A Few Thoughts on Vienna

Quick note: in the last entry I wished you all a happy Toussaint without explaining exactly what that means. It's a holiday (originally Catholic) to celebrate all of the saints and it's a public holiday in France because in the past, the period around Toussaint was when the French peasants (and their children) would harvest the potato crop. In recognition that many students would be absent, the school system found it easier to just have a vacation, and the tradition has stuck. Schoolchildren get a full 10 days, but today, Nov. 1, is the federal holiday.

So this trip to visit Brooke was very different from any other trip I've taken while in Europe. First of all, I was there for a full 6 days, so there was less urgency to use every single hour for sightseeing. Also, Brooke has a car, which meant that we didn't use public transportation nearly as often as I would normally when visiting a city. She's also very familiar with the city, having lived there for about 6 months total at this point... so I think during this visit I spent less time being lost and/or figuring out how to get places than I have in the past. But Brooke's schedule was a bit restricted because she had to work on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Wednesday was a national holiday, so she had that day off). We had to wake up early so she could take the son to school (about an hour trip, in total) and then be back in the afternoons through mid-evening. This limitation meant we got to see fewer things than I would have otherwise, but in exchange for a free place to stay and lots of time hanging out with Brooke, I think it worked out for the best :-) In this picture Brooke is standing on the steps of the Albertina, an art museum right near the Staatsoper. Last time I was in Vienna they had just opened an exhibit on Impressionists and apparently they made it something of a permanent exhibit, because it's still there. They also added this mural to the steps, and it looks great!

One of the first things I noticed as we were driving from the airport to Brooke's family's house was that Austrian stoplights are different from American or French ones. They're still red, yellow, and green, but the yellow light comes on for both transitions (red to yellow to green, green to yellow to red). You can go as soon as the light turns red to yellow, so I guess that's not a huge difference, but the green lights also start blinking before they turn yellow, so you know when the light is about to change. I'm not sure if it's a better system or not, but it definitely gives you more warning.

This is apparently the smallest cafe in Vienna (the name literally means "Small Cafe"). Brooke and I tried to go here on Wednesday afternoon, but these two girls snatched the last open table from us. We waited for a few minutes, but no one seemed close to finishing, so we left.

Running: since I'm still working towards a marathon, I wanted to get in at least a few runs while I was gone for 10 days. Luckily the afternoons when Brooke had to be home to watch the kids were a perfect opportunity for me to get in some kilometers. The family lives in Bisamberg, a village/town north of Vienna. There's an entrance to the highway relatively nearby, but once you get outside the town it's mostly farmland. Unfortunately it was quite gray in Vienna this past week, so the landscape wasn't quite as pretty as it could have been (during at least two of my runs I spent the majority of my time looking down, head bowed against the wind). But it really is quite magnificent. I'm sure the leaves changing colors only helped, but the rolling hills and the mountains in the distance were pretty neat. [Note: this picture was taken during our ride along the Danube on Sunday afternoon, not in Bisamberg, so it was never this sunny while I was running. But it gives you an idea of how pretty the country can be!] I realized during these runs that I have no ability to identify crops based on their foliage. I saw at least four different types of leaves/plants, but I couldn't tell you what was growing in the fields (and Brooke couldn't tell me). I can identify corn, thanks to Ohio, and soy beans and tobacco, thanks to North Carolina, so I can definitely say they were not any of those three... Another neat thing I saw while running: lots of cool birds. I saw multiple pheasant running through the rows of crops -- their long orangey-brown tails were beautiful! I don't think I had ever seen one in the wild before. This well-outfitted bird on the right is not one of the ones I saw in the fields, but rather part of a Swarovski window display. Apparently they partnered with the natural history museum and borrowed these beautiful stuffed birds to show off their latest jewelry.

A challenge I experienced in Vienna: German. Luckily between Brooke's basic abilities and the proliferation of English-speakers in the city, we got along just fine. But, as I anticipated, it was very humbling to spend time in a country where I knew so very little of the language. But I expanded my repetoire, and at least once was able to complete an entire transaction without depending on any English (okay, I said three words/phrases, and I was buying postcards, but still, this was progress!)

Some words I learned:

Grüß Gott! (hello)
Tschüs (goodbye)
Entschuldigen (excuse me, pardon)
Bitte (please)
Lightenwasser (still water)
Schlag (whipped cream -- but theirs isn't sweetened so it's not quite like ours)
Schönes Wochenende (have a good weekend)


I know, quite the list, right. As funny as I find German (how seriously can you take yourself if you have a word like fünf [five] as part of your language?), I really am going to try to learn some once my portable CD drive arrives. I haven't been able to make use of the German for Dummies CDs, nor the software they have at the teachers' library because I don't have any way to play them. But I think I'll be able to pick up the package that contains my CD drive from the post office tomorrow, and I can get to work. Not only is Brooke working on German, and I plan to visit at least a few cities in Germany while I'm here, but I know a couple of people in Besancon who are native-speakers (Franzi from the Ultimate team and Candice and Laurie's Austrian roommate Kati), so theoretically I could get some real practice in if I wanted. I let you know if I make any realprogress.

So what did I think of Vienna, overall? This time I got to see it much more from a local's perspective, and I would say I liked it just as much, if not more than I did last time. The people were very friendly, the architecture, history and art is really interesting and superabundant (I think you could spend days just wandering around the first district looking at the architecture of the regular buildings, even without spending time looking at the monuments and the really famous ones). Take, for example, this beautiful mosaic above a totally generic shoe store (picture on right). It is sort of a shame that I still have not seen Vienna in the spring/summer though, because I imagine it would be even more beautiful and pleasant. But I would recommend it wholeheartedly -- probably second behind Prague, but possibly before Paris. And Brooke deserves a lot of credit for making it such a great stay!