My heart broke when I saw the price tag on the Lederhosen.

The title is a true story. Will I give in and buy them by the end of the week? It's very likely. I have been dreaming of a good pair of lederhosen since the moment I found out I was coming to Germany-- a mental image of me emerging triumphant from the airplane clad in them and running into the arms of the large crowd of people awaiting me, all of whom are freshly showered and carrying balloons... So mom, how much am I allowed to spend on a pair of lederhosen? You set the price, and if I can't find any for less than it I will return lederhosenlos.
Okay, now I am going to be a bad blogger and copy paste the message that I sent my mother about my first full day in Vienna:

Oh my gosh. I don't even know where to start, but I LOVE Vienna-- something about the air or the atmosphere is just wonderful and soothing but at the same time stimulating. And the Austrians are as great about public transportation as the Germans. Today me, Anna, and Leila went to the Belvedere together and looked at some famous Austrian artists, like Gustav Klimt (I saw The Kiss in the flesh! It's sooo pretty!) They went home fairly early and I stayed around a little longer and looked at some more paintings. There was this great one of three nude girls prancing around in the meadow in the springtime, and I said to myself, "that is what I want my life to be like". I think I'm probably going to join a nudist colony at some point, because I love being liberated from clothing! I was thinking about that lots today because all of the unclad people in the paintings looked so happy and free and I was wearing seven shirts and two coats and a scarf, with a sundress buried somewhere to remind me of the summer. But worst of all I was wearing pants AND socks-- mismatched socks, to be sure, but socks all the same.
But I really want to live here. Settle down here someday, I mean. It's going right next to Seattle on my "potential cities to settle down in" list. That way I could be a street performer like I've always dreamed of, and go to the opera all of the time (the standing tickets cost like half as much as entrance into Velour! But Anna was coming with so we got 6 euro sitting tickets) and spend my life in museums OR in the woods that are just 30 minutes away from the city. What a wonderful place. And Karl and Anna are so nice, and Leila is so cute! She was playing with Chester today, and putting diapers on him and making him noodles in her little kitchen. What a cutie. I miss babies.

Also, I don't think I have said anything on the matter of Cologne. It was killer. I swam in the Rhine (right in front of a couple of half-submerged trees in case the current was bad, but it wasn't) while Robin kept watch, and I climbed the Dom in high heels-- tiring but worth it. ALSO, there was a dead body found on the tracks of the first train that was going to Cologne, which meant that I had to find a new train to my first stop and new ones all the way down the line, and then find my way from the Cologne Hauptbahnof (aka huge) to the Jungendgaesthaus (youth hostel) all alone in the dark raininess. I was wearing my angel wings, though, and operating on the theory that strangers are more willing to help an angel because either she is a poor crazy little thing of else she is a real live angel and will smite whoever doesn't offer competent directions. It worked pretty well, and I was only mostly traumatized when I finally got there, and got lots of hugs from other affection-starved CBYX kids who thought I had died.
And there was this flea market. I bought a sterling silver dinosaur ring, bartered down to three euros from a man with an eye patch.
Actually, it's probably not actually sterling silver, but he said it was, which is why I couldn't get it for 1.50
You know what is 1.50? Standing tickets for the Magic Flute in Vienna. Woah!
OH, and Beethoven's house. Was awesome. I bought a ton of postcards, anyone who wants one just give me your address.