Guten Tag, Vienna

This entry will be a mish mash of thoughts.

While I was sitting in a random piazza in Rome, resting my feet, reading my travel guide, I see a street cleaning machine coming my way. I assess how close the machine will get to me and if I should move. My calculations told me I was ok. And then I watched it clean the cobbled street. I was question how clean it actually gets. It's like mopping your floor but you never change the water in the bucket. So you're basically moving dirt around. So I'm watching and as it's about to pass me, it spits out a dead pigeon right in front of me. I gag. Stand up immediately. And literally run off.

It's weird what brands translate to almost every place in the world. McDonald's. Louis Vuitton. Chuck Taylors. Rihanna. Tall boots (damn it). From snooty French to crazy Japanese to ugly Amercans. Every country I've been to thus far, I can find all these things. What is about them that everyone loves?

I arrived in Vienna this morning aboard the smallest plane I've ever flown on. Smaller than the plane I took to the tiny Greek island of Kefonia. Apparently not many people fly from Rome to Vienna. Since I couldn't check in until 2p, I took the metro down to downtown. I was prepared for colder weather but it has been sunny and warm all day. There are weiner carts everywhere. Tomorrow I will have one.