and weave their designs with 100-year old equipment. Shops in the settlement and around Ireland sold many of the clothes and linens weaved there. We also ate our lunch there, despite it being already 3PM. The lunch I had though was incredibly filling. I had a sausage roll and a potato cake filled with ham, cheese, and onions. It was really good, home-made like food. Once we left Avoca, it was only an hour drive to return to Dublin. By 5:30PM we were back in the city.

After an hour-long break at the hotel, we went out the city with the plan of going to some live Irish music and dancing. We eventually settled on a pub recommended by our tour guide at the Arlington Hotel on Temple Bar. Since our show would start at 9PM, we walked around Temple Bar and heard some of the music being played on the streets. Eventually we got back to the pub and listened to some (loud) Irish folk music, and saw some traditional Irish tap dancers. Like the tour guide said, it was a "lite" version of the Riverdance theater performance. At 10:30PM, supposedly when things at the pub were "just getting started," we left for the hotel.

Tomorrow will be our final full day in the city where we'll go to Trinity College to see the library and the Book of Kells, as well as visit the Irish National Museum of Archaeology. It's been a long trip, but I still have one more day to go.

Bratislava in the Rain

Before I talk about my eventful day in the Slovak capital city of Bratislava, I'd like to share my pictures from the 4-day stay in Vienna here: http://bit.ly/oLeKIs

Today, I basically learned that Bratislava is a nice, little city that can be explored to a large extent in a single day. After a delicious breakfast at our hotel, we went out to the plaza in front of our hotel to look for a good tour of the city. In Vienna, we learned about a tour that ridiculously charged 40 euros, and when we asked how much bus tours costed, we learned that they were 30 euros per person. Luckily, we found a tour on a train-like bus (pictured above) that only charged 10 euros per person with an English guide, so we decided to go for it.

This was in fact, a great decision. In our part of the bus there was only one other group, and the guide was actually a person who would talk to us and show us the city. Because of this, we had a nice one-on-one tour where we could ask questions and learn a lot. We drove around the entire city, seeing the old town, many churches, and the Bratislava Hrad Castle. At the Hrad Castle, we stopped for about 15 minutes for another great panorama of the city. After that, we drove along the Danube and then concluded our tour back in the Old Town. I learned some basic history about the city, as well as the entire country.

After this tour, we decided to go to recommended museum called the Police Museum. To get there, we would have to go on a good walk through the Old Town and pass the Presidential Palace. When we passed by the Presidential Palace, it just happened to be at the time of the changing of the guards, so I got to see the traditional ceremony occur. When we finally got to the Police museum, we were confused, as the lights in the entrance hall were off and the receptionist was sleeping. After he woke up and we asked about the police museum he said in Slovakian: "No, the police is in the next building." When we repeated "museum" he said "Oh" and then made a phone call. A lady then showed up and unlocked the museum and turned on the lights. At this point, we thought it was going to be a disaster but the museum was actually very nicely set up and had a variety of interesting artifacts and exhibits. The only problem was a lack of English, but I still got to the uniforms, weapons, and tools used by the Police throughout the decades.

After the museum, we walked further away from the Old City to "rehearse" our public transportation trip to the airport tomorrow. After a bit of walking, we determined where we would change from our tram stop the airport bus, so we wouldn't have to do it with many bags in the rain. We then took a tram to the hotel for a short break. Next, we walked to a nearby church known as the Blue Church for its external appearance, but it was closed. We then walked to the more famous church, St. Martin's cathedral, and went inside to walk around for a bit. We saw an interesting treasury, as well as a historical crypt from the 1100s.

By now, we were quite hungry so we walked around looking for a place to eat. In this time, we explored all of the Old Town and its interesting courtyards and architecture. We eventually settled for a generic lunch restaurant where I had a hamburger with some absolutely delicious french fries while my dad had pork with wild mushrooms. Before returning to the hotel for a break, we had a quick pastry dessert at a nearby cafe. Unfortunately at this point, the drizzle that was going on throughout the day became a downpour so we had to go back to the hotel. We wanted to go to a Japanese music concert sponsored by the Japanese embassy in the main square, but it was cancelled due to the rain. Since the rain was closing down the entire city, we decided to just wait at the hotel until around 8PM.

