August 2005

Just because we could, we caught a train to Vienna. We were only there for a day and a half. But we explored the old town center and the famous black church and amused ourselves with trying to remember German, which is very similar to Austrian.

From Vienna we took a boat down the Danube to Bratislava (Slovak Republic). We ended up carrying our backpacks around for hours looking for a hostel. When we finally found a room for the three of us it was outrageously priced. We took one look at the room and fell down laughing. Three twin beds sat disheveled on the floor of this tiny room, it was dirty and dingy. We decided that there was only one thing to do. Go to the bars. And so we did. We all took shots of Absinthe, a green liquor made from wormwood. It's illegal in most countries (including the US) because its alcohol content is so high. The three of us raised our glasses and swallowed...our throats burned, our eyes turned red and we were all coughing...that was easily the strongest stuff I've ever tasted!

The black church in Vienna