Wien. Vienna. City of culture, of composers, of music and cafés. Ahhh.
And yet I'm so glad to be back in little ol' Marburg…
But Wien was marvelous on many levels. I wish I had more time to get to know the city, because I feel like I only got the bare scraping of a glance during my 4 days there. The city reminds me of a sort of modern Gondor, with stately white stone architecture, high domes dedicated to art and history, and long tree-lined pathways. Why anyone needs a car in Vienna is beyond me--the public transportation system is incredible. Subways, Taxis, and Trollies make navigating the city a cinch. Vienna is an unbelievably clean city. Marburg puts most US cities to shame, and Vienna makes Marburg look like inner city Philadelphia. Now to the actual trip!
On Monday evening , after several hours of riding trains, plains, and subways, we arrived at our hotel. It was really nice. That evening, we ate out at a "typisch" restaurant and I had my first Wiener Schnitzel! It was delicious, especially with some lemon juice on it...mmm...
The next morning we got up and ate a delicious continental breakfast, and then headed off on a tour of the city. Our tour guide, Wolfgang Höfler, was awesome, and had a sweet Wienerisch accent. He was really knowledgeable about the city, and I wished for the umpteenth time that I was fluent in German, so that I could understand more. He took us all around to the little nooks and crannies that I would have never found on my own, but which were still incredible, like two of the houses that Mozart lived in! The only downside to the tour other than my linguistic incompetence was the fact that it was freezing and snowing the whole time. Due to our just sub-frostbitten condition, after the tour we made a bee-line for somewhere warm where we could eat lunch. We found a really nice Pizzeria, where I spent more money on Pizza than I ever have in my life. Still, I was warm, and for that, I gladly paid my 9 € and tried not to think about the exchange rate.
That afternoon we went to the IAEA center, which is the International Atomic Energy Agency. the IAEA tries to regulate the use of atomic energy, and to ensure that it is used for peaceful means only. Obviously this isn’t the reality, and many countries (the US included) still insist on the production or possession of Nuclear weapons. We learned about what the IAEA is trying to do, and also a little about the UN, and how people are working towards a global nuclear disarming. It was encouraging and also a little depressing, since there are so many countries that refuse to disarm—the USA included.
After the tour, we went to the Prater, which is the giant Ferris wheel in Vienna. It was pretty impressive, but as I got into the car, I looked behind us at the sky and was a little uneasy…
It turns out I had a good reason to be uneasy. About halfway up the circle (we were moving v e r y s l o w l y) we heard a huge crash of thunder, and then lightning! “Great,” I thought, “what a way to go: electrocuted on a world-famous Ferris wheel…” It was definitely scary, especially when it started to snow. What?! Snow?! During a thunderstorm?! Apparently the weather decided that Thunder and lightning really wasn’t apropos for March, and so almost instantaneously switched to gale-force winds and more snow than I have seen since I visited up-state New York in January. This wasn’t your regular snowstorm, it was a blizzard, and we were smack in the middle of it, 200 ft in the air. I wasn’t actually worried until snow started blowing in through the windows and door—all of which were closed.
In any case though, we arrived back on the ground safe and sound, and all the better for having had the adventure. We all assured Herr Riggs that we wouldn’t sue him, or blog about the experience thereby making our parents and loved ones hysterical thinking that we were in the hands of a mad program director who was in the habit of taking his pupils out into the heinous elements of mother nature on PMS.
oh wait…oops. Well, I still won’t sue him.
The next day was Wednesday, and we were off to the Schloss Schönbrunn. It was really impressive, actually, and very palace-y and incredible. There were endless art galleries, which was really neat. The only problem was that I took too long, and thought that the rest of the group left me behind. in a panic I rushed out of the Schloss, to see the distant backs of Alex, Amy, Ruth, Sharon, and Avdo. I hailed them in German, and they waited for me. After collecting Bridgette (who was behind me) we decided to try to visit the Tier Garten (zoo) that was right next door. After discovering that the Eintritt cost was 12 + €, we promptly changed our plans and went to the Palm Greenhouse across the way. The entrance fee was too much there as well, so we got on a Trolley and made our way to the Naschmarkt.
The Naschmarkt may well have been my favorite part of the trip. It was an open air market, with everything imaginable for sale. Well, as far as food went, that is. There was one category of non-edible merchandise, and the stalls just seemed to tessellate down the rows, until you were quite sure you’d seen the exact same stall 100 feet earlier. We bought huge pieces of bread for next to nothing, and some cheese fresh off the block to go with it. Then we made for a park and ate our simple meal in the sun. After our lunch, we were all very thrilled that we’d managed to have a meal in Vienna for only about 2.50 € each, so we went to an unbelievably expensive café to celebrate. Actually, it turned out it wasn’t unbelievably expensive, just regularly expensive. It was very posh though, and so I was amazed when the 4.20 € I spent on what I thought was a cup of tea turned out to be an entire pot. three cups of the good old Earl later, I was happy and content.
It was getting late, so we headed back to the hotel to dress for the theater. I am happy to be able to say I went to the theater in Wien, but in all honesty, I didn’t like the play much. It was a Freudian concept play about guilt, and where it comes from, and in the end the main characters were raped, murdered, and then committed suicide. The mechanics of the play—the acting and effects—were very well done, absolutely top-notch. The story was just blicky.
