A parallel universe.

A parallel universe was where I thought I was this morning when I heard the medal standings at the Vancouver Olympics.
I mean,  the first thing I said was, "What on Earth?"
And then I got to thinking that just perhaps we had some how slipped through to another dimension,  since the possibility of such an occurrence on this Earth was pretty far fetched.

I mean,  how is it even possible?

Didn't we always suck?


Also,  I tend to equate medal standings to the population of a nation,  such that say, China should have what?  fifty thousand times the number of medals of anyone else?  I'm just being facetious here,  but you know what I'm saying.   It's like when the Yanks go on about how many of their brave young men have fallen in the desert.  Sorry,  but based on our relative populations,  we've lost WAY more soldiers.

Just one of my pet peeves.

We're still contemplating hitting a hotel tonight to take in the Canada/USA hockey game.  This whole business of living in a foreign country during the Olympics was very poorly planned,  I must say.
Somehow we didn't co-ordinate the long term career plans of my travelling companion with the inner workings of the IOC.

Who knew?

Yesterday we decided to go out on the main drag for a little stroll.  Lemme tell ya,  Mariahilfer Strasse on a Saturday afternoon is NUTS.   Just think of the busiest commercial street in any major city.  It's right up there.
Beggars,  Pick-pockets,  Shoppers.  In that order of annoyance.

So happens though we did find a really nice little restaurant just off the beaten path.  It was down past one of the first Churches we went to a few weeks back.  I'd make reference to hypothermia,  but that would just be confusing,  since it's been an underlying theme for all of the Church visits up to this point.
I made sure I asked for a card from this place,  since we not only want to go back, but wouldn't mind recommending it to anyone looking for a decent place to eat.   They don't have a website for me to link to,  but I'll stick in the name just the same.  It's "Frascati",  and a firm knowledge of Italian doesn't help,  but German seemed to work just fine.  Of course,  most all the staff had thick Italian accents.  I put in a google map link if you're at all interested,  here...


I think I was mostly intrigued by the view looking south off Mariahilfer,  so we simply decided to wander down one of the side streets.

Anyway,  since we didn't think we were all that hungry,  we decided to order one pizza between us.  I mean,  the pizzas were running around €8,  so really,  how big could one be?  Well,  turns out that was a good plan,  since the very obvious tourists who were at a neighbouring table thought they'd order one pizza each.
Fools.
The look on their faces when their meal arrived was worth the price of admission.
There wasn't really enough room on the table.

So that makes for numerous reasons to go back.  First of all,  decent sized portions with decent service,  and the most important criteria of all,  a non-smoking section that was almost in the next district from the smokers.  Pretty rare in Vienna I'm afraid.  Normally the "non-smoking" section in restaurants here is pretty lame, and tends to be not only within sight and smell of the smokers,  but it always seems to work that the ventilation system,  if there is one,  manages to pull all the smoke out past the non-smokers.
Makes for such an enjoyable dining experience.

Just to add to the bedlam on Mariahilfer,  we couldn't help but notice that the constabulary were out directing traffic.  It wasn't making any sense that they were not allowing cars to go east,  while westbound traffic was OK. 
We had learned through bad experience back in December,  that the very best place for the car on a Saturday afternoon is right down in the parking garage,  'cause you might get out,  but getting back home again might prove to be impossible.
Yesterday would have been no exception,  since a bunch of knobs decided to have a protest right at the intersection of Mariahilfer and Schottenfeldgasse.    At first I felt rather bad for all the traffic that got stopped,  but on second thought,  I just figured it didn't take me that long to learn,  what's wrong with you people?

Get a clue.

After having a brief look at the "protest",  I also came to realise that this was the same raggedy assed smelly bunch that used to protest this or that when I went to school back in the 70s!
It was like stepping back in time....

Once again,  I'd like to refer to the aforementioned rift in the space/time continuum,  as relates to our gold medal standings.....

See how I tie this all together?

Here they are...