Vienna Austria

It was my second time in Vienna, I went with Krystin and we happened upon a fellow traveler that we had previously met in Geneva. We stayed at a well known hostel called Wombats in Vienna, the hostel was started by Australian backpackers, a sort of tribute to the earlier backpackers who made their way through Europe without fancy hostels and what not… and yet Wombats is just that, a fancy hostel with a bar, security cookie cutter rooms with bunks and lockers.
The place had a friendly staff who were helpful to travelers who wanted to see things about town that might not be in the tourist books, music clubs, dance clubs, bars, cafes, and what not.
This trip to Vienna was the first time I used the Vienna Metro system which has three to four lines. Krystin was assuming that she would be coming back with her parents a few weeks later, so she was reluctant to do anything expensive, I was too cuz I’m cheap. A city with so much to see, and I have barely been to a few of the sites.
The majority of our time was spent walking down one of the main streets Mariahilfer Strasse, the street leads (2 miles or so) through a heavily commercialized area, past a few churches but basically is store after store until you get to the center of Vienna (where all the museums, palaces, opera house, etc are)
It was freezing cold out while we were there, and snowed heavily the second day.
Along with Matt our follow traveler we spent some time getting kebabs (a conversation is included on feb 27 http://mhaggartrips.blogspot.com/)
We also checked out many stores, including a 1 euro store, an English book store, and a McDonalds to warm up.
The English Book store seemed to orient itself to more intellectual topics and was for British rather than American audiences –indicated by spelling of words, phrases, and topics in the store.
The 1 euro store, now a norm for us, contained many of the same old cheap items, foreign made, I think I bought a key chain, but they also sold some higher price items like gloves and hats and the weather was letting us we needed them.
The McDonalds was one of the more interesting restaurants I had see, they seemed to have stylized decorations including some rather beautiful and very colorful paintings on the walls.
In the Museumquartier we went to a modern art museum, that had many Schiele hand drawings and a movie in German about Gustav Klimt, though I couldn’t understand the language I watched the movie for about 45 minutes and it was really fascinating to see his struggles with the University of Austria, his controversial paintings and influence on the Viennese intellectuals.
Krystin, Matt and I compared notes on what we liked at the museum before heading back.
Due to the weather Krystin and I spent a lot of time in doors, doing homework and watching the Austrian version of MTV, I was fascinated by the differences in the music videos, many incorporated special effects that Americans think of as “cheesy” (80s style).
The channel seemed to switch in and out of English, as many of the artists spoke a variety of languages, and it seemed that often times the language the host and the band would have to use to communicate was English.
Also in the hostel was a list of funny misquotes that had been collected from around the world of foreigners trying to use English and ending up saying something rather different. For instance one said, “Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such a thing is please not to read notis.” Many seemed to use direct translation which screws up the context.
Also while in Vienna me and Krystin found several shops where tourist items were sold, but the shops themselves were not the sort of overwhelming flashy tourist gear that we found elsewhere, but rather seemingly very proud nationalistic shops, where the history and culture of the city and country were presented, music, food, art, etc. These weren’t placed to goof around they were to be respected. –it just seemed interesting how proud and respectful the people were of their cultural tradition, that even when selling commercial souvenirs they had a sense of respectful responsibility to the items…
We also came upon a holocaust memorial consisting of statues that seemed to be trying to show the horror and chaos of the war, and the treatment of the people. The statues were not in a very grand location they popped up out of nowhere sort of one more statue in an area of statues but unlike the majestic mythological figures depicted in the others, these showed anguish and terror. Sort of moving but more creepy, than sorrowful.
I spent 8 euros to get wireless internet in a Starbucks coffee shop on the last day so that I could turn in my homework.
I think in general Vienna has a really nice mixture of new and old, but it is sort of jumbled together. The center of town, is surrounded by parks and modern commercial stores. The back alleys have more traditional stores, wine shops, cheese shops, wooden trinkets and things. The Modern stores are also an interesting mix of American and non American. The Mcdonalds, Pizza Hut, StarBucks mixed in with Viennese versions of similar places, the fast food fish restaurant (german/Austrian) Nordsee, the British book store, the kebab shops, the street vendors with their normal winter assortment of roasted chestnuts, pretzels, cider, hotdogs and small sandwiches.
The people look like city dwellers, the churches stand out in-between stores but don’t look very active.