It was still rainy outside but we were hungry, so we decided to look for a place to eat. We eventually settled at the Sushi+ Japanese restaurant across the street from the Japanese embassy. The food was actually absolutely delicious, and was the best Japanese restaurant I've ever eaten at. I had large piece or chicken cut into bite-sized slices with teriyaki sauce and rice. Even after the restaurant it was raining, so we decided just to go back to the hotel. Tomorrow, I'll be waking up at 7AMto fly into Dublin, Ireland, spending our last three days there.

Austria, Slovakia, and... Kuwait?

I've done an incredible amount of things today, yet I still have 4 days left in the trip. I'll quickly go over just some of things I did. We began our day with our final breakfast at the Vienna hotel. Instead of going to the central cemetery, we decided to go somewhere more exciting, the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts) in Mariatheresienplatz.

The museum was a massive gallery covering art from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and Holland, including Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, and Bruegel, just to name a few famous painters. The museum was set up similarly to the Louvre, with each section of the museum devoted to a certain art origin. Each room was also architecturally designed in the style of that particular culture. For example, the entrances to Egyptian rooms looked like ancient, golden temples with heiroglyphics, while the Roman and Greek rooms were covered in marble and full of columns.

After buying an audioguide, we chronologically went through the museum, starting in Ancient Egypt and ending in the Renaissance period. The museum was very interesting and I saw some famous paintings. The only problem was a special exhibition from a modern artist named Jan Fabre, whose mediocre ballpoint pen art pieces were covering priceless painting from the Renaissance era. After finishing the museum and buying a few souvenirs, it was already 2PM.

Next, we went to the city center at Stephansplatz and climbed the north tower of the Stephansdom cathedral. There were 373 steps, but the climb was well worth it. The views from the top of the cathedral were incredible, especially since it was our first sunny day in Vienna. After descending from the cathedral, we had some late lunch from a fast-food vendor. I had some Doner style chicken, and also tried a bit of falafel. Before we left Vienna, we also had some Italian style ice cream.

To go to Bratislava, we used the Twin City Liner boat from Vienna. We got front row seats in the incredibly comfortable boat, but also spent some time outside while on the trip. We saw the Danube canal of Vienna meet the actual Danube river close to Slovakia, as well as some riverside fishing cabins. The boat went incredibly fast for its size (reaching a speed of 70 km/h), since it had two 1000 horsepower engines. We were in Bratislava within 75 minutes.

In Bratislava we reached our hotel within minutes and noted that it was an incredibly condensed city, with all of the major attractions and buildings within a one square mile area. Our hotel is in an excellent location and our room had a nice view of the town square and the castle. We also found out that the rooms directly next to us were the offices of the Kuwait embassy in Bratislava. If we leave our hotel room, the first thing we see is the desk of the embassy and the flag of Kuwait. The technical border to Kuwait is only inches away from us now. The building next to our hotel is also the U.S. embassy.

In Bratislava, the first thing we decided to do was to go to the UFO observation tower. This unique tower was actually the main tower of a suspension bridge (pictured above), holding up thousands of tons of steel, asphalt, and automobiles. The view from the top was quite incredible as we saw three countries, Slovakia's capital, Austria's farms, and the Danube in Hungary far in the distance. We decided not to eat at the restaurant up there though due to its absolutely ridiculous prices.

Next, we decided to take a walk in the neighborhood near our city and realized how small the city really is. We spent only an hour but walked through the entire Old Town seeing many various restaurants, shops, and embassies. As we walked, we tried to decide on a restaurant to eat at later on. Eventually, after a short break at the hotel, we had dinner at an authentic Slovakian restaurant. Due to the similarities between the Slovak language and Polish, we could speak in Polish without too much issue. I had a potato pancake stuffed with various meats, including pork, chicken and beef, and I also tried some authentic Czechoslovakian dumplings.

Looking back at the Museum of Fine Art, I can't believe that was still done today, but we still have a full four more days left in the entire trip before returning to the U.S. Tomorrow, we'll spend our full day in Bratislava, just exploring the city. On Friday though, we'll be flying to Dublin and spending our last 3 days of the trip there. I hope to upload my pictures from Vienna tomorrow, so you can expect those soon!

