July 17: Asian food

I've seen many things in Vienna. Moms' holding their bathroom-needy children over bushes, cranky old men screaming at the loss of floral life, and naked people. Today, I encountered some really, really fun and interesting things.

I went on a tour this morning with the group. The tour consisted of a bus ride out to the woods surrounding Vienna, where we observed some of the historical sites there. the first was the location where the son of Sisy and Francis Joesph killed himself, it was very sad, but we weren't able to stay long due to the number of people on the trip (close to 40) and the other places we had to see. We then traveled to a monastery where we observed several classic sculptures and paintings. There was a beautiful statue portraying Jesus' feet being washed by the prostitute. Again, really fascinating, but also rushed. We closed out our half-day tour with an expedition into an underground lake. The trip had some fascinating history, telling of how the Nazi's used the underground caverns as plane manufacturing sites during the war. After we escaped the catacombs, I decided to get some lunch and stepped into the nearby snack bar. Seeing they had a falaffel sandwich, I chose that as my meal of choice. It took them about 7 minutes to prepare the thing, but it was everything I could ask for of a sandwich. Served in a pita bread pocket, the chick-pea cakes were still warm from where the chef in the back had fried them. Delicious! Surely the best I've had in Vienna. Luckily I was able to complement the chef personally since he checked me out. He seemed taken a back by the compliment. Guess no one told him his food was that good.

After returning to Vienna, the some of the group wanted to eat again, so we headed to an Indian restaurant that Deef and I had discovered the day before. Ashlan, Joesph, Michael, Sabrina, and I went exploring. The Indian place was closed, but we accidentally walked into the Chinese restaurant next door and took a seat. The food was delicious none the less. Ashlan's and my curry dishes were excellent, (though I thought her's was the better choice, chicken just absorbs curry better) and Michael's mango duck was the best prepared mallard I'd ever ingested. The workers there, Wang, a Chinese middle-aged man, and Weng, a younger female Chinese college student, were unbelievably friendly. They were kind enough to be the subject of our interviews of "Auslanders" and were every helpful when dealing with our broken German. After we finished our main courses, we were given free Mango-snowcone esque desserts alongside freshly sliced watermelon. At the table next to us sat an elderly Austrian woman who had lived in America for 21 years. She cracked George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes the entire time, making us laugh quite a bit. Each of us was given a small tassel-esque charm to take with us to remember our time in the restaurant. Our time together ended with the Chinese workers taking our photograph and saying they would send it to Ashlan's email address. Ashlan, I want a copy.

We are going back to that place. I wonder if we were their first customers because the amount of friendliness they showed was comforting and encouraging. I hope to see them again this week.