In Berlin, but blogging about Vienna and Bratislava

I had so much fun in Vienna. First of all, I got to spend time with a friend from home. It was great to see Louise. Her husband, Bence, was in Ethiopia, so it was unfortunate that I didn't get to see him, but it was really nice to have Louise wander the city with me. (Well, she waddled the city with me...she's 4 months pregnant ;) She even cooked me dinner one night. So nice! (If you're reading this, thanks so much Louise! Hope to see you again soon.) We were so busy talking that I really didn't think to take any photos :P

Vienna is a great city and I could live there happily forever and ever. Here are a few more photos to show you:





A trip to Vienna isn't really complete without a visit to the Opera Toilet!



This is the sticker on the tram window telling me that the seat I'm sitting in is reserved for preggies, women with little children, the disabled, and...Sigmund Freud?



My trip to the museum also went really well. It was really great to meet Dr. Teschler-Nicola and see some of the fossil skulls from Mladec. More fossils were recently found at a site in Austria near Krems-Wachtberg – a double infant burial (thought to be twins) was found a couple of years ago and even more recently another (single) infant burial was found. They're all covered in red ochre and very fragile. You can read a recent publication on these burials in the journal Nature (or read a short abstract here). I was lucky enough to be at the museum while Dr. Teschler-Nicola was showing these fossils to a group of visiting students and so I was able to see them too. So very cool.

On Friday I took the train to Bratislava in Slovakia for the day. (It's pronounced Brachie-slava, which is a really fun word to say.) Bratislava's centre is really pretty, and full of Christmas decorations and little Christmas markets at this time of year.





In this photo you can see Bratislava castle at the top of the hill:





Here's a closer look at the castle:





Here's a shot of the city with the Danube river:



Here's the main square all decked out for xmas:





I'm now in Berlin, where it's sunny but cold. Tomorrow I go to the Museum fur Vor- und Fruhgeschichte, but right now I need to eat lunch and then go exploring. Tschüs!