Mountains and Museums

What I thought was going to be a nice day to relax was in fact very busy and exciting. After our typical hotel breakfast, we had a plan to begin our day at three different museums in the city, about torture, Esperanto, and globes. The torture museum was the one we decided to go to first, so we got off at its metro stop. It took quite a while to find the museum, as it was under an large aquarium complex, but when we did, we were glad to see that it would be in English as well. What we essentially learned was a history of the torture devices used in Europe for centuries, and a bit of history of torture itself. Some of the devices we saw included the gallows, the leg screws, and the iron maiden. We also saw some tools of execution that were historically used around the world. The tour ended with an Amnesty International sponsored exhibit about human rights and the unethicality of torture.

The next two museums we visited were in one of the government buildings, so we got a combination ticket and used our Vienna Card to save some money. The first museum there was the Esperanto museum. Esperanto is a language that was developed in the late 19th century by a Polish linguist from Bialystok, who wanted to create an international language. His vision was for the entire world to have no language barriers. He tried to accomplish this goal by making an incredibly simple language with no special rules and exceptions in grammar. For example, all nouns end in o, all adjectives end in a, all adverbs end in e, and all infinitive verbs end in i. The museum focused on Esperanto in the media, and the efforts for it to become an international language. We saw many posters and products made in Esperanto, as well as some basic rules of the language. For example, the Movado watch is an Esperanto inspired brand that means "always moving."

The other museum in this complex was the Globe Museum. This museum had a vast collection of globes dating from the 1500s to the 2000s, and gave a history of how and why they were made. I saw 500-year old inaccurate globes used by the early explorers, I saw celestial globes, (maps of the stars as seen from the "outside") and even globes of other worlds like the moon and Mars. For someone who enjoys geography, I found the museum very interesting.

Our next planned activity was to ascend the mountain to the west of Vienna and visit the villages of Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg for beautiful views of the city. To get to the villages, we took one of the metro lines to its terminus, and then took a bus from the station all the way to the top of the mountain. We started in Kahlenberg, which was a small village with a private university, hotel, and restaurants overlooking the city of Vienna. Due to some clouds, the view wasn't spectacular, but still nice to look at. The village itself was uninhabited until the 18th century, when Polish military forces, led by the Polish king, Jan Sobieski III helped to defend Austria from the Turks. Because of this, there was a Polish church there and many of the people in the village spoke Polish.

Next, we wanted to go to the nearby village of Leopoldsberg, but we didn't quite know which path to take. To be safe, we just followed the road but joined a path towards the village halfway there. At Leopoldsberg, there was a fort used by the Polish army, and even more spectacular views of the city, despite the clouds. If we went to the villages on a sunny day, the views would be simply amazing. We took the walking path all the way back to Kahlenberg and noticed that it was significantly shorter than the winding roads, so we had time to have a quick snack overlooking Vienna before taking the bus and metro back to the city.

Since we were exhausted, we rested for about an hour at the hotel, but we decided to then go to the film festival at the Rathaus (town hall, pictured above) at around 8:30PM. Today's showing was a recorded concert of Beethoven's ninth symphony in one of Vienna's concert halls, which was quite interesting with such a massive screen and soundsystem. It almost felt like we were there.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Vienna, so we'll probably visit the church in Stephansplatz, and possibly visit the cemetery where Mozart and Beethoven lay. In the evening, we will take a riverboat to Bratislava, Slovakia, to begin our two-night stay there. Vienna has been a great and exciting city, and I hope to be able to visit it again in the future.

Royalty, Diplomacy, and Classical Music

I've done so many things today in Vienna and even outside of Austria (technically), so I'll share them with you so I don't forget these great experiences. Just after our second full day in Vienna, I feel like we've been here for a week.

We started our day as always with a breakfast at the hotel, but we then took the metro to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of Austro-Hungarian royalty from the 17th to early 20th century. After waiting in a very organized line system, we got tickets for a guided tour. We were lucky to come to the palace at the right time, because if we came just a bit later, we would've missed the tour.

