Vienna

As the airplane cruised over Austria and descended upon Vienna, I knew we were gonna be in trouble. Everything was white. At first I thought it was the clouds, but then I realized that the whiteness was in fact snow. As my friend and I stepped off the plane, little flurries of snow swirled around us and settled on our clothing. It was cold. Very cold. I consider myself to have a bit of tolerance for cold after living on the east coast for a few years, so either I've lost it or Vienna was as cold as I thought it was.

It was dark by the time we settled in at the hostel and decided to explore the city a little. As we hit the city center I looked down one of the streets and saw beautiful Christmas lights. "We are going that way!" I declared as I turned on my heels and zoned in on the festivities. Turns out that one of Vienna's largest Christmas markets had just opened that weekend! I love Christmas markets. I haven't seen any in the US like the ones I've seen here in Copenhagen and Vienna. There are dozens of small huts selling all sorts of Christmassy goodies like ornaments, decorations, and little gifts. Then there are the huts that sell goodies of the edible variety. yummmmmm. There is every sort of pastry imaginable including small round donuts on a stick with warm apple slices in between and donuts where they actually fill it with what you want right in front of you. They also have Glogg which is mulled wine. I believe it's wine with rum in it, and warm with little berries at the bottom. At first it tastes funny, but it grows on you.

For the first day in Vienna we spent the morning walking about the main city. We started at the main opera house then wound our way through the city. There was a gorgeous cathedral that had these amazing windows that let the light just pour through. As beautiful as everything was, it was really really cold, as i mentioned before. Meaning that outdoor site seeing had to be broken up with frequent indoor activities. Luckily, one of the important aspect of the Viennese culture are their cafes. Cafes are everywhere. You can spend hours sitting in a cafe and sipping on a melange (essentially a cappachino) and nibbling on a piece of amazing cake. I must have had at least melange a day and I don't even want to discuss the cake aspect ;)

That evening we went to a museum displaying the art of this man, Hunderwasser. He had very interesting ideas about architecture. For instance, he envisioned neighborhoods where grass was on all the roofs of the homes and everything was eco friendly. He didn't seem to believe in straight lines so the floors were all rounded and dippy. He did believe in "tree tenants" which means you'd have a tree in your house that would grow outside your window to get light and air. He was essentially a hippie architect. On our last day we checked out an apartment building that he designed. It was pretty cool actually.

On the second day we went to an Austrian Palace. Even though at the point I've gone through several castles and palaces on my journey, i still always enjoy it. Everything is so beautiful and over the top. I did have a lot of fun going into the garden because it was something that would have been so beautiful had it been summer or spring, but was essentially dead and ugly while covered in white snow.

There are tons of museums in Vienna. It's another one of those perfect indoor activities to escape the bitter cold outside. Even though I'm not usually into modern art, we went to check out an exhibit called "True Romance." It was very strange. Some of the art was interesting and I liked. Other exhibits kinda freaked me out a little (like one montage of videos of movies from Hollywood with men beating women). One that I did find interesting was a reenactment of a couples conversations via chat on the Internet. Essentially actors were reading aloud their online written dialogue. It was interesting to see conversations acted out because it sounds so bizarre ("hello? Are you there? Why aren't you responding")

That night we went to hear a concert of Mozart and Strauss. There was also some dancing and opera singing. I've never really listened to much classical music, so it was nice to get the opportunity to hear live classical music in a place like Vienna, famous for Mozart. The concert was in a beautiful concert hall with gorgeous lights outside and an elegant interior.

On the final day in Vienna we went to its main museum. Museums are often hit or miss for me. Some I absolutely love and would go back again and again and others I'm kinda ambivalent about. This one fell into the category of love. Some of the exhibits were so unique (like one room dedicated to large and small cameos) but mostly i loved the set up of the museum. It was very private with small rooms and varied lighting. For instance there was this one room where you walked in, and your eyes had to adjust for a second because the lighting was so dim. Then you'd see everything come into focus and saw about 2 dozen busts, all near or below eye level. There was a spot light on each one. It was creepy but a strong way to present the busts.

There is so much more to talk about from Vienna, but for now I think I will end there. It was cold, but absolutely beautiful with its museums, cafes, and architecture. I had a wonderful time, and was saddened that it would be my last European city to visit for a long time.

On that note. I'll be home to SD in less than two weeks. I can't believe this adventure is almost over. But don't worry, I still have some more thoughts and reflections to post about ;)