Tough to decide.

This was part of the brief conversation this morning in the car as we headed out to the airport at 5:00 a.m. or so.   Which is less onerous?  Getting up at 4:30 for a 6:30 flight,  or take a flight the night before?    You're probably wondering too about that time frame in the morning,  but it's entirely doable.  Wouldn't be most anywhere else,  certainly not in Toronto.   It's about a half hour to the airport,  with the most tedious part being the last five minutes or so trying to get past the pedestrian crossings to actually drop off my passenger.  I think I've sputtered on quite enough about the piss poor design of Vienna's airport.
No need to go there again.
But after that it's pretty breezy through security and on to the gate.   See,  unlike Toronto,  or several other large inept airports where the motto usually is, "We're not happy until you're not happy",  here in Wienerland at least,  security doesn't happen until you actually get to the gate. 
What a concept!
Think about this,  you don't need to line up with thousands of other passengers who may or may not be leaving right away.   You only need to get through security with those people who will be on your flight.  So if there's only 19 people on the plane,  which may very well be the case if you're flying to Република Србија (Republika Srbija).
OK fine, .....Serbia,  then it's easy peasy. 

I mean really,  how many people are flying to Belgrade on the 6:30 a.m. flight??
I promise I won't mess with your heads by including any more Cyrillic  script.

Today at least.





I can get up at 4:30.  That's not the issue.  The issue is,  neither of us really get any sleep if we know we need to be up at that time.  I think I did OK for the first couple hours, but then woke up around two something,  and then precisely at three and then again at four.  I thought that was a bit unusual,  since normally any time I look at a digital clock,  it's always some weird assed number,  and I have to round up or down to actually know what time it is.
On the other hand,  the problem with afternoon or evening flights is well,  sometimes they just don't happen.   The way these things go,  by that time in the day,  most any airline's schedule is so buggered up that quite often the last flight of the day is hours behind,  or has been held up by some other snag like the flight crew having flown their limit,  and everybody has to go back home,  or to a hotel.
So in spite of being pretty much exhausted for the rest of the day,  it is in fact a better plan to go with the early flight program.
It's heaps better if it's the corporate jet,  but that's a whole other discussion.
Of course,  I get to stay home.   As a matter of fact,  I was back in the door this morning at some time just shortly after six.  
Travelling Companion on the other hand has to first do some sort of financial hocus pokus,  and then the inevitable conclusion to the day is being taken out to dinner by her hosts.   By that point in time she's been around them quite long enough,  but there's no way around it.
It's just part of the deal.






You no doubt recall that I mentioned that last weekend we happened to notice an Outlet mall when we took our little drive to Neusiedl am See?

Actually....to use the word "notice"  is very misleading.   It was more along the lines of what a desert traveller exhibits when seeing a watering hole at an oasis,  after going about a week without a drink. I am referring of course to Travelling Companion.
I'm just the camel in this little scenario.
That might be a bit of an exaggeration,  but I don't think too much of a one.  There was a request at the time to actually drive slowly through the place so as to make a mental note of all the stores since of course,  we would just HAVE to go back.


And so of course, Saturday.... we went back.

Do you notice all the empty parking spaces?  

Me neither.

That was the first challenge of course.  Since I do so love trying to find a parking spot at a shopping mall that has been poorly designed.  Probably one of the reasons I do a lot of on-line ordering at Christmas.   Mercifully we only stuck around for a couple hours.  I don't think I could have handled much more.   Really,  the only major difference between the screaming children and me,  I just manage to keep my utter frustration and discomfort to myself.
Barely.
You'll notice at this point I've said, "of course" three times.  I noticed it too.  Thanks for pointing it out.

There were places to sit outside of the shops,  so that was a bonus.  The closest I could possibly come to any sort of tolerable version of shopping for me was in the kitchen gadget department.
Really though,  that's pretty damned lame.
I think I was just trying to make Travelling Companion feel better by feigning some sort of interest in different ways of straining tea.
If there had only been a decent tool store,  I swear my entire tone would be different.
Honestly.
It can all be just utter crap,  and I'll still look.  It doesn't matter.

All the men that I saw there looked like they had just come in off a thousand mile march through the Sahara.   Poor bastards.

*Note the 'thirsty traveller in the desert' motif.



Of course,  in today's "global economy"  or whatever other malarkey you want to use,  all the stores are pretty much the same as what you could find most anywhere else....on the planet.   Don't even get me started on where some of the children's clothes came from that Travelling Companion bought.   After reading off the first label that had something to do with Montreal,  (what???) and then another that had something to do with China,  she didn't want to read to me any more.

And I didn't want to know.


 We didn't actually go into this place,  (below) since I had no desire to shop there in Elmira,  N.Y.  so I certainly didn't feel the urge to first move half way around the planet,  only to then reaffirm just how much I dislike shopping there all over again.

Because I need to be in here.

Please.

Just one tool store.

That's all I ask.







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