Day four

That day didn't start out too well as we wanted to have breakfast and the first two places that we went to, we walked right back out because the waiters were very rude/unpleasant. Third café was quite different, though, and we were so grateful for being treated like human beings that we left a huge tip. Their black forest cake was to die for. We spent most of that morning shopping (mostly for chocolate and cheese for me to bring home with me) and we went to this brewery that he had read about, shortly before it was going to close down. The manager was nice enough to answer Timo's questions about the process and show us the orange peel that gave their beer its flavour. We bought a few bottles and went back to our apartment. On the way we walked past this horde of teenagers who looked a bit peculiar: many of the girls wore headscarves, and they all wore t-shirts saying "I <3 the Prophet Muhammed". They were carrying huge red rose bouquets and seemingly giving them away to people (they never tried with me). It was... disturbing. Da'wah in the streets of Vienna, how lovely. I was tempted to walk up to them and ask them if they knew who Banu Qurayza were (look them up, guys, it's pretty informative stuff) but then I thought what's the point. I'm on holidays anyway, so better ignore them.

That afternoon we went to the Naschmarkt. At some point I walked into a souvenir shop and the sales lady started talking to me, asking me where I’m from (must be some sales technique!) and when I said Algerian she mentioned that a group of Algerians had come by earlier that day. I guess I dodged the bullet this time? From there we went back to the Stephansdom area and had lunch at a restaurant nearby, really lovely Austrian food. After that we made our way to the Danube Tower, which is 250 meters high and from which you can see all of Vienna.




The walk from the metro station to the tower was pretty long, but it took us through this lovely park in which we played my favourite game: Tickle the Timo. He absolutely hates it, though. Then we went back to that ice cream place for more deliciousness and we figured it was time to head to the concert venue since, after all, that was one of the things I was supposed to be most excited about!

On paper I'm always more excited about music festivals than I am when I actually get there. I initially wanted to see all the bands that were scheduled to play, but I got super lazy and we only got there for the last three. And in fact, after getting there, we walked right out because I couldn't stand the place. The stage was in a rather small cellar, and it was a smoking area. Not a good idea at all. I'm more used to the no smoking indoors policy in the places I went to in Finland and Germany, so this was a very unpleasant surprise. Apparently Austrians are very liberal with tobacco. The air was very difficult to breathe down there, so we went to a bar nearby (which was deserted, or we would have faced the same issue about smoking) until it was time for the band I wanted to see to hit the stage. Being tiny I had to make sure I was front or second row, and thankfully I managed to get a pretty good spot and enjoyed a great performance by Atlantean Kodex (heavy/doom metal band from Germany) despite the technical problems (the lights kept going off so they played parts of their set in total darkness. Which was kinda cool, now that I think about it). I sang along til I was hoarse. At some point the vocalist's eyes met mine and he started singing directly to me and I might have turned bright red. Now I have a crush on him.

When we got back home it was almost 1 am but I insisted that we must have a bath together before going to bed. It was a very nice, intimate moment. I told him about Atlantean Kodex's vocalist and he laughed and I was once again reminded of how lucky I am at the fact that I could talk to him about that, because in comparison if my sisters had said something like that to their husbands they would have been in a pickle, they're that jealous and possessive.

Day five

That day we didn't get up until at least 10 am *gasp* and started packing right away and cleaned up the place a bit and then lazied around until it was time to have lunch with Lilly and René. We had agreed to meet at 1:30 pm in front of the Stephansdom and we got there right on time! Then we went to have a lovely lunch at the place my SO had visited on the third night, while it was raining buckets all around us. It was really great meeting with them and we had a nice time! After that we went for coffee/hot chocolate/apfelstrudel at another place and parted ways so that Lilly, René and Lilly's friend could go to the cinema.

I think we went back to the hotel right after. What I do remember clearly was that we went out for dinner later in the evening to this Japanese restaurant and I tried sushi for the first time in my life. Yes, you can laugh. I even used a fork instead of chopsticks, like a proper n00b. Now I can officially say that I believe all Asian food sucks and I never want to eat any of it ever again

Day six

We got up around 7 am to get ready and check out. Timo's flight was at 11 am so to be on the safe side we took off at 8. All the while I was worried that we would have to part ways before security check because our gates were in different areas of the airport, but thankfully that didn't happen I stayed with him at the gate until the last possible moment and when he boarded I stood there watching his plane move around until it took off. I was very sad but my mother-in-law chose that moment to text me so it made me feel a bit better. After that I headed to my gate and lo and behold! My flight was delayed by one hour. For once I was happy with the whole debacle of having to stay at the Parisian airport for six hours. I just sat there charging my laptop and hanging out on the web until it was time to go.

Once I arrived to Paris I went to the train station where my friend Mathieu was coming to meet me. He's a guy I've known since 2003. We’d been member of a French metal website back then and we kept touch, rather sporadically, over the years. I remember that at some point we even had our own forum, just him and me, in which we talked about all kinds of stuff. I figured since I had a few hours to kill I might ask him to come by to see me, and to my amazement he said yes It was a pretty awesome afternoon. You know when old friends catch up and can't stop laughing? I didn't think it'd be that easy, given that we hadn't talked in months (possibly a couple of years) and had never met before. That definitely helped with the stress of the flights and of course the settling post-visit blues.

Unfortunately for me my woes weren't over (I totally jinxed it with my first paragraph) because naturally my flight was late. We boarded 20 minutes later than planned, and stayed in the super uncomfortable airplane for another hour. Even before boarding there was some mini-drama because there was a waiting list on the screen, and for some fucked up reason, my name was on there. I started yelling at the boarding guy until he said that it was just a mistake (it wasn't a mistake, they had really put me on a fucking waiting list, but then there were enough seats in the end. Fucking seriously) The flight itself was an agony. I had started feeling sick that morning (sore throat) and my symptoms grew worse and it seemed like the trip would never end. Arrived finally at midnight, and had to wait 40 minutes in queue for passport stamping because 3 other flights had arrived at the same time (the airport in Algiers is tiny like that)

So that was the tale of my most recent trip