what I drew the first day...in order to make myself not fall asleep in that café. germany and austria LOVE pastries; there are pastries everywhere. so many pastries. i want to try them all, but i think i would die of obesity-related diseases before that happened. so maybe...one a day?

i've been sleeping a lot here. since i have no friends at the moment, i don't go out, and i don't feel comfortable walking around by myself at night. so i just go to sleep at like 11:30 and wake up at 9 (when my roommates have to check out and inevitably talk really loud) and then actually get up at 10:30. then i figure out what i am going to do while i eat breakfast/drink coffee and usually leave the hostel around 12:30 for the rest of the day. after that first day of lovely kitchen friendships, i haven't had the same luck.

my research has been going both surprisingly well and frustratingly. surprisingly well because i've gotten some excellent leads from the people i've talked to and frustratingly because it's very hard to get good answers to complex questions when the person isn't completely comfortable speaking english. i found a small but classy bookstore called felix jud that led me to some good people, and yesterday i went to the library at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe. the librarian's english was not very good, but it was worth it when they sold me a HAND-PRINTED BOOK by a local artist for only 10€! wow. that turned things around.

i don't know why i didn't expect to get lonely being alone in this foreign country. the solo-travelers i talked to before said that sometimes it happens, but for some reason i didn't apply that to myself. maybe i've never actually been lonely before.