exploring Vienna

It is 9:30pm Vienna time, in case I don't remember to change it. I spent the afternoon exploring a market, and I got to see this huge Christmas market outside the Parliament it was neat. This guy at the market gave me a discount on candies made from honey. Helga and I went to dinner at this place across the street, and it was expensive My share was like 15 euros- almost 30 Canadian! A one time occurance, because I want to go to travel, and can't afford that! Kinda annoyed that I spent that much. But it was oh so good. She says they gave me more food than they should have, they overloaded us on tiramisu as well. I am sorry, but the food in Canada just doesn't compare to over here. Everything is so yummy and full of flavour. Helga was kind and helped me go through the menu, she made me translate what I could, which isn't much. Still working on the drink issue, Helga doesn't really want me drinking north american stuff, which I can see, but I am not used to drinking beer. tea or wine, I usually have milk or sprite or something like that. I had beer with dinner it was ok. I guess travelling is about experiencing new things. Thank god the ice tea is like one back home and not the american cold tea. I have heard alot of north american music, right now in the internet cafe I am hearing Madonna's Like a Virgin. I saw this globe at a market that was gorgeous, it was shiny and new (madonna influence there) the countries were all done in different stones, and the ocean was like this shiny from sea shells, but he wanted 180 euros, which is a little out of my price range, even if he had gone down to 80 euros. It would have been almost 150 cdn! One thing I found out that is surprising, I am dying to see the new Phantom of the Opera movie that is coming out over there in on Wednesday, it's already out here in English and well as German, so I will get to see it before you guys. Suckers! I am sure that is not the normal course of things though, but I am happy none the less. What's really great is that Helga speaks french so she is helping me practice before I go to France, when we were at the market she was also teaching me the french names for certain stuff. I am trying to throw my self into this as much as I can. The city is really pretty, well the archetecture is awesome, the buildings are just beautiful in the first district, in what is known as the Ringstrasse (a giant ring that forms the centre of Vienna.) I am living in the 5th district, there are 24 districts. It's not too bad, not that nice looking though, but it feels safe. We took both the trams and the subway today. You only need to get a ticket punched once a day, and you can use it all day on everything, the buses, the subway and the street cars. They don't even really check if you have one. There is a machine that you much yourself. One of the things to deal with is that things aren't open as much as back home. I forgot to mention, that the North American cereals have different names here, like Frosted Flakes are Frosties, etc. I actually found Smarties here, which is unexpected since they apparently don't even have them in the states. One other thing I have noticed already is how freely people can smoke here, especially after coming from cities that are smoke free. Plus although the streets there are cigarette machines!