piccies

After 12 hours of driving, 4 liters of water, 2 coffee-breaks, 3 pee-breaks and a 80£ police-fine... I've arrived home safe and sound with the worst summer-cold ever. Snuffly nose and swollen throat aside, I had a fantastic little break in Vienna. I'm not sure why I tend to leave Vienna ill each time I go over, though I suspect me licking a taxi-window during a tipsy night out might have contributed somewhat this time around. Before you ask, I was trying to impress my brother, who was riding the cab next to mine. If that still doesn't make sense, then let's just leave it at this: "white russians" = "asking for trouble".

Anyway. My wee sis has become a right cutie. She's (unintentionally) sporting 2 baby-dreadlocks which, at 22-months old, now officially makes her cooler than her older sister.

Ended up on a jolly to Bratislava. I'd never been to Eastern-Europe before, so it was rather exciting. Slovakia's a fairly straightforward drive from Vienna, once you've sussed out that your co-pilot consistently mixes up "left" and "right". Once again, physicists prove to have an incredible lack of common sense ;)

Thanks to a tip-off by Mona, we ended up at the Vienna Natural History Museum. I've seen my fair share of NHM's but I can honestly say that the Viennese version is simply spectactular and by far the most organised and well-presented one I have come across so far: it is based on the Linnean System with a room assigned to each Class (mammalia, reptilia, insecta, ...). A few of the rooms even come equipped with microscopes for the public so you can actually see several LIVING samples of the smaller arachnids, parasites etc... up close, which is very cool. For some bizarre reason, Val decided she would only take pictures of me with beasties I had already eaten at some point or other in my life. Which is a shame, because there was an incredibly beautiful display of hundreds of colourful beetles and frogs...

Got to see a classic Woody Allen at an open-air cinema in the park. Always a bonus. You'll find it's hard to beat "Woody-Allen-dressed-up-as-a-spermatozoid" as an idea for how to spend your evening.

While I have plenty more to comment on, I can feel the meds kicking in, so shall refrain from further potential blasphemous doped-up typing by simply leaving you with a few piccies:

- Bratislava: Allyway -

- Bratislava: Jugglers -

- Bratislava: Thank god for universal symbols -