21 October 2008: Vienna, Austria

I woke up at around 11:00 and got my stuff together as Astrid looked on. I put my pack on and was about to leave when Riquel came back, opening the door with her key and walking in.

Now, I was ready to leave for a new couch and would have done so this day on my own accord, but Astrid was making me leave while she not only was letting Riquel stay but had given her her own key? Uh...

Anyway, whatever. I had my stuff with me and didn't really feel like walking around with everything all day, so I got some yogurt and bread for a lunch of 87 cents and then went to the library, where I spent most of the afternoon.

Not a whole lot going on.

At around 5:00 or so I headed around town on the metro for a bit, just for the hell of it, and when I got back to the University stop and emerged I asked the first people I saw for a couch-- three dudes, one on a bike.

The dude on the bike left, but one of the other guys said maybe, and let me buy you a drink in the meantime. So the three of us went to a bar, and Niko-- the guy who said maybe about the couch-- called his roommate, who told him I could crash there. So I had a beer and a couch. I was set.

After the drink Niko and I went back to his place-- the other guy was a friendly dude named Benny-- and he asked if I was hungry. I said I was and expected to get a slice of bread or a bowl of pasta or something. Instead, Niko came back with mozzerella cheese and tomatos. Nice move, guy.

Niko's roommate Mo came back a little later with his friend Corina, a pretty cute girl he went to high school with and who goes to University in Graz. What ensued was lots of beer and Jaeger and "cheers" and "prost" and "eggusheggadray," and to put it simply I wrote in my notebook "what fun, one of the all-time couches." Which, to be sure, is the quickest I've ever been inspired to write that.

(Speaking of the notebook, I took it out at one point and Niko, not missing a cue, told me I should write a book about my time in Europe. I told him that if I ever did, at this rate he and Mo and Corina would get their own chapter. Corina said she wanted her own chapter by herself. Don't you know you're going to have to earn it?)

(I should also make note that although I had met Niko, I was actually staying at Mo's place-- or, rather, Mo's father's place. It's the flat that Mo grew up in, and still lives in while he goes to school, and Niko lives there for free because he's been friends with Mo for such a long time. And because it's a palace of a flat, taking up the entire pent-house floor in an apartment building right off Stephansplatz.)

At this point, I should explain that I got a pretty late start for finding a couch because I had been planning on going to this place IDA as a fall-back. On the day I met Ike, some guys I had asked for a couch told me that if I didn't find anything I could crash at IDA, which they said is a culture club. I didn't know that a culture club was anything more than an '80s band, but if it really is a thing I thought it would be a fine place to hang out. They said the place was pay-what-you-want for food and beer, and that was where I figured I'd end up this night if I hadn't met Niko.

Anyway, I mention this only because, when we left the flat, Mo said we were headed to "a place called IDA." The one and only.

This place, which Mo also described as "anti-fascist," was pretty cool, if a bit anarchistic, but boy was it coincidental that I ended up there. And probably moreso because, judging from the crowd, it was almost 95% likely that I would have ended up talking to Niko or Mo or Corina or Niko's girlfriend Sarah anyway.

I had told Shannon that I would meet her at the hostel at 11:00 and when I went to see if she was around Astrid was-- of course!-- sitting at the desk. And she gave me a pretty nasty look like "you're back." Actually, darling, just here to meet a friend. And glad I had left that morning.

Shannon was sitting at the hostel bar, and as I waited for her to finish her beer I was suddenly overcome with this feeling of how much cooler my trip is than hers. This moment in particular, because it was a Tuesday and Shannon was sitting at a hostel bar with a tourist, whereas I was at an anti-fascist party with a bunch of local kids. I waited at the hostel for about half an hour, got bored, and decided to leave.

I went back to the party and hung out with Niko and Sarah, and when they left a bit after midnight Mo and Corina left too so they could catch the last metro. I had given thought to crashing at IDA for the night, since I figured that wouldn't be a problem in any case, but one of the main people there said everyone would be kicked out at 4:00. I was sure they'd make an exception for a traveler, but I was ready to go. Everyone was sitting in circles on bean bags, presumably talking about how to bring down fascism, and though it was a pretty interesting scene it wasn't really an outsider-friendly scene if you aren't an anarchist. Which I'm not.

So I left with the other four, and when I protested to Mo buying me a kebab, he told me that he had won €1,200 playing poker the day before. That, and his dad was loaded. So I consented.

And then we went back to the flat and drank a little more, and I crashed on the pulled-out futon.

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For this day my notes are broken into two parts: drunken scribbling and the next day. "One of the all-time couches" was written the next day, which makes it much more meaningful, as was this next part: "Niko and Mo just the nicest guys--> genuinely happy to help me out." This was that kind of night and they were that kind of dudes.