Vienna 3

So, I guess I left off right before the free day. I slacked off and missed a couple days. This last day in Vienna started off as one might expect. I had a lot to catch up on—sleep, laundry, school assignments. For awhile it was looking like the highlight of my day would be lunch (which wouldn’t have been a horrible thing as we went to a great restaurant for lunch). So this brings us to about 6 pm that evening. I’m sitting in the lobby of our hotel on my computer and I’m starting to get hungry. My friend, Kyle, is sitting across the room, staring at his own screen. The following conversation occurs:

Me: “Did you know that Bratislava is only 40 km away?”
Kyle: “Yeah, do you want to go there for dinner?”
Me: “Sure. “
Kyle: “Okay, let me get my shoes.”

So this was how we ended up in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. You may not have heard of Slovakia. Basically, it’s the sibling of the Czech Republic. Years ago, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic, for whatever reason, seems to have westernized much more quickly that Slovakia, so many westerns aren’t even aware of the existence of Slovakia. Anyway, we wanted to go there for dinner, so we headed for the subway, caught a local train to the main station, and then caught an international train that would take us from Austria to Slovakia.
We only had a few hours there, but they were well spent. We had no plan, no maps, and couldn’t even name their language much less speak it. It became apparent very quickly that this was different from any other city we had been to, and that’s what made it special. All of the cities that I had previously experienced shared a similar Western charm. Sure there we differences in culture and architecture, but the atmosphere was one of progress and ambition. This was not the case in Bratislava. Walking through its streets, it was not difficult to imagine that this place was communist not long ago. We all have this image in our heads of what communism looks like—trees without leaves, concrete, dilapidated buildings, grim expressions, etc. Perhaps it’s not SO far from the truth. Kyle and I both agreed that it felt as if we were in East Berlin right before the wall fell. Now, obviously there are some signs of Westernization. Entrenched within the oppressive atmosphere, newly built offices represent a renewal in the form of western architecture. There was other evidence of outside cultural influence, particularly from the United States, in the form of advertisements scattered about.
Dinner was, of course, the best part of the evening. We found a very classy restaurant that would have been considered on the extreme high-end in the United States. So, I was just talking about how Slovakia is still rebounding from Soviet rule. As you might imagine everything was very inexpensive there. Kyle and I both ate like kings for 5 dollars each. We estimated afterward that a similar meal in the states would have cost at least 30 dollars for each of us.
Ironically, we actually saved money by going to Slovakia for dinner. My train ticket was 21 euro, so we managed to have an extremely nice dinner for less than it might have cost to stay in Vienna for an equivalent meal. Seeing Slovakia, even very briefly, really changed my perspective on Europe. Sure, Rome and Vienna are not so different from cities in the United States in many ways, but eastern Europe is a different world.

Vienna 2

Thursday began with lectures again.  Our first excursion of the morning was a trip to the Belvedere Museum.  The first floor was extraordinary, but the second floor was somewhat disappointing.  I guess they concentrated all of the best art downstairs and then put whatever they had left on the upper floor.  “Best” is a subjective and relative term as any art in these museums is likely highly regarded by someone.  We ate lunch at a sandwich shop, most of us ordering kabobs.  Next on our list was the Sezession Building (not a typo, it’s a German spelling).

This building is particularly important in art history because it was the Viennese base of a late 19^th century, early 20^th century modernist movement.  Previous to this movement, artists had mostly attempted to imitate some style from the past in their works.  The Sezessionists attempted to strike out on their own, virtually ignoring precedent (hence the name).  Whether they accomplished this or not is somewhat of a subjective question as no art can be deemed wholly progressive.  However, It can be agreed upon that artistic styles were forever changed by the participants in this movement.

We had a second choir rehearsal in the afternoon.  We have two pieces ready for street performance, which is sort of what we have in mind.  We’ll be singing A cappella arrangements of “Save Tonight” by Eagle Eye Cherry and “My Girl” by the Temptations.  Both pieces were arranged for our group by Dr. Ulrich.  I wouldn’t go as far as saying that we’re good, but given our bizarre circumstances, I’m honestly surprised at how well we have done.  Look for our premiere in Prague (or perhaps Munich).

That evening we attended the opera mentioned in my previous post, Owen Wingrave.  I probably didn’t mention that this is a serialist composition.  That term means something to some of you and nothing to most.  There’s a Wikipedia article about it if you’re curious.  If you want to know what that sort of thing sounds like, listen to just about anything by Schoenberg.  Anyway, the result is some rather bizarre harmonies that can be considered an acquired taste or horrifying noise depending on your perspective.  Having had some exposure to serialism through my own studies of music, I knew what to expect and have some level of appreciation for it.  I suspected that the singers were phenomenal, and this was confirmed by Dr. Ulrich’s awe-struck expression following the performance.  I enjoyed it as much as I’m ever going to enjoy three hours of sung drama.

It was pretty late when we got back from the performance.  Knowing that the next day would be a free day, we started to contemplate how we would spend our time.  We laid out an ambitious plan to take a train to Budapest, a place that I have always wanted to visit.  We were all very excited about this idea until we began to consider the details and realized that it would be significantly more complicated than we had imagined.  We also realized the foolishness of planning an international trip 5 hours before we planned to disembark on it.  We decided to spend the day in Vienna instead, spending a considerable amount of time working on assignments that we have neglected for a long time.

Vienna 1

We had our first day of classes today in Vienna.  The music portion was primarily focused on preparing us for the opera that we will see tomorrow night, Owen Wingrave by Benjamin Britten.  The art history lecture was on Northern Renaissance works.  Following the lectures, we traveled to the Kunsthistorisches Museum.  I was pleasantly surprised with this museum as I did not expect it to house many major works.  On the contrary, I saw paintings by Caravaggio, Titian, Giorgione, and Durer among others.  Finally, we concluded the day by touring the Vienna State Opera, the most famous opera house in the world.

Michael Jones told me that German food is fantastic, and I’m inclined to agree.  While we are in Austria and not Germany, the food is fairly similar.  I will have a chance to compare them directly as we will stay in Munich later in the trip.  I hadn’t realized how expensive Italian food really is until now (I had no basis for what is reasonable in Europe previous to visiting Italy).  I find myself getting twice as much food for half the price here (literally).  So far, I’ve had a number of sausage dishes, as well as potato fritters.  All were excellent.  The vast selection of Austrian and German beers compliments the cuisine well.

Arrivederci Italia, Guten Tag Bratwurst

We left Italy today and continued on to Vienna, Austria.  The bus ride was about 8 hours if you include several bathroom stops and lunch.  There were no interesting towns that we stopped at along the way, but it’s worth mentioning that we got some phenomenol views of the Alps.  Now I understand why all the other mountains make fun of the Appalachians.  We arrived in Vienna tonight with enough time to grab a bratwurst at the local pub and then I spent some time uploading blog entries that I’ve been hording for a week.  Make sure you scroll back as there a lot of new ones from Padua (and perhaps even Rome if it’s been a really long time).  Alternatively, you can probably find the Cliffs Notes on Amazon.  That’s what you did in high school, after all.  I have had a number of requests for those little Vienna sausages in the cans, so I vow that I will not rest until they are found.