Greetings From Vienna - Auf Wiedersehen

Actually, I can go without wiedersehening Vienna for another 8 years...also, fyi, the pictures in this blog have nothing to do with the text, they're just random shots of the city.



In the beginning, there was German. A noble language etched with the power and force of the German-speaking peoples' forefathers. Then, at some point the Saxons made their way to the island Brittany (aka Britannia, Britian, etc) and brought their noble langauge with them. The, during or after the Norman invasion and the arrival of William the Conqueror (I'd be able to describe this better had my university/professor thought to include history of the german language as course but no...)German began to devolve and soon the world had English. Then at some point high school students started to study the language in which their's is rooted and the world then had Germish (German-English). Or Engman I suppose but it doesn't have as nice of a ring...



Now the situation is even worse. As English evolved from German and we in England and American and America Jr. to the north spoke English and the Germans and Austrians retained their language, it seems that the devolution is happening again. English has been sneaking its way into languages for decades now like an insiduous disease eating away at perfectly good langauges. Some, like Chinese, are such as they cannot accept English words and continue to make up their own to fit increasingly modern concepts. For example, my favorite Chinese word is the word for bus: gong gong chi che (ignore my bad pin yin, I never got the hang of it) which literally translated means 'public together vapor cart.' Others like the French simply refuse to let English take over their language. So whatever contempt I have for the country as a whole I have respect that they insist on linguistic integrity.



On the opposite end of the scale is German which is increasingly using more and more English words. First it was just technical words. Hier mit dem Maus an das Computer kilcken. (Click here with the mouse on the computer). Das Internet, das Kredit Karte etc etc. So ok, on the one hand, technical words (although credit card isn't really technical...) but everyday words for which I know they have perfectly good words of their own? That's unforgivable. For example, I had dinner in an Indian restaurant tonight (more about that below) and the waiter wanted to know how spicy I wanted it. Gar nicht scharf (not at all) or medium scharf. Medium? Medium?! Since when is that a German word? Answer...it's not!



Ok, enough of my rant...on to food!



Since I have given up meat for Lent I've been mostly living on pizza and pasta and after this long, even I can get sick of pizza. I know, right? Take a minute to let that one soak in! In any case, I was delighted to happen across an Indian restaurant today. I ordered butter naan and my second favorite Indian dish, palak paneer, which is spinach cooked down with onions and 'spices' until it's the consistancy of baby food and then has chuncks of soft white cheese tossed in. I ate traditional Indian style which means by hand using only the right hand. Now no one else in the restaurant was doing this and probably it was taboo but whatever. I am a firm believer in eating food the way it's eaten in its country of origin. For foods out of India and Pakistan and a few other countries, that means by hand (only ever the right one!). For China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan it means chopsticks or toothpicks for street food. In the western world it's forks or hands. I think it is an unforgivable sin to eat Chinese food with anything but chopsticks.



And back on track...

About halfway through my palak paneer my stomach caved in on itself and crumpled into a tight, angry ball. Uh oh. This is not going to be pleasant. But did I stop eating? Pfft. No. Also not one to turn down Indian sweets I ignored the pains in my stomach and ordered dessert-gulab jamun and chai. The gulab jamun was lovely but the chai was a serious let-down. I expected that an Indian restaurant, even one in Germany but with an obviously Indian owner (and I thought the Austrian accent was odd!) could do a chai at least as good as mine. I was so wrong. Oh well. Despite the gripping stomach ache and the disappoiting tea I do not regret tonight's dinner. If nothing else I got some much needed iron.

Greetings From Vienna - City of Statues

One of the things that I love about Europe is the prolific use of statues. They can be monuments that might just be a bust of some random person that you might miss unless you walk into it or big huge monuments that you can only miss if you are actually blind. Like this monument in the Museum Quarter to Maria Theresa.



The Opera House comes replete with several statues whose significance, other than decorative, escape me.



Then there are the random carvings that decorate buildings. Most of these places are now used for modern purposes, guest houses, cafes, shops, etc but I wonder what they used to be? All the old buildings are just so beautiful to begin with, maybe it was just the style to slap a few busts onto a building regardless of the building's intended purpose?







