Hi Gram!
Another day, another adventure. I slept alright last night. I had a hard time falling asleep – I felt jittery, although I haven’t had any caffeine in a very long time and ate normal foods – but I fell asleep eventually and had a hard time waking up. I did my normal morning routine of journal, puzzles, stretches and exercises, then went and climbed 20 flights of stairs. After breakfast, I did a little life admin work then headed out to my walking tour.

I really love these walking tours. It’s good exercise, gets me some sunshine, I learn about the place I’m visiting and see lots of beautiful architecture and sights. We ended the tour at St Stephen’s cathedral, which had a tall tower at one end. It was supposed to have 2, but by the time they could afford to build the second one, gothic architecture was out of style. There’s a lot of buildings that I see all over the world where they started building it and ran out of money. Or the dictator was overthrown and the new guy didn’t want to continue. Or war happened and it got destroyed.

Anyway, this tower in particular was open to the public, so I went ahead and climbed it. A long spiral staircase that ended in a beautiful view out over the city, all the way to the Alps. I bought a few postcards, took some pictures, and started the trek down. The staircase is narrow and a tight spiral, so you can’t see the person going the other way until you’re almost on top of each other. Many times, I’d pause and flatten myself to the wall so the other person could squeeze past me. Somehow, the stairs seemed to take more time going down than up. Usually, it’s the other way around.

Once I exited, I looked up the directions back to my apartment so I could reset a bit then head back out. Before I got to my apartment though – in fact almost immediately, I came upon the Lindt flagship store. I knew it was a tourist trap, but I went in anyway. I bought some unique flavors that interested me, got a Dubai Chocolate Sundae, watched the chocolatier make some treats, then headed out. I wrote out my postcards, recharged my phone, and rested for a bit back at the apartment then headed to the post office. The nice woman there helped me with postage and took the cards, the whole exchange feeling like a made for TV movie.

After stopping at a roadside stand for some curry wurst, I just wandered the city for a bit. Back at the apartment, I chatted with some friends, then considered going to the laundromat, but decided that it was a little late. I’ll probably get back from my hike tomorrow with enough time to go do laundry. I decided to just take it easy tonight and try to get to sleep early.