Vienna!

At the end of my Fasching Break, I got the lucky chance to visit the charming city of Vienna, Austria. Spreading the blue jacket tradition (kids style), I was invited by an old Student Nat from Wolf Ridge to stay with him and his wife at their small house in the central city. Gil DiSantio (same year as Julie Flotten . . . ) is originally from Cleveland, and met his wife Claudia through playing Ultimate Frisbee (as far as I could gather). He also turns out to be a World Champion in Ultimate. Claudia is originally from Tirol (northern Austria), but the two are currently living in Vienna, planning on moving back to the states this fall. It was quite an adventure with accents as we had my host sister Katharinas (whom I traveled with) which was slightly Bayerisch, mine (slightly American, a little Bayerisch), Gil who had a heavy American accent with Austrian vocabulary, and Claudias which was a Tirol German accent with some Vienna accent thrown in. A very funny thing to listen to if you happened to meander by us on the metro, Kathi and my main source of transportation during our trip.

Gil, Claudia, Kathi & I

We arrived on Thursday Feb. 26th with the train in Vienna's west train station, picked up by Gil, where we followed him back to his house and had a yummy dinner of noodles with red sauce, an art of spaghetti. Friday Kathi and I slept in a little bit, then took a tour of the city for about 1 1/2. It was really interesting, our guide led us through Stephan's Dome, one of the must-sees of the city, a huge gothic church.

Stephan's Dome, Kaiser's casket.

The woman told us a few stories about the church, and one I found interesting was explained with a small circle engraved by the entrance to the church. (You can't see it in the picture.) The circle was supposed to have been the correct size for a loaf of bread, and if a buyer suspected that the baker could have jipped them, they would hold their loaf of bread up against the circle to check to see if it was the right size. If not, The baker would have to pay a fine (since the buyer was then allowed to tell the church).

Stephan's Dome from the outside (beautiful gothic architecture!) .

Our tour guide then led us through a few of the outside streets of Vienna, one of these being the Blutgasse, or 'Blood Way'. This street was the hideout place for the carousing knights during the middle ages, and when found, they would be murdered there - thus 'the Blood Way'. You can see the sign in the picture above.

Another back street in Wien, the home of Mozart during his times in Vienna.

Vienna (well, Europe - but Vienna especially) is well known for it's sideway streets and small courtyards in the middle of many houses, where our tour group currently stands. There are many archways allowing pedestrians to cross between streets and navigate the city without having to go around a street that seems to be entirely covered in buildings. It also allows the Viennese to keep small gardens inside. Vienna is a surprisingly open city in comparision to other European cities, as we very quickly noticed in how windy it was, and is also home to one of the greenest cities in Europe. Even with these boastings, the inner city is very well packed with buildings. Unfortunately the weather during our trip wasn't what you'd call wonderful - windy and rainy.

Although not super visible, the picture above is a small piece of metal/wood/a statue (not entirely sure), where all of the artists from Wien had pounded a nail inside, creating a new sculpture representing the unity of Wien's well known artists. Unfortunately, I can't remeber the time frame in which the artists did this.

On the corner of one of Wien's main streets, direct in the center city. Stephans Dome is on the right (old, gothic architecture) and you can see the new architecture moving in on the left.

Fountain along Wiens mains street for shopping, Friday afternoon.

Vienna is home to some of the most carraiges in all of Europe (still in active use), over a thousand that carry tourists (or anyone of the like) around the city.

I found the mix of old Imperial life, with gold and romantic extravaganzas, and the modern life, with Starbucks and Chanel, really enchanting. It was fun to be able to sit and look out from Starbucks after our tour and see the Habsburg palace right in front of us, carraiges riding by. One of the things about Vienna that makes it so amazing.

This is visiting Cafe Demel, one of, or the, oldest Cafe in Vienna. Demel was the original creater of the 'Sachertorte', a chocolate cake with marmalade in the middle that was originally made for the Kaiser. Because Demel didn't have many ingredients at the time the Kaiser ordered a new chocolate cake, a new taste, the Sachertorte is surprisingly cheap in its making, and yet Kaiser-like elite. We heard the story of Demel here at the cafe (where they had an entire women made of sugar sitting in the window, above is the workplace) from our tour guide, and yet went to eat the Sachertorte later at the Sacher Hotel with Gil and Claudia. Franz Sacher is more well known for the famous Sachertorte, and yet he was actually trained under Demel. Franz Sacher made his own version of the torte, which is the well-known one today. The Sacher Cafe is therefore nearly as old as Demel, dating back to the times of famous Franz Joseph.

Roman ruins in front of the Hofburg (Imperial [Winter] Palace).

Palace Hofburg, the home of the Emperors.

The Hofburg is also home to probably the most valauble jewelry/treasure collection in the world.

