Our New Year's celebration began with a delightful dinner prepared by our hosts in Vienna. Afterward, we took part in a uniquely Austrian tradition: we melted some lead on a spoon over a candle and dropped it into a glass of cold water. Then we faced the task of interpreting its new shape to determine our fate in 2007! The interpretation process is not easy, but we had a lot of fun with it—and it looks like I'll be having a fantastic new year!
I'm not sure what our original plan was. There was talk of heading to a hill overlooking Vienna where there were bound to be a lot of people. Apparently we took too long with the eating and the melting, so we instead opted for a roof on some building.
This is not so much legal, of course. We had to skirt some security cameras to join the handful of others who had already found this vantage point from which to enjoy the New Year's fireworks.
What a show. I have never seen so many fireworks, not even at the most enthusiastic 4th of July celebration. The bangs started early in the evening and gained intensity up to this point, just a few minutes before midnight. We could see over the top of much of the city, and the fireworks were all around us. It was impossible to decide where to look, so we ended up sort of spinning in imperfect circles, trying to take it all in.
There we were: me, my brother, our friend, our hosts, and a handful of Austrian people I had met only moments before. No one managed to make a count down, but we popped open the champagne and toasted to every good thing we could think of.
The fireworks continued full force for another 15 minutes or so. We clamored off the roof before they had died down completely and made our way to a party.
It was a different sort of New Year for me. Typically I am surrounded by dozens of people I know and love. This year I was surrounded by strangers, but it didn't matter. They were good people, amazing people, each wonderful in his or her way, as we all are. It is so good to be reminded of that—that in a world such as this there still exists such goodness and opportunity for happiness. We toasted to the best of everything, not just for us but for everyone. I barely knew any of those people. But I loved them just the same. Happy New Year.