Happy New Year!

... and Prosit neujahr to the Austrians I met on my recent holiday trip to Vienna with M. If you know my password, you can visit my photos of the trip here.

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My favorite part of Vienna, which was (characteristically) foggy and very cold, were the coffeehouses. Practically a national pasttime, these caffeinated sanctuaries offer so much more than a half-caf-non-fat-soy-latte (actually I think they might laugh at you if you ordered that). Warm, elegant, and full of quiet conversation, free newspapers (and cigarette smoke, alas), they offer the perfect retreat for escaping the cold for a while. And you can take as long a while as you want- the waiter won't bring your check over until you ask for it.

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cafe sperl in Vienna