Advertisement
Published: December 19th 2008
Edit Blog Post
(December 10th - 11th) Ah Vienna. The funny thing is, I knew at one point on the trip there would be a city or two that would blur by. And although we spent two days in Vienna, it was just that, a blur. Brian and I were both exhausted beyond exhausted when we got in, and we ended up sleeping in until noon the first day. We haven’t done that in a looooong time. But although our time passed quickly, there were a few hi-lights from Vienna that I of course remember.
The first night we went out and found a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant (we seem to have a knack for finding those now), that served delicious food in heaping portions. Keeping to custom with the places we like, we went back to Mozartstube the second night at well and discovered the makers of the greatest mulled wine I’ve ever tasted. Now, in Prague, they had caramel mulled wine that was pretty fantastic, but this wine was unbelievable! The perfect amount of sweetness combined with hints of cinnamon, cloves, orange, and a few other spices. On top of that, they bring it to you in a tiny tea kettle so
you get two tea cups full for three euro. So delicious!
Walking around Vienna is daunting because most of the buildings are massive with intricate designs and sculptures carved into them. Plus, most of them are pure white. I remember when I was little I used to buy soap bars and try to carve figures out of them so I’d have more toys to play with in the bathtub (plus I was really into making presents for everyone when I was a kid . . . hmm . . . not much has changed). Walking around all of these pure white structures made me think of my bathtub art as if I was a little kid again peering though the bubbles up to my ivory statuesque creations. What made Vienna even more beautiful and unique was that their Christmas decorations were perfectly in keeping with the surrounding structures. Rather than multi-colored lights, giant Santas, bells and stars lining the streets, they had curtains of tiny white lights raining down from the buildings. They also had these enormous chandelier looking orbs of lights hanging precariously over the square. It was enchanting!
Since we started talking about adding Vienna to
our list of places to see, Brian has continued to mention his desire to see a classical concert of some sort. At first I thought he was just appeasing to my whims, but as our time in Vienna approached, he continued to bring up his joy and excitement at being able to bless his ears with the sweet symphonic sounds of a classical concert. I like that I still don’t know everything about him. It really teaches you why you should never over-generalize what you know about someone or make assumptions about their character. So Brian and I dressed to the nines (which is always a nice change from our eighteen layers of winter clothing so we don’t freeze in any one of these cities), and we headed to a Strauss and Mozart Konzerte done by the Salonorchester Alt Wien. I remember being so jealous when my Dad and Margaret came here as part of their honeymoon and actually went to a ball where they danced the Viennese Waltz. I’ve always had a dream of going to a Masquerade Ball (its probably because of watching “The King and I,” “Labyrinth,” and “Beauty and the Beast” so many times as a
child). Dressing up in a huge gown and gliding across the chandelier-lit floors to a dance that everyone somehow knew. Well, this time I didn’t get to dance, but I was fortunate enough to witness a professional couple dance the Viennese Waltz to several of Mozart and Strauss’ pieces including Strauss’ “On the Beautiful Blue Danube.” It was magical. Each turn, each lift, I was captivated. The music itself was also beautiful and wonderful to see live to decipher which instruments were contributing which notes.
One thing that caught my attention, aside from the delightful music and dancing, was a line in the program. It stated that there was no conductor because they felt that that way the musicians all listened to each other in order to create a more full symphonic voice and a more vibrant dialogue of music. I absolutely love this idea! I think its something I’ve tried to do with my students for years but haven’t been able to fully express to them. I’ve always tried to be a teacher who instills a learning environment rather than preaching to my students, and this one idea was properly expressed in the concert. If there is no
leader, you have to listen to each other, learn from each other, make up for each others’ mistakes, support their ideas, and celebrate their successes. It’s a community. Something I knew I’d been missing and one of the original reasons I was so thrilled about going to Ireland where there is such a strong sense of kinship. I’m sure I will continue to ponder this concept and express further thoughts on it later.
The last day in Vienna was spent warming from the cold and rain that had suddenly peaked, and paying homage to the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. For those of you who weren’t aware, I studied Psychology in college after my brief stint with medicine (see “Prague” to hear the full story), and that is when I found my calling in life. One quarter Cheryl and I thought it would be fun to see what one of each other’s classes were like. So I went to one of her Economics classes and she came to one of my Psychology classes with the infamous Professor Klein. Econ was definitely not for me, but Cher liked my class so much that she started to attend it on a
regular basis. She even took the midterm just to see how she’d do! Anyhoo, Professor Klein was the one who first introduced me to autism and the studies that had been done. I was fascinated! One study about object permanence showed that in more severe cases, a child with autism who could no longer see an object would no longer believe it was there. So if you had a red and a blue cloth on a table, and while this child watched you hid a teddy bear under the red cloth, the child would know the bear was under the red cloth. But if you then moved the bear, without exposing any part of it, from the red cloth to the blue cloth and then asked the child where the bear was, even with the large bump around the blue cloth and the red cloth laying flat on the table, the child would still point to the red cloth as the bear’s location because it was the last place the child saw the actual bear. Cool stuff huh! I always got Psychology, it made sense to me, but this was something knew and I was determined to know more! Hence
my calling in life. (Side note: if you want to hear me go into “Geek Speak” as so many of my friends call it, just ask me about autism and I will rant for as long as you’ll listen. Its fascinating stuff!)
So, back to finding the Freud museum so I could properly thank the home where it all began. Brian and I walked and walked around the city block that was supposed to contain the museum and were a little saddened that our journey out in the rain had been to no avail. On the map it was very clear where the museum was supposed to be, but alas, no museum. But right as we were about to give up hope we both simultaneously saw a gigantic FREUD banner hanging one block further down. And although the museum itself wasn’t as exhilarating as some of the other ones we’ve been to, I felt I had paid my respects. And I couldn’t think of a better place to go after running around in the rain all day than the hot baths of Budapest!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0468s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb