Hello Austria, Vienna - City of the Arts

 Apologies for the messed up text justification and messed up pictures.  Apparently Google's Blogger.com leaves something to be desired when working in HTML format.    Way to go guys!   

My roommate and I are like best friends by about day 3.  It didn’t take very long for me to realize just how cool a guy Peter was.  Though I’ve joked with him that he’s old enough to be my Dad, this former New Yorker has a stellar sense of humor, and had me in stitches throughout most of the trip.  He says I did the same, but we began to trade insults on a daily basis, playing practical jokes on the other, and this began to escalate more and more as time went by.   This included planting an alarm clock in his back pack that would go off in the middle of public or in the hotel lobby.  (a running joke) or planting planting things in the others luggage etc.   The group seemed to play into our rivalry and at the end of the day it was very good-natured.  He became my nemesis, and like ‘dirty rotten scoundrels’ we tried to out-do the other’s insults and pranks on a daily basis.  Steve, the director of World Affairs, usually just rolled his eyes and smiled, but other members of the group started to get in on our vendetta.   It was often a matter of keeping us both laughing which merely increased throughout the week.  Peter came up to me in the airport after the alarm clock gag and announced to everyone “Game on”.    Some of his and my pranks can’t be posted here, but let’s just say we both agreed to take this war back home with us to the States and continue this twisted friendship as long as we can..    Ask me later, and I can give you details.

Today we had to leave Brussels and head over to Vienna.  This meant catching a 7AM flight, which meant getting up at 4:30 AM, checking out of the hotel, and then taking a motorcade of taxi cabs through the empty streets of Brussels.  Of course every garbage truck seemed to be on its run, and despite somewhat empty streets we had to move quickly to catch our plane.  Tried to sleep on the plane, but it was maybe 4 or 5 nods before arriving in Vienna.   Interestingly enough, we witnessed that there are two forms of status (for travel purposes) of EU citizens.  Those who may travel freely without documentation, and then there are some of the Eastern Europeans (ex. Romainians) who are considered: ‘Schengen’, which means  they are technically EU citizens, but must have identity papers before passing into Schengen (EU proper) areas.  This is a bit controversial, but hopefully will be changed in time.

The van was too small to take us all to our hotel, so we had to commute in shifts.  The trip took us by various chemical plants and refineries.  Austria seemed a rather industrialized place to me judging by the trip we took from the airport to the city center.   Once in the heart of the city, we noticed the architecture of Vienna blew Brussels away!   We passed a hotel, which every year holds a ‘chocolate cake’ contest, known for having the best chocolate cake in the world.  (I forget the name of this hotel, Astoria I believe?)  Our hotel was right in the center of the city.  (See map, red dot/circle)  Called the Graben Hotel.  This location was very close to a main plaza called Stephenplatz.  This made for a perfect location in the city, as everything was only about a 10-20 minute walk anywhere we wanted to go.  So much to see, but so little time as usual.   The heat was not as bad in Austria, maybe about 82 degrees.

 Once I found my room, Pete had already checked in.  Hot water pipes in the bathroom were placed there on purpose to heat the towels.   This made the room like a sauna, and the AC in the room wasn’t all that great, as is typical of Europe I have found.  It is sort of like ‘token AC’, but it never really cools or chills the room down like Americans might like.  

We began a walking tour around the city, with a fellow from Pittsburgh, Edgar Braun.  He is a member of the honorary council for Austria, and showed us around the city as we struggled to get our bearings.  Our stroll took us past various landmarks, coffee shops, the Spanish Riding School, Michaelerplatz, the Hoffburg palace, volksgarten (public park), Austrian Parliament building, Burgtheater, and finally stopped for a bite of chocolate cake and espresso (to infuse energy into us more than anything)  then we arrived at our Restaurant for dinner.  The place that we ate, belongs to a famous Austrian chef who has his own cooking show!   We were treated to a plate of Rouladen (Sp)  which was layers of rolled meat with veggies in between over potatoes.  Tasted out of this world, and is a traditional Austrian dish. 

During the dinner, we had a chance to sit with another Honorary Counsul member for Austria, named Harry Schaub.  (who lives in Philly)   To say that Harry is a character, is something of an understatement.  Harry was a WW2 vet who served over in Europe doing ‘desk work’ as he put it.  He is fluent in German, and lives in Austria part time.  He is currently writing a book on the Nurenberg trials, and his wife (Catherine) was very gracious and kind.  Harry told us all sorts of info about Austria and WW2, and when it came time for the speakers to switch tables, for whatever reason this didn’t happen.  

 After dinner, we bid our speakers goodbye, and head over to the Church called Minoritenkirche.  After viewing the church a few of us filtered on homeward, but in route we hit into the Central Cafe’, which is one of the more famous coffee houses in the city.  This place was the haunt of names such as: Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito, Sigmund Freud, Adolf Hitler, and Vladimir Lenin.  Until 1938 the cafe was called the "Chess school", but was closed shortly after the war and not reopened until 1975.  Today it is a buzzing with tourists.   Pete, Steve and I all sat out on the sidewalk, talking about World Affairs Council stuff, and eventually made our way back to the hotel to freshen up.

 

A bunch of us wanted to head over to the Cathedral of St. Stephens, has one of the tallest Bell Towers in the world.  Located just a few blocks from our hotel at Stephansplatz, it was built in 1147. This was Mozart's parish church when he lived at the "Figaro House" and he was married here, two of his children were baptized here, and his funeral was also held here as well. I lit a candle in honor of my Grandma who passed away recently, as she was a former church organist who loved sacred music. By the end of the night we were quite tired and most of us went home and crashed.  We saw a fair portion of the city for one day, and as usual, another busy day of meetings lay ahead.