We arrive in Vienna yesterday around 10:00 AM. It really throws off the whole first day as we had been up since Sunday morning. After we got to our hotel, we just rested until around 4:00 PM and then met Denny and his friend for a walk and dinner. Our hotel is located only about 8 blocks from the main city center. Like most of the more traditional hotels, the décor is very nice but it is not air-conditioned. Hopefully it will cool off so we can sleep in the evenings. The European Soccer Cup is being held in Switzerland and Austria now and even though there are no matches here in Vienna, there are literally thousands of fans who have journeyed here to watch the matches together on huge screen televisions. Most of the sidewalk cafes and pubs have televisions to attract the fans. Fans are colorfully dressed is their team colors, faces painted and carrying little country flags. It would be very similar to tailgating back in the states at college football games.
We enjoyed meeting back up with Denny and catching up on the past year. He, of course, filled us in on life in Iowa and the recent flooding and we brought him up to date on the happenings at Schutz. Denny’s friend, Trish, has been teaching the past three years in Pakistan. She really enjoyed the first two years but the third year has been a real challenge for her. There have been a couple of bombings at restaurants frequented by Westerners. As a result, many places are no longer safe to go to. Electricity has become very unreliable, often going out 6 to 8 times a day. She is going back for a fourth year but will be actively looking for a new location next year.