Other than a brief excursion earlier today I'm pretty confined to my hotel so i can be online and work and convince my boss that I should be allowed to go back to Belgrade tomorrow so to remind myself that I am in Vienna I'm watching a movie on my computer. And what else would I watch except Amadeus? Absolutely fantastic movie but I still cannot watch the bit at the beginning when the old Salieri cuts his throat in an attempted suicide...that part always freaked me out when I was a kid and I'm still not over it apparently. Poor Salieri, his music really wasn't bad, he just had the misfortune to try to be a composer in the same era as Mozart and his contemporaries.

Greetings From Vienna - Sunday

This morning I attended High Mass in Saint Stephan’s. While I took many a photo of the outside of the great Cathedral, I did not take any inside. Mostly because it’s dark as pitch in there and my camera and I do not do well in the dark. Mass was…freaking freezing cold. That’s one of the many drawbacks to attending Mass in the old stone churches-there is no heating and it is often more cold inside than it is outside. I sat in one of the front pews, obviously reserved back in the day for the wealthy as evident that the plank o’ wood kneelers had thin pads covered with nawgohide tacked onto them, and shivered for an hour while listening to a Gregorian choir and struggling around the various Viennese accents to understand the Mass. I must say I didn’t do too badly.





Communion was as I feared it might be. People simply pour out of the pews and rush the Communion rail like a stampede of water buffalo. They get their wafer then push back through the crowd to return to their seat. Really? This is the house of God for cripe’s sake! Could we please have some order? Serbia is only slightly better. People do just leave their pew whenever they’re ready but manage to form to coherent lines. Taiwan was the same as was Italy if I recall correctly. Are Americans, supposedly so uncultured and lacking history and refinement in comparison to the rest of the modern world, really the only ones to perfect the orderly procession of one pew at a time?





After Mass I headed out of the city center towards the Belvedere Museum. On the way I saw the dome of the Karl’s Kirche and detoured towards it. Grand and ancient as St. Stephan’s may be, Karl’s Kirche is far more in my style.







I generally prefer the basilica’s dome to the cathedral’s spire and the inside of Karl’s Kirche was filled with shining white marble and streams of light illuminated the beautiful frescos, paintings, and statuary. I love places like this and how they are filled with air and light and don’t make me feel claustrophobic like their darker counterparts (i.e. St. Stephan’s and my own church in DC St. Matthew’s).





The on to the Belvedere which ended up being a big debacle. Had I known this morning what I now know, thanks to commenter Christine, I’d have stuck closer to the center and actually gone to the opera. Or at least taken a tour. Why it did not occur to me to find out if they offered tours I do not know; that was really stupid of me and I’m paying for that stupidity with the loss of a great opportunity. Alas, they are not open on Mondays and tomorrow will no doubt be my last day in Vienna. Well if I ever again find myself in Vienna…






I do not know the distance I walked but by the time I finally found a meatless place to eat which I could afford (I’ve been spoiled by Belgrade prices!) and sat to rest my feet, the muscles up and down both legs quivered and jumped continuously the entire time I ate. Then it was off to a Konditerei for another slice of cake and a Viennese coffee.

On my way back to my hotel I was unfortunate enough to encounter a group of youths (couldn’t have been more than 15 or 16) all dressed in military paraphernalia, one with a black mask over his face, another with Serbia written on his forehead and carrying a Serbian flag. So apparently not even here can I escape the little bastards who drive me from Belgrade in the first place. Also I lost my scrunchie. Granted they went out of style ages ago and I cringe when I see them on Beverly Hills 90210 (it plays on a Croatian TV channel) but they’re so much better for throwing hair into a messy bun than a rubber band is! And it was my favorite scrunchie. Sigh. My life is so full of tragedy (insert mocking and sarcastic self-pitying tone).

Greetings From Vienna - Saturday

Grüss Gott! Let me now finish Saturday. Between the Opera House and the Rathaus, there was also the Museum Quarter which I photographed a little but did not enter what with my general dislike of museums.





