Vienna rules!

Despite being sick, I got to see a good bit of the city yesterday. We went to Stephansplatz, the main square, and walked around a lot of the inner ring. Later we went to Neubau, which is kind of like Vienna's version of Pacific Heights. Lunch was a veggie (thank God -- I couldn't handle any more meat) place called Nice Rice, and dinner was at a Balkan restaurant called Beograd. Also went to the oldest cafe in Vienna, which I believe has been open since 1778 and was a favorite of Mozart.

Now if only I could get rid of the stuffy head and remaining sore throat. Being sick when you're traveling sucks, but at least I'm feeling better.

Vienna waits for me ... to speak

We're staying in this gorgeous hotel, with a bathroom rivaling the size of some bedrooms I've had, and I'm sick in that way where my voice is gone, and my nose is stuffed, and my chest is congested, and I can't sleep more than two consecutive hours. Adam asked what he could do to help. I told him to just have patience with me today. I'm going to be slow as hell, but I will see Vienna.

We happy? We happy!

For nearly six years now, I've been telling Adam about Cafe Bajer: the best cafe I've ever seen in Europe and a strong contender for best cafe ever. This place is amazing -- full of kitsch like you wouldn't believe, cappuccinos to beat the band, amazing service, comfortable, class act. I don't think I could have made it through nearly half a year in Pardubice without Bajer.

Today we walked in and all the great feelings came back. Milan, the owner, has expanded. The place is more than twice its original size and yet every seat in the house was full.

I recognized one of the servers. He smiled and said: "Hello! Good to see you." After six years!

Later Milan came over and greeted us. He remembered me too! He was walking around with a ballcap on, looking just about exactly as I remember him. We chatted for a while and he told me Adam looks like John Lennon. Then he brought us free sparkling wine and insisted on comping us.

Amazing! Awesome! We're so going back tomorrow before we leave.

Prague has won at least part of my heart back. Tomorrow on to Pardubice!

I don't love Prague and I never did. But I love being here with Adam.

Ugh!

This is a terribly obnoxious article about "5 Things Super-Happy Couples Do Every Day." The lede:

Lord knows this is not the sort of thing guys brag about. But my wife and I have a ridiculously happy marriage. Really, it's almost disgusting.

We paw each other in public. We goof around like a pair of simpletons. We basically act like giddy newlyweds in the middle of happy hour. Sometimes we'll do something so revolting, like sitting on the couch and drawing smiley faces on the bottoms of each other's feet, that we're forced to make hacking, gagging noises to maintain our dignity. Actually, this happened just last week.

The first rule of Super-Happy Couplehood: You do not talk about the disgusting mechanics of Super-Happy Couplehood. Not the way this dude does it, anyway. From the looks of it, I'll bet he's headed back to marriage counseling in another year or two.

A call for coworking

I've definitely thought to give this a try. In any event, it's heartening to see infrastructure emerging for what used to be such a cowboy pursuit -- going it solo.