Mozart? Is that you?

Travel Break Week one

Logistical note: there is SO much to talk about and so I'm going to do one post on our itinerary in Vienna, one post on our itinerary in Budapest, and one on my reflections/feelings so as to provide some sort of organization to the jumbled mass that is me processing the trip

This was the 'academic' portion of our travel break - paid for almost entirely by our tuition fees! We were flown, bussed, museum'd, wined, dined, and housed by DIS. Fantastic. First stop: Vienna!

My core class is all about Memory and Identity - cultural production, history, politics, etc. The trip, then, focused a lot on giving us very cultural experiences so as to give us a better understanding of the culture, both past and present, of the places we visited.

Which means eating really awesome food.

We flew to Vienna (hooray!), arrived, checked in to our hotel, and had maybe a half hour before dinner. Shower! A REAL SHOWER!! The showers I've seen so far have all been the kind where they're a shower hose/head attached to the bathroom sink. To have a standing head shower was absolutely wonderful. Anyway: Dinner!

Mixed green salad with pumpkinseed oil dressing and absolute MOUNDS of goat cheese -->
Boiled beef with some kind of pumpkiny sauce and a hemisphere of hashbrowned potatoes -->
Hungarian-style trifle - basically layers of whipped cream, sponge cake, and custard with chocolate sauce. And some wine. Absolutely fantastic!

Also: incredibly good looking waiter. Sorry, no pictures.

After dinner: Concert! This was by a group that specializes in recreating Mozart. They wear period costumes and perform in the style that you would have seen back in the day. The concert is thus not one giant, multi-movement piece, but rather several arias, duets, and non-vocal parts of Mozart's various compositions. Superb! Also, they perform in one of the original concert halls - we saw Mozart performed where people performed his compositions originally!!


Afterwards, I conked out. Long day and we had breakfast at 7:30 the next morning.

On our first big day in Vienna, we had a walking tour of the city (The Vienna Boys' Choir performs every Sunday at mass!! AAHHHH). Pictures at the bottom. We also went to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburgs, starting, I believe, with Maria Theresa, but maybe earlier? Incredible. It is GIANT and full of sumptuous gold leafing, rococco furniture, and paintings. Most of the art deals with the imperial family - there are many pictures of Maria Theresa's children. We took an audio tour of the palace's first floor, which was informative and efficient. The palace also has extensive gardens, including a humungous fountain, a labrynth, and lots of trees.

We were on our own for lunch and dinner, although DIS provided 10 euro to help pay for food. Two of my friends and I found a WONDERFUL Asian place that served large amounts of food for relatively good prices. Finding food with spice and flavor was a welcome change from eating Danish food.

That evening, S. and myself bought standing room tickets for the Vienna Opera. Here's how it works:

Show up early (like an hour and a half early) and buy a standing room ticket for three (3!!) euro. Go up into the statosphere of the nosebleed section and rope off some space with your scarf. The honor system is very much in effect, and people respect space reserved with scarves. Get dinner after you've secured your spot - we didn't and while we were lucky enough to get ledge space on which to sit, we couldn't see anything. That didn't entirely matter, because:

it's the Vienna Opera. Duh. Their orchestra is pulled from the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the best in the world, and the singers are also of absolutely top calibur. I didn't understand a word that was being said (Oh, the opera was "Capriccio" in case you're curious), and I didn't care. I hunkered down and immersed myself in the utterly perfect music that was happening below me. I fell asleep twice due to the complete trance the music put me into, and it was wonderful, because you just float around in this sea of wonderful sound. I would spend all my money on this if I lived in Vienna. Never mind bars or eating.

The opera house:

HOLY CRAP.

Afterwards, some friends and I went to Cafe Hawelka, one of Vienna's most famous coffeehouses. Up until a few years ago the original Frau Hawelka was still serving at age 94. She isn't now only because she's dead. It's totally authentic feeling, and you get served your coffee or hot chocolate in real porcelain cups on a silver tray with a silver spoon and sugar cubes. So cool!

Next Day:

Breakfast at 7:15. Damn! Oh, Austrian/Viennese hotel breakfasts are the shit. Bacon, eggs, a boil-your-own-egg station, toast, pastries, fruit, granola, yogurt, juice, coffee, tea. Also overeager, stern Asian waiters, but that was probably just our hotel.

Tour of the University and a lecture with a professor there on Austrian identity and memory. The university is absolutely spectacular:

After this we went to the KunstHaus Wien, a museum dedicated to the life and work of Mr. Hundertwasser. He was a super intense artist and architect who was all about living in total harmony with nature. He also designed some pretty awesome flags for Israel-Palestine and New Zealand, as well as an eco friendly waste plant and housing development. SO AMAZING! He remodeled his house's floor to be irregular and wavy, a 'melody for the feet.' The whole place is this incredible explosion of creativity and plant life. It's fascinating and very rejuvinating to be in.

Then: free time! A., S., and I went to the Leopold Museum, which has one of the largest collections of Egon Schiele around. I wasn't familiar with his stuff, but DAMN. It's fantastic. Apparently he's famous for his self-portraiture. If I knew about art, I'd comment more, but since I don't you can see for yourself here.

Then we went back to Cafe Hawelka. Yum! Coffee!

Bussed to Budapest that evening, arriving prior to midnight.

I'm increasingly fascinated with European advertising. Their billboards and flyers I find to be somewhat hysterical and odd. It's great! I've also been hunting for good graffiti. Haven't found much, but. Here's some photos of Vienna that I like: