Aw, my photos are trapped in my camera because I didn’t bring a card reader or a USB cable* — I didn’t think I was going to download any of them until I got home. I might be able to get a cable or card reader tomorrow (er, later this morning, it’s after 2am currently), so for now just some bullet points:
- I left my house for the airport at 6pm on Sunday. My scheduled departure was 7:15. The check-in counter closes one hour before departure. I am SOOOOO LUCKY… but you know what? I even had time to pick up something at duty-free for my hosts! Talk about hurry-up-and-wait.
- *Did I mention I’m travelling light? This might be one of my lightest overseas trips ever: my checked bag was less than 10kgs! You know what that means? I’m bringing stuff back, because even though I had a 23kg limit on the way here, I have a 30kg limit for the return trip! Woo! 20 kilos of chocolate! (I kid. Maybe 15.)
- I’m staying in Vienna’s city centre, so everything is easy walking distance. And man, did I walk! Got back at midnight.
- The architecture in Vienna is very grand — it seems all the squares feature the most decadent building of the century decorated in the most opulence money can buy.
- Much of the city centre is under renovation, including one of the most prominent buildings, St. Stephen’s cathedral, which I visited in the evening.
- Night shots take me FOREVER: I shoot completely manually, tweak white balance manually, wait for cars and bikes to whiz by for motion blur, and this is the major reason why I shoot alone. It would drive the average person crazy to wait for me. Daytime shots are so much simpler.
- I ate a bratwurst dick today, which for you non-perverts is a variety of hot dog. But when it was handed to me, I nearly burst out laughing at how much it LOOKED like a semi-erect penis slathered with mustard that I was too embarrassed to take a photo. It was literally a hot dog bun with a hole in one end, the bratwurst shoved in with mustard and a couple of inches of it poking out of the hole — skyward and perky — with a flourish of mustard for presentation. If the hot dog vendor wasn’t so serious I would’ve thought he’d done it on purpose.
I rely on the photos to tell some of the story, so I’m feeling a bit lost without the accompanying pictures! I’ll see if I can remedy this later today.