Further down the line was the Parliament building.





I still think the Parliament in Budapest to be one of the most ridiculously ornate, and therefore I like it ever so much more!



Then there was the Votive Church. Like most of western Europe Vienna is filled with ornate churches. Most of them Catholic :)







Then there was a Konditerei with a cappuccino and a slice of Sachertorte. A traditional Viennese cake, Sachertorte is a dry-ish chocolate cake with a thin layer or marmalade and covered in ganache. I am not a fan but when in Rome…



Then I walked to the Stadtpark. This place I do remember from my trip all those years ago. It was much prettier then. Although that’s rather to be expected I imagine given that it was summer then and, despite the warm temperatures, it is, after all, February.







Later there was lovely Italian gelato and yet more walking. Always with the walking.

Greetings From Vienna?

On Thursday night I called my boss to tell him that the American Embassy was being burned down. Several hours later, after midnight for me, he called to tell me that they felt it would be better were I elsewhere for the weekend and to please check my email in the morning to find out where I was going. I am now a refugee in Vienna. As refugeeing goes I could be in a worse place.


(Goethe)

I’ve been to Vienna, once, seven years ago, but at least I have a better chance of communicating here once I dust off my rusty German. Provided that is, I can get around the funky Austrian accent. I got here Friday evening and actually think I saw more on the taxi ride from the airport than I did the few days I was here in 2000. I arrived on a one-way ticket with all of my luggage (for which there was a €70 overage fee) and no idea when or even if I would be returning to Belgrade. I was left with only enough time on Friday to eat, be shocked at the outrageous €3,80 I was being charged for a small bottle of San Pellegrino, notice that my hotel was around the corner from Saint Stephan’s, and go to bed.

It is now 11:00 AM (or at least it was when I wrote this long hand) and I am standing in front of the Rathaus drinking a Glühwein (hot spiced wine). I got an early start today and have been wandering around the city with my Stadtplan taking pictures of everything. I must say that I’m not really paying attention to what I’m doing with my camera…I’m pretty much relying on point and click today. I’m also not turning everything black and white. I have the tendency to black and white the bejeesus out of my photographs but, personally I think that a great deal of the charm of some cities, Vienna included, is the array of color in the buildings and roofs and ornamentations. Anyway I’m off topic; I was talking about how it’s 11 AM and I’m already drinking…but I actually have to rewind a bit first.

I started my wanderings at the opera house. I would love to see an opera here but I’m sure the tickets are even more outrageously priced than they are in DC. Until I manage to marry that really wealthy man I’m looking for or I get a raise (both of which are equally unlikely) I’m out of luck and will simply admire its façade.





I them moved onto the Hofburg Palace which I am sure is lovely in the spring when the park is in bloom. I seem to not have had the patience to get any really good shots today.



Part of the Hofburg Palace is the famous Spanish Riding School where the Lipizzaner horses are trained. I have seen this place on television many times and when I was a horse-mad 13 year old (because aren’t all girls horse-mad at that age?) my mom took me to a show. I think when I saw that was when I truly started to enjoy myself. I realized that despite being February the weather was sunny and in the 50s and I was back in western Europe. Hurrah.





A lot more walking finally got me to the Rathaus where I discovered the Wiener Eistraum. I have no idea if this is an annual event or if the city was just disgusted by the unseasonably warm weather but they constructed a myriad of skating rinks in front of the Rathaus!





Included in all this were a variety of refreshment stands which I noticed all sold Glühwein. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have Glühwein in a Germanic country, plus I knew Lauren would be disappointed if I didn’t so, despite the early hour, I had myself a nice mug of the warm spicy wine. It was then that I noticed the stands also sold Absinthepunsch. Warm punch made out of absinthe and God knows what else. I was tempted, but the combination of the wine on a stomach that had seen breakfast over three hours earlier and my arch nemesis cobblestone streets made me decide to save that treat for tomorrow.





I actually did a heck of a lot more than this, but I've only just now finished typing this and it's already almost midnight my time and I'm tired. More tomorrow!