Many apologies for the long hiatus! Since I’m not a good blogger – I’m lazy and I procrastinate and I lack any sort of consistency with my posts – I’m not going to write much about my 2010 year in review. And suddenly it’s three weeks into January, go figure.

I’m also not going to write about my New Year’s resolutions – I don’t make those any more, since I tend to fail abysmally at keeping even the simplest of these (floss! go to the gym! clean your bathroom, damnit!). Of course, like everyone, I have tons of shit that I’d like to make myself do, or do more of, or do less of, and I make vague motions towards self-motivation every once in a while as I attempt to figure out what I want to do after Vienna. But that’s still seven months away, so it’ll be a story for another day, perhaps.

I am planning on writing an epic four-part post on my family vacation over the holidays, since it was awesome. But since that’s going to take me a while, I thought I’d start out 2011 with a by-no-means-comprehensive list of awesome things I should do (slash already have done) during my time here in Vienna. The list is a compilation of touristy type things, my penchant for going to concerts, and the insider info that Minkus and my other friends here have from growing up in this beautiful city. That way, every so often I can update my list, and see how I’m progressing in general awesomeness in the city ranked the best place to live in the world. Also, I love crossing out items on lists, so there’s that.

Note: I realize that this list is not actually 100 awesome things yet, but I’m leaving some spots open for the impromptu adventures that will inevitably make it onto the list during the next few months. So! Without further ado:

100 Awesome Things in Vienna

1. Get a stamp in my passport upon entering Austria
2. See a concert at Gasometer
3. See Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss (Lovers)” at the Belvedere Museum

4. Go to the Natural History Museum
5. Eat a dirty cheese sausage (also known as käsekrainer) from a würste stand
6. Drink glühwein at the Christmas Market
7. Go to the Naschmarkt and flea market on Saturday morning
8. Attend a concert under a U-bahn line (the B72)
9. Dance at Charlie P’s Bar
10. Walk through the Rathaus
11. Stay up until sunrise
12. Take all forms of public transportation available in Vienna (tram-arific!)

13. Get through an encounter with an Austrian completely in German
14. Eat weinerschnitzel
15. Drink Austrian wine [I’ve done this once or twice, of course. Wine is 2 euros here. At least, the kind of wine we drink is 2 euros.]
16. Walk in the Zetralfriedhof (cemetery) at dusk
17. Try Austrian cheese
18. Attend a concert in a boat on the Donau
19. Take belly-dancing lessons
21. Have a (minor) quarter-life crisis on my birthday
22. Write a blog about living in Vienna [oooh, meta]
23. Explore the graffiti in Vienna [which seems to be in short supply in most of this city, unless you’re by the canal]
24. Host an all-nighter Christmas party that includes a sweet-smelling live tree [The tree was as tall as Mink, which is not very tall, although, to its credit, it was much more robust than the Charlie Brown Christmas tree]

25. Eat a pretzel from a bakery
26. Have a Skype date with a glass of red wine
27. Stealthily obtain set lists and/or autographs from bands I love [Thus far, the winnings include Interpol, Ratatat and Bassnectar]
28. Work as a bar wench for the first time
29. Hitch a ride on a service vehicle in downtown Vienna
30. Dance at Funky Monkey to hits from the 90s
31. Empathize with an outspoken cab driver who, upon hearing we’re Canadian, yells that “U S A ist Scheiße!” [Translation: “shit.”]
32. Walk along the Donau canal

33. Linger at an outdoor coffeeshop and people-watch
34. Find a secondhand bookstore with a passable English section
35. Keep in touch with those back in Canada and around the world [Facebook – a blessing and a curse]
36. Hang out at Pickwick’s for English books and beer
37. Play beer bottle bowling into the Donau
38. Find the elusive, apparently exclusive “club with the blue door” that a friend of a friend told me about
39. Go to the national library
40. Go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum
41. Sing my heart out at a karaoke bar
42. Visit the aquarium
43. Built an epic fort in our apartment
44. Hang out at Heldenplatz
45. Have a summer party on the roof terrace
46. Trivia at Billy’s Bones
47. Take the tram around the Ring
48. Take a ride on the Reisenrad (giant Ferris wheel)

49. Go to Paddy’s for free beer at happy hour
50. Go to Bratislava, Slovakia
51. Go to Salzburg, Austria
52. Go to Prague, Czech Republic
53. Go to Linz, Austria
54. Go to Budapest, Hungary
55. Take a paddleboat ride along the canal
56. Go to an original coffeehouse for Viennese hot chocolate
57. See the baby elephant, Tuluba, at the zoo at Tiergarten Schönbrunn
58. See the catacombs in Stephansdom

59. See an opera
60. Go on a wine garden tour
61. See a Mozart concert
62. Go to the Museum of Modern Art
63. Take German lessons
64. Try all the types of beer brewed at 1516
65. Give money to the dude who makes a living by dressing as an Egyptian mummy in Stephansplatz
66. Go to the Leopold Museum
67. See “The Third Man” (which was set and filmed in Vienna)

68. Go to the Sigmund Freud Museum
69. Go to the Albertina Museum
70. Steal a Mozart cutout from a chocolate shop for our living room
71. Hang out in the Vienna woods
72. See Minkus’s childhood house in Grinzig
73. Have a picnic in the Stadtpark
74. See Schoenbrunn Palace
75. See Hundertwasser House

76. Go to the Prater (amusement park)
77. See the Danube Tower
78. Take more photos and upload them on Flickr
79. Visit Dave in Geneva
80. Be a pit stop on Laura and Kim’s “Sexy Eurotour 2011”

There’s the list for now; expect an update on the immensely satisfying feeling of crossing awesome things off the list as they occur. And, if anyone has any suggestions about awesome things to do whilst in Vienna, please let me know!