Friday: Rolled in style into the Westbanhof train station to be met by Tim!! My friend from Grinnell who took me in and showed me around. A true New Yorker, he had already mastered the entire tram/train/subway/bus system of Vienna. Ha, we barely walked. So, by the time I had dropped my stuff off at his apartment (which he shares with one other American and an Austrian) we went out to an authentic underground Vienniese wine cellar. We, of course, dinned on local specialties: veal wienerschnitzel with lemon, pancake soup (beef broth with shreds of pancake), pickled salad, 
and toast. Live music was playing. Returned to his apartment to change into my outfit (a sequined mini skirt) for we were going out dancing at a famous New Wave party held every last Friday of the month. So crowded. So sweaty. Such fun! C'mon dancing to 80s pop! Tim was definetly in his element and his neon glasses! Caught the night bus and, since I was so hungry from my 'workout', had my first wurstel gushing with cheese..surprise! yikes.Right: Vienna Opera which was playing Carmen but we were unable to go. Left: New Wave Dance Club
Saturday: Gave Tim an excuse to do all the touristy things he hadn't gotten around to doing yet/too embarrassed to do 
and toast. Live music was playing. Returned to his apartment to change into my outfit (a sequined mini skirt) for we were going out dancing at a famous New Wave party held every last Friday of the month. So crowded. So sweaty. Such fun! C'mon dancing to 80s pop! Tim was definetly in his element and his neon glasses! Caught the night bus and, since I was so hungry from my 'workout', had my first wurstel gushing with cheese..surprise! yikes.Right: Vienna Opera which was playing Carmen but we were unable to go. Left: New Wave Dance Club
without the excuse of showing me around. Vienna summer palace -> saw the outside of the oldest zoo in the world -> donkeys!! until Tim refocused my priorites to the 
Summer castle and surrounding man-made splendor -> went shopping in the sunshine at the local,
huge outdoor flea market/fresh produce/restaurant strip aka Naschmarkt. As Tim put it, sometimes the displays are really quite impressive. Other times, it looks like people just found a spot and threw down there shit in a trash bag for us to riffle through. The actual produce was of great quality and they actually sold (at one stand) my favorite candy in the whole world. "Fill that candy bag up. Don't be shy there!". I had a hankering for Vietnamese food so we got some soup and visited Tim's friends in there apartment. 7 music students share this beautiful, plush, apartment. Very spoiled. It was Kurt's birthday so we crashed the party and celebrated with our hosts! All pics from Schönbrunn Summer PalaceSunday: Poor Tim! I urged him to take me to 3 last destinations before I left that night (so I thought). (1) Belvedere (2) Hundertwasserhaus (3) Secession Building and a (4) on his list a real Viennese café. We only saw the first floor of the Belvedere which included many beautiful Klimts including the Kiss. Who really caught my attention, however, was Egon Schiele an artist who I've never heard of before.
Ran out of the museum to Hundertwasserhaus which Tim absolutely loved and I couldn't help comparing to Gaudi. On our way to the Secession building Tim couldn't help himself but stop at an authentic "off the tourist map" underbelly of Vienna. There is this one subway stop (whose 
name I'm forgetting) where although the hussle of commuters and commercialism rages on: heroin addicts wander the halls with this glazed, empty expression. It was truly a haunting sight to see these pale, zombies engage in drug deals right in front of us. Some addicts mouths were covered in blue- a sign that they were taking methadone to help them recover- which only added to the chilling sight. So..........., then we went to the secession building which in stark contrast to the rich, ornate, immense Hofburg palaces, was very modest in only white and gold and minimally decorated. The overall effect was very beautiful. We didn't go inside (for lack of time and euro) so I'll have to visit again. Next, we went to Tim's favorite café to talk, drink real Viennese coffee, and enjoy Sachertorte (a chocolate cake with apricot marmalade). Pics: Center: Four Trees by Egon Schiele. Left: Tim and HundertwasserhausSunday Night: A fairly ridiculous tale of how silly I am. Got to airport. Flight cancelled. Panic sets in. Rather than just staying put and accepting the complimentary hotel room I decided I would try to figure out where Tim lived. So, got back on bus, tried calling him. tried to figure out where his apartment was. Neither worked. So I ended up waiting at the bus stop to take me back to the airport and accept (duh!) the very very nice hotel accomodations. Of course when I'm stressed I eat chocolate. So, I'm sitting at the bus stop late at night when this girl my age looks like s
he's on the brink of tears. She asks me for money, which I don't really have other than the money I need to get back on the bus to the airport. I spare some change, she breaks down and tells me about her life. Yikes. What a story! gave her what remained of my chocolate bar. Back at airport everything worked out perfectly. Room with dinner and breakfast. Silly silly maggie. Pic: Bye Bye Vienna Secession Building.
No comments:
Post a Comment