Four hours in Austria....

…is already better than the two weeks we spent in Italy.
Hang on, let me go back.
We got on the bus bright and early today, as has become the custom, and by 09:00 we were rolling out of Padua for Vienna. It was a long drive too; we probably spent about an hour and a half stopped, but it still took until about 19:00 to get here. A couple of exciting things happened on the way here. First of all, the mountains on the border between Austria and Italy are incredible. It’s probably one of the best natural scenes I’ve ever encountered. And, honestly, that was just the start of it. I’ve already decided that Austria is the most beautiful country I can remember seeing. The countryside just looks perfect. It’s hard to explain, which is why I took pictures, but unfortunately it looks like we’ve taken another step backwards in terms of internet, so I can’t upload them as of yet. So, to sum it up, the scenery on the drive was impeccable.
Oh, and I also found a bag of Crispy M&M’s at a rest station we stopped at. Yes. You heard me. Crispy. The best M&M’s ever that they stopped making in the States for whatever reason? Yeah. Those. It was wonderful.
But we’re in Austria and we arrive in Wein (Vienna) at around 19:00, and of course our first course of action was to drop our luggage off in our room. Sadly, our room isn’t that big this time around, and we still have a “Glass case of emotion” shower (and, actually, the walls are actually glass this time around), but there is one ray of light. One of the beds is in this little nook that flush…ly (?) fits the bed, and then there’s a curtain you can pull to hide the entire nook. Obviously, I shotgunned it straight away. Anybody that knows me from my childhood knows that I’ve always loved making little curtains and what not to surround my bed and hide me. For example, with my old bunk bed, for the longest time, I had a sheet-thing hanging from the top bunk that could be pulled all the way around to cover the space between the bunks. This is like that, except in Austria. And I’m 18 instead of 8, so it’s even cooler.
And then there’s a food. Oh my goodness the food. Maybe it’s just because Italian food was less than stellar, but I got Bratwurst with boiled potatoes and sauerkraut (which I did eat some of) for 8,80 Euros tonight and it was hands down the best meal I’ve had since I left. It was fantastic. We’re probably going to go back there again, because the food was great and the owner was really nice.
That’s something that seems true; everyone seems a bit more willing to embrace Americans here than they were in Italy. But then again, it could just be my bias. I’ll have to wait and see for sure.
In summary, I’m looking forward to our time in the Germanic countries, which is pretty much the rest of the trip (Vienna, Prague, Munich, Brussels). Although, haha, I don’t know if I’ll like the museums any better. Just a fair warning. =)

Tschus