Nice but not in my top 10

Well, in case you hadn't figured it out, we were in Vienna this weekend. Vienna, home of Sacher tort, Weinerschnitzel, guglhupf, vienna sausages and other such treats.

Now, of course Vienna is a beautiful city. It's imposing, grandiose, monumental and awe inspiring. Broad lanes and huge squares and giant palaces and statues statues statues. Monuments and memorials and columns of reminiscence and fountains celebrating all sorts of historical milestones. Big stone architecture-y things everywhere.

In other words, not my kind of town at all. (It kind of shoots the hell out of my "royalty in former life" idea. Pretty sure I was a dairy maid, a brewer or maybe, tops, a courtesan. But not royalty, I don't feel comfortable in that sort of atmosphere.)

I like things that are on a human scale. I like small medieval towns with windy streets and alleys and courtyards and crooked rooflines. I like dark cellars and tree lined lanes and little wooden cottages and old stone huts. And pubs, boy do I like pubs and taverns and ale houses. Vienna is so grand and royal and impressive, it left me cold. Café society? Nah. Not for me.

Vienna also left me literally cold, by the way, as the weather, she was crap. Windy, cold, wet and just not what you want to be out in. The snow kept falling from the imposing rooflines and splatting me on the kopf. That hurts!

On the up side, we had some very good food (I had a great truffle pasta that rocked my world), some wonderful wines, a few good desserts and we actually found the service throughout Vienna to be very good. We found a GREAT bar, too, a very old and very tiny one, maybe the size of our dining room in Oslo (big for a dining room, tiny for a bar). This bar was awesome because it was what you want a bar to be, and nothing more. It was from 1908 or so, all original, designed by Loos, and the bartender made the perfect vodka gimlet and in Vienna you can smoke inside, which, honestly, is appropriate for this bar. You can't have a bar like this and NOT allow people to smoke. The bartender was theater and entertainment and refreshment, in one guy. It was great. But the city itself, not my bag. I think the time of year had a large part in this, man was it grey and dreary and depressing.

I had a bit of excitement this morning when the hotel maid opened the door to our room without knocking. It was about 9:15, and suddenly, I heard a key in the door, and there was the maid, staring at me, eyes round and wide.

I, of course, was butt nekkid. I didn't even have time to cover myself. (I had just had a shower, and thank God Rich was in the bathroom at the time.)

She let out a discreet little "EEk!", I turned around, and she closed the door, apologizing profusely.

Thing is? I really don't care, and am rather impressed at the level of which I really don't care. So she saw my big fat nekkid ass, so what? We're both girls, that's life, what the fuck ever.

I think it's just another interesting facet of getting older. 15 years ago, I think I would have been MORTIFIED, but now? Meh. It's just my naked ass. Who really cares?

I laughed as she closed the door. I thought it was kind of funny, and I am quite sure she was WAY more embarrassed than me. (Though it was me with the bare ass.)

So that was our trip to Vienna. Mostly.