Inside the Hofburg lived the famous Emperess Elizabeth, or 'Sissi'. Sissi was known the well-known wife of Emperor Franz Joseph, who ruled for (fairly certain) 68 years, and was one of the more well-known Emperors in Austrias history. Emperor (or Kaiser, in German) Franz was alos king of Hungary during the time, due to Sissi's relations and love of the land (coming about from Hungarian rebellions against Austria). Sissi has become a 20th century icon, considered to be a free spirit who abhorred conventional court protocol. She also traveled all over Europe, even places most Emperors weren't known to go, therefore unable to spend much time with her children. She was very aware of fashion and her figure (what would probably be known today as anorexia in the way she looked after her weight), and although she didn't make a large impact on Austrian politics, is one of the fewer Emperesses that is still very well remembered. She was originally born in Munich, Bayern, and a film was made about her in 1955, staring Romi Schneider. Ive watched all three films about her life as Ive been here, and they are just the sweetest things. In the films she is portrayed as a very sweet, loving character, but the true mysteries of her life as Emperess probably weren't exactly so. I still hope to bring the films back home with me. She was assasinated in 1898 in Switzerland.

Looking up at the roof of Stephans Dome.

Friday night, visiting the KunstHaus Wien, or the Hundertwasser Haus. Friedensreich Hundertwasser was a man I didnt know too much about, but ended up really liking after visiting this art museum in a house he built in Vienna. Hundertwasser was probably the most well-known contemporary Austrian artist (post-world war). He had an idea that 'horizontal lines belong to nature and vertical lines belong to people', that people should attempt to immerse themselves as much as possible with nature, rather than just build on top of it. In the line of his ideas, the museums floors are never completely flat, but curve all over and I it was a little weird to walk on top of them, "an uneven floor is a melody to the feet" . He also has trees growing right outside from the house. His art is quite amazing, following circle/spiral ideas, lines, and each one with a relation to nature. He worked with all sorts of art forms you can imagine - architecture, stamp designs, paintings, carpet making, game design, and the like. He also helped to start up the country of New Zealand (designing the flag), one of his favorite places in the world (which is saying a lot given he traveled all over). I liked his philosophical ideas and approaches to environmentalism through art. Originally Friedrich Stowasser, Hundertwasser died in 2000.

Kathi and I at KunstHaus Wien.

An apartement that ( I believe Hundertwasser lived for a short time) Hundertwasser designed, hoping to prevent something ugly from growing up in its place.

Saturday morning, watching the training of the famous 'Lipizzaner' horses. The Spanish Riding school has been training these horses for the Imperial Palace for years, and are the only horses in the world trained to buck on command. The are born black, and when full grown will have become completely white. They are extremely beautiful, and really fun to watch. They are also though, probably the most pampered horses in the world with (until about last year) only male riders (slightly smaller, as the horses aren't that big), groomed extremely well, and fed like Emperors. They also get to train and perform in the Hofburg (Imperial Palace), in a room with chandeliers to classical music like Mozart.

Visiting Schönnbrunn (Summer) Palace on Saturday afternoon, also a home of the Habsburg family. The palace is gorgeous, covering beautiful gardens, with a specially painted exterior of 'Schönnbrunn yellow', the favorite color of Maria Theresia.

Inside the palace we took a tour of the rooms of the Emperor Family, centered mostly around Franz Joseph and Sissi. Unfortunately, you couldn't take pictures inside, but it was cool to see all of the different (mostly Roccoco extravagant) decorations and styles. Plus, you could follow the history of Imperial Austria.

Also on the Schönnbrunn grounds, visiting the oldest Zoo in the world. It was cool to see, plus I haven't been in a Zoo in ages, but I was unhappily surprised at how poor the animals seemed to be taken care of (really dirty, green water, some animals just too skinny and unhealthy looking). Empress Maria Theresia and her husband Franz Stephan started the menagerie in 1752.

Standing under a very large python.

Polar bear :)

The Palm House at Schönnbrunn, another of its slightly out of the ordinary attractions. On top of the Palm house, the grounds contains a house with different types of dessert climates and plants from 4 different continents.

Vienna's beautiful architecture.

Traveling with the metro.

Visiting the Volksoper (People's Opera) on Saturday night. It was really awesome, Mozart's 'die Zauberflote', or 'The Magic Flute' was playing that night, my first Opera. Kathi and I ended up getting standing student tickets for €1,50. Although a very Imperial world, you would be surprised at the diversity, artists, and sometimes very cheap way of living to be found in Vienna. I loved it. The Opera was really fun to see, especially the scene when the mother reaches the highest and most famous notes I've ever heard a soprano reach. Unfortunately, I ended up missing most of the first half given I passed out. That doesn't happen very often, and was quite odd.

Looking across at the Staatsoper.

Visiting the Albertina Art Museum on Sunday morning. It was quite cool, we got to take a walk through Impressionism to Cubism in one of the exhibit, seeing originals of Monet, Franz Marc, Picasso, and many others. That time in Art's history is probably my favorite, due to the wonderful colors they used. Inside there was also an exhibit from Gerhard Richter, a contemporary artists that did amazing paintings in black and white of mostly people - they resembled a slightly blurry picture so perfectly, I hardly believed it was a painting. We also saw an exhibit of the history of photography, and the photographic stage in Arts history. The Albertina was originally an art collection from one of the Emperors of Austria, 'Palais Albertina' from Maria Theresia's time.

Wien!
I feel so lucky to have been given the chance to visit such a well-known and beautiful city, and to be honest, I fell slightly in love with it. It isn't exactly what I'd expected - In many European cities I find it to be an attitude of more importance than the common folk among the citizens, but I didn't feel that at all in Vienna. I felt welcome, and thats always nice. I also loved the diversity that surprised me. Its not the states, but it definitely has diversity for Europe. :)