The Neutral Zone

Vienna, Austria en route to Prague, Croatia - I'm writing to you from a train transiting northwest to Prague from Vienna. These are some final impressions of Vienna we wanted to leave you with. Like some other posts, I'm going to use bullet points here because I am unable or unwilling to weave these mostly unrelated points into a meaningful narrative. Frankly, I don't think there's a good way to transition you, dear reader, from say, our experience at the historical art museum, to say, the our experience at various Christmas markets scattered around Vienna. Anyway, here it goes: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Historical Art Museum Vienna) We quite liked this museum. The museum building itself is spectacular. It was built in the late 19th century in the twilight of the Austrian empire. No expense was sparred to prop up the cultural relevance of the nation. The neo-baroque grand entry hall takes you up a stunning marble staircase with neoclassical statuary and ador...

Vienna, Austria - We've been in Vienna for a few days now, and I am here to provide our initial experience and impressions. Food and Drink MAST . Site of our second dinner. I would relay to you in more detail what we ate, but alas, the English menu is not available online, so a rough retelling from memory will have to do: We had the charcuterie plate (H thought this was "really f-ing good"), raw char (meh), carrots with peanuts, miso, and a crumbly feta-like cheese (yum), roast pumpkin with pumpkin seed oil and salty cheese (another yum), venison ragu, and MAST's take on Austrian street food sausage (somewhat more expensive than street food). The waiters wore Christmas-themed ugly sweaters. Also of note, we met again the proprietor of Gamper Bar , Balz, while we were in MAST as he was also dining there. Hannah recognized him from across the room and we stopped by his table at the end of our meal. He remembered us! Offerl . This is a bakery where we ate lunch. Off...

Vienna, Austria - We arrived in Vienna yesterday. The flight from Zurich was short - about an hour. Nonetheless, H was a bundle of nerves in the hours leading up to, and during the entirety of, the flight. We contracted colds over the last week - minor ones, as these things go. But H has suffered severe pain and discomfort in the past when her congested sinuses contributed to her ears popping in an excruciating way during ascent and descent. For years, my dad has also claimed of suffering from this. But he's an old curmudgeon, so to be honest, up until recently, I was unsure which played a greater part in the affliction: an unfortunate and painful anatomical snafu of the eustachian tubes or a compulsion to complain. H's experience suggests the former plays a greater role, but one can never fully rule out the latter. So, we armed H with a variety of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical products (some, with more suspect capabilities) intended to make her flight comfortable and...