Running in the prater

The Prater is to Vienna, what Central Park is to New York.

So running there is a must do !

In this case I was cycling beside a running friend but that's almost the same ;)

In addition to this beautiful tree-lined paths, there is an very old amusement park !

Bitzinger

There is nothing better than a Bitzinger's Wurst (Sausage).
I love it as an hot dog with a little bit of mustard, but you can have it like most people do here, simply cut, with mustard or/and ketchup and/or curry.

And don't hesitate to taste the  famous austrian Käsekrainer - with cheese inside !

Swimming in the Donau

One thing you can't imagine to do in Lyon is bathing in the Rhône or the Saône - the same in the Seine in Paris. I even never put a toe in the north sea in the Netherlands and in Belgium.

But in Vienna, you can actually bath in the danube; in the Old Danube, but also on both side of the Danube Island and  You have actually more than 42 km of beaches.

So today I cooled down in the Kaiserswasser, 15 mn away from Praterstern with bicycle, just behind the UN building (white building from the left till the middle of the above picture). The water was not really clear but definitely clean. Waterplants tickled our feet, but apparently there is boat coming regularly to cut them out. There were people but we could sit in the shadow.

Swimming in the Danube, that could have been on my to-do list

[Edit - August, the 9th] Today I bath in the Danube, I mean not like above on a lake-like part of the Danube, but here really in the stream. It was incredible! Sweet! Perfect temperature!

Ok you don't have an horizon like in the sea, but the wave are just going in one direction and you really feel that if you let yourself go, you can swim till Bratislava.

I'll do it again for sure!

3 AM shopping

--- Retrospective article ---

3 am, I am coming back to my Airbnb place in Brooklyn and remember I don't have milk anymore for the breakfast. So I stop at the Millenium market on the Driggs Ave, in the middle of Williamsburg, the hipsters mecca.

And then I wonder how an organic shop can be open in the middle of the night.

According to me, organic means respect of the nature and its pace, and by extension, respect of the people and their pace.

So how can it be open 24/7 meaning that some people can't rest ?

I know it is a european point of view, but I would be happy to have the american point of view :)

Thanksgiving 2012

My first thanksgiving !

We were French, Greeks, Spanish, Chilean or from the Carribean, 8 people sitting around the table.

Like in lots of movies we had the traditionnal issue with the turkey :) Too big, we underestimated the coocking time !

Then at 4:30 pm we finally sat together, we said the grace and shared the meal.

A precious memory

Leaving France

--- Retrospective article ---

Tonight is my last night in Lyon, in France.

I'm standing outside my building, a building from the 18th century, where my grand grand father were born, my grandparents lived, my parents lived, I lived - as a baby, as a student and as a young graduated -, and where some cousins of my grand mother are still living. 2 nuns also living in the building are with me, to look at the gorgeous firework.

It is July, the 14th. Lyon wave goodbye at me. I'm happy to leave and meet the world outside.