After a small amount of tension navigating the subway system in Vienna, we were able to reach our stop that was right outside our hostel, a place called Wombats. On the short walk there I was able to catch a glimpse of what Vienna looked like, and it was spectacular. Very bright and clean, with towering buildings rising above us, the place looked like New York’s much more hygienic older sibling. Before I could get a better look we had reached the door and started to check in. The sample card we had to fill out for the deposit and whatnot had been filled out by Elliot Reid from Scrubs and I spent a little too long laughing about that. The four of us had our own room which was extremely convenient as we never had to be too careful with what we left in the room and we took with us at all times. After claiming the top bunk for myself (oh yeah, we had bunk beds! exciting right?!) it was time to grab some dinner and call it a night (most of the day had been spent in Bratislava).
At the recommendation of the man at the front desk we stopped by a place down the block for some traditional Austrian cuisine. Our waitress was wearing one of those stereotypical german style dresses with the ruffles on the sleeves and the multi-colored layers and gave us a cheesy tagline welcome as she placed us at the community table. After struggling to read the menu, I settled on something with the words “schnitzel and sauerkraut” in it figuring hey that sounds German! Lets get that! The waitress gave me an encouraging smile and said “very good!” as I attempted to read it off the menu, I at least did well enough to where she knew what I meant. Disregarding the fact that I had never tried sauerkraut before, I had convinced myself I already liked it because I wasn’t going to be the American who turned his nose up at a staple of the culture’s diet. Good news, it was actually pretty decent! Not my favorite thing but it went down smooth enough. The only other people to join us at the table was an older couple that didn’t seem to speak english at all, but they were lighthearted and very funny. They were eating off of each other’s plates, and at one moment the man tried his wife’s wine, shook his head in despair and went back to his tall glass of beer. Teasing each other as much as they were teasing us, having that much fun with people who didn’t understand me just as I didn’t understand them was enlightening.
The next day was without a doubt my favorite day of spring break, or Rumspringa! We travelled to the town square and wandered around a few parks, marveling at the massive statues that were all around us. While I enjoyed the parks in the morning, the art museum we visited that afternoon was just incredible. I’m ashamed to admit I have absolutely no idea what it was called, but I do know it has been ranked as one of the most impressive museums in the world, and it wasn’t difficult to see why. This place was GIGANTIC. I got lost inside, only to find myself in a completely different wing and floor than where I had started. There were tapestries, murals, paintings not much larger than the standard canvas, and paintings that seemed to be 100 feet high, with the characters depicted within much larger than life sized. Sculptures, statues, ancient artifacts such as jewelry, weapons, and decorative pieces there was truly something there for everyone. One observation I made was that they didn’t like centaurs very much. Seemingly in every room there was a statue of Hercules trampling a centaur, or Hercules clubbing a centaur over the head, or Hercules..you get the idea. There was also quite a gruesome piece depicting the story of Prometheus‘ punishment. For the crime of bringing fire to the mortal world, Zeus chained Prometheus to a mountain, where an eagle would come once a day and tear out his ever regenerating liver. The detail of the eagle, its talons sinking into Prometheus‘ thighs while its beak was buried in his abdomen, the anguish on his face it was incredible to think that someone carved this out of stone with nothing more than a crude chisel. Not all the art was so dark however. What is believed to be one of the first pieces of its kind, a father of four had carved a likeness of his son into marble and captured his youthful glee, the laugh of a child forever etched into history, or the practical joke of a huge crystal dragon table centerpiece that was filled with water and would periodically spray it in the face of a guest curious enough to touch its protruding tongue. It was delightfully shocking to learn that people hundreds and hundreds of years ago had a sense of humor as well. My favorite piece however was entitled “4 Rivers of Paradise”. Quite a large frame showed a utopian background, 4 impressive men gazed up adoringly at 4 lavishly dressed women, all a different skin tone. Children played with crocodiles in the foreground as a mother tiger nursed her young, watched warily. I didn’t know why but I was entranced by the work, observing it for close to 20 minutes before reading the description. I learned that the women in the paintings were four continents-Africa, America, Asia, and Europe and they had their “River Gods” wrapped around them, catering to their every need.
By the end of the second day I was able to order gelato in fluent German (although I did have to point at which cone I wanted) and while it wasn’t a big victory being able to say “Drei kugel-zitrone, erdbeere, and waldbeere” was something I enjoyed being able to do. The 3 scoop lemon, strawberry, and forest berry flavors were some of the best gelato I’ve ever had, and I’ve had gelato in 5 different countries now. While wandering around that afternoon I saw a shop that handmade traditional Austrian dresses on site, and it was run by a sweet old lady and her husband. I knew I wanted to buy a dress for Bella at some point on my travels but I thought that they would be way outside my price range, but I stopped in anyways. The lady asked me who I was looking for, I said my 4 year old little sister, and she said “You’re probably a student yes? Meaning you’re on a budget so this row is out-the only difference is its double layered and that’s not important”. Before I knew it she was asking me about Bella’s skin tone and hair color and laying out options for me that would work, and I found one that would be perfect if I could afford it. The top layer was white, ruffles on the sleeves, with a blue stripe in the middle, and a red bottom layer. To my shock it was well within my price range so I bought it, I hope she likes it because the thing is adorable.
That night we were taken out to eat by a friend of the other guy on the trip, and she took us to a place called the Centimeter. The waiter didn’t speak a word of english, and they no longer carried menus in english so it was a good thing that we had her with us to translate. The word Holzfaller caught my eye for some reason, so I asked what it meant, and I was told that it means Lumberjack. YUP. Ordering that. No idea what’s in it but it sounds awesome. Each of the five of us ordered an Austrian beer as well, as the culture is famed for its beer, and there were two sizes, a half glass or a full glass. The four others all ordered the full glass, and I intended to as well, the waiter joked with me and said “mas? mas?” I replied yes! mas! thinking that I ordered the same as everyone else. However, our local friend informed me that mas was a completely different size, a much bigger size. Uh oh. When he returned with our food he was carrying an almost comically large mug full of dark beer, that I found out was more than a liter and a half. It was basically a 2 liter soda bottle, but of dark beer. Whoops! I felt very ‘MURICA eating something called the lumberjack and battling through a mug I could scarcely lift when it was empty, but I finished everything I ordered and didn’t even fall down walking back to the subway. The next morning it was time to take the train to the airport to get to London, and after bidding the city a very fond farewell, I fell asleep on the train with the help of my Ipod playing Iron and Wine.
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