Prague is Grumpy but Krems is Drunk

I realize that it has been ludicrously long since I have last updated this blog, and many of you who follow it are probably wondering if I died somewhere between London and home. Well, I have not.

However, between London and home and I have had some quality adventures in Prague and Vienna, including a puppet production of Don Giovanni (don't ask, I'm not proud). A conclusion that I have come to: Prague is the grumpiest city in the world. Don't get me wrong; it is extremely beautful. It is like a fairytale land. If they piped in music I would probably mistake it for a theme park. Beyond the glossy veneer, however, the Czech are some of the most depressing people in the world. Things they do not do:

1) smile
2) greet you
3) help you

Things they do do:

1) tell you no

As you can probably conclude, it is not a friendly place to visit. Very cheap, and very pretty. But not friendly.

In stark contrast is the City of Krems-Stein on the Donau River that I was able to visit while I was staying in Vienna (I am currently in Rome). We went for a day trip on the train hoping to ride bikes up around all the vineyards in the hills surrounding the small town. We did this and had a great time. Especially fantastic were the small "heurige" that dot the area. A "heurige" is a small bar/tavern/restaurant type place where local vineyards sell glasses of their wine and you can buy all sorts of delicious food to eat with it. We had a great time and tried lots of varieties of Kremser wine ....

Unfortuntely, we missed our train home that evening and were stranded in Krems-Stein. Fortunately, our waiter at dinner had predicted we would probably do so and gave us his telephone number to call just in case. We did call it. And we had a great time. Armin, aka the greatest German ever, took us to meet all of his Austrian friends studying at the University in Krems-Stein. We ended up at a random surprise birthday party and had a fantastic time. Granted, we had to answer a lot of questions about what life is like in America and got sucked into several debates about renewable energy sources, but all in all it was an awesome evening. We even found a couch to sleep on for a couple hours before we caught the first train back to Vienna in the morning. It left me loving Austria even more.

To summarize: The Czech are grumpy and the Austrians are always a good time. Who needs to know more?