Two days ago, my girlfriend and I decided to flee the scorching heat of our apartment and have a drink at a cafe before dinner.
Well, as we were half-way through our beers, a woman came up to us and asked us if we’d be interested in free tickets to a stand-up comedian’s show that was to take place half an hour later at the theater next to the cafe. Maybe the fact that she had to go from table to table in order to get rid of her excess tickets should have been a hint.
Oh well. We went in there, it was reasonably cool (if you’ve ever been to our apartment, you’ll understand that cool rooms are just about the only thing we’re looking for these days), and we awaited the performance of the mistery man, mildly content over our good luck as receivers of free tickets to an otherwise rather expensive show.
Now, I don’t want to go into detail about the show itself, but I still don’t understand why anyone would ever let this guy on stage. The program was riddled with the oldest and worst jokes, subsequently producing not much else than disgust and boredom.
We left during the intermission, and I pity everyone who actually paid 19,50 € to see this guy.
So Dubya’s gone, and I won’t even pretend I was any good at covering it. The relevant things about the visit have been said by others who are more articulate than me.
I’ll resort to showing you a picture (taken from here):
It’s a man’s world, and if you happen to be a lot taller than the leader of the free world, then goddamnit, cross your legs and hope the cameras don’t pick it up. Too bad they pick up everything.
From whitehouse.gov:
On Wednesday, June 21, the President will start his day by greeting the staffs of the various U.S. Missions in Austria, followed by a meeting with the President of Austria, Heinz Fischer. The President will then have a bilateral meeting with Austrian Chancellor and European Council President Wolfgang Schüssel. Upon conclusion of this bilateral meeting, the President will participate in the formal U.S.-EU summit meetings, and then have lunch with European leaders, Chancellor Schüssel, and European Commission President José Barroso. After lunch, the President will join the EU leaders for a press availability.
Later in the afternoon, the President will participate in a roundtable with foreign exchange students from various nations, to discuss with them the importance of freedom and democracy in advancing the future of their countries. The roundtable will be followed by a tour of the historic National Library, and a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir.
They fail to mention that being the supposed leader of the free world is so scary, that most of the inner city of Vienna will be inaccessible for the better part of Wednesday. They also fail to mention that sealing off and shutting down stores around St. Stephen’s Cathedral is due to Laura Bush’s intention to visit that very cathedral sometime during the day.
They fail to mention that apart from the apparent losses for museums, tourist attractions and the like, most of the commuters will have one hell of a time getting to work tomorrow, and will probably opt for taking a day off. For the president of the US.
And they fail to mention that even though they bring about 200 of their Secret Service agents, the estimated cost for sealing off and securing the area for the day will set the Austrian taxpayer back about 1 million Euros. For the president and his wife.
But hey, considering that the US have been entertaining a camp for “illegal combatants” for the last four years, and are scared shitless to let these people go because they could harm them from their war-ridden country somewhere in the desert, all these security measures seem way too subtle.
I didn’t actually expect it to ever arrive, but lo and behold, it is here.
It arrived with yesterday’s mail, and as always, the Austrian postal service did a fantastic job of delaying an already delayed parcel.
Go here to look at the set where I documented each and every piece of my care package. Don’t forget to look at the notes.
Unfortunately, my preferences were mixed up, resulting in my receiving of an S-sized t-shirt. Thus, my girlfriend is now the happy owner of a brand-new rubyredlabs t-shirt.
I do hope they haven’t shipped out the June package yet.
I’m back from the excursion, and I brought a shitload of pictures.
Click here to see the batch on my site’s own gallery, or click here to admire them from within Flickr (if you’re planning on leaving witty comments!).
I don’t think I’ve ever before learnt so much about anything in such a short period of time. And I don’t think I ever will again.
The weather as spectacular, which was nice most of the time and horrible some of the time. I don’t think I’ve ever perspired so much in such a short period of time.
In the end, it was a nice way to learn about the Middle Ages, late antiquity and just about all of Christianity’s saints. Those Carinthians sure are pious folk.
![Medienschelte.at [de]](http://stormgrass.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/medienscheltebutton.png)
Recent Comments