Wienerschnitzel and Apfel Streudel

I know it's been awhile, but it's amazing how much work you have when you haven't worked for a week. So back to Austria we go...

The next morning I woke up and met some of my colleagues for breakfast - an odd assortment of cereals and cold meat and cheese, but still a vast improvement over my dinner. My counterpart from Italy, named Chiara, was a tiny bundle of Italian energy with the cutest accent...Iya woulda likea toa...It's so fascinating to think that she is over in Milan doing the exact same job I'm doing, for the same cause, but all in Italian. The meeting room where we'd spend the next 3 days was a big open room with desks arranged in a horseshoe, confirming my belief that this would be a mini UN of Internet marketers. Austrians are very formal, and I worried that the meetings would all be talking at us and no interaction, but actually for the most part they were great. The most useful information all came out of personal conversations outside of the meetings, but still overall very good. I won't bore you with all the details since I'm sure it's not interesting to anyone besides me, and it's barely interesting to me. I'll just tell you about the time I spent outside of the meetings, and the food of course!

From the way that Europeans smoke, you'd think that nobody ever told them that smoking is bad for you. Out of 11 of us the first night, 8 people smoked. And not just casually, but like it was their job. I had to take showers at night instead of in the morning because my hair reeked so badly I couldn't sleep. The second night in town, 2 colleagues from Austria took me into town to see the sights before meeting up with the rest of the group for drinks on the rooftop of this building downtown. We ate "dinner" standing up at a sausage stand in the town center. Yum, sausage. There were 8 different kinds on the menu and the one they recommended came out filled with bits of cheese. There's nothing like sausage and cheese to get the heart pumping. The famous site in Innsbruck is called the Gold Roof, and basically it's just that - a small gold roof on the side of a building that used to house royalty.
The town is so cute - cobblestone streets and outdoor cafes, brightly painted houses, and little shops. A river runs along the edge and the mountains are always in the background. The air is so fresh, it just feels like there is more oxygen in it than normal. And the streets are clean (which considering how much people smoke is amazing - the cigarette butts must just disintegrate in mid air). It could be old town Nice, if the people were drinking wine instead of beer.

The last day in Innsbruck was the best. After the meetings were finished, I took a cab back into town and did some shopping. Swarovski crystal is made nearby and although the little jagged animals don't do anything for me, my mother used to collect them so they hold a special place in my heart. I bought a tiny pair of earrings for myself there and took this picture of a wedding cake made entirely of crystal: After picking up a gift for Nick and some chocolates for his parents, I settled into a cafe to have a beer and watch people walk by (not coffee this time, Mom!) After the beer I decided that I couldn't come all the way to Austria and not eat Wienerschnitzel, so I found a restaurant where Mozart had once eaten and ordered my dinner. The meat was perfect - pounded flat and fried with a thin, slightly salty and crisp breading.

With all this sausage and fried meat and beer, my body was screaming for some exercise, so I went for a long walk. Crossing the river I saw a tiny one way street leading up a winding hill. At the top was an old church with the most beautiful cemetary I had ever seen. I know cemetaries are supposed to be creepy, but they've never made me feel that way - more like solemn, contemplative. Anyway, this graveyard probably had 40 plots and each one was marked by an intricate iron cross about 3-4 feet high, all different patterns. On the ground each plot was outlined in stone with carefully tended flowers spilling over. One of the crosses had a rose vine winding up it with gorgeous, fat, red roses hanging off it. It was so moving and perfect and I thought for a moment that I would not be afraid of dying if I knew I would spend eternity in a place like this.

The sun was setting and since graveyards are slightly more creepy at night, I left and walked back down the hill to catch a cab and go back to my room.

The whole trip was fantastic, and a milestone in my life. This is the first time I'd been out of the country by myself and I left feeling satisfied, happy, and a little grown up.