I learned quite a bit about not only Austro-Hungarian history, but about French history as well. The palace was where Marie Antoinette grew up, and Napoleon lived and raised a son there during his reign of Europe. Some of the many rooms we saw included bedrooms, dining rooms, waiting rooms, and studies. After about 80 minutes, our tour concluded.

Since it was close to 1PM, we wanted to go to another attraction, the UN Headquarters in Vienna, for a guided tour at 2PM. The metro ride took about 30 minutes since it was taking us from one side of the city to the other, but I think it was worth it. To enter the headquarters, we needed to pass through airport-style security, and show our passports, since we were technically leaving Austria and entering international soil. Once we were in the visitor center, we got our tour tickets and I had a quick sandwich for lunch.

Our tour was led by a nice woman from Sudan who gave us a glimpse at how diplomacy is done in practice at the United Nations. We began the tour in the plaza in the center of the campus's many buildings. Here, flags of all 193 member states were displayed, as well as the flag of the Vatican City. The first "exhibit" we visited was a model of the complex where we learned about the history of how the UN came to Vienna, and why the building was designed the way it is. Next, we went to the UN conference center where we saw one of the massive conference halls where delegates from member countries meet to discuss and vote on global issues. Something interesting we learned about was how the interpreting system worked. There are six interpreter cabins above the room where interpreters sit and interpret everything spoken in the room from one of the six official UN languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian) to their mother tongue, transmitting it to one of the six audio channels. By doing this, a diplomat who knew any of these six languages could be a delegate at any UN conference without any trouble.

After seeing the conference hall, we walked to the rotunda for the International Atomic Energy Agency, where we learned about the UN's job regarding nuclear power. This was one of the Vienna headquarter's main focuses (Vienna's overall theme in the UN is International Security). We finished the tour at an exhibition showing how a certain UN resolution drastically reduced the amount of nuclear weapon tests in the world. Near the UN Headquarters is the Danube TV Tower (pictured above), where we quickly ascended for a decent lunch and amazing views of the city of Vienna.

After spending about an hour at the TV tower, we returned to the hotel. On our way, we stopped at Stadtpark station to orient ourselves for a concert at night, but got lost while doing it. At least we got lost then, and not while looking for the concert. At our hotel, we bought tickets for this classical music concert, not really knowing what to expect. Before going to this concert in Stadtpark, we decided to go to what we thought was going to be an exciting light show near the concert hall. We found out it was actually a modern art exhibition with a presentation about "time," with a description that seemed too deep to make sense ("intertwining the contradiction of time as a meaningless, precious symbol.... ... into a musical presentation that will open the mind"). All it was was 47 different speakers with clocks and alarms ticking and going off with different tones, something Pink Floyd already did a better job at 40 years ago.

We then decided to go early to the concert. This was actually a great decision as we got front row seats. The concert itself, which started at 8:20PM and lasted two hours was very interesting, and not boring, as I thought it would be. The band, which was a mixture of string and wind instruments played pieces from Mozart and Strauss, with the occasional accompaniment by opera singers and ballet dancers. The musicians were great, and there was a nice touch of comedy added to the show.

Now, we're sitting at the hotel, already preparing for what we'll be doing tomorrow. Just like the tour guide said, there is just too much to do in Vienna. Tomorrow, we'll probably go to a couple of museums, go to a mountaintop view of the city, and possibly go to an astronomical observatory at night. After so many exhausting activities, tomorrow will be a nice day to relax before going to Bratislava on Wednesday. Now, it's time to sleep.

A Day in Vienna

Today was our first full day in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. We began our day with a breakfast at our hotel. Although it was okay, it was nowhere near as good as the breakfasts we were having in Budapest. Once we finished our breakfast, we took the metro to Volkstheater and went to Maria-Theresien square. This square, surrounded by various museums was the meeting point for our Vienna walking tour.