So afterwards, when we went out to eat, I got a huge dish of ice cream, which reminded me that there is more to life than Freud, guilt, and getting hit by trains. Ice cream is very effective therapy.
Thursday morning we traipsed off to the Schloss Belvedere. this was my favorite artsy place that we visited. It felt smaller, and there wasn’t as much art, but the art that was there was wonderful. I got to see some actual Rembrandt and even piece by Monet! It was much better than the Art History museum, which we visited directly afterwards.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum was actually very impressive. There was a lot of art in there. The building was also beautiful and old and made you think of places like the Library at Alexandria and whatnot. However, most of the art was of the same genre, and it was a genre that has always failed to capture the imagination in my case. Maybe I’m an uncultured barbarian, which is very possible, but after a while portraits of men in large wigs, nude women, and tortured souls being torn asunder all start to look the same after the 20th one or so. Alex Becker and I strolled around trying to be cultured for a while, and finally gave it up as a bad job. We did come to the conclusion however that if Art was any sort of reliable historical mirror, then one could safely assume that it was not the cultural norm for women to wear a shirt—or any clothes at all for that matter—until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Skeptics may snort at this hypothesis, but I remain convinced. I have felt the nail-holes, so to speak, and believe.
After the Museum, a bunch of us went and pretended we were 8 years old. We bought amazing cheese-filled hot dogs at a street stand, and then ate them in a park, where we proceeded to play in a random sandbox, and then give each other piggy-back rides throughout the park. I was regrettably not a part of the piggy-backing, but it did afford me the most pleasurable task of observing the Viennese citizens’ reactions to two sets of grown adults on the shoulders of two other sets of equally grown adults.
We went to the Freud Museum at 3pm, and took a quick tour. I’d hoped that the museum might clear up the confusion of the Theater, but it didn’t, although I did get to sit on a bon a fide analysis couch. That was cool.
That evening, we went to dinner at the Ritziest place I’ve ever been in my life. It was a restaurant in the Donauturm, a hugely tall tower in Vienna, sort of the Eiffel of Wien. The restaurant actually rotated, so that during the course of your meal, you saw a 360-degree view of the city. It was beautiful. Thankfully, the tab was on BCA, because it ended up being a combined bill of around 280 €, which translates to about $35 a person. Eek.
the next day we had 6 hours or so before we had to leave to go home, so I spent the first 3 sleeping in and lazing around the hotel. Then Nicole, Alex, and I went out to the graveyard.
What? We’re in Vienna, and we go to a graveyard? Well, yes, actually. And it was lovely. Not only was it peaceful and a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the past 4 days, we got to see some pretty incredible people’s resting places. Among other great composers, we saw Brahms, Schubert, and Mozart! Beethoven’s actual grave wasn’t there, but there was a memorial that was the exact replica of his real grave, so it was still pretty awesome.
On the way back, we had a 20 minute wait in the train station, waiting for our ride to the airport. I was exhausted from walking, so I sat down on the nearest bench. It turns out I'm glad I did, because the following interaction was the most significant part of my whole Wien experience. I sat down, and heard a wheezy voice at my ear. I looked up, and saw that the guy sitting next to me was looking a little worse for wear. After a few minutes of conversation, I'd ascertained that this fellow wasn't Austrian, or even German. He was Russian, and his German was worse than mine. He'd been stuck in the station for 3 days, because he couldn't afford a ticket or something, I didn't catch it exactly. At any rate, it was pretty clear that he was asking me for money. I almost told him no, like people always do to panderers in big cities. You never know if they are asking you for drug money or what, and so you just don't give them anything. But then I had an idea. I asked him if he was hungry. He didn't seem to understand, so I tried again. "Kann ich dir etwas zu essen kaufen?"
Can I buy you something to eat? This time his face lit up with understanding "Ja!" Ok, "Ich gehe oben und kaufe etwas--bleib hier und warte auf mich."
I'll go upstairs and buy something--stay here and wait for me. I gathered up my stuff and set off. I went up stairs and looked around frantically for someplace, any place that sold food. I only had 15 minutes or so before the train would be there. I scrambled around, and finally saw a little store that looked like a snack shop. It wasn't much, but it would have to do. I walked in and my heart sank. All they had were chips and other snacky things--nothing of real substance. I made my way to the back of the store, and then I hit the jackpot. There in a tiny little fridge, they had pre-made deli sandwiches! I grabbed the largest one and a bottle of ginger ale, paid, and ran back down the hallway, down the escalator, and onto the platform. There he was, waiting for me, standing up looking up and down the platform! I gave him the food, and was nearly blinded by the smile he flashed me. Our train arrived, and I said goodbye.
That was the highpoint of my trip. After walking around a city of light, visiting posh theaters and eating a meal that cost what would feed a family in Africa for a month or more, I was so blessed to spend 4 € to buy a poor Russian man lunch in broken German.
All in all, the trip was really cool, and I am glad I went. I am glad to be back in Marburg though, where life isn’t so hectic, and where ich kenne meine Stadt.
