well, i made it to vienna. but it was not simple. lets see...left florence on wednesday. waiting for the train an old italian man sat next to me and quizzed me on the state capitals. i knew most of them, but really...the capital of north dakota really through me. he knew them all by the way. the train to vienna involved a transfer at venice. the train was late getting there and so, we missed the transfer train to vienna. being stuck in venice is not a bad thing tho. we just had to figure out what to do. the italian workers at the information desk and customer service are extremely laid back. after a bit of back and forth, they helped us out and got us on a night train to vienna. so, we got to spend a couple of hours walking around venice. which is, really, incredible. sometimes its hard to wrap my brain around the fact that these places exist. and people live there. we ate at a restaurant that had wine on tap. i love that. so now we get onto the overnight train to vienna. not an ideal thing because its difficult to sleep on trains. at least, it is for me. rodger too. the train was an hour late leaving. the train was extremely warm. not warm, sauna hot. the airconditioning finally went on, and then, broke. in only our train cart. people began to move to other sections of the train. so we did too. finally got to an airconditioned cabin but then had to leave when people with reserved seats came on the train. we were able to find seats in an already crowded cabin with some backpackers. i said they were dutch but rodger just told me he thinks they were german. i think dutch. the real point is to say...that the tiny cabin was not the best sleeping evironment. and it smelled. we did not sleep at all. and the train ride began at a lil before 10 pm and we got to vienna at 8:40 am. but it was just nice to be off a train. vienna is nice. its rainy off and on but we still walked around just fine. the public transportation system here is quite nice. tram, bus, underground...all easy to use. rodger ate a bratwurst today...it was filled with cheese. inside of the meat. how did that happen? we magically found an "all you can eat" sushi restaurant. the sushi moves by your table on a conveyor belt. it was good. and i was very hungry at this point. so, i ate all i could. i also had a decent pretzel...but i want to get my hands on a german pretzel. that i know for sure. so...we arent staying here another day. we are going to leave for salzburg, austria in the morning. we couldnt book a hostel there. all booked up. so we are just staying for the day and leaving later on tomorrow for germany. munich to be exact! but those train rides shouldnt take long at all. knock on wood of course. but the distances between the cities arent very far. alright...i think thats about it for now. ill probably write again once in munich. hope all is well back home!! xoxo. also... sorry for my typos....which im sure are frequent. the keyboards for the computer are a tad tricky. here...the y and z are in strange spots.