The tour itself was 2.5 hours and brought us by the Imperial Palace, Volksgarten Park, Main Theater, City Hall, Rotenturmstrasse (pictured above), and the St. Stephen's Cathedral. Although it wasn't as exciting as the walking tour in Budapest, I still learned a lot and saw many amazing buildings. Most of the architecture in the city was from the 18th and 19th century, and many of the famous people who lived there included Mozart, Beethoven, and Sigmund Freud. We concluded our tour near the cathedral where the tour guide talked about how we should always keep exploring the city, as 2.5 hours was too little to see the entire city. Before continuing, I had a quick Bratwurst hot dog.

After our tour, we had an interesting adventure getting to the Science/Technology museum, or Technisches Museum in the southwest part of the city. We first took the metro to a remote station, then took a bus, and walked another half-kilometer, going in an unnecessary circle. We eventually found it and ended up spending the majority of the day there. There were 4 total floors each with their own themed exhibitions. The first floor, or ground floor in Europe, had an exhibition about the advancement of astronomy. I got to see how the science progressed from medieval telescopes to massive observatories and satellites, and how our understanding of heat and the universe was radically changed in this time. The other exhibit on this floor was just a bunch of illusions, mostly regarding light.

The next floor, the first floor, had three main parts. The first part we visited was a history of heavy industry (mining and processing raw ores). I learned how raw materials were extracted from the ground once with buckets, then trains, and now massive excavators, and how they were manufactured into steel and tools. The next part was dedicated to the evolution of the motor, starting with massive steam engines, and how they eventually became electrically powered. I also got to see the sleeping car of an empress in the early 20th century. It was practically a mansion on a train, and I would definitely like to travel in such comfort. The last part of the floor was dedicated to energy and electricity, where I saw how energy could be converted in so many different ways. I powered a television by riding a bike and rang a bell by pumping some water in a large chain reaction device.

The next floor was somewhat insignificant, as there was only one exhibit, about the history of everyday life. I saw what vacuum cleaners and refrigerators were like before electricity, and most interestingly, the process by which metals, plastics, paper, and glass are recycled into things we use everyday. The final floor had three exhibitions. The first one we went through was about the history of media, covering the printing press, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, calculators, computers, and the internet. One cool thing I saw was an early 20th century phone operator board, where the operator would manually connect the phone lines of two callers together.

The next exhibit was about the many different types of transportation. First, I saw land transportation by horses, bikes, and then motorcycles, cars, and trains. Next, I saw how sea transportation evolved from fishing canoes to massive cruise ships. Lastly, I saw the history of air travel, from the first hot air balloon, to zeppelins, airplanes, and then helicopters. The last exhibition we saw was about musical instruments. I got to see the inner workings of different types of pianos, and I got to see how an organ actually worked. Overall, the museum was incredibly interesting and there was as much English as there was German.

After returning to our neighborhood from the museum, it was already 6:30PM. Since we only had a single hot dog for lunch, we were quite hungry. What we learned from the tour and simply walking through Vienna was that it was not the kind of city with many sit-down restaurants. Everything was about fast food. Schwedenplatz, our main metro station was a haven for hot dogs, kebabs, fast-food chinese, fast sushi, falafel, and many more things. Since it was raining, we couldn't just have food from a street vendor like this. We needed to go the neighborhood we accidentally discovered yesterday.

We decided after a while to go into a nice looking Japanese restaurant where I ordered pork dumplings and beef teriyaki. The pork dumplings were good and the beef was absolutely excellent. They served it to me in a metal bowl while it was still being fried in teriyaki sauce. Because it was so fresh, it was the most delicious teriyaki beef I have ever eaten. I guess stumbling upon this neighborhood by accident yesterday was a very good thing. Since we were exhausted and it was rainy outside, we returned to the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing at the hotel.

We still have two full days in the city, and have only a preliminary plan of what to do. Tomorrow morning, we will be going to the Schonbrunn Palace for a guided tour. Next, depending on the weather, we may go to a nearby mountain known as Kahlenberg to see some great views of the whole city. For the evening, we will either go to a classical music concert if it is rainy, or a space observatory if the skies are clear. On Tuesday, we will go to an Art Museum, potentially go on a guided tour of the UN Offices in the city, and either do the concert or observatory, depending on what we did the night before. We still have an exciting few days ahead of us in Vienna and I can't wait to